Using a Chocolate Stencil

Hidden hazelnut pralines sound like a delicious treat and they're an opportunity to try a technique that I've never used before. But they also have multiple steps, so about two weeks ago, in anticipation of making these pralines on my next vacation day, I completed the first step: making chocolate discs.

I've made a type of chocolate disc before using a mold. They were archery-themed chocolate coins. I bought the mold so that I could create a special gift for Jay at Highland Bow & Arrow, who taught me how to shoot and got me hooked on archery. I've made these coins a few other times as well, as a prize for a friend's Biggest Buck competition and to celebrate a few fellow archers' accomplishments at a tournament. These coins, however, are too large to form the base of praline. Cue my newly acquired stencil.

I wiped down my countertop and while it was still wet I placed a piece of acetate on top. Then I put my new chocolate disc stencil on top of the acetate. I also dug out my large Ateco offset spatula that I received in a prize package from How to Cake It after tweeting one of my creations (a cake ball that looked like a cupcake). Equipment assembled, I then tempered 250g of dark chocolate. 

After checking the temper, I poured some chocolate at the top of the circle stencil and pulled the chocolate across it with the cranked spatula. I definitely poured too much chocolate on this first go, so I did a second pass of the spatula to remove as much chocolate as possible. Then once I saw that the chocolate was starting to set, I removed the stencil. I walked away for fifteen minutes and when I returned, I had 35 chocolate discs. 

As is my usual method, I put the chocolate into the fridge for a few minutes just to be sure the chocolate would crystallize properly, and then popped them from the acetate. The side of the chocolate that was against the acetate had the most incredible shine.

Grade? I'll give myself a B. 

These aren't perfect. A few are too thick because I used too much chocolate and didn't manage to remove it all evenly with the spatula. I also feel like I can see a few tiny pieces of chocolate that didn't fully melt out in the tempering process. But they are chocolate discs and they do have a great shine, so they are going to work well when I make the hidden hazelnut pralines. Next time, I'll use less chocolate and try to keep it to only one pass of the spatula. 

They say practice makes perfect, so I'll just have to make more chocolates, right? 

In the words of Ina Garten, how bad can that be?