Chocolate is mostly used for coating confectionery products. It’s delicious. You dip a sugary product in dark chocolate and that gives you a crisp crust with shiny brown color. If you use dark chocolate, the bitterness nicely compliments the sweetness of the candy.
But chocolate can not only be used for coating. You can also find it in the center of a praline or candy bar. That’s why I have three different recipes for you today:
- Truffles
- Soft Chocolate Caramels
- Chocolate-coated marshmallow treats
There are many more recipes for candy with chocolate but, for me, this series is not about giving you every single candy recipe there is. Once you’ve understood the basic principles, you can start to experiment and come up with your own recipes.
Do you like chocolate-coated marzipan pralines? You can make them at home. Cut the marzipan into cubes and coat with chocolate. That’s it.
However, most candy bars and pralines are more complex than that. They have several different elements. Think of a Snickers bar. It has a layer of peanut caramel on top of a layer of nougat. The candy bar is coated with chocolate. It’s quite a bit of work to assemble all the elements needed to produce a Snickers bar. But it is no rocket science.
My recipe for chocolate-coated marshmallow treats will give you an impression of how to approach multielement candies. The marshmallow treats consist of a nougat layer on top of a waffle layer and are coated in chocolate. In Germany, this is a popular candy for kids. It takes effort to make it yourself but it isn’t hard to do.
In my recipes, I call for tempered chocolate. If you don’t know how to temper chocolate, please refer back to my post on how to temper chocolate.
Truffles
Truffles are among the easiest and tastiest pralines to make. The filling is a ganache which is a mixture of heavy cream and dark chocolate. You can use this filling for all kinds of pralines. You can put any flavorings you like into it. If you like orange-flavored pralines, simply add a few drops of orange extract to the ganache. Chopped nuts are also a great addition.
The thing to consider when making these truffles is that your hands will get dirty. I recommend wearing lightly-oiled gloves because soft chocolate is sticky. If you ever feel like the truffles are too soft to work with, then put them in the freezer for a few minutes. That way they will firm up quickly. This recipe produces a soft ganache. If you want your ganache firmer, simply reduce the amount of heavy cream.
Instead of forming the truffles by hand, you could also pour the ganache into a silicon mold and then chill or even freeze the truffles before unmolding them. That way you can create for example star-shaped pralines. Yummy!
Truffles taste best if you use the highest possible quality of chocolate that you can afford. I don’t recommend cheap and plain baking chocolate for these. Instead, buy a regular bar of dark chocolate from your favorite chocolate producer.
Ingredients
For the ganache:
- 300 grams heavy cream
- 300 grams dark chocolate (at least 70 % cocoa), chopped
- 50 grams butter
For coating:
- unsweetened cocoa powder
- nuts, finely chopped
- grated coconut
- dark or milk chocolate, tempered
Instructions
Prepare the ganache balls:
- In a small pot, heat the butter and cream until the mixture steams. Make sure you don’t overheat the cream. It shouldn’t simmer. In a bowl, pour the hot cream and butter mixture over the chocolate and stir until you have a smooth mixture. Chill the ganache in the fridge for at least 4 hours.
- Put on latex gloves. Take a spoon or melon baller and scoop out a tablespoon of ganache. Roll the ganache into a ball and place it on a piece of parchment paper. Work quickly until all the ganache batter is used up.
Coat the ganache balls:
- Make sure your ganache balls are firm enough to handle before coating. If not, place them in the fridge or freezer for a few minutes.
- Method 1: Roll your ganache balls in cocoa butter, chopped nuts, or grated coconut and store them in the fridge. For this type of coating, there is usually no need to chill the ganache in between forming and coating if you work quickly.
- Method 2: Coat the ganache balls with tempered chocolate and store them in the fridge. Make sure the ganache balls are chilled and firm before spooning the warm chocolate over them. You need to chill the ganache balls for at least 15 minutes in the fridge before coating them with chocolate.
Soft chocolate caramels
These are soft caramel candies coated with chocolate. What if you prefer toffee over soft caramel? Well, then simply prepare some toffees and coat them with chocolate. Any chewy candy can be coated with chocolate.
Soft Chocolate Caramels (‘Schoko-Karamell Bonbons’)
Ingredients
For the caramel:
- 150 grams granulated white sugar
- 150 grams brown sugar
- 200 grams heavy cream
For coating:
- milk or dark chocolate, tempered
Instructions
- In a pot with high sides, combine the white sugar, brown sugar, and heavy cream. Heat the syrup without stirring to 118 °C (245 °F). Immediately take the syrup off the heat and pour it into a parchment-lined baking pan. Leave the caramel to set for at least 2 hours.
- Cut the caramel mass into bite-sized pieces. Then coat the individual pieces with tempered chocolate and wait for the coating to set at room temperature.
Chocolate-coated marshmallow treats
Chocolate-coated marshmallow treats are very popular in Germany. The nougat layer on the inside is very airy. It’s not elastic and spongey like an American marshmallow. What is the difference between nougat and a marshmallow? Well, there is no hard distinction. In general, you could say that industrially-produced nougat is made with egg whites and industrially-produced marshmallows are made with gelatin. But what if you use a combination of egg whites and gelatin? Then it’s both nougat and marshmallow. Because of the gelatin which is a little more unusual in nougat, I call these marshmallow treats.
This recipe is simple to follow but you need to invest time to prepare all the different elements. Complex candies are easier and more cost-effective to prepare on a large scale in a factory. But nothing beats the homemade version when it comes to taste.
Chocolate-coated marshmallow treats (‘Mohrenköpfe’)
Ingredients
For the waffles:
- 40 grams butter
- 40 grams granulated sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla sugar
- salt, to taste
- 1 egg, size M
- 40 grams whole milk
- 40 grams cake flour
For the marshmallow mass:
- 14 grams (about 8) gelatin sheets
- egg white of 3 eggs (size M)
- 50 grams granulated sugar
- 25 grams glucose powder
- 1/2 cup water
- vanilla extract, to taste
For the chocolate glaze:
- 500 grams dark chocolate, tempered
Instructions
Prepare the waffles:
- Preheat your oven to 160 °F (70 °C).
- In a small pot, melt the butter over low heat and stir in the sugar, vanilla sugar, and salt. Take the pot off the heat and whisk in the egg and milk. Then briefly whisk in the cake flour.
- Grease your waffle iron and bake thin waffles until all the batter is used up. After taking the waffles out of the waffle iron, cut the waffles into small circles, about 2 inches (5 cm) in diameter. Place the waffle circles in your preheated oven and leave them there to dehydrate for about 30 minutes at 160 °F (70 °C).
Prepare the marshmallow mass:
- Soak the gelatin sheets for at least 10 minutes in cold water.
- Beat the egg whites to stiff peaks.
- In a pot, combine sugar, glucose, and water. Heat the syrup to 113 °C (235 °F). Immediately take it off the heat and slowly whisk it into your egg foam. Remove the gelatin from the soaking liquid and press out all the excess moisture. Whisk the gelatin sheets into the marshmallow mass until dissolved and then season the marshmallow mass with vanilla extract, to taste. Continue lightly beating the marshmallow mass until it has cooled down to room temperature. Then transfer the marshmallow mass into a piping bag and pipe the marshmallow mass onto the dehydrated waffle circles. Then place the uncoated product in the fridge for at least half an hour to allow the marshmallow mass to harden.
Coat the marshmallow treats with chocolate:
- Spoon the tempered chocolate over your marshmallow treats and wait for the chocolate to set at room temperature before indulging.
