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 ASK THE WEBCHEF
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Cream-filled ChocolatesQ: Beverly writes: "While on a winery tour in Napa Valley, CA we visited a winery that had chocolate balls filled with burgundy wine. They were SUPERB. I've found recipes for cream filled chocolates but this was filled with wine. Not anything thick. I purchased a syringe from a pharmacy thinking if I can just find a recipe for Hard HOLLOW chocolate balls or at least some kind of instructions on how to go about making them I could inject them with the wine. But how do you make hollow balls? Any advice would be appreciated." We asked Chef Daniel Boulud of http://www.danielnyc.com/ who's website has an Ask The Chef column at http://www.danielnyc.com/askthechef.html Chef Boulud had this answer for Beverly: A: In response to Ms. Moore's question regarding burgundy wine-filled chocolate balls, I regret to report that it is not all that easy to make hollow chocolate balls, nor can they be filled with most liquids, including wine. Humidity is the enemy of chocolate and prevents chocolate from hardening and setting. Even once it is set, chocolate will break apart if it comes into contact with liquid - unless the liquid has a sufficient fat or sugar content. Therefore, the wine would need to be mixed with sugar (70% wine : 30% sugar by weight - don't use your best Domaine de la Romanee Conti!) and reduced until the mixture thickens slightly. (Professionally mass-produced liqueur filled chocolates are made through a complicated process that involves dropping the liqueur mixture into a specially dried and sifted cornstarch-like powder that then forms a protective shell around the liqueur. The blobs are then dipped in tempered chocolate and must be allowed to set and then rest for at least 3 days before consumption to allow the filling to reliquify.) If Ms. Moore wanted to make her own chocolate balls, she would need to find plastic hemisphere molds and coat them with tempered chocolate. (Tempering, a precise process of melting and warming chocolate to a specific temperature, cooling it to another and then warming it slightly to a third temperature, ensures that chocolate hardens properly.) Once set, the would have to be unmolded, glued together with tempered chocolate, filled, sealed closed with more tempered chocolate and probably dipped in tempered chocolate to make an even outside coating. The chocolates would also need to be consumed within a couple of days to prevent the chocolate from breaking down. I don't want to discourage Ms. Moore, but I do not recommend undertaking such an especially difficult molded chocolate project at home. Hollow chocolate balls are sold by mail order companies such as SOS Chef, Chocolates à la Carte or even Williams Sonoma, I believe. However, sealing them will not be terribly easy and there is no guarantee that the wine glaze will not manage to seep out of the sealed chocolate ball. While it is always wonderful to attempt to recreate a culinary feat at home, there are some cases where it is perhaps even more pleasurable to sit back and enjoy it without the work! Chef Daniel Boulud http://www.danielnyc.com/ Practical Kitchen would like to thank Chef Boulud for taking the time to answer our question! Ask your question! |
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Happy Halloween
