Home Made Chocolates(Basic)

Homemade Chocolates is something I wanted to make for quite a long time. I would often see the moulded chocolates in the speciality stores sold especially around New Year's ,Diwali or Valentine's.

For home made chocolates ,chocolate which is being used has to be first 'TEMPERED'. I learnt the technique of 'Chocolate tempering' during the process of making these homemade chocolates.

'Tempering' means a heat treatment which is given to the chocolate which gives the chocolate the shine, the snap and the texture. Tempering is very important before you pour the chocolate in a mould.

In this recipe I will be explain how to temper a chocolate and how to mould the tempered chocolate.We will be using the double boiler method here.

Ingredients:

Chocolate Buttons(Dark) - 200gms

Chocolate Buttons

Must Have:

Chocolate Moulds (Plastic or Silicon)
Candy Thermometer
Glass bowl(Heat resistant)
Milk Pan with boiling water
Rubber Spatula

Method:

Tempering is basically cooking the chocolate to a certain temperature ,bringing it down and then taking it further up by few degrees centigrade.

1.In a milk pan ,fill with water upto less than half the pan's height. Check beforehand if the glass bowl sits on the milk pan properly without going inside.
2.Boil the water on a medium flame.
3.Empty 2/3 of the chocolate buttons in the glass bowl and place it on the pan with boiling water. See to it, that the glass bowl does not touch the boiling water ,else it will burn the chocolate.
4.Attach a candy thermometer to the glass bowl, with the tip of the thermometer immersed in the chocolate buttons.
5.Cook the chocolate by stirring with a rubber spatula till it reaches 46 deg centigrade.
6.Remove from the pan of simmering water onto a heat proof surface and add the remaining chocolate buttons and mix well.
7.Cool the mixture by stirring continuously till it reaches 29 deg centigrade.
8.Tranfer the glass bowl onto the pan of simmering water for few seconds till the temperature reaches to 31 deg centigrade.

Yippeeeee!!! we are done with the tempering part of the chocolates.

9.Remove from the pan of simmering water and wipe the bowl with a clean dry cloth.
10.Take the moulds (I have silicon ones, you can use the plastic ones as well.).Pour the chocolate into the moulds and refrigerate for two hours.

11.Remove from the mould and wrap them with decorative papers if you are gifting them, else just pop them in your mouth.  

Temperature Variations for Milk/White Chocolate:

Cook up to 43 deg centigrade, add remaining chocolate,cool down to 29 deg centigrade, and cook up to 30 deg centigrade. Done !

You can use two different kinds of chocolates in a single mould.I have used dark chocolate and milk chocolate.See picture below...

Very Important:

*Keep stirring ,keep stirring.
*Keep water away from melted chocolate. Not even a drop of water would do.