Every other week in my house I have to find another hiding place for chocolate – I think my children must be able to sniff it out! says Tim Dover, chef patron of The Roost Restaurant in Bridge of Earn.
Although there are certain times of year when it’s almost obligatory to eat chocolate – Easter and Christmas for example – it’s something that goes down well whatever month it is.
Chocolate with coffee after dinner is a perfect pairing. I like to offer something different to our diners at the restaurant and so I make my own chocolates which we serve with other petits fours after meals. It was daunting at first, as the look of chocolates has so much to do with how we feel about eating them – they need to be perfectly formed, shiny and dainty as well as pretty to look at.
Then the chocolate has to be the perfect texture, have the correct snap, and the flavour and filling have to be balanced. It sounds hard, but actually I have never had more fun in the kitchen than the time spent perfecting my chocolates – and I have not had one complaint from any of my tasters in the process.
Moulds are easy to buy, transfer sheets can be sourced online and recipes are easy to find so if you fancy giving it a shot, I’d say go for it. If you are really successful, you can box them up as special gifts.
A good addition to any box of chocolates is a perfect florentine, and making these is so simple and will be excellent practice for more fancy chocolate work. You need 100g butter, 100g caster sugar, 75g glace cherries, 75 flaked almonds, 50g candied peel, 50g hazelnuts, 2 tablespoons of plain flour and 150g plain dark chocolate.
Start by gently melting the butter and sugar in a saucepan. Once the sugar has dissolved, take the pan off the heat and add all remaining ingredients except the chocolate.
Then spoon tablespoons of the mixture, well spaced apart on to three baking sheets lined with non-stick baking paper, and flatten the mounds out slightly. Cook one sheet at a time in the centre of a pre-heated oven at about 180°C for about six minutes.
When removed from the oven, neaten up the edges with a round biscuit cutter and leave to cool on a wire rack. Once cooled, they can be coated in chocolate. To do this, melt the chocolate over a saucepan of boiling water. Arrange the biscuits upside down on a wire rack and spoon melted chocolate over them and then leave to set. Once the chocolate is hard they can be boxed or stored in an airtight container for about a month.
Chef’s tip
For a professional finish try making a zigzag pattern with the melted chocolate on top of the florentines.
