Create some of your chocolate box favourites at home – strawberry and orange creams and delicious after dinner mints.
My new found favourite thing to do in the kitchen is making chocolates. I love it!
I recently shared my recipe for caramel filled milk chocolates and to get some inspiration for what to make next I asked for suggestions on my Facebook page. The one I decided to go for was dark chocolates filled with mint fondant.
The method for making these mint chocolates is exactly the same as for making other fondant filled chocolates, so I thought I might as well whip up a few strawberry and orange creams too. I’ve sadly not been able to make my favourite fondant filled chocolate – the coffee cream, as I didn’t have any coffee flavouring. I tried using regular coffee but the flavour wasn’t strong enough to notice it was there, so I need to keep an eye out for something more concentrated.
If you read my recent recipe for caramel filled milk chocolates you’ll notice that the method is very similar. However, I’ve repeated it here just to keep things simple.
The fondant filling
For these chocolates, I’ve decided to make marshmallow fondant. It’s really easy to make, basically just mixing together melted marshmallows and icing sugar. It also has a nice texture for a chocolate centre, soft but not runny.
I wouldn’t recommend simply using ready-made fondant. It’s too hard and it doesn’t have nearly as nice a flavour as marshmallow fondant.
How to make fondant filled chocolates
What you’ll need – To make the fondant
Marshmallows, icing sugar and a little water
Flavourings – I’ve used this set of specialist chocolate flavourings from Lakeland. It includes orange, strawberry and peppermint.
Food colouring (optional) – If you like the nice pink and orange colours inside the chocolates, I used Sugarflair colourings (which I also use in all of my cake decorating).
Weighing scales, a bowl, a wooden spoon and a sieve
What you’ll need – To make the chocolate shells
Good quality chocolate – To make these I used Green & Black’s 70% cocoa dark chocolate (as it was on special offer!). However, any good quality dark chocolate will work.
To make 15 chocolates I used 300g of chocolate. This is far more than you actually need (each chocolate has about 8g of chocolate in it). However, due to the way the chocolates are made it’s much, much easier to do it if you have more than enough chocolate to hand. Don’t worry, the extra chocolate won’t go to waste, you can pour the melted chocolate onto some greaseproof paper, leave it to set, then wrap it up and save it to use again another day.
To make my caramel chocolates I used this square chocolate mould from Lakeland. I could have used the same mould again, however, I decided my chocolate box would look a bit boring with all square chocolates. I, therefore, splashed out on this chocolate box shapes mould which has all sorts of different shapes to make my chocolate box look interesting.
Unlike the square mould, this moulds made of silicon which is very flexible. I found that this had some advantages and disadvantages over the solid square mould:
- The mould is flexible, which helps when you’re trying to pop out any slightly stubborn chocolates (you just need to push them gently from underneath).
- The inside of the mould is extremely smooth, meaning that you end up with a really beautiful shine on your chocolates.
- This mould is much cheaper at about half the price of the solid moulds.
- The flexible nature of the moulds makes it tricky to tip out the excess chocolate. I did end up in a bit of a mess which didn’t happen with the solid mould. It’s also trickier to scrape any excess chocolate from the top of the mould with a knife to ensure that they end up neat and tidy.
I usually melt mine in a small saucepan directly over a very low heat. However, many websites recommend using a bain marie (chocolate in a bowl over a pan of simmering water). You can also melt chocolate in a microwave, but it’s difficult to control the heat and ensure that the chocolate melts evenly.
If you choose to use a bain marie, then be extremely careful not to get any of the water from the pan into the chocolate, as a single drop can ruin an entire batch.
You need to temper the chocolate, to give it its shine and ensure it comes out of the moulds easily (don’t worry, it’s really pretty straightforward to do). I prefer to use a thermometer when I’m tempering as it takes any guesswork out and makes it highly likely you’ll get the right results every time.
I use this Thermospatula from Lakeland, which checks the temperature while you stir the chocolate (and it can be used for lots of other things too).
I’ve found that the thermospatula is great for stirring the chocolate. However, it’s quite stiff so it’s useful to have a more flexible rubber spatula to hand too to scrape the pan and make sure you don’t have any waste.
To cool the chocolate in.
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Fondant Filled Chocolates
INGREDIENTS
- 300 g dark chocolate – you won’t actually need this much but it’s much easier if you have more than enough chocolate and the rest can be saved for another day
- 4 large marshmallows - approx. 28g
- 75 g icing sugar
- 1 tsp water
- A few drops of your preferred flavouring
- Food colouring - optional
INSTRUCTIONS
Temper the chocolate - If you're new to tempering chocolate the take a look at my video tutorial
- Place about half of your chocolate into a small pan over a very low heat (or bain marie if you prefer) and heat the chocolate until it reaches a temperature of 48ºC – Don’t worry if not all of the chocolate has melted, it will continue to melt after it’s removed from the heat.
- Decant the melted chocolate into a bowl and add a piece of the unmelted chocolate you set aside before. Stir the chocolate in until it has melted.
- Keep adding pieces of the unmelted chocolate until the temperature of the chocolate has been reduced to 32ºC. At this point it’s ready to use.
- Remove any lumps of chocolate and set aside to use later – I like to put in onto greaseproof paper as then it’s easy to peel off and use again (it can be difficult to remove hardened chocolate from a bowl).
Fill the mould
- Pour the melted chocolate into the mould (or pipe if you prefer). Fill each of the squares you’re using to the top. Once filled, tip the mould upside down over the bowl you stirred the chocolate in and tip out any excess – you’re trying to create a hollow shell.
- Once the excess has tipped out have a quick check for any holes in the shells. If there are any holes then add in a little extra chocolate and tip again to remove any excess.
- Once you’re happy with the shells, use a sharp knife to scrape any excess chocolate from the top of the mould.
- Put the mould into the fridge for at least half an hour to set.
- Scrape any leftover chocolate from the bowl back into the pan you used to melt the chocolate originally (this can then be used to make the base of the chocolates).
Make the marshmallow fondant
- Place the marshmallows (4 large marshmallows) and water (1 tsp) into a microwave dish and microwave on full power for 30 seconds to melt the marshmallows. After 30 seconds give them a stir, if there are any unmelted lumps microwave for a further 10 seconds.
- Sift in 50g of the icing sugar and mix with a spoon to combine. You’ll find that you cannot combine all of the sugar by mixing. Once you’ve reached this stage then knead the fondant by hand to combine the remaining sugar (don’t try and knead by hand before mixing, as it will be too sticky to handle).
- Spread the remaining icing sugar (25g) onto your work surface (the fondant will become sticky as you work with it. If it does, roll it in the icing sugar).
- Add about 5 drops of flavour to the fondant and knead to ensure it is evenly spread.
- Add a small amount of food colouring (if using) and knead until evenly spread.
- Fill the shells
- Remove your mould from the fridge.
- Gently push a small ball of fondant into each shell. It’s very important that you check that none of the fondant is protruding above the top of the mould, as if it does it’ll stick out of the bottom of the chocolate!
- Put to one side while you temper the chocolate for the base.
Make the chocolate base
- Add about half of any unused chocolate you have in the packet to the chocolate you put back into the pan earlier and repeat steps 1-4 (above) to temper the chocolate. You can use the same bowl you used earlier even if it has some hardened chocolate in the bottom as it will melt in and help the tempering process.
- Once the chocolate has tempered, spoon or pipe it carefully over the top of the fondant – you want the chocolate to come above the top edge of the mould.
- Once all of the chocolates are covered, use a sharp knife to scrape off any excess chocolate.
- Put the chocolates into the fridge for at least half an hour to set.
- Once the chocolate has completely set, turn the mould over on a work surface. If you’re using the silicon mould then carefully push each chocolate out of the mould. If any are being stubborn then pop the mould back into the fridge for a while longer to give them a bit more time to set.
NOTES
NUTRITIONAL INFORMATION
Any nutritional information provided is the estimated nutritional information per serving. Please refer to my guide to Charlotte’s Lively Kitchen nutritional information if you would like to learn more about how this is calculated.
The ingredients I used to make this recipe are all free from the following allergens. However, please check any labels carefully for allergens you need to avoid as brands can vary and product recipes can change over time.
- Gluten-Free
- Egg-Free
- Tree Nut-Free
- Peanut-Free
- Sesame-Free
- Sulphur Dioxide & Sulphite-Free
- Lupin-Free
These chocolates can be made dairy-free by ensuring the dark chocolate you use is dairy-free.
Elaine says
I’ve found a great recipe for coffee ganache. Very easy to make and fills chocolate shells really well.
You will need: 100mls double cream
1heaped tsp coffee powder or granules
60gm chocolate (dark or milk is fine) chopped
Place cream and coffee powder in pan and heat until simmering but not boiling. Pour over the chocolate and allow chocolate to melt, stirring well until smooth. Allow to cool and then pipe or spoon into the chocolate shells. Leave to set and cover with more tempered chocolate
Jenny says
Can you add anything to this for a slightly runny filling??
Charlotte Oates says
I’m not sure but it’s something I’d like to experiment with so leave it with me. I suspect adding a little liquid glucose may do the trick, but there’s a risk that if it’s too runny the chocolate will sink rather than sitting on the top as it needs to to encase the filling.
sue says
hiw long will these chocolates last and can you freeze please
Charlotte Oates says
They’ll last for ages (to the date on the chocolate/marshmallows whichever is earlier), as there’s nothing perishable in them.
I wouldn’t freeze them as the chocolate will probably get white patches on it and lose its shine.
Pam says
Does anyone know if you can put ready made frosting as a falling into chocolates home made please.
Charlotte Oates says
As long as the frosting is quite firm (could have melted chocolate poured onto it without the chocolate sinking in) then it’ll be fine.
Pam says
Morrisons sell camp coffee £1.79 a bottle I bought some last week to put into my chocolates and of course a coffee I still like a camp coffee.
Tracy says
Have you tried using camp liquid coffee for the coffee cream?
Charlotte Oates says
I haven’t – sorry
Pam says
Going to use the camp coffee on Sunday for my chocolates fingers crossed it’s nicertainly.
Pam says
Nice
Toni says
Thank you so much, I really like this recipe for fondant! I usually use corn syrup and vanilla, but that’s pretty much what marshmallows are. I did find that I had to use an extra 25 grams of icing sugar to get the proper consistency, though. As for coffee flavouring, I find that Loran’s flavour oils makes a really nice coffee one.
Charlotte Oates says
Thanks for the recommendation. I’ll see if I can find it.
Ak Lawrence says
use instant espresso powder when you want to make coffee flavored candy.
Charlotte Oates says
I’ll give it a try, thanks for the tip.
Gez says
Pretty much every major supermarket (in the UK) usually in the tea & coffee aisle – it’s about £1.70 a bottle.
It is popular with home bakers as the flavouring element for coffee-flavoured cake and coffee-flavoured butter cream’s so will work well as a fondant filling. (It was used a lot as an alternative to instant coffee in the 70’s when the price of coffee doubled due to shortages caused by a frost in Brazil.)
I would suggest start off with a couple of tablespoons mixed in with the fondant, the icing sugar will counteract the bitterness but obviously add to taste.
Charlotte Oates says
I’d not thought to look in the coffee aisle. I’ll have a look next time I’m shopping. Thanks x
Gez says
No probs, also I know you have written above that you have tried regular coffee but might be worth another try by making a sort of instant coffee essence using a tablespoon of boiling water to two teaspoons of instant coffee granules. Personally I never drink instant coffee but I can’t get a truer pungent coffee flavouring using espresso.
Also if you really want the whole caffeine hit, mix a shot of espresso into the chocolate itself 🙂
Might I also recommend trying a 40% Milk Chocolate instead of dark.
Please do let me know if you create your dream coffee cream filling!
Gez says
Sorry I meant use instant ESPRESSO powder, not the Nescafe Gold Blend type Instant coffee granules (which lacks the punch). Also the instant powder seems to work better than fine grinding Espresson beans yourself.
Charlotte Oates says
Thanks Gez. I’ve recently tried using espresso powder in my coffee cupcakes and been really pleased with the flavour so I’ll have to try it in these chocolates too.
Gez says
“I’ve sadly not been able to make my favourite fondant filled chocolate – the coffee cream, as I didn’t have any coffee flavouring. I tried using regular coffee but the flavour wasn’t strong enough to notice it was there, so I need to keep an eye out for something more concentrated.”
Have you tried using Camp Coffee & Chicory Essence?
Charlotte Oates says
I haven’t, where do you get it from?
Debbie says
Camp coffee essence was always used for ‘coffee based’ baking and icings.
You can’t find this for love nor money now.
Anyone know where to find it ?
Gez says
Larger Sainsburys still stock it. I’m sure I saw it in a Morrisons not so long ago.
julie warrender says
do you have to grease the moulds with anything before you start please .
Charlotte Oates says
No, just make sure it’s clean and completely dry. As long as you temper your chocolate they should pop out just fine (although may need a bit of a tap if they’re being stubborn).
julie warrender says
thankyou charlotte
EngyM says
Hello, loved the recipe, but we don’t have large marshmallows. So if you could mention it in grams, that would be nice of you.
Thanks a lot.
Charlotte Oates says
4 large marshmallows is about 28g, I’ve updated the ingredients in the recipe to include this.
Em Watson says
Thank you!!!!
Christina says
I just made these chocolates (the first chocolates I’ve ever made, actually) and they turned out great! I just had a lot of trouble with the fondant, the marshmallows wouldn’t melt and I ended up adding much more sugar than you specified (maybe it’s cause it was my first time making fondant too, I don’t know). Otherwise, my friends and family were very impressed, as was I! 🙂 Thank you! Will you be adding any more chocolate recipes (like your caramel-filled chocolates but just with other ganaches or jams?)
Charlotte Oates says
Thanks Cristina, I’m glad you and your family enjoyed them. Perhaps the issue with the fondant is down to the marshmallows, if the ones you used were different from mine that might explain the problem. It sounds as though you figured it out in the end anyway.
I’ve got a few more chocolate recipes here and if you’ve got a favourite flavour that isn’t there that you’d like me to add to the blog let me know and I’ll see what I can do.
Elaine says
I’ve just subscribed to your site as I saw this recipe and it looks amazing. I wanted to make chocolates for ages and bought the thermospatula and mould only last week. Just seen the Caramel recipe too. Hopefully it will be a very choccy Easter!
Charlotte Oates says
Easter should always be chocolatey 🙂
I hope you enjoy them x
Nikki says
Love this recipe – I’ve been looking for an easy fondant recipe for ages but I’m confused – when you say 4 large marshmallows are they just the supermarket-own pink and whites? In the US they have jumbo marshmallows but you’re in the UK yes? Can you give me the marshmallow element in terms of weight please? Grams if possible? Thanks – I’ll be back to look at your blog again.
Charlotte Oates says
Hi Nikki, I’ve just checked and it’s about 28g of marshmallows.
I hope you enjoy them x
Nikki says
Great thankyou, that’s my afternoon sorted!
Jessica says
Just out of curiosity, do you have an idea on how long these would keep on the counter? I’m sure I could refrigerate if I felt too many days would pass between making them and enjoying them, correct? I would love to experiment with my chocolate making (novice right now) for when I have company over. Thank you! Your chocolates look gorgeous!
Charlotte Oates says
Hi Jessica. We’ve normally eaten them pretty quickly so I haven’t had a chance to check. I’d imagine they should last OK as there’s no perishable ingredients in them just chocolate and fondant which both have a long shelf life. I purposely avoided making the fondant with raw egg white to ensure they would have a longer shelf life.
Fionnuala says
Oh I’ll have to give these atry. I even have a mould, just never got round to using it. Thanks for the inspiration! #TastyTuesday
Charlotte Oates says
I’m like that with kitchen equipment. I buy things on impulse and then put them at the back of the cupboard and forget about them! I recently bought some letter stamps for cookies that I’m yet to try.
Beware, I find making chocolates quite addictive. Now I’ve started I’m constantly thinking about what to fill them with next. There’s a danger this could turn into a blog full of mountains of chocolate (actually that doesn’t sound like a bad thing at all!)
Alison says
These look gorgeous and how clever you are. I know that I would make a mess trying to fill them but will have to have a try
Charlotte Oates says
Thanks Alison. These aren’t too bad to fill compared to some others I’ve made. Make sure your chocolate shells are completely set and check that there’s no fondant sticking out about the top of the mould (otherwise when you add the chocolate for the base and use a knife to scrape off the excess it’ll get caught on the fondant and make a big mess (I found this out the messy way!).
I hope you enjoy making (and eating) them.
Mum says
I am happy if you want to experiment when you come to visit and will also act as a tester. We can get Dad to do the washing up!
Charlotte Oates says
Good idea. I’m thinking of making cappuccino truffles next (like the ones in the Thorntons selection box). Although I’ve got a funny feeling that time will go very quickly when I’m there x
Angela says
I love making chocolates. It’s really fun and popping them out of the moulds is the best bit. I am a fan of the polycarbonate moulds like the one you have from Lakeland. I find the silicon difficult like you say. The harder moulds have to be used with tempered chocolate though, otherwise you’ll never get your chocs out!
Charlotte Oates says
I alway temper the chocolate regardless of the mould as I like how shiny it looks (I think it gives it a better texture too). What’s your favourite filling?