Chocolate Making

On boxing day I was lucky enough to indulge in a session of chocolate making. I learnt a few things about chocolates, but one thing I couldn't stand was how messy this process gets. My lips were sealed as my cousin's fiance was cooling the chocolate on the table, this involved folding the spactula through the chocolate gloop, sliding it around the table. The temperature of the ganache, which is French for chocolate filling is extremely important. The temp is key from the way it solidifies, the texture, to the gloss and shine. Yep, that shine you get on choclates doesn't form naturally girlfriend, it takes numerous folds and temp monitoring to get that smooth gloss.

The chocolatiers concurred orange genache was the way to go, although there were moulds for plenty other different genache filling, but not enough chocolate. My loose guide to choclate making (forgot the essential temperatures, damn!)
1. Melt chocolate in a bowl above water filled saucepan.
2. Using the spactula, fold the chocolate out onto the table and continue to fold it for it to cool.
3. Using the spactula, spread the cooled down chocolate onto a mold. This will naturally fall and form a thin lining of the mold, leaving a gap which will be filled with genache. Then that goes into the fridge to cool and set the 'shell' of the chocolate.
4. Repeating step 1, stir in orange juice into the chocoate and mix well and let that cool again.
5. This time, scoop into a piping bag and squeeze the chocolate into the mold, leaving enough space for the final layer to seal off and to form the chocolate base. Enters the fridge again.
6. Once the panache has hardened, a layer of choclate can finally slide on top to put to bed the panache which completes the little beauties. Then in goes the chocs into the fridge.
7. Delicately nudge the molds with patience and wait for the chocies to pop out. And voila, the glossy faces of the rose and parcel molds filled with orange truffle ganache is ready to taste. This was then followed by games of Rummikub, a very addictive game.