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.
Calories: 77kcal | Carbohydrates: 12.3g | Protein: 0.6g | Fat: 2.6g | Saturated Fat: 1.6g | Fiber: 0.9g | Sugar: 11.6g
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.
Course: Chocolates
Keyword: Edible Gifts
Author: Charlotte Oates