Daring Baker August 2011: Chocolate and Candy

The August 2011 Daring Bakers’ Challenge was hosted by Lisa of Parsley, Sage, Desserts and Line Drive and Mandy of What the Fruitcake?!. These two sugar mavens challenged us to make sinfully delicious candies! This was a special challenge for the Daring Bakers because the good folks at http://www.chocoley.com offered an amazing prize for the winner of the most creative and delicious candy!

The challenge this month required us to make two candies - one of the following chocolate candies:

1. A truffle, dipped or not dipped in chocolate OR
2. A cut (square) dipped chocolate/bonbon OR
3. A filled chocolate/bonbon using a chocolate mold

and a second candy (chocolate or not) of our choice.

We were also provided information on how to temper chocolate, so that any dipped candy came out with a nice shiny finish. Unfortunately we did not have the right thermometer (I learned that a candy thermometer and a chocolate thermometer are two different things) to determine the temperature during the tempering process, so we opted for non-dipped truffles.

Rolled Truffles

We used Lindt dark chocolate, (and two semi-sweet bakers chocolate squares added to get to the right weight), and Silk creamer to make the truffles. Lila and I shaved the chocolate using Allyson's Mandoline slicer, while Allyson heated the creamer. The chocolate melted pretty quickly in the hot liquid, and we stirred it until we got a consistent color.

The makings of the ganache. The Mandoline was handy
to shred the chocolate into smaller pieces.

Chocolate flakes into the near boiling creamer.

The chocolate and creamer - turning colors
- when it was a consistent color, it was done.

The recipe we were working with (provided with the DB challenge) said to let the chocolate sit until it was room temperature, or refrigerate it if we were dipping it in chocolate. Because we did not have gloves to keep our body heat from the chocolate, we decide to refrigerate it. We spread the chocolate out over a plate and left half in the pan, to provide more surface area for it to cool.

Spreading the chocolate ganache
on a plate to let it cool faster.

It was pretty easy to determine when the chocolate ganache was at the right consistency to roll, though we learned quickly that the body heat does play a role. Allyson's hands were too warm to roll the chocolate, so we set her to preparing the toppings to roll the finished truffles. Lila had the coolest hands, and the easiest time rolling the little balls of chocolate.

Naked truffles - and one with coconut.

We prepared a variety of toppings - toasted almonds, toasted cashews, dry flaked coconut, cocoa powder and matcha (green tea) powder. We found the toppings stuck more easily if we warmed the truffle in our hands first, making the chocolate sticky.

Toppings for the truffles.Cocoa powder,
ground toasted cashews, dried coconut flakes,
and ground toasted almonds.
We added Matcha, as well.

Finished Truffles - various toppings.

These candies were surprisingly easy, and the dark chocolate gave them a distinctive flavor. I realized after the fact that we should have probably used mini-muffin pan liners to place the individual chocolates in, to keep them from rolling into each other. Also, I look forward to working with a vegan milk - chocolate (even if we have to make an approximation ourselves) - the dark chocolate is a little bitter to me, and I'd love to get a milder flavor by working with the chocolate to see what we can do. (Though a quick Internet search tells me that Terra Nostra makes Ricemilk choco bars - I'll have to experiment with these...)

Turkish Delight

Water, sugar and lemon juice make
the first mixture for Turkish Delight.

The mix simmers until it reaches 240
on the candy thermometer,
or "Soft Ball"

The mix comes out clear.

For our second candy, we opted to make Turkish Delight, using a recipe we found at vegan-food.net. In preparation to make this candy, I had to call around town to find rosewater. Our local kitchen specialty store was out, and our two local supermarkets didn't carry it. Luckily I found it at Mother Earth market, though when I got there I was honestly surprised to find that it was shelved in the beauty products aisle. The clerk assured me it was food safe, and I was amused that the packaging suggested uses for it as a perfume, added to hair rinse, and a few other beauty uses, "or a gourmet flavoring."

Allyson provided the candy thermometer we used. The recipe is looks deceptively simple. I say this because the amount of stirring required by the recipe is tortuous. I would definitely recommend either working with someone who can switch out the stirring duties, or finding a way to automate the stirring
(I am pondering if there is anyway I can get my stand mixer close enough to the stove to let it do the "heavy lifting" on this recipe.

Once we tasted the end results, we discovered that we didn't do enough stirring - or that the heat we used to simmer was too low, or a combination thereof. We ended up with slightly lumpy Turkish delight, but the rosewater flavor was very refreshing, despite the odd consistency.

We let the delight sit overnight in the refrigerator, and used an oiled knife to slice it. This made the candy easy to cut - the entire thing was sticky. And while the recipe didn't call for food coloring, we added two drops of red food coloring gel to get a nice (well, flesh colored) pink.

The last step was to coat the candy in confectioners sugar - but the delight was too sticky, I think, because after a day the sugar had dissolved in the goo of the candy. We have taken to shaking each individual piece in a bag of confectioners sugar before we eat it. I would love to work with this recipe again to try different flavors, to try drying out the candy before coating it to prevent the confectioners sugar from dissolving, and to try to get those darn lumps out.

Cream of tartar, cornstarch and water
is the second half
of the mix. It starts liquidy.

When we first added the sugar water mix
we thought it wasn't going to blend well.

The second mixture simmered and stirred,
is done when it is the consistency of glue.

An hour of simmering later, it all came together.

A few drops of red food coloring added in at the same time
as the rosewater to get a nice pink.

Into a pan with greased wax paper to cool overnight.

Turkish delight out of the pan and onto
a cutting board with powdered sugar on it.

Slicing the Turkish Delight. A sticky mess.

Individual pieces into a mix of powdered sugar and cornstarch.

Finished Turkish Delight.

Overall, this was a fun challenge, and has whetted our appetite to try making our own candy.

New tools/ ingredients: rosewater, candy thermometer, mandoline slicer, soy creamer

Recipes used: Truffles from Daring Baker Challenge, modified; Turkish Delight Recipe 2 from vegan-food.net

Co-bakers: Allyson, Lila

Date: August 23 and 24, 2011