Happy Hallmark Day
Big chocolate filled hearts have patiently sat on our shelves since Christmas left the stores. What surprises lay dormant under those glossy chocolate shells? Toothpaste or harsh liqueur? Instead of buying these romantic Berty Botts every flavoured chocolates, my brother decided to make his own, with a little help from the vegan. By the way, trust the ganache, double it, quadruple it, use it as Nutella if that floats your boat. It’s good. Darn Good.
For chocolates:
Chocolate (good quality, we're aiming to impress so don't just buy choc-flavoured wax)
Double boiler or saucepan and bowl
Spoon to stir and fill molds
Thin, clean paintbrush, or use plastic-gloved fingers
Freezer
Chocolate molds
Spatula
In a double boiler melt your chocolate (please don't just microwave, take the extra effort to make 'em perfect). Half fill chocolate molds and use paintbrush to generously cover the sides. Freeze until hard (5-10 mins). Remove from freezer and add filling of your choice. Freeze. Remove from freezer and cover filling with chocolate, use spatula to level off the chocolate and refreeze. Remove from freezer and pop out of mold.
Almond-Coffee Ganache
1/8 cup vanilla soy milk
3/4 -1 tsp instant coffee powder
1/2-1 tsp margarine (here: earth balance)
1/3 cup dark chocolate bits (either chocolate chips or broken up chocolate bar)
few drops almond extract (or hazelnut extract)
In a small (and looking at the quantity here, the smaller the better) saucepan, scald the milk. Remove from heat and whisk in the instant coffee powder. Add margarine, chocolate chips and almond extract and whisk till deliciously smooth. Taste, swoon, refrigerate until set.
