Okay /ck/ , I'm new here and couldn't find a chocolate or questions thread. I have a small question.
I want to make chocolate bonbons today, I am going to make the chocolate myself using cacao powder. But I bought this bar of pure nougat that I want to use inside the bonbons. My question is how to use the nougat, does it need to be warmed up or prepared beforehand?
One other tiny question, is there a way to make the outside of the bonbons a bit more shiny? I made bonbons before and they were a little bit dull looking on the outside while the ones you buy are usually a bit shiny and pretty
Also Chocolate general, since there ain't none!
>>7541263
Are you tempering the chocolate properly? If you're making it from cacao powder, that's usually where your shininess problems come from.
I've never worked with nougat so I don't know what to tell you on that front
>>7541293
yeah I'm making it from cacao powder, hmmm.
I did use good quality black chocolate ones and used a double boiler but there was no shine either way. Thank though!
>>7541263
How do you want to use the nougat? Do you just want to enrobe it in chocolate, or did you have something else in mind? As for the shiny finish, you probably didn't temper your chocolate. This has to be done if you want chocolate that is shiny and doesn't melt all over your fingers. I might be able to answer other questions if you have them, pic related are some caramels I made last week
>>7541424
11/10 would eat
Excellent sheen.
>>7541309
Use more coco butter. You need the fat that the chocolate naturally has for thr shinyness if im not mistaken.
>>7541424
oh man those look gorgeous!!
I want to have the nougat just in the middle of the bonbons, I am not extremely experienced with making bonbons ( only made a few times with self-made caramel inside, that did not look close to as gorgeous as yours haha ) so this seems one of the easier things to try. But I do not want the nougat to get seperated from the chocolate or the bonbons to fall apart after being done.
When I made the ones with caramel I put the melted chocolate in the mold, but it in the fridge, put the caramel, put it in the fridge and then chocolate again. But when you take a bite the top and bottom layer of the chocolate would seperate and break. I want to somehow prevent this as well.
If you have a better suggestion for the nougat please tell me!
And maybe something that might help against the chocolates falling apart? : )
What's your favourite 100% chocolate?
>>7541465
I've made a few batches of chocolates now, but I have yet to put in the work to figure out tempering. In the meantime, I've been making a thick ganache (seize with like 10%-20% milk) and then covering that with cocoa powder.
They still look really nice if you shape them well (sorry, no pics on me atm) and they have that awesome ganache texture
>>7541475
i like the uchuva the best for that particular brand. although their cranberry is pretty good too
>>7541465
I think your nougat center idea would go well if you cut your nougat into pieces and maybe mixed it into chocolate ganache, if you're planning on molding them. Otherwise, you could just dip them. As for your shell separation problem, how are you forming the top part of your shells? The method I use is to fill the mold with tempered chocolate, then turning the mold upside down while tapping the mold with the spine of a knife or a similar blunt object to just coat the inside. Then, I let the chocolate set at room temperature upside down, so that the remaining chocolate runs towards the bottom of the mold. Then I place the filling in and pipe tempered chocolate over the top, smoothing it over with a pastry knife. Make sure you don't fill the chocolates with too much filling otherwise there might not be enough chocolate around the base, which can cause the tops and bottoms to separate as you described. I would highly recommend reading up on tempering chocolate, I think it will solve a lot of your problems and it will also make the chocolate feel better in your mouth.
