Easter is almost here! We have a fantastic Easter Gift Guide coming up in the next few days so keep posted. But in the meantime to get you in the Easter spirit we have a short and easy method for you to make your own small Easter eggs. To get your chocolate perfectly smooth you need to temper the chocolate. A term you may have heard before and often conjures thoughts or horror which put people off giving it a try themselves, but it can be easier than you think. They key is to use good quality chocolate, it doesn’t matter whether you use white, milk or dark chocolate. The second key is to use a cooking thermometer or sugar thermometer. We personally always use our trustworthy Thermapen.
The Ingredients:
To make around 6 small eggs you will need about 400g of chocolate. If you want to make a larger quantity the recipe remains exactly the same.
The How-To:
Place a glass or heatproof bowl over a saucepan with just enough water that it doesn’t touch the bottom, this is important.
Bring the water to a boil.
Place 2/3 of the evenly broken / chopped up chocolate into the bowl.
Allow to slowly melt, stirring occasionally with a wooden spoon or spatula. We’ve been loving the spatula’s from Leila’s General Store lately! These are available in a lovely range of pastel colours from
here.
When the chocolate has completely melted and the mixture is smooth remove from the heat.
Place on a heatproof surface and wrap a clean kitchen towel around the base of the bowl to insulate it and keep some of the heat in.
Now we need to start using the cooking / sugar thermometer.
Add the remaining 1/3 of the evenly broken / chopped up chocolate and stir through the melted chocolate. The chocolate will melt quite quickly.
We now need to bring the temperature of the melted chocolate down to certain temperatures. This is different for each type of chocolate. Milk is 30c, Dark is 31c and white chocolate is 27c.
It will take a while for the chocolate to cool to these temperatures but it is essential when tempering chocolate.
Once the chocolate has reached this temperature you are ready to pour it into whatever moulds you are using to create your Easter treats. We love the Wilton Silicone Easter Egg mould which is available in the UK from The Bake Store
here.
When pouring the chocolate into the moulds, depending on the moulds you are using you can either create solid chocolates or hollow chocolates. To make hollow chocolates you need to pour some melted chocolate into the mould and then turn the mould to allow the chocolate to cover all of the surfaces. The simpler method is to make solid chocolate shapes.
A top tip when pouring your chocolate into the moulds is to first pour a little chocolate into the mould and using a pastry or silicone cooking brush, brush the chocolate into all the small indents and decoration of the mould. This will reduce any chance of the mis-shaped chocolates when they are turned out.
Allow the chocolate to solidify at room temperature if possible. This may take a little while.
You’re Done!
