These look extremely difficult, well yes don't be fooled they are very difficult.
I always get people asking me, how do you make those delicate chocolate decorations. I usually answer them with a lot of motivation and patience. When I first began playing with chocolate, I came across the same thing as everyone else. Chocolate melts at body temperature. So if you tried to handle your garnish it would melt. And what use is that, a decoration you spend so long designing, just as you go to move it, it melts in your body heat.
The answer is tempering chocolate, it's not a simple process that is why you don't hear of it often.
These beautiful little domes have a geniose sponge, the majority of the dome being dark chocolate hazelnut mouse. Having a small capsule of coffee cream in the centre of the dome. The dome glazed in chocolate ganache, white shards along the bottom. Tempered chocolate hoops, roasted hazelnut and gold leaf to garnish.
These little beauties do take time, first you need to make the sponge. Cut sponge circles. Make the mouse. Make the coffee capsules. Make the chocolate garnishes. Make white chocolate shards. Garnish with gold leaf.
I remember I made these a day before we were going to the beach and we had no one to eat them. So on the way to Pauanui, we dropped these domes of gold into work for everyone, a nice morning tea treat!
Unfortanelty I don't have a recipe for this, because its in my pastry book back in NZ! It is also very complicated, but oh how good it tasted.
So I am gonna give you all the different ganache consistency I use all the time in my blog. So it will be good to refer back too. When I ask for chocolate ganache, frosting, glaze or topping ect.
Recipe:
Chocolate Ganache
340g heavy cream
340g medium-dark chocolate 65%
Method:
Chop the chocolate and place it in a heatproof bowl. Meanwhile pour your cream into a saucepan and heat slowly until the cream is simmering. But do not boil. You know when the cream is hot enough when you can place your finger in the cream for at least 3 seconds.
Pour the hot cream over the chocolate and allow it to sit for at least two minutes.
Once it has sat for two minutes begin to stir the mixture. At first the mixture will look sloppy and like its not going to come together. Continue to mix until you get a smooth silky ganache consistency.
Ganache for filling or glaze:
Cool the ganache slightly, but not too much. It needs to be thick enough to stick to your pastry but loose enough to cover everything.
Ganache for frosting:
Cool the ganache until it is thick, but still soft. With a whisk attachment attached to your beaters. Beat the chocolate ganache on high speed until it is fluffy and lighter in colour.
Ganache Truffles:
Place the ganache in the fridge to allow the ganache to set. Continue to keep pulling the ganache out of the fridge and stirring the ganache so it cools evenly.
Once the ganache is at an even temperature and is more of a solid texture. You can now use it to roll truffles.
I love ganache and I am super addicted to it! It is such a good icing because it is so rich and tasty.
