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Welcome to How To Cook That I am Ann Reardon Today we are making a chocolate book. Now
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this is like a box of chocolates but much more fun.
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Firstly for our cover take your milk chocolate and I like to melt it in the microwave so
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30 seconds stir, 30 seconds stir and then once it's starting to melt 15 seconds stir
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and repeat that until it's melted.
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Then pour that onto some non-stick baking paper you could use foil here if you don't
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have non-stick paper. And then spread it out to a rectangle in the size you want your book
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to be if you imagine it being opened flat. Think about the width of the spine here as
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well.
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You must be using real chocolate for this so check your ingredients and check it has
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cocoa butter in it. and we don't want to temper it we just want to melt it. We are relying
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on it not setting firm at room temperature we want it to be soft.
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Bang the tray on the bench to get rid of any air bubbles. Then just leave it to one side
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at room temperature and because it is not tempered it will take ages to start to set
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so we can start working on our pages.
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To make our pages first of all draw a template the size that you want them
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to be then place some non-stick baking paper over the top and pour on some melted white
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compound or fake chocolate now this is chocolate that does not contain cocoa butter, so this
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time I want you to read the ingredients and look for something that has vegetable fat
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and not cocoa butter . This doesn't need tempering to make it set crisp.
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Place a second sheet of baking paper over the the top and gently rub it with your fingers
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to remove any of those air bubbles. Peel off the top sheet so you end up with
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two thin pages and you're gong to need to jiggle them around a bit to smooth them out.
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For two of these pages before they set I am going to add some strawberry powder. I found
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these freeze dried strawberries in the supermarket and just crushed them up in their packet to
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make a powder. Then sprinkle them over the top and then tip it around to make sure you've
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got some all over it.
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Once they are starting to set use the template that you made to cut them to the right size.
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Then continue to make more pages in exactly the same way but keep the others plain. When
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they are setting you may need to place another sheet of baking paper over the top and then
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a book or something flat to keep them from curling up we want to keep them completely
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flat. And then trim them all to size, I'm going to make 14 pages altogether.
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Now for the fun part adding some fillings. Take one of the sheets an spread it with your
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chosen filling, on this one I am using dulce de leche and the recipe for that is on the
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channel Spread it out thinly leaving a plain border on three of the edges so that we don't
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have heaps of it oozing out of our book. We just want to see the white chocolate on the
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edge. Then place another sheet on top. Next I am using some white chocolate vanilla
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ganache which is one of my favourite pages in this book. For ideas and recipes and fillings
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that you can use the chocolate truffles recipe videos will help you the most. If you link
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you through to the channel at the end of this video and you'll find them all there under
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the chocolate playlist. Spread it out and get your second sheet and
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put it on top so you get two pages stuck together like this.
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Repeat that with your other fillings, this one is a spiced dark chocolate ganache.
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You can use as many flavours as you like. Now back to our cover that should be about
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ready by now. Take one of your pages and use it to mark how big you want the cover to be,
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make it a bit bigger than the pages and remember to leave room for the spine in the middle.
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Because this chocolate is not tempered it will still be very soft so cut it and then
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scrape off the excess. Put all your pages into place I started with
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a blank one so it can stick to the cover, then caramel, vanilla ganache, spiced dark
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chocolate, strawberry, vanilla, strawberry, caramel and finishing with another plain one.
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Now you can lift up your cover using the baking paper and wrap it around your pages just like
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the cover of a book. Now I am not fusing the pages together at the spine because we want
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people to be able to just take out individual pages. If you want it all fused together then
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you could add some melted tempered chocolate or compound chocolate down the spine to keep
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it altogether.
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Slide the whole thing onto something flat and place it in the freezer for about 10 minutes
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this is so it firms up enough so we can peel off the paper.
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Take it out of the freezer and have your serving platter ready. Unwrap the book and place it
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onto the platter. Now once the cover softens again you wont be able to move it so make
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sure it is where you want it to be. While it is still firm use your knife to trim off
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any rough bits from the edges of your chocolate cover.
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Now wait for that chocolate to come to room temperature and soften up again, if you live
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somewhere very cold you may need the heater on in the room for it to become soft enough
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to do what we are going to do next.
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Take a rubber stamp and push down gently into the cover to make an indent. You can of course
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write whatever you like. I am writing How To Cook That on the front of mine.
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Then on the spine of the book I am using the back of the stamp here You can use anything
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that is rectangular and I am just making indents and then leaving a little space making another
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indent. So it looks like the back of an old leather book.
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Now roll out a tiny amount of fondant and cut it into a skinny rectangle, to make a
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ribbon. Take a 'v' out of one end and then pick that up and add it in between a couple
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of your pages.
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Serve it as a dessert with hot drinks and strawberries.
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[music: David Bulla High Life, used with permission]
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Click on the links below to share the video and
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If you haven't already click on the Subscribe button and subscribe to How To Cook That,
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there's a new chocolate, cake or dessert recipe for you every week.
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Click here to go to the channel to get those chocolate truffle recipe videos
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Here for last weeks Dora cake and here to go to the website for recipe details.
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You're awesome, have a great week and I'll see you Friday.