Ganache, Soft Filling for Chocolates Etc...

For a "team-building" day I went with colleagues to a Delft Chocolate shop where they hand make everything and they gave us lessons! Afterward I tried a cookbook Ganache recipe and it didn't work so I went back to this shop and they gave me the quantities that we'd used in our lesson and it works very well indeed ! NOTE: I have been making these recently using my silicone ice cube moulds, and they work FANTASTICALLY! (the smaller forms work best)...they are soft and flexible enough to make these really easily and it saves the fiddly business of having to peel away the mini muffin papers off the cocolates later too. I find that we like more liqueur in ours as the flavour as I was given it was not pronounced enough for us. I sometimes use white chocolate for my filling and add a few drops of red or yellow food colour to make a creamy pink or yellow filling, with or without strawberry, lemon or banana flavouring inside a dark chocolate outside case. Please see my step-by-step photos for further reference on assembling these. 200g = 7 1/8 oz, 120g = 4 1/4 oz, 60g = 2.1 oz, 140g = 5 oz, 25g = 7/8 oz. Yield depends on the size and shape of your silicone ice-cube forms.

• Ready In: 55 mins
• Yields: 20-25 chocolates

Ingredients

• Chocolate cases

• 200  g  dark baking chocolate or 200  g  bitter baking chocolate

• Ganache Filling

• 120  g  cream
• 60  g butter
• 140  g dark chocolate (as preferred) or 140  g  milk chocolate (as preferred) or 140  g white chocolate (as preferred)
• 25  g Baileys Irish Cream (Baileys is the favourite of ours) or 25  g  Tia Maria (Baileys is the favourite of ours) or 25  g rum (Baileys is the favourite of ours)
• 2 -3  drops  food  flavoring (optional)
• 1  teaspoon  lemon flavoring (optional) or 1  teaspoon  strawberry flavoring (optional) or 1  teaspoon  banana flavoring (optional)

Directions

1. To make chocolate cases: melt 200g ( 7 oz) chocolate over a pan of warm water, do not overheat, when three quarters of it is melted, remove from heat and stir vigorously, this should distribute the heat and melt the remaining chocolate without it getting too hot and going "grainy".
2. Take a small teaspoon of melted chocolate and " paint" the inside of your mini muffin paper or the insides of your silicone ice block forms. If coverage is a bit skimpy don't panic. these set in the fridge in minutes and a second coat is easier and works better than trying to get one very thick coat. Put them in the fridge to harden. Reserve enough of your chocolate to cover the bottom of your forms once they have been filled with the ganache filling.
3. Put butter and cream in a saucepan and bring to boil, stirring all the time.
4. Remove from heat and add chocolate and liqueur.
5. Stir well until smooth (heat of mixture will melt chocolate) leave to cool a little, then let cool.
6. Use as soft filling for chocolates and tartes.
7. This does thicken up over time, and good chocolate is never refrigerated, just kept in a cool dry place. If these are refrigerated the filling gets very firm over time.
8. By now your ganache filling mixture should be cool enough to put into the chocolate cases, using a piping bag or a teaspoon, fill them with the ganache, (but not quite to the very top of the chocolate case) Then put them back into the fridge for a while, and once set a little solid, put a "top" of melted chocolate on them to seal them closed and refrigerate until the top too is solid. I like to keep these in the fridge for a least a few hours or somewhere nice and cool overnight before I try and get them out of the forms.
9. If using mini muffin papers, peel away the papers from the chocolates (this can be fiddly, don't press too hard as you peel them or your chocolate will break), If using the silicone ice cube forms, GENTLY easy the chocolates out of the forms, they will just pop out -- plate up and amaze your guests with these divine triumphs !