Dark Chocolate Hazelnut Bonbon Spiders

Serves: 5

Cecile Bahringer

1 January 1970

Based on User reviews:

52

Spice

58

Sweetness

45

Sourness

39

mins

Prep time (avg)

5.4

Difficulty

Ingredients:

280 g

Heavy Cream

Directions:

1

For the hazelnut ganache: Put the chocolate couverture in a medium bowl and set aside

2

In a medium saucepan, scald the heavy cream

3

Pour the scalded heavy cream over the chocolate couveture and set aside for 3 to 5 minutes to allow the scalded milk to melt the chocolate

4

With a rubber spatula, gently stir the chocolate and heavy cream until fully blended and smooth

5

Add the butter and stir with a rubber spatula to incorporate

6

Add the hazelnut extract and stir to incorporate

7

Pour the mixture into a large pastry bag and set aside

8

Pre-treat the polycarbonate chocolate mold with red (or any color desired) cocoa butter

9

Once the cocoa butter is set, brush each mold with a thin layer of tempered chocolate

10

Fill the entire mold with the fluid tempered chocolate and tap on work surface to release air bubbles

11

Quickly invert the mold and tap out excess chocolate

12

With a putty knife, scrape off the rest of the chocolate, let the mold rest upside down for 1 minute, and then scrape off surface of mold again

13

Let the chocolate set

14

Fill each mold with hazelnut ganache, 3/4 of the way full

15

Let the hazelnut ganache set

16

Pour the fluid tempered chocolate over the mold and spread thin, scraping off any excess

17

Tap mold on surface to release any air bubbles, and then scrape excess chocolate again

18

Transfer the finished mold to the freezer and let set for 2 to 3 minutes

19

Pull out the mold, invert, and tap on clean work surface to release finished bonbon

20

To assemble: Dip the hazelnuts in fluid tempered chocolate and let set

21

Attach to finished bonbons with a small dab of tempered chocolate

22

With a small pastry bag, pipe the tempered chocolate on parchment paper in a 1 1/2-inch upside-down V-shape

23

Repeat to make 80

24

Once set, lift the piped tempered chocolate and attach to the bonbons with a small dab of tempered chocolate to look like the legs of a spider

25

Over a double boiler, melt 1 pound 4 ounces chocolate to 115 to 120 degrees F

26

Bring the bowl with the melted chocolate to a flat, clean work surface (preferably marble or stainless steel ), wiping away any access water or steam from the bowl

27

With a rubber spatula, fully incorporate the remaining 2 ounces chocolate

28

Bring down the temperature of the chocolate to 80 to 84 degrees F by either stirring constantly in a figure 8 motion, or tabling (see Cook's Note)

29

Once cooled, test the chocolate by dipping a small strip of parchment paper into the melted chocolate, and then lay it down on a clean work surface

30

If tempered, the chocolate on the parchment paper should be dry, hard, shiny, and without any streaks in 3 to 5 minutes

31

If any of these occur, keep stirring (agitating) the chocolate, or table it again, until a parchment paper test shows that the chocolate is tempered

32

When tempered, bring the chocolate back to the double boiler and reheat to NO HIGHER than 89 degrees F

33

(Bringing the temperature back up aids in a more fluid working consistency

34

) Transfer the chocolate to a chocolate warmer or set the bowl on top of a heating pad (at medium setting) to keep in temper