Since we’re on a bit of a chocolate quest at the moment, we thought we’d try making our own Easter eggs this year.
They were a great success, and we finally figured out a way to make them hollow without having to heat and join two halves together.
Our dark eggs and chickens (of course) are made with a slightly darker mix (74%) of our new house blend. We made the modification on Christina’s suggestion, and it’s proven universally popular:
- 200g Callebaut 811 (54%)
- 200g Cacao Barry Tanzanie (75%)
- 150g Callebaut Cocoa Mass (100%)
The tempered chocolate was poured into one half of the egg moulds, which were then clipped together and carefully rotated as the chocolate set.
Our milk eggs are made of a blend of Callebaut 823 (33.6%) and Cocoa Mass (100%) resulting in a very grown up milk chocolate of approximately 47% cacao. Here’s the formula:
- 400g Callebaut 823 milk chocolate (33.6%)
- 100g Callebaut Cocoa Mass (100%)
It was a perfect way to spend a rainy Saturday before Easter!
You might enjoy this Jacques Torres clip on tempering chocolate – unfortunately I couldn’t embed it here, so you’ll need to click through and watch it on YouTube…
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Edit: I’d like to encourage any of you who are interested to give tempering a whirl. I wrote up the method I use here, but it’s quite fiddly, and if you google tempering, there are easier methods – usually involving melting 2/3 of your chocolate and then stirring in the remainder until the liquid chocolate reaches the right temperature. I personally don’t find the other methods as consistent, so I stick to what works for me.
David Lebovitz wrote a great post on tempering chocolate here.
One tip: getting chocolate to temper is quite easy, but keeping it there is tricky. The chocolate needs to go into the mould when it’s between 88 – 90F, but if it cools below that, it can drop out of temper, so the real secret to home tempering is to find a way to keep the chocolate at the ideal temperature while you work it.
