Chocolate cups

I have been watching a lot of videos lately about chocolate decorations. I saw a video that showed how to make chocolate cups and I was immediately inspired. I mean, what's not to love in a dessert where you can eat everything, including the serving dish.
A few days after watching the video I went to the store and bought a bunch of different plastic cups to see which of them will give me the best result. They all turned out great but I prefer the small regular ones.

All I did was pour the tempered chocolate in a cup, swirled it around, then I poured the chocolate out of the cup and turned it upside down so that the excess chocolate ran down the sides. The cups were in the fridge for about 20 minutes and then the chocolate cups were ready to be taken out. The most difficult part was the unmolding of the cups.

You must be really gentle when doing this. Slowly peal the plastic cup away from the chocolate, the chocolate can break easily so take your time. I made a mistake of not fully covering my cups to the top and the chocolate was very thin, which is why it broke off, but the cups were still looking good after I trimmed off the edges.

As long as there are not huge holes in your chocolate cups you can still make a beautiful dessert. I have put a little of my leftover pear mousse in them and topped it with some toasted walnuts and chocolate swirls. What I love about this chocolate cups is that you can put anything you like in them and they will look amazing. You can put in a scoop of your favorite ice cream or different kinds of mousses (vanilla or chocolate mousse from this chocolate-banana mousse cake recipe), pastry cream, whipped ganache, booze or anything you can think of really.

Chocolate cups

(Makes 4-6 cups)

Time:

Preparation: 20min

Cooking: 30min

Cooling: 1 hour

For the chocolate cups/decoration:

• 200g dark chocolate
• plastic cups
• acetate strips 
• decorating comb

For the pear mousse:

• 1 big or 2 small pears
• 1 sheet of gelatin (approximately 1,5 grams)
• 1/2 tea spoon cinnamon
• 1 table spoon brown sugar
• 1/2 vanilla pod
• 1/2 tea spoon dark rum (optional)
• 1/2 tea spoon lemon juice
• 120ml whipping cream

For the garnish:

• 10g toasted walnuts

Making the chocolate cups/decorations:

First you will need to temper the chocolate:

Chop 150 grams of dark chocolate in medium sized pieces, put in the heat-proof bowl and set aside. Chop the remaining 50 grams of the chocolate in tiny pieces and set aside. Put some water in a pot and heat gently to a simmer. Place the bowl with 150 grams chocolate on top of the pot, the water should not touch the bowl. When the chocolate starts to melt, stir and check the temperature. Keep checking the temperature until it reaches 45-48°C (113-118°F). When the chocolate reaches the right temperature take the bowl of the heat and stir in the remaining chocolate. The temperature should drop. Stir the chocolate gently to cool until it reaches 27°C (81°F). When the chocolate is cool enough place the bowl back on the pot of simmering water and heat back to 30-31°C (88-90°F).

Pour the chocolate in the cup and swirl it around all the way up to the top of the cup. When the whole cup is covered in chocolate pour the chocolate back in to the bowl with the rest of the chocolate. Turn the cup upside down so that the excess chocolate runs down and evens out. Do the same with all the cups. If the chocolate cools too much and gets too thick, use a hair dryer to heat it up gently back to the working temperature (30-31°C (88-90°F)). After you are done with the cups place them in the fridge.

To make the chocolate swirls, place a small amount of chocolate on the acetate strip and smooth out with a palette knife so that you get a thin layer of chocolate. Take the decorating comb and go over the chocolate so that you are left with chocolate stripes. (In this video you can see what I am talking about, set the time at 2:56) Twist the acetate strip and put it in a glass so that it doesn't unroll. Put in the fridge for 20 minutes or until set. When the chocolate is set slowly unroll the acetate strip and the chocolate swirls should fall out. 

      

For the pear mousse:

Soak the gelatin in cold water, set aside. Peel and core the pears, chop them in small pieces and pour over the lemon juice. Place the pear pieces in a pan on medium heat along with the sugar. Split the vanilla bean and scrape out the seeds, add the vanilla seeds and the pod to the pears, add the cinnamon. When the sugar melts add the dark rum, cook until the pears are soft then remove from heat, remove the vanilla pod. Add the gelatin to the pear mixture. 

Using a stick blender blend the mixture until smooth. Pour in a bowl and set aside to cool. To speed up the cooling process put the bowl with the mixture in a bowl with cold water. It is important that you cool the pear mixture completely before you incorporate the whipping cream. When the mixture is cool enough, start whipping the cream, whip the cream just until soft peaks form. Fold 1/3 of cream in to the pear mixture. Add the rest of the cream and gently fold in the mixture. 

When the cream is fully incorporated divide the mixture among chocolate cups, you can put the mousse in a piping bag and pipe the mousse in the cups or you can use a spoon and carefully spoon the mousse in. Put the chocolate cups in the fridge for an hour to set.

Assembly:

Top the mousse with chopped toasted walnuts and stick some of your chocolate curls in the mousse.