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!