Hi bakers,
Saint Valentine’s day is getting closer and closer and maybe you’ve wondered what you could give as a present to the loved ones in your life. Luckly I have the perfect thing to suggest you.
These easy and quick chocolate kisses were invented in the first decades of the last century by a famous Italian woman, Luisa Spagnoli, who used to sell them wrapped up with a love message. These chocolates became so famous that they spread all over the world and now they’ve become the most perfect gift for St. Valentine’s day! Today I’m going to show you how to make them in 3 easy steps.
I suggest you to arrange the kisses in a nice box, decorate it with a pretty ribbon and a label and get ready to have the most amazing Saint Valentine’s present ever. Your partner is gonna love it!
For 15 chocolate kisses:
- 60 g milk chocolate,
- 10 g butter;
- 60 g hazelnut chocolate spread;
- 60 g finely chopped tosted hazelnuts;
- 15 whole hazelnuts;
- 200 dark chocolate;
METHOD:
First step: melt the milk chocolate and the butter on a double boiler; once melted, remove from the heat and stir in both the hazelnut chocolate spread and the finely chopped hazelnuts. Combine all of these ingredients with a spoon, then cover the bowl with some cling wrap and place it in the fridge for an hour or in the freezer for 20 minutes, if you want to speed the whole thing up.
Second step: once the mixture has turned pretty solid, scoop out small amounts of it and form small balls with the palms of your hands. Arrange these balls on a tray, lined with some greaseproof paper and top each ball with a whole hazelnut, pressing it gently on the surface of the mixture. Allow your chocolates to cool down completely in the fridge for half an hour.
Third step: melt the dark chocolate over a double boiler and dip the cold kisses in. When nicely covered in chocolate, pull them out with a couple of forks and place them on a cooling rack. You’ll soon start seeing that the dark chocolate sets pretty quickly because of the thermal shock, due to the direct contact with the cold mixture.
Store your chocolates in the fridge before wrapping them up.
EASY CHOCOLATE’S TEMPERING TECHNIQUE:
- In order to have a beautifully tempered chocolate you need to melt 150 g of finely chopped dark chocolate and bring it to a temperature of 48-49°C ( you definitely need a chocolate thermometer).
- Then remove the chocolate from the heat and add 50 g of coarsely chopped chocolate ( in this phase you want to slowly melt the chocolate , that’s why pieces of chocolate are bigger than before) and check when the chocolate’s temperature lowers to 28-29°C.
- Finally transfer the chocolate back to the heat and warm it up until it reaches 30-32°C, which is the ideal chocolate temperature.
Tempering chocolate is essential when you deal with this fantastic ingredient because this specific procedure makes sure the chocolate doesn’t modify its own chimical structure and it makes chocolate easier to work with.
Thanks to this technique you’ll have wonderfully smooth, silky and professional-looking chocolates.
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