Make your own chocolate this Valentine’s Day
SINCE CADBURY popularised the fancy box of chocolates in the 19th century, the link between love and those darkly sweet treats has only grown stronger – thanks partly to years of clever marketing.
“If you look at advertising over the years, chocolate companies emphasised love and romance, and that you could win hearts and maybe a kiss for a box of chocolate,” said Sue Quinn, author of The Little Chocolate Cookbook and Cocoa.
We still love indulging in chocolate on Valentine’s Day. This year, however, why not up the gift cache and, instead of buying chocolates, make your own?
With no special equipment required, many recipes are simple enough for novices – and making them together is a fun way to spend the evening.
Quinn’s template for chocolate bark requires little more than melting the right kind of chocolate bar, spreading it on to a baking sheet and adding a variety of toppings. She suggested combining sweet-tart ingredients like dried cranberries or cherries with chopped nuts for contrasting flavour and texture. And she always sprinkles the bark with flaky sea salt to bring out the chocolate’s nuanced flavour.
Besides being a special gift from the heart, homemade chocolates also are free from preservatives, extra sugar and artificial ingredients, said Jennifer Bell, who blogs about cooking at A Sweet Alternative. Her simple recipes for 20 homemade chocolates include three-ingredient truffles stuffed with strawberries, mango or almond butter, their creamy centre enveloped in a crispy chocolate shell. Or try her chocolate-covered coconut bars, blackberry clusters and pears.
“They’re such an easy gift that’s got that homemade touch,” Bell said. “And really all you need in terms of equipment is parchment paper or a silicone baking mat.”
With homemade recipes like these, there is no need to worry about “tempering”. That’s a technique professionals use, slowly melting the chocolate and resetting it in a particular way to maintain its shine and characteristic snap.
MELT IT GENTLY
It is critical, however, to melt the chocolate gently or it will become grainy as the cocoa butter separates from the solids under high heat. Bell prefers doing so in the microwave in a heatproof bowl, nuking chopped dark chocolate or chips on high power in 20-second increments, and stirring in between until it’s smooth.
Because Quinn accidentally has burned chocolate before in the microwave, she now blasts it with a hair dryer in 30-second increments, while stirring, so it doesn’t overheat. Or she rigs a bain-marie (a double boiler), placing the chopped chocolate in a heatproof bowl set over a saucepan of barely simmering water. Make sure the bottom doesn’t touch the water.
It’s worth springing for high-quality dark chocolate made from about 70 per cent cacao that lists only three to five ingredients. Sugar should not be the first ingredient listed; soy lecithin, a common additive to make melted chocolate more pourable, is fine and does not affect flavour.
The quality of chocolate is key for such basic recipes. But even the most basic homemade chocolates convey something special, Quinn said.
She declared, “You can buy them from the gas station on the way to a date. But goodness, someone who makes you some chocolates? They’re a keeper, aren’t they?”