Ombre Chocolates With Gold Leaf
An Original Recipe by Lorraine Elliott/Not Quite Nigella
Preparation time: 20 minutes plus setting time
- 200g/7ozs couverture white chocolate callets
- Vanilla bean paste
- Chocolate thermometer (an infrared one to get precise measures)
- Chocolate food colouring (a fat soluble one*)
- Chocolate mold tray
- Gold leaf to decorate
*You can buy fat soluble food colouring at The Essential Ingredient & The Red Spoon in Sydney. It comes in a small jar in a powder or liquid form. Deshel's also sells PCB food colouring in larger amounts.
Step 1 - Melt 140g/5ozs of the white chocolate and vanilla bean paste over a double boiler making sure not to exceed 45-50C or 113-122F.
Step 2 - Add the remaining 60g/2ozs of chocolate to the melted chocolate. The new addition of chocolate will lower the temperature. Once melted take it off the heat and reduce the temperature to 26C/79F.
Step 3 - Then bring the chocolate up to 28C/82-83F. The chocolate is now tempered.
Step 4 - Fill a fifth of the molds with plain white chocolate. It is important to gently tap the mold on the counter to bring any air bubbles to the surface. Then add a tiny bit of the food colouring to the chocolate to get a pale pastel colour and fill the next fifth of the molds with this shade. Then add a little bit more and repeat the process until you end on a bold shade. Use a dough scraper to scrape of excess chocolate back into the bowl. Allow to set completely.
Step 5 - Add some gold leaf on top!