Custom Holiday Chocolates
I saw a photo recently from Anthropologie and in the tablescape were mixed these colorful, metallic chocolate balls. I was intrigued and loved the look. The modern Christmas table had chocolates that mixed perfectly with all of the teals and magentas. I went on a search for colorful chocolate balls. It didn’t really yield a lot that I’d be willing to pay for. I found plenty of $15.99 a pound chocolate balls, however that was far more than I’d be willing to spend. If it’s top of the line chocolate, sure I’ll spend $15.99, but it wasn’t and it’s not, so I won’t and I didn’t. As I was daydreaming about these colorful chocs, I realized I could replicate the look for less. I had some food grade metallic luster dust leftover from a project a while back, and thought I might be able to combine it with something to alter regular everyday chocolate.
If you’re thinking “this is a lot of work for such a small thing” I agree with you. Sometimes though, you want that look of perfection. You want your tablescape to be just the way you want it, even if it means you meet the definition for being anal retentive. I’m OK with falling into that definition category; I have always met that criteria and I am not about to change a good thing, but I am going to change the look of the chocolate. For my experiment, I used a little Christmas house of Whoppers, but I imagine that you could do this with any chocolate.
Extract (vodka or bourbon etc would work for this too)
Edible shimmer powder / luster dust
Whoppers or other round chocolate ball
I found it best to dip my finger in the extract, roll a chocolate ball around the damp finger and lightly dip into edible shimmer powder and roll the chocolate ball around in hand. Pour a little luster dust into a separate bowl and add more to the bowl as needed (so you don’t waste the entire pot of luster dust). Set on parchment paper to dry. Let them set for a few hours and the dust will mostly stay on the chocolate and not your fingers.
Like me, when you start the process you will try to keep your hands as clean as possible. You will be neat, you will carefully grab things you’re using. By the end, you will give up and you will be covered in shimmer powder. Whatever extract you choose to use, the smell will get into your nails and will persist for hours. For my first batch, I used butter extract. Trust me, you don’t want that smell on your fingers for hours. To avoid the aroma from making a home of you, use nitrile gloves. Whatever flavor extract you use, it doesn’t add a noticeable flavor to what you’re making…unless it’s something like peppermint, that will probably stick around. I’m using my lustered Whoppers at my Thanksgiving dessert table in a shimmery burgundy color which I think is just right for a more traditional holiday color scheme.
