chocolate shot 'glasses'

Jem8472

There has been a big thread on making chocolate on here. With recent posts about making easter eggs.

I tried making some easter eggs that turned out well.

A few points for anyone that has not tried to mould things with melted chcolate.

1) If you use a hard plastic mould you will get a shiney finish on the chocolate, but you have to "polish" the mould with some cottone wool.
2) You can use more or less any chocolate to mould. I found that tesco had some belgium milk choc that worked well. I would say at least 30% coco solids.
3) Tempering. Chocolate has a nice snap and it melts at about body temperature. This is why tempering in needed. If you dont temper melted chocolate then when it is moulded it will start to melt the second you touch it. It wont "snap" when broken it will only sort of crumble.
4) Water and melted chocolate do not mix. If you get even a tiny bit of water in with the melted chocolate it will seize. Go all lumpy and horrbile.
5) tempering
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chocolate#Tempering

When I temper my chocolate I used the seed method. I keep about a third of the chocolate to be melted back.
When the chocolate is melted I let it cool to about 35C and then add a couple of bit of choc in and stir them till melted. Then when it gets to about 30C add another bit or two in and this should melt. If it does not totally melt you can take the bits out.

To test if chcolate it tempered you can spread a small amount of chcolate on tin foil and let it cool at room temp. (I ususally put it in another room) It should take no more than 5 mins and it should set evenly.

I hope that might help some people out there.

One closing note. I find chocolate is not easy to work with. It takes a bit of pratice but once you get the hang of tempering and can make stuff out of chcolate then it can be really impressive what is possible.
The eggs I made at easter eveyone thought I bought them from thorntons!



The other chocolate thread
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=638019

dmg24

Gallifrey_Girl wrote: »

If you still think yo'd like to buy rather than make, I found a little cornish place who handmake them... plus they're a LOT cheaper than iwantonofthose!

They're from Kernow Harvest and you can buy them in milk or plain choc or a mix...12 for £5.95 or 6 for £3.25 (the postage is pretty standard at £2.50 if you're buying one - I got 2 packs and paid £4 postage).

Worth a go at that price

http://www.kernowharvest.co.uk/store/kernow-chocolate/kernow-chocolate/kernow-chocolate-shot-glasses/showitemKCSHOT.aspx

Smells like SPAM to me!