Daring Baker's August Challenge: Candies

The August 2011 Daring Bakers’ Challenge was hosted by Lisa of Parsley, Sage, Desserts and Line Drive and Mandy of What the Fruitcake?!. These two sugar mavens challenged us to make sinfully delicious candies! This was a special challenge for the Daring Bakers because the good folks at http://www.chocoley.com/ offered an amazing prize for the winner of the most creative and delicious candy!

I LOOOOVE Chocolate so you can imagine how ecstatic I was for this challenge!
I created an assortment of different types of chocolate candies. Truffles, bon bons, and molded chocolates.

My kitten also loved this challenge.. she always gets first dibs (just joking, I am a responsible pet owner and know that you don't feed chocolate to your pets!)

But a few  notes  from our host first:

What is tempering?

“Tempering is a method of heating and cooling chocolate in order to use it for coating or dipping.

Proper tempering gives chocolate a smooth and glossy finish. Tempered chocolate will have a crisp snap and won't melt on your fingers as easily as improperly tempered chocolate.

Properly tempered chocolate is also great for molding candies because the candies will release out of the molds more easily and still retain a glossy finish.” - Ghirardelli

Why is it necessary?

If you simply melt chocolate and let it cool it will set with unattractive grey streaks or spots, called blooming. If eaten, the texture will be grainy and it won’t melt smoothly in the mouth.

When you temper chocolate the end result is shiny, even colored, smooth melting and with a crisp snap. Basically, tempered chocolate is what you want because it’s better in every way.
The reason for the difference is a bit complicated, it has to do with different types of crystals forming in the cocoa butter at different times, to understand it fully you’d have to learn about the behavior of the chocolate crystals at a molecular level.
For our purposes all that we need to know is that with tempered chocolate the crystals have formed in a uniform way which gives us great looking and tasting chocolate.

What is couverture chocolate?

“Couverture chocolate is a very high quality chocolate that contains extra cocoa butter (32-39%). The higher percentage of cocoa butter, combined with proper tempering, gives the chocolate more sheen, firmer "snap" when broken, and a creamy mellow flavor.

The total "percentage" cited on many brands of chocolate is based on some combination of cocoa butter in relation to cocoa solids (cacao). In order to be properly labeled as "couverture", the percentage of cocoa butter must be between 32% and 39%, and the total percentage of the combined cocoa butter plus cocoa solids must be at least 54%. Sugar makes up the remainder, and up to 1% may be made up of vanilla, and sometimes soy lecithin.
Couverture is used by professionals for dipping, coating, molding and garnishing.
The term "couverture chocolate" should not be confused with "confectionery chocolate", "compound chocolate" or "summer coating": these products have a lower percentage of solids, and they may also contain vegetable oil, hydrogenated fats ("trans fats"), coconut and/or palm oil, and sometimes artificial chocolate flavoring.
Some brands of couverture chocolate are packaged tempered, and others are packaged un-tempered. Subsequent tempering may or may not be required, depending on the usage and the desired characteristics of the final product.” - Wikipedia

Why is it important to use couverture for chocolate making?

It is by far a superior product to the average chocolate bar like Cadbury’s etc. which may also contain ingredients like vegetable/coconut/palm oil, hydrogenated fats and sometimes artificial chocolate flavoring which can have unpredictable results when tempering and used to make your own chocolates.

As far as flavor, couverture chocolate is also superior in this regard as manufacturers like Valrhona, Callebaut etc. are very strict with sourcing their cocoa pods and only buy the best.
Make sure that if you’re using chocolate chips or callets that they are also couverture and specifically meant for chocolate making. For the above reasons as well as that normal chocolate chips have other additives in them that help them maintain their shape in baked goods like cookies. These additives stop the chocolate from tempering properly. If you’re not sure, rather buy your couverture in bars or slabs.
Basically, to get a great end result you need to use the best ingredients that you can get. That applies to all baking and cooking, and especially to chocolate making.
If you can’t get couverture or a higher end chocolate and would simply prefer to get your chocolate at the local market, choose brands like Lindt, Ghiradelli or Green & Blacks. Just remember, don’t get ordinary chocolate chips, they have additives in them that will hinder the tempering process. One thing, Ghiradelli does not liquefy as much as couverture chocolate when in temper, so you’ll have to do a lot of tapping off to get a thin, even coating.
There are other methods of tempering that don’t require a thermometer and can either be melted in a double boiler or in the microwave (we’ve included links at the end for some of these other methods), but we’ve provided you with two methods of tempering that use a thermometer for very accurate tempering.


Tempering
There are many different tempering methods, the easiest is in bowl seeding but if you have a marble slab in your kitchen like I do, that's my favorite way. It's the fastest and you really get to 'play' with your chocolate! Tempering is critical for some of the recipes featured below.

Method 1: On marble or granite

Marble slab, chocolate or bench scraper, dipping forks and chocolate thermometer

Tempering Ranges:
Celcius

Dark: 45°C-50°C > 27°C > 32°C

Milk: 45°C > 27°C > 30°C

White: 45°C > 27°C > 29°C

Fahrenheit

Dark: 115°F-120°F > 80.6°F > 87.6°F  (note.. NEVER allow your chocolate to go over 120, if it does you have to discard it and start over with a fresh batch of chocolate. But don't throw away the chocolate, you can use it for baking at this point)

Milk: 115°F > 80.6°F > 86°F

White: 113°F > 80.6°F > 84.2°F

Chocolate is melted and heated until it reaches 45°C / 115°F. It is then poured onto a marble surface and moved around the surface with a scraper until it has thickened and cools to 27°C / 80.6°F. Once cooled it is then put back into the bowl and over heat to bring it back up to 32°C/30°C/29°C /// 87.6°F/86°F/84.2°F depending on the chocolate you’re tempering. It is now ready for using in molds, dipping and coating.

Tempering using a marble surface

• Finely chop chocolate if in bar/slab form.

• Place chocolate in a heatproof bowl.

• Place bowl over a saucepan of simmering water (make sure the bowl does not touch the water).

Tip: Make sure that your bowl fits snuggly into the saucepan so that there’s no chance of steam forming droplets that

may fall into your chocolate. If water gets into your chocolate it will seize!

• Using a rubber spatula, gently stir the chocolate so that it melts evenly

• Once it’s melted, keep an eye on the thermometer, as soon as it reaches 45°C / 113°F remove from heat (between 45°C-50°C / 113°F-122°F for dark chocolate)

• Pour ¾ of the melted chocolate onto a marble or granite slab or worktop

• Using a scraper or large palette knife move the chocolate around the surface to help it cool

Tip: Keep the motions neat and tidy, if you’re not working with a lot of chocolate you don’t want to spread it too far otherwise you may end up with chocolate that begins to cool too quickly and start to set as well as drops below

• the necessary temperature. Use a motion that folds the chocolate on itself

• Check temperature regularly with a thermometer

• Once it reaches 27°C / 80°F put the chocolate back into the heatproof bowl with the remaining chocolate

• Gently stir together with a rubber spatula

• Check the temperature to see if it’s risen back up to the working temperature of the chocolate (milk, dark or white) as seen in the above chart

• If the temperature has not risen to its working temperature, put the bowl back over the simmering water, stirring gently

• IMPORTANT: You really need to keep an eye on the temperature as it can rise quicker than you think, so as soon as it’s up to its working temperature, remove from heat

• It’s now tempered and ready to use

Tip: If you’re using the chocolate to dip a lot of truffles etc. which means the chocolate will be sitting off heat for a while it will naturally start to thicken as it cools. To keep it at an ideal viscosity for even coating, put the bowl over steam for 30sec-1min every 5-10mins, just do not let the temperature go over the working temperature!

Tip: Having the chocolate in a warmed glass bowl and wrapped in hot kitchen towel can also help keep the chocolate at its working temperature for longer

Tip: It is also easier to keep the heat if you work with larger amounts of chocolate rather than small amounts. Any leftover chocolate can be kept to be used later and then re-tempered

Tip: Remember, don’t let any water get into your chocolate at any stage of the tempering process!

Method 2: With tempered chocolate pieces, also called “seeding”

Tempering Ranges:
Celsius

Dark: 45°C-50°C > 27°C > 32°C

Milk: 45°C > 27°C > 30°C

White: 45°C > 27°C > 29°C

Fahrenheit

Dark: 115°F-120°F > 80.6°F > 87.6°F  (note.. NEVER allow your chocolate to go over 120, if it does you have to discard it and start over with a fresh batch of chocolate. But don't throw away the chocolate, you can use it for baking at this point)

Milk: 115°F > 80.6°F > 86°F

White: 113°F > 80.6°F > 84.2°F

Chocolate is melted and heated until it reaches 45°C / 115°F. Tempered un-melted chocolate is then stirred and melted in until it brings the temperature down to 27°C/80.6°F. It is then put back over heat and brought up to its working temperature of 32°C/30°C/29°C /// 87.6°F/86°F/84.2°F depending on the chocolate you’re using. It is now ready for using in molds, dipping and coating.

Tempering using the seeding method with couverture callets

• Finely chop chocolate if in bar/slab form (about the size of almonds).

• Place about ⅔ of the chocolate in a heatproof bowl

• Set aside ⅓ of the chocolate pieces

• Place bowl over a saucepan of simmering water (make sure the bowl does not touch the water)

Tip: Make sure that your bowl fits snuggly into the saucepan so that there’s no chance of steam forming droplets that may fall into your chocolate. If water gets into your chocolate it will seize!

• Using a rubber spatula, gently stir the chocolate so that it melts evenly

• Once it’s melted, keep an eye on the thermometer, as soon as it reaches 45°C / 113°F remove from heat (between 45°C-50°C / 113°F-122°F for dark chocolate)

• Add small amounts of the remaining ⅓ un-melted chocolate (seeds) and stir in to melt

• Continue to add small additions of chocolate until you’ve brought the chocolate down to 27°C/80.6°F (You can bring the dark chocolate down to between 80°F and 82°F)

• Put it back on the double boiler and bring the temperature back up until it reaches its working temperature of the chocolate (milk, dark or white) as seen in the above chart. (32°C/89.6°F for dark, 30°C/86°F for milk and 29°C/84.2°F for white)

• If you still have a few un-melted bits of chocolate, put the bowl back over the simmering water, stirring gently and watching the thermometer constantly.

• IMPORTANT: You really need to keep an eye on the temperature so that it doesn’t go over its working temperature

It’s now tempered and ready to use
Tip: Another way of adding the "seed" is by dropping in one large chunk of tempered chocolate (the seed). That way you only need to fish out one piece of unmelted chocolate and don't need to fish out several small bits of unmelted chocolate once the chocolate has reached temper.

Champagne Truffles

Ingredients:
4oz Cream
4oz milk
2 oz light corn syrup
12 oz semisweet chocolate (64%)
4oz milk chocolate (38%)
1oz very soft butter
2oz cognac, grand marnier or any other alcohol

dark chocolate for enrobing
cocoa powder, coconut shreds, shredded almonds or any other desired topping for enrobing truffles

Method:
1. Bring cream, milk and light corn syrup to a boil (this breaks homogenization and allows ingredients to re-combine) then cool to 90F.
2. Melt chocolates together and cool to 90F
3. In a food processor steadily pour the warm liquid into the combined chocolates; then add in butter and liquor, very slowly since this can break the ganache.
4. Process smooth for 30 seconds.
5. Pour out ganache onto a tray lined with saran wrap. Cool to 75F
6. Pipe out small dollops of ganache with a large round tip. Chill dollops in the fridge until set.
7. Roll dollops of ganache between hands to form perfect spheres then chill again.
8. Using a chocolate dipping fork or regular fork, dip chilled chocolate spheres in melted chocolate, tap excess then immediately roll in cocoa powder or desired coating.
9. Allow chocolate to set around truffles before pulling them out of the cocoa powder and shaking off excess.
10. Now you are ready to try your first truffle!

Note: Play around with the recipe and change the liquor, or add some powdered ginger!

Earl Grey Truffles
I love tea so these ones are one of my favorite truffles!

Ingredients:
6oz water
1 oz lose earl grey tea (or any other tea)
3oz cream
3oz milk
1 oz light corn syrup
12 oz semisweet chocolate (64%)
4oz milk chocolate (38%)
1oz very soft butter
1oz orange liqueur

dark chocolate for enrobing
ground almonds or any other desired topping for enrobing truffles

Method:
1. Bring the water to a boil, off heat add the tea leaves and let steep for 5 minutes, no longer.
2. Strain liquid and weigh out 3oz of tea.
3. Bring cream, milk and light corn syrup to a boil (this breaks homogenization and allows ingredients to re-combine) then cool to 90F.
4. Melt chocolates together and cool to 90F
5. In a food processor steadily pour the warm tea and the creamy liquid into the combined chocolates; then add in butter and liquor, very slowly since this can break the ganache.
6. Process smooth for 30 seconds.
7. Pour out ganache onto a tray lined with saran wrap. Cool to 75F
8. Pipe out small dollops of ganache with a large round tip. Chill dollops in the fridge until set.
9. Roll dollops of ganache between hands to form perfect spheres then chill again.
10. Using a chocolate dipping fork or regular fork, dip chilled chocolate spheres in melted chocolate, tap excess then immediately roll in ground almonds or desired coating.
11. Allow chocolate to set around truffles before pulling them out of the almonds and shaking off excess.
12. Bon Appetit!

Cocoa Almonds

Ingredients:

400g whole almonds

130g granulated sugar

45g water

1/2 vanilla bean

120g tempered semisweet chocolate



cocoa powder or confectioner's sugar for dusting

Method:

1. Toast almonds at 300F to warm slightly
2. Cook the sugar, water and vanilla to 240F
3. Add almonds to the sugar and continue to cook, stirring constantly. The sugar will begin to crystallize as soon as the almonds go in, so you must stir vigorously.
4. Pour almonds onto parchment paper and allow them to cool.
5. Once cooled, separate the almonds.
6. Pour almonds into the tempered chocolate. Stir so they are all well coated.
7. Drop the almonds into sifted cocoa powder or confectioner's sugar and coat.
8. Place almonds in a large flour sifter so that excess cocoa powder falls off.
9. Enjoy!

Limoncello Chocolates

Ingredients:
4oz cream
4oz milk
2oz light corn syrup
zest of 3 lemons
8oz semisweet chocolate (64%)
8oz milk chocolate (38%)
1oz very soft butter
1oz white rum
1 tsp Boyajian lemon oil (no more than 1 tsp, this is very very strong)

Tempered dark chocolate for enrobing

Method:
1. Bring cream, milk and light corn syrup to a boil (this breaks homogenization and allows ingredients to re-combine)
2. Add lemon zest and allow to steep 10 minutes. Remove zest from liquid and then cool to 90F.
3. Melt chocolates together and cool to 90F
4. In a food processor steadily pour the warm liquid into the combined chocolates; then add in butter, liquor, and lemon oil very slowly since this can break the ganache.
5. Process smooth for 30 seconds.
6. Pour out ganache onto a tall rimmed tray lined with saran wrap. Chill till firm.
7. Unmold onto parchment, cut 1 inch squares then enrobe in tempered chocolate.
8. Allow excess to drip off and place on parchment paper to set.
9. At this point you can garnish the top with a candied lemon rind, or place a gold leaf on top, or even press a 1 inch square of chocolate transfer paper over the chocolate and allow it to set like that.
10. Once the chocolate has cooled and set, carefully remove the transfer paper and you have a beautiful design on top of your chocolate!

Chocolate Bonbons

If you have a chocolate bonbon mold then you should give this one a try.

1. Start off with very clean and dry molds.
2. Drop some tempered chocolate into the molds until all crevices are entirely coated.
3. Tap out excess and allow chocolate to cool (don't put it in the fridge or it might mess up your temper)
4. Fill the molds with your desired filling, ganache, marzipan, peanut butter, etc. Leave a little room on top for the last layer of chocolate.
5. Fill the remaining of the cavities with the tempered chocolate and scrape off excess chocolate from mold.
6. Allow to cool
7. Once the chocolate has cooled, it contracts so if your mold is clear, you will see the chocolate pull away from the cavity. When you turn it around the chocolate should drop straight out. If a few remain, tap the chocolate mold on a table a few times.

Chocolate Bark

Once you've mastered the art of chocolate tempering, making bark is the simplest way to keep practicing that technique. Just temper some chocolate, pour it into a plastic lined tray, throw some chopped up nuts and dried fruits on top, and allow to cool. This is also a great way to use up extra tempered chocolate.

Baked Cannoli

For those of you who would like to enjoy a cannoli on the lighter side, or are like me and can't digest fried foods, here is a great alternative: Baked Cannolis!

Cannolis are originally Sicilian and mean little tubes. Traditionally these pastries are filled with a creamy ricotta filling.

Here is a recipe to make your own healthier cannolis.

Shells

Ingredients:

7oz flour

2tsp sugar

1tsp cocoa powder

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1 fluid oz vegetable oil

1/2 fluid oz vinegar

3-4 fluid oz Marsala or other fortified wine

Method:

1. Mix dry ingredients together and rub in the oil.
2. Mix vinegar and marsala and stir into dry mixture. The dough will be firm and dry.
3. Form the dough into a rough rectangle and wrap in plastic wrap. Rest at room temperature for about 1 hour.
4. Flour the dough and roll it out through a pasta machine to a 1/4 inch thickness. Pass through machine about 15 times to achieve smooth texture.
5. Rest dough again for 1 hour.
6. Pass dough through pasta machine starting with thickest setting and ending at the thinnest. This will take a few times of going through.
7. With a round cutter, cut rounds of dough. Disk should be about 1 1/2 inches shorter than the tube it will be baked on.
8. Lengthen each round to an oval and then wrap the edge around the tube, sealing with a little bit of egg white. (don't let the egg white drip onto the tube or the dough will become stuck.
9. Place cannoli on sheet trays lined with parchment and bake at 350 for a few minutes. Wait until dough is cooked through.
10. Using tongs remove the tubes from the shells as soon as possible since dough will shrink as it cools.

Filling

2 pounds ricotta

1/2 pound confectioner's sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1oz chopped semisweet chocolate

1oz chopped candied orange peel

chopped, blanched pistachios for garnish

Method:

1. Whip ricotta and sugar will light and fluffy.
2. Whip in the vanilla and cinnamon.
3. Stir in the chocolate and orange peel.

Assembly

Right before serving, fill shells with cream using a pastry bag. Sprinkle the ends with chopped pistachios.
Dust with sprinkled sugar or melted chocolate.

July Daring Cook's Challenge: Handmade Pasta

Steph from Stephfood was our Daring Cooks' July hostess.  Steph challenged us to make homemade noodles without the help of a motorized pasta machine.  She provided us with recipes for Spätzle and Fresh Egg Pasta as well as a few delicious sauces to pair our noodles with!

My version was a whole wheat ravioli stuffed with ricotta cheese and sun dried tomato, topped with caramelized onions and truffle pate. It was delicious! Despite it historically being a poor person's food I love the little surprise you find when you bite into a chunk of ravioll, with so many different fillings you never know what you'll find. So i have to hand it to the ingenious people who tried to re-use leftovers inside their pasta.
 So far as Italy is concerned, the earliest records of ravioli appear in the preserved letters of Francesco di Marco, a merchant of Prato in the 14th century. The pasta is described as being stuffed with pork, eggs, cheese, parsley and sugar, and during Lent a filling of herbs, cheese, and spices was used. There were both sweet and savory kinds. The city of Cremona claims to have created ravioli. But Genoa claims that too, insisting that the word ravioli comes from their dialect word for pasta, rabiole, which means "something of little value" and referred to the practice of poor sailors who suffered leftovers into pasta to be eaten for another meal.

Remember to make the filling and topping for the ravioli before the pasta dough.

One of my instructors in pastry school has her own cooking school specializing in Italian cuisine. She taught me that making pasta is really dead easy. It seems intimidating but it is just time consuming, not fought at all. There are only two ingredients to making pasta, flour and eggs.

I used 500g flour and 6 large eggs.
The ratio is typically 100g flour to 1 egg, but whole wheat flour is drier and needs the extra boost of egg. No matter what, the main ingredient is the flour, not the egg, so if your dough looks fine and you still have one egg to dump in, don't! The dough will look a little like bread dough if you've ever made it before.
Use the hook in a stand mixer and mix till elastic and shiny.

Separate the dough into 3 parts if you are using a pasta machine, handling too much dough at once will cause it to tear. And if you have someone to help you out, even better.

Clamp down the pasta machine and make sure it doesn't wiggle. If you don't have one, just use a rolling pin and roll the dough out very thinly over a flour dusted surface.

Dust a little flour on either side of the dough to prevent it from sticking inside the machine.
Stretch a few times and fold over itself until you get a smooth consistent dough. Only after should you start putting the dough through thinner settings.

Once you have the desired thickness (leave a little thicker for ravioli since it can tear with a filling) place the filling (recipe follows) in the centre of the dough. Fold the dough over sealing the edges with water. And cut.
At this time, either cook or freeze with parchment paper separating the different ravioli.


Boil water. Gently lower each ravioli in one at a time.
Cook till al dente. The time varies depending on the thickness of your dough. It could be anywhere from 2 minutes to Over 5.

Place raviolis onto a serving dish, top with caramelized onions and a teaspoon of truffle paste and dig in!

Filling:

Hydrate 1 cup of sun dried tomatoes with hot water. Drain and chop into little pieces.

Mix with 1 cup of ricotta cheese. Season with salt and pepper. Stir together.

Variations: try a pumpkin ravioli by mixing ricotta, pumpkin puree and nutmeg for a filling. Then top with a béchamel or a light cheese sauce.

Daring Cook's June Challenge: Healthy Potato Salads

Jami Sorrento was our June Daring Cooks hostess and she chose to challenge us to celebrate the humble spud by making a delicious and healthy potato salad. The Daring Cooks Potato Salad Challenge was sponsored by the nice people at the United States Potato Board, who awarded prizes to the top 3 most creative and healthy potato salads. A medium-size (5.3 ounce) potato has 110 calories, no fat, no cholesterol, no sodium and includes nearly half your daily value of vitamin C and has more potassium than a banana!

There are a million recipes for healthy potato salads, my favorite one is actually the Russian "Selyodka pod Shuboy" or "Herring under Fur Coat."It is a delicious and nutritious salad with many vegetables and a beautiful presentation when you slice through and see all the different colors. It reminds me or a rainbow really!

As always, I made a few changes to the original recipe. I made it healthier and just as tasty.

The ingredients are as follows:
2 large potatoes
4 eggs
4 medium carrots peeled
1 can sliced beets/ or 2 beets
5 large slices of smoked salmon (the original recipe uses herring, but it can sometimes be hard to find and it is very oily)
1/2 cup light mayonnaise
2 TBS nonfat yogurt
Salt and Pepper as needed

1. Boil the potatoes and carrots together. You can choose to leave the skin on the potatoes or not, i find it helps them hold together during cooking. When soft, drain and allow to cool.

2. Boil the eggs

3. If you are using raw beets, roast them or boil them until soft. If using canned, skip this part.

4. When vegetables are cooked, shred them with a grater.

5. When the potatoes, beets and carrots are shredded, set them aside.

6. With the back of a fork, crush the egg with the mayonnaise and the yogurt. If you have an egg slicer, slice the egg into strips by cutting once and then cutting parallel. Even though the mayo is light, add a little yogurt to make it creamier without the added fat and calories. It tastes just as good. Season with salt and pepper.

7. When you have all of your components ready, arrange them into separate bowls to make it easier to assemble your layered salad.

8. You can assemble the salad in clear glasses like I did, or place them in a deep dish that you can then unmould and slice. It will look beautiful when you arrange all the layers carefully.

9. Arrange a layer of salmon to cover the bottom of the dish, then top with potatoes, egg mixture, carrots, potatoes, egg mixture, beets, egg mixture.  The order doesn't really matter and if you want to double up on some layers of your favorite vegetable, do so. They key is to make it as colorful as possible so that it looks like an edible rainbow!  In the original version of this recipe there is a layer of mayonnaise between each vegetable layer (to hold it all together when you unmould). I decided to mix the mayonnaise with the egg so that we have more flavor in a smaller bite. It's really super flexible and did I mention it takes only 20 minutes to make?

Daring Baker's May Challenge: Chocolate Marquise on Meringue

The May 2011 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Emma of CookCraftGrow and Jenny of Purple House Dirt. They chose to challenge everyone to make a Chocolate Marquise. The inspiration for this recipe comes from a dessert they prepared at a restaurant in Seattle.

I was excited to try this challenge because of the different textures involved. I decided to do my own twist on this, Chocolate marquise with candied cashews and torched meringue with lime zest. It was refreshing and really easy to make, It looks intimidating with all the steps but it will take you about 1 and a half hours total to put it together!  Enjoy!

Chocolate Base
Servings: n/a - this is an ingredient for the chocolate marquise, not meant to be used separately

Ingredients
12 oz (340 grams/ 1½ cups) bittersweet chocolate (about 70% cocoa)
12 oz (355 ml/ 1½ cups) heavy cream
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon cayenne
1/4 cup (60 ml/ 2 fluid oz.) tequila
1/4 cup (60 ml/ 2 fluid oz.) light corn syrup
3/4 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 cup (4 tablespoons/ less than an ounce) cocoa powder (we used extra brut, like Hershey's Special Dark, but any Dutch-processed cocoa would be fine. Do not substitute natural cocoa powder.)
1/8 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 oz unsalted butter (2 tbsps./30 grams), softened

Directions:

1. Place the chocolate in a small mixing bowl.
2. In a double-boiler, warm the cream until it is hot to the touch (but is not boiling). Remove from the heat and pour over the chocolate.

3. Allow it to sit for a minute or two before stirring. Stir until the chocolate is melted completely and is smooth throughout.
4. Add the remaining ingredients and stir to combine.
5. Set aside until cooled to room temperature. Do not refrigerate, as the base needs to be soft when added to the marquise mixture. If you make it the day before, you may need to warm it slightly. Whisk it until it is smooth again before using it in the marquise recipe.

Chocolate Marquise

Servings: 18 2.5"x2.5" cubes
Ingredients
11 large egg yolks at room temperature
4 large whole eggs
2/3 cup (150 grams/ 5.3 oz) sugar
1/3 cup (2⅔ fluid oz/ 80 ml.) water
Chocolate Base, barely warm (recipe follows)
2 cups (16 fluid oz./ 500 ml.) heavy cream
2 cups Dutch process cocoa powder (for rolling) (Note: We used extra brut, like Hershey's Special Dark. Make sure it's a Dutch processed cocoa, not a natural cocoa powder.)

Directions:

Before you begin, prepare your mould, weather a pan or a tube like mold. Cover it with plastic wrap and spray with pam so that the chocolate mixture will slide off easily.

I made tubes and a circle. If you want you can even use a tupperware covered in saran wrap.

In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine the egg yolks and whole eggs. Whip on high speed until very thick and pale, about 10 - 15 minutes.

When the eggs are getting close to finishing, make a sugar syrup by combining the sugar and water in a small saucepan. Bring the syrup to a boil and then cook to softball stage (235F/115C).

With the mixer running on low speed, drizzle the sugar syrup into the fluffy eggs, trying to hit that magic spot between the mixing bowl and the whisk.

 

When all of the syrup has been added (do it fairly quickly), turn the mixer back on high and whip until the bowl is cool to the touch. This will take at least 10 minutes.

 

In a separate mixing bowl, whip the heavy cream to soft peaks. Set aside.

When the egg mixture has cooled, add the chocolate base to the egg mixture and whisk to combine. Try to get it as consistent as possible without losing all of the air you've whipped into the eggs.
Fold 1/3 of the reserved whipped cream into the chocolate mixture to loosen it, and then fold in the remaining whipped cream.

Pour or pipe chocolate into the prepared moulds and freeze.

When frozen, cut  your marquise into cubes or desired shape and roll them in cocoa powder. These will start to melt almost immediately, so don't do this step until all of your other plating components (meringue) are ready. The cubes need to sit in the fridge to slowly thaw so plating components can be done during that time. They don’t need to be ready before the cubes are rolled in the cocoa powder.

Torched Meringue

Servings: Makes about 2 – 2½ cups of meringue. If you aren't planning on serving *all* of the marquise at once, you might want to scale this recipe back a bit.
Ingredients
6 large egg whites
¾ cup + 2 tablespoons (210 ml) (7 oz or 200 gms) sugar
Splash of apple cider vinegar
1/4 teaspoon vanilla

Candied Cashews

Ingredients1/4 cup sugar
2 tsp water
1 cup cashews
1 pinch Cayenne pepper
1 cup powdered chocolate

Toast the cashews with the Cayenne pepper until browned.
Meanwhile make a caramel with the sugar and water until soft ball stage.
When the caramel is ready, take off the heat and stir in cashews. Stir immediately
Pour into the cocoa powder and let it coat.

Sift the excess off with a sieve.

Plating

Place the meringue on the plate and torch it.

Put the marquise on the plate and all the other components. I also added some lime zest. It was really refreshing with the meringue. A little goes a long way!