Dark chocolate spheres

Last year we were invited to a wedding which was this weekend in Italy. The wedding was beautiful and the food was outstanding. It also gave me a chance to make something sweet for the bride and groom. Because the wedding had a Tiffany theme I made Tiffany macarons, which I will share with you in the next blog post. I also made meringue sticks with coconut and crushed pistachios, the recipe can be found here. The last component of the gift were dark chocolate spheres filled with praline ganache, peanut butter and caramelized hazelnuts.
Because summer is almost here I took advantage of a cold and rainy day to make my chocolates. I have learned that tempering chocolate on hot days without air-condition is a waste of time. The chocolate will take a long time to cool properly and it will not set at room temperature.

The sphere shells were made with a special Mexican dark chocolate I bought a few weeks ago. The chocolate has 66% cocoa and the taste is slightly fruity and bitter. The dark chocolate cuts through the richness of the sweet peanut butter-praline filling.

I wanted to make chocolate spheres from the moment I saw videos on youtube and a masterpiece from a fantastic pastry chef Hugues Pouget from "Hugo and Victor". You can see this amazing dessert here. The process is simple once you know how to temper chocolate. All you need is a silicon mold and good quality chocolate. The filling is totally up to you and it can have different combinations and components.
For the gold shine on the spheres I painted some edible gold powder in the silicon mold before pouring in the chocolate.  They came out beautifully golden and shiny.  

For some crunch I added store bought toasted and caramelized hazelnut crunch (I used Dr. Oetker).
The ganache is made with praline chocolate and smooth peanut butter. The peanut butter really complements the flavor of the chocolate and a dash of salt makes the whole ting even better.

Dark chocolate spheres

(Makes 15 small sized spheres)

Time:

Preparation: 45min

Cooking: 10min

Setting: 20-30min
Assembly: 30min

For the praline-peanut butter ganache:

• 100g praline chocolate (I used Nestle)
• 100g heavy cream
• 1 table spoon peanut butter (I used smooth)
• a pinch of salt (to taste)
• 50g hazelnut crunch (for assembly, I used Dr. Oetker)

For the chocolate shells:

• 200g dark chocolate
• edible gold powder

Making the ganache:

Place the heavy cream in a small sauce pan and bring to the boil. Meanwhile chop the chocolate in small pieces and place in a heat-proof bowl, add a tablespoon of peanut butter. Pour the hot cream over the chocolate and wait 2 minutes. 

Mix the cream, peanut butter and chocolate until the ganache is smooth and shiny. Mix in the salt, taste and add salt if necessary. Place in the fridge to set.

Making the shells:

Paint the silicon mold with edible golden powder.

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). This may take a while, depending on the room temperature. 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).

Now the chocolate is at the ideal working temperature, and you must work quickly. Fill the mold with chocolate, tap the mold a few times so that the air bubbles pop. Make sure the mold is fully covered in chocolate then flip the mold over the bowl of remaining chocolate so that the excess of chocolate drips off back into the bowl. The whole process is a bit messy but try to save as much of the chocolate in the bowl for later. Smooth off the chocolate from the mold with the palette knife. Flip the mold upside down on the cooling tray to ensure an even coating then put the mold in the fridge to set, it should set fairly quickly.

I made small spheres and a few big ones. 

Because I had some leftover tempered chocolate I made a simple decoration. I made the decorations with a palette knife. I just smeared some chocolate on acetate sheet and placed it in a glass to set. That gave the decorations an interestingly curved look.

Make sure that the chocolate is not too thin, because it will brake and won't come of the acetate nicely. This decorations will gave an elegant look to any dessert and can be used in many different ways.

Once the chocolate in the molds is set, take it out of the fridge and demold the spheres.

Assembly:

You will need a hot surface to melt the chocolate spheres a little, so they will come together. I used a kitchen torch and a heat proof bowl. You can also use a hot pot or pan and flip it over to get smooth and hot surface.

Pipe a small amount of the ganache in each of two spheres. Add a few hazelnuts, top with more ganache and add more hazelnuts.

Pres both spheres on the hot surface for a second or two, they will start to melt quickly so watch out not to leave them on the hot surface too long. 

Gently press the spheres together and smooth the joint. 

I used a silicon mold with a different shaped spheres and they look like those kinder surprise eggs we used to eat when we were little. I placed them in gold paper cups and they were ready to go. The ganache was smooth and tasted amazing and the hazelnuts gave a nice crunch. 

(I even made a short video, you can see that the ganache is sticky and it wont let go of the knife :))