Getting Nutty With Fillings

Up until now, I've worked almost exclusively with dark chocolate in this professional chocolatier program (the exceptions were a ganache centre and a piped decoration). Considering many of my friends prefer milk chocolate, I was very excited when the opportunity to work with milk chocolate came about. I was required to make a molded chocolate with a nut-based centre that was decorated with a transfer sheet on the bottom. I chose to make gianduja, otherwise known as the original nutella.

Gianduja is a combination of hazelnut paste and couverture chocolate. I was excited to make it, because it would surely be delicious and because I had been meaning to try making nut butter in my food processor for a while now -- and it's the same basic process. I bought hazelnuts, roasted them, removed the skins by rubbing the nuts in a clean tea towel, and then put my KitchenAid to work. Everything I'd read noted that the process should take about 10 minutes, and sure enough at the 10-minute mark, the consistency changed and was just about perfect.

I melted my couverture chocolate and then combined it with the hazelnut paste. I was thrilled with the end result. Yes, it's a pale version of nutella (there's no cocoa powder added), but it tastes absolutely incredible. It started out very fluid, but as it sat and the chocolate began to crystallize, the texture thickened.

I then set about tempering my milk chocolate and preparing my mold. I decided to try a technique in which you combine luster dust with vodka and paint the mold before proceeding with the shelling process. It had a very different consistency from the cocoa butter I had used in an earlier chocolate and I determined that it was best used for a splatter-type of painting. After painting half of the mold and letting it dry, I shelled my bonbons, piped the gianduja into them, and then capped them using a transfer sheet, as per the assignment guidelines.

I must say, I had been a skeptic in regards to the transfer sheet. Perhaps it was a bit of snobbery on my part -- it's a piece of acetate that has been printed with a cocoa butter design that you apply to chocolate, so the end product isn't really "hand-decorated" unless you paint your own transfer sheets. When I ordered mine, I deliberately bought a golden swirl pattern because I've seen it on so many chocolates -- it's clearly popular and it looks good on milk chocolate. Using the transfer sheet in the capping process resulted in an absolutely perfect bottom on my chocolates -- and as one of my friends noted on facebook, Who doesn't love a perfect bottom? (In retrospect, that probably should have been the title of this blog post, but I'm not sure it would attract the right sort of attention.)

I think I would likely use this process in the future -- even with clear acetate -- just for the aesthetic appeal of the finished product. Alternatively, I could have custom transfer sheets printed with my name and brand everything I make the way that Kate Weiser does. I've no idea how much that would cost, but I'm sure I'll soon find out.

After all, I'll soon be in the business plan portion of this program.

Stay tuned!