Chocolate Easter Eggs with Edible Gold Leaf - a Tutorial

I love to play with my food!!

I love to play with chocolate!!!

I love to create beautiful food!!!!

Ok, so you know me by now.  Food is one of 

my favorite artistic palettes, and so today

I am going to do a tutorial on how to add

edible gold leaf to your foods - chocolates, cakes,

fondants, etc.  

You have seen me adding gold leaf to

French Macarons lately, so I thought I

would show you how to add gold leaf to

any of your foods. 

 A little goes a long

way, so even though real, edible 23 K

gold leaf is rather expensive, you can 

add a lot of wow, for just a little bit of money.

I started with my freshly molded chocolate

eggs.  You could even do this on chocolates

that you bought - just to make them more

spectacular.

Edible 23 K gold leaf comes on pages like this. 

I ordered mine on Amazon.  Make sure you buy

EDIBLE gold leaf, not just the craft

gold leaf at the craft store!  I got a large pack,

but you can buy much smaller.  It comes in sheets

between protective tissue paper, like pictured above.

It is delicate,

so you don't want to touch it with your hands.

Place a little piping gel on a surface, and use

a soft brush to apply the gel where you want

the gold to adhere.  On some of the chocolate

eggs I brushed a small amount, and on a few

I covered the whole egg.  

I just used a tube of sparkle piping gel found

in the cake decorating section.

Wipe the brush clean on a paper towel or the

back of your hand.  There will be a little left on

the brush so that when you touch it to the gold

it will pick it up.  Carefully touch and lift the

gold.  

Use the tissue paper liners to help control

how much gold you pick up at a time, by 

closing the booklet a little to hold the leaf

down.

 Touch the gold to the area of the chocolate

that you have put piping gel on.  Lift

the brush.  Pat down if necessary.

You are going for a rustic look,

so don't worry about how perfect it is.

Add as much as you like, adding another

piece of leaf if you prefer to get the

desired effect.

For the egg that was fully covered, I laid the

sheet of gold on top of the egg painted with piping

gel, using the tissue paper liners to handle the page of gold.  

Use a dry brush to pat it down.  

I also used a little piping gel to attach some

candied violets.  

I decided to add a little interest to my

glitzy chocolate Easter Eggs by painting

some with piping gel and then sprinkling

them with Disco Dust (also online!)

With a little gold and purple,

these eggs are fit for royalty!

Any Easter Bunny would be proud

to deliver these Easter Eggs.  It reminds

me of my favorite Easter Bunny story,

The Country Bunny and the Little Gold Shoes.

Don't these look like Easter Eggs

for someone special?  Maybe that

someone special is you!!  They were

so easy and fun to make.

Don't forget about my Cookbook Giveaway -

Eat Dessert First

with over 280 colored photos and recipes.

Click here to enter.  

There are multiple ways to enter,

and you don't have to live in the United States

to win!!

The give away ends

tonight - Wednesday, March 9th, at midnight!

It's A Chocolate Festival - Dipping Chocolates

Here at Purple Chocolat Home 

we have been busy little elves

dipping, dipping, dipping

(and quite a bit of tasting, tasting, tasting too!!)

This year Mrs. Claus insisted that if 

you were going to walk away with a box

of chocolates, you had to help by making

some centers, so we ended up with

quite a few centers.

My sister in law from Seattle

even flew in for the fun.

After several days of creating centers

we began to dip and in an 8 hour

period we dipped over 1200+ chocolates!

Today I am going to share with you 

the recipe for this new creation of mine

Lemon Dreams.

Light, luscious and creamy, these

have the perfect amount of lemon.

I topped them with white edible glitter

(rainbow disco dust)

and an edible pearl.

These are super, super

easy to make.  No one would

guess they could be this easy.

Lemon Dream Centers

1 C. butter softened

1 jar lemon curd (I used Trader Joe's but I

also like Richardsons)

4 C. Powdered sugar

Dipping Chocolate

Edible pearls (optional)

Disco Dust (optional)

In mixing bowl, place all of the above

ingredients and mix with the whip until

fluffy and well blended.  

Place in a bowl, cover and refrigerate

overnight or for several days.  This makes

the center a little stiffer so you can work with

it.  

Dust hands with a light coating of flour and

spoon about a teaspoonful of the centers into

your palm.  Roll into a ball.  Place on a baking

sheet that has been dusted with a light coating 

of flour so the centers won't stick.  

Cover with plastic wrap and place the pan

in the refrigerator overnight.

Melt your chocolate and then temper it

by stirring gently but constantly until it

reaches about 90 degrees.  Use an instant

read thermometer to test that.  The chocolate

should harden within 1 minute after being 

dipped or you will end up with steaks.

Remove the centers from the fridge and dip

in the cooled chocolate.  Top with a pearl

while still wet and dust with the disco dust.

(You can also use molding chocolate -

it is easier to use and a lot of it is 

really good now.)

I will share more with you later,

but right now I have to run off to prepare for 

another Christmas party!

Lemon Dream Chocolates - Mrs. Claus Dipping Factory 2012

Mrs. Claus opened her Chocolate Dipping Factory

once again this year and we have been busy little elves.

Friday was spent creating centers for chocolate dipping

at

Purple Chocolate Home

and Saturday was spent dipping hundreds of chocolates!

I created a new favorite

Lemon Dream Chocolates.

It is a variation on my Lemon Truffles.

Now I am a dark chocolate girl when it comes to pairing

with fruit fillings, but we always have to dip some

milk chocolate for those who haven't heard that dark

chocolate is heart healthy! (Or who still, just don't like it.)

I topped these with a little crush lemon candy.  I love it when the

chocolate tells you a little about something that is inside.

These are definitely going to be include in

the

NICE LIST

from now on.  

Lemon Dream Centers

8 oz. softened cream cheese

1/2 C. lemon curd (I like Trader Joe's or Richardson's

in the square bottle)

1 C. white chocolate discs, melted

2 T. crushed hard lemon candy (like Lemonheads)

additional crushed lemon candy for garnish

Beat the cream cheese, lemon curd and melted white chocolate

together in the mixer bowl until well blended, scraping down the sides.

Beat in the crushed lemon candy.  

Place in a bowl and cover with plastic wrap.  Refrigerate

overnight or a few days.  

This center is super soft so in order to form balls,

dust hands with flour and quickly form balls, 

placing them on a cookie sheet covered in

parchment paper and dusted with a small amount

of flour.  You will need to keep dusting your hands

with flour between every few balls so that it won't stick

to your hands.  Place the cookie sheet in the freezer

overnight.

Prepare your dipping chocolate by melting and then

cooling back to between 86 and 90 degrees.  Take

a few balls out of the freezer at a time and dip them.

They will be really soft even when frozen.

After dipping, while the chocolate is still wet,

dust with a little crushed candy.

You must store these in the fridge as they have

cream cheese in them.

Printable Recipe

See how soft the center is?  

These will make your toes curl they

are so good.  I just love the flavor combination of 

chocolate and lemon.

What a fun new family tradition we are starting with all

of the little ones wanting to help dip!

When the kids were little I would always dip once they went

to bed so I could do it uninterupted.

One of my 

favorite memories 

of dipping was when our oldest

daughter was almost two and I had dipped the chocolates and

stored them in her closet.  She came out of her room humming

with a big smile on her face and chocolate drooling down

her chin.  Her cheeks were stuffed with a couple of 

chocolates and she had a couple in each hand.  She has been

a fine chocolate connoisseur since then.  She is now thirty.

I have been dipping chocolates every Christmas for 32 years.

I have to thank my 

neighbor Liz Knight 

who took me to her

grandmother's house and introduced me to 

hand dipping chocolates when I was a newlywed.

We would always dip using a bowl in the microwave or

using an electric frying pan.  The electric fry pan is used

unheated and the cold metal cools the chocolate.  You can

turn it on for 3 seconds when the chocolate gets too stiff.

Those both work, but my

wonderful couverture machine 

makes it possible to really

crank out the chocolates in volume.  It is kind of a homemade

looking machine that I bought at a candy store, Shepherds, when they

were still in business, but it has served me for about 6 or 7

years now.  I love it and it was a fraction of the cost of

commercially made ones.

As a grandmother, I have enjoyed

seeing the grandchildren

want to help.  You can see my niece at the top of the

picture and four of the grandchildren gathered around.

The one in the bottom right corner has just 

dropped or should I say thrown

a center into the chocolate.  Two did that and

the other two coated the dipped chocolates with

 nuts.

Their favorite thing to dip and eat were

  Cinnamon Santas.

We dipped

Almond Rum Balls

 (the ones we are dipping in the above picture)

Lemon Dreams

Raspberry Creams

Mint Meltaways

Symphony Fudge

Caramels

Grandma Utahna'sToffee

Turtles

Nut Clusters

and

lots of Cinnamon Santas

It was a 4 hour dipping marathon!

I have to include my favorite picture of one of 

my little elves.  He didn't help this year as he was home

with Daddy.  I just adore the look on his face.

I know just what he is feeling!

Mrs. Claus & Her Chocolate Factory

Elf #1 reporting for work.

This week Mrs. Claus gathered all of her little

elves to work in her chocolate factory so that

 all of the goodies would be ready for

Christmas.

She has always dipped the old fashioned way but

a few years ago she found this chocolate tempering

machine and now the elves can produce

fine chocolates a lot faster.

The smell of milk chocolate wafts through the factory

making Mrs. Claus and the elves very hungry.  When

you work in the chocolate factory, you are allowed

to eat as much as you like, just no licking your

fingers or double dipping.

The first day of the Christmas shift involves making the centers.

All of the elves have a say in which centers we are going

to make each year.  Each elf has his or her favorite so

many varieties are in production.

These lucious pink ones are Raspberry Creams, yum!

The second day in the factory involves dipping, tasting,

and dipping some more. (And tasting some more and some more.)

Everyone's favorite at the North Pole is the Almond Rum Balls.

These have a creamy white center that is dipped in milk

chocolate and rolled in toasted almonds.

You would be amazed how much elves can eat

when it comes to candy.  Amazingly they don't

gain weight from the chocolates.

Leonard our head chef in the kitchen and factory

keeps everyone moving.   I don't know how he

keeps his clothes clean around all of that chocolate.

Although Mrs. Claus likes Christmas cookies, her specialty

is chocolates.  She has been hand dipping chocolates

since the year after she was married to Mr. Claus.

You don't even want to know how long that is!

Other elves oversee the inventory

checking for quality.  The elves love to eat the

rejects.

Leonard counts everything to make sure there

is plenty for snacking until Christmas Day.

Leonard shows off some of this year's varieties. 

We have chocolate covered cherries

and

chocolate dipped chocolate marshmallows

dusted with powdered sugar and topped with a white dragee.

The famous Almond Rum Balls,

Lots and lots of the chocolate marshmallows.

Creamy Symphony Fudge dipped in chocolate and rolled

in crushed toffee bits.

Chocolate Covered Almonds, some dusted with Chili powder

to add a little spice to life.

And Mrs. Claus's favorite, Raspberry Creams dipped in

dark chocolate.  Unfortunately some of the female elves

also love these so they don't stay around long enough.

Mrs. Claus loves cake platters, so she stacks

three (with a little glue so tiny elves don't knock them off)

and displays the finished chocolates on them.

The elves made these for her to show her how much they

love her.  The bottom one represents Mr. Claus.

(These are his slippers for relaxing.)  Yes,

the elves caught him taking a break.

The middle one represents Mrs. Claus.

(They did pretty well on that one!)  She

likes the ceramic shoes better than hers.

And they fashioned the top platter to represent

themselves, surrounded by packages.

Eat as many as you like, Mrs. Claus will refill the platters

all through the month.

"Mrs. Claus, May I please?"

Like she could refuse those eyes!

Don't mind this little elf, he was new to the factory

this year (he is only 18 months.)

Almond Rum Balls Recipe

1 C. soft butter

1 can sweetened condensed milk

4 C. powdered sugar

1 1/2 tsp. almond flavoring

1/2 tsp. rum flavoring

Beat everything together in a large mixer bowl until

creamy.  Cover and refrigerate at least overnight.

Flour your hands and the pan you will place the

balls on.  Roll small balls of fondant with floured

hands.  (It will be very stick and you have to

work fast.  Don't make them too big as you have

to cover with chocolate and nuts - about 1/2 inch

balls is good.)  Place on pan and place in freezer.

We are going to dip these frozen so that they

don't get too soft and fall apart.

You need tempered dipping chocolate for

best results, or you can use chocolate coating

if desired.

Chop the block of dipping chocolate into

rough chunks and place in a microwave safe

bowl.  Microwave for 1 minute.  Stir, EVEN

THOUGH IT LOOKS LIKE NOTHING MELTED!

This will keep the chocolate from scroching on the

bottom of the bowl.  Microwave one minute more

and stir again, microwave another minute and stir.

A large bowl of chocolate will be melted in about

3 - 3 1/2 minutes. 

Now the hard part, it has to cool to about 90 degrees

or when a drop is placed on your bottom lip

 it feels cold. 

If you don't have a chocolate tempering machine,

as most don't, place 1-2 C. melted chocolate in

a cold clean electric frying pan.  Stir around with

your hand as it cools.  Chocolate must constantly

be stirred (the machine does it for you!!!) or

the butter fat rises to the top and causes bloom

or streaks and spots.  To see if the chocolate is

cool enough, test it on your lip, use an instant

read thermometer or drizzle a little on the counter.

It must set up on the counter in between 1 and 2

minutes.  DON'T RUSH THE COOLING!

If you do, your chocolates will be streaked and

ugly.  Be patient.

Place frozen center (usually your centers aren't

frozen, but these are) in the cooled chocolate,

Cover with chocolate and lift with 2 fingers.  Shake

off the excess chocolate - about 5 or more shakes of

 your hand, then invert chocolate and let it drop off your

fingers into a plate of cool chopped almonds.  Use

your other hand to cover the center with nuts, rolling

it to cover.  Let the chocolate set up while it sits in the

nuts.  These are great for a beginner because if the

chocolate streaks you can't see it because of the nuts. 

Place the cooled chocolates on a

parchment lined pan.

When the pan is full, place in the fridge for a few

minutes to set the chocolate.

When the chocolate in the frying pan becomes too

cool to use, turn the heat on to the count of 3 then

turn it off.  Remember chocolate melts at a really

low temp. and if you leave the heat on you will

have to wait forever for your pan and chocolate to

cool down.  You can also dip out of a bowl that you

place in the microwave every so often for a few seconds

to reheat the chocolate.  Mrs. Claus used both of these

methods for years until she treated herself.

If you would like Santa or Mrs. Claus to bring you

a chocolate tempering machine this year check

out this website.  Hers is not as professional

as these look but it works well.

If it all sounds too

complicated just use the chocolate coating.

It won't be as good, but it is much easier

than working with couverture chocolate.

(Couverture chocolate can be purchased at

specialty stores or online.  Mrs. Claus uses Peters

or Merkens.)

  She also wants you to know that she

 has seen some similar cake platters at Home Goods.

On Pink Saturday this week they are sharing

favorite holiday movies.  Mrs. Claus can't help but mention

one of hers on this post,

ELF

with all of these cute little elves working at

the chocolate factory.  She especially loves

the 4 main food groups -

Candy

Candy canes

Candy corn

Syrup!

Wait, what about chocolate?

Mrs. Claus is going to go party at

Feathered Nest, Foodie Friday, Pink Saturday

Favorite Things, Seasonal Sundays,

It's a Wonderful Life, Seven Thirty Three