Home-Made Chocolates : Spoons

It all started with  a masterclass where I was taught how to make hand-made chocolates filled with ganache (that's the soft bit in the center). The end-products didn't last long. First there was the taxi-driver on the way back. He really believed that Greenwich would be under terrorist-attack during the Olympics, he definitely was in need of hand-made chocolates therapy. 

 
Then, followed a flurry of friends, some who had "a difficult day", others with "work problems" and last but not least those without any excuse but who simply lust over chocolate and had heard about my stash. Result: 2 kilos of hand-made chocolates gone in two days.

Of course, everyone marvelled on how nice the chocolates were. Personally, I didn't think much of them, he was not a great fan either and the entire episode got forgotten....until Christmas where I attended a chocolates gifts swap.
 
Displayed among the home-made gifts were Kate's as in Turquoise Lemons' handmade chocolate truffles. Despite the noise, you could have heard the penny drop: give chocolates to the ones you love and you will never go wrong; hand-make chocolates and you will be elevated to god/dess status.

So when it came to write my first recipe for our beloved free local newspaper on Valentine's, the choice was narrowed down to two recipes: marshmallows, because in France St Valentine's is nicknamed marshmallows day, and red chocolates lips, for obvious reasons. I went for the latter which involved some research in silicone moulds. This is how I came across Lakeland chocolate melting pot.

One of the problem with melting chocolate resides in the pouring. Bain Marie is the classic technique to melt chocolate but then, what? Do you use a spoon, a pipping bag?. What ever the solution is, it's never satisfactory. Therefore a silicone pot made sense. Though, the new kitchen is not equipped with a microwave, next door's is.

The experiment had to happen there. First we broke, the squares and found out that if we had broken them in small pieces, it would have been quicker. As it was, it took longer to melt in the microwave than in the Bain Marie but on the other end it was a doodle to pour. Often hand made chocolates require precision pouring therefore having a spout to work with is ideal, this was starting to be a really good tool.
 
Until Neighbour had a gripe with waste, indeed we had to run a spoon to get it all the chocolate out, but don't worry none of it was wasted.

As for the silicone spoon moulds, it worked out perfectly. It was great fun and will make a brilliant activity for kids as demonstrated by Maison Cupcake Mother and Son team. Lakeland is celebrating their chocolate week from the 11th March, Next, I'll be making chocolate eggs, I can't wait.
 
For more recipe ideas have a look here
 

Many thanks to lakeland for sample products

5 comments:

Unknown said...

Thanks for the mention ;-)

Those spoons certainly look good enough to eat!!

Solange Berchemin of Pebble Soup said...

No pb, a real pleasure, Ted is a little star, and I would never have the patience to do all the colouring, so it's great that he shows the way: )

Phil said...

Love all the recipes especially the chocolate spoons. Must try the Apricottines. Phil

Phil said...

Love all the recipes especially the chocolate spoons. Must try the Apricottines. Phil

Solange Berchemin of Pebble Soup said...

Hi Phil,
Yeah do that. But for more yummyness, real croissant pastry is advised.S/

si

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