Home made chocolate slabs

qwiksave

Remember? I said I wanted the £46 luxury egg from that site - I just didn't want that particular lumpy egg.

Now, back to our own choccie efforts and I think everybody else is having a Sunday off! What a flaming cheek!

So, what can I do but show [strike]off [/strike] my photos of my recent efforts:

It was my friend Toni's birthday last Friday so at 12 O'clock on Thursday night I ventured into the kitchen...

I made this:

..which was nearly a complete disaster, because I tried to make it in a non-stick loaf tin and the blinking thing stuck fast, refused to come out! Hence its non-straight edges and pattern distortion (I used brute force on it!)

This is a close-up - the dots are of course hundreds & thousands. Luckily she didn't (seem to) mind and was quite appreciative that I'd made her a homemade pressie.

I used up my 'excess choccie' on these:

and these:

(I meant to give her the little birthday cake ones but 'forgot' so have helped her out...:D )

LouBlue

I am very impressed with those pictures, Ms QS. :T

I have lost 8lbs since the new year and have 4lbs to go so am avoiding making chocolate slabs. For obvious reasons. :D

I am going to order some mold/moulds :rolleyes: and stainless steel chocolate scraper thingy and cello easter bags off that homechocolatefactory site, this week. :j So will probably do a trial run before Easter, I do have a fair few to make so don't want to leave all that for one day.

qwiksave

Spudnik wrote: »

What's the difference in quality with chocolate that's 'tempered'? Is it worth the extra effort? Does it have more of a shop-bought chocolate texture?

Spudnik you have been showing a lot of interest in tempering - does this mean you are going to get yourself a thermometer and have a go too?

Anybody else doing choccie stuff at the mo?

dawnydee73

qwiksave wrote: »

Spudnik you have been showing a lot of interest in tempering - does this mean you are going to get yourself a thermometer and have a go too?

Anybody else doing choccie stuff at the mo?

I've ordered a thermomter from ebay, just waiting for that, then me and the kids are going to make some goodies for Easter.

Did make some hearts before but they didn't turn out very well, chocolate was dull, melted as soon as you touch it and crumble. But we still eat them:D

AnnieH

Does anyone know how to make chocolate liquers?
I have a bottle shaped ice cube tray and thought about pputting some bailey's r brandy in, but wonder how i would get the choc over the top

Jem8472

AnnieH wrote: »

Does anyone know how to make chocolate liquers?
I have a bottle shaped ice cube tray and thought about pputting some bailey's r brandy in, but wonder how i would get the choc over the top

Well this is one video I found on how to make a ganache. Which is sometime the filling in choclates.

How I might try to do a ganache chocolate is to pour a little chocolate in the mold. put in a little ganache and then more normal chocolate on the top.

I know these wont be excatly right because the chocolate wont have the sides on it. But with a little bit of playing around it might be possible to put something in the mold so you can make the chocolate have sides before you put in the ganache.

Also anyone trying tempering have a few attempts at it. I find that if I store the choc in the fridge then it helps it have that snap to it when you break it!

I hope what I said just makes sense to someone.

JellyTot_2

I hope this helps.. Use a pastry brush! That way you'll get sides, basically, using the chocolate dipped brush, coat the entire mould (maybe 2-3 times) leave it to set, pout in the bailey's or whatever else and brush more chocolate on the top and leave that to set
Good luck!

finc

AnnieH wrote: »

Does anyone know how to make chocolate liquers?
I have a bottle shaped ice cube tray and thought about pputting some bailey's r brandy in, but wonder how i would get the choc over the top

I'm not sure just puring the liquid onto the chocolate will work, I read somewhere it evaporates. Have a look at this post on yahoo answers for some answers. Looks a bit complicated to me so good luck.

Spudnik_2

qwiksave wrote: »

Spudnik you have been showing a lot of interest in tempering - does this mean you are going to get yourself a thermometer and have a go too?

Aye, I'm certainly considering it! I made chocolate slabs for my friends for christmas, and made mini chocolates for my mum for her birthday. Everyone enjoyed them, but, as others have detailed described, they tended to melt almost as soon as you touched them, and had quite an 'airy' texture - similar to wispa bars in that aspect. I'd love to be able to do it properly, so I am thinking about tempering. Where's the best place to get a thermometer for a reasonable price? I'm assuming that you need a special one for tempering?

dawnydee73

Spudnik wrote: »

Where's the best place to get a thermometer for a reasonable price? I'm assuming that you need a special one for tempering?

I've ordered one off ebay for about £5, its a digital one, but does lower temeratures. They had some meats one and some for jam but the temperature on these didn't go low enough for chocolate.

Amazon also sell some quite cheap