Soft centred orange flavoured festive chocolates are today’s special post. They may seem like a complicated professional chocolatier’s artwork, but honestly, it’s not as difficult as it looks. You have to trust me on this. With very little ingredients and few tools, you can make these gorgeously delicious looking CHOCOLATES at home.
As the festive season approaches, we all look for interesting gifts for our loved ones. This soft centred chocolate is a special Raksha Bandhan post. And is dedicated to my wonderful brother Govind. He is far and we hardly get to meet, and I won’t be meeting him this Raksha Bandhan too. But I have sent him my Rakhi and I will miss him so much on the day.
Orange is always been his favourite candy flavour. He always has a box of orange candies in his cloth cupboard. He keeps it hidden, from kids because he doesn’t like his children eating too much sweet stuff. Hahaha and my dear brother believes nothing/no rules apply to him …FUNNY… see we are here. This was a picture taken last year.
I have stepwise pictures of the whole chocolate making process for you and I want to talk about all the do’s and don’ts for making these chocolates.
1. You will require a chocolate making mold. It’s easily available and you can also look online. JoyGlobal Professional 24 Cavities Half Sphere Golf Ball Polycarbonate Chocolate Mould (Weight of Chocolate Approx 11-12 Grams per Cavity)
2. You will need a good quality compound chocolate. Compound because you will not need to temper it. Chocoville Compound Chocolate Slab Dark – 500 Grams
Chocolate FAQs
3. I have used candied orange along with orange chocolate ganache in the centre part of the chocolate.
You can buy the candied orange peels from the market or make it home. The recipe is quite simple.
1. Wash the orange.
2. Use a big hole zester to peel the thin long ribbons from the orange. Make sure you don’t peel the white inner part along because its the bitter part.
3. Put the peels into the boiling water for at least 3 minutes to get rid of the residual bitterness.
4. In another pan, Boil water and sugar together. Use the same amount of sugar and water.
5. When the sugar is dissolved add the orange zest and cook for sometime till sugar syrup is reduced or until zest is tender and looks a little translucent. When cooked take the zest out of sugar syrup and let it sit on a wire rack for some time.
6. In another tray add some fine granulated sugar (caster sugar) and put in the cooked and drained Orange zest.
7. Roll the peel pieces, a few at a time, in sugar. Let it dry on wire rack several hours (sometimes overnight). Store in airtight container.
The chocolate ganache in the centre of the chocolates has a very strong/prominent orange flavour. Thanks to Ossoro Brazilian Orange flavour bottleOssoro Brazilian Orange, 30 ml
Getting back to our chocolate and orange flavours- You can choose which variation of chocolate ganache you’d like to make for the filling of the chocolate shell (dark, milk or white).
Use the same amount of suggested chocolate mentioned in the recipe below. Just make sure you add Ossoro flavour once the ganache is cool to the room temperature.
Ingredients
For chocolate case
200 g dark baking chocolate
For the ganache filling
100 g of cream
30 g soften butter
140 gm of chocolate chopped
2 -3 drops of Ossoro Brazilian orange flavour
Ossoro Brazilian Orange, 30 ml
Chopped pieces of candied orange
Method
To make chocolate cases:
Melt chopped chocolate over a pan of warm water (double boiler), do not overheat, when three-quarters of it is melted, remove from heat and stir vigorously, this should distribute the heat and melt the remaining chocolate without it getting too hot and going “grainy”.
Be careful that no steam or water gets into the chocolate when it is being melted.
Pour melted chocolate into your candy mold. Tap the filled chocolate mold a couple of times on to the kitchen counter, to take out the air bubbles and scrape off the excess chocolate from the top using an off-set spatula.
Allow chocolate to set up slightly, to form a shell in the candy mold.
Tip the mold over and pour out the majority of the chocolate and scrape the mold clean. (You should be left with a shell that has an empty cavity.) Set this aside to cool completely.
To make the orange chocolate ganache:
Place the chopped chocolate in a bowl. In a saucepan over medium heat, bring cream to a boil then immediately pour over the chocolate. Cover for 2 minutes to let the chocolate melt and then stir smooth. Mix in softened butter. Set aside and allow the mixture to cool to room temperature. Once its cool to room temperature add in Ossoro Brazilian orange flavour and mix well.
To fill in the chocolate shell:
Use a piping bag, pipe your soft ganache filling into the prepared chocolate shell, leaving room to cap it off with more melted chocolate, to seal. Use a tweezers or a small spoon to add in chopped pieces of candied orange. Once the mold cavities are full with ganache filling, cover the mold again with more melted chocolate, tap out excess air and scrape clean.
Place the filled mold in a cool area and allow the chocolates to completely set about 20-30 minutes. To remove homemade truffles from the mold, twist the mold to loosen the chocolates and turn over. If they do not release clean, refrigerate for 5 minutes and try again.
Pack the beautifully in a chocolate box along with Rakhi and your gift for Raksha Bandana is ready.
