In addition to sharing an easy, and beautiful edible holiday
gift idea, I wanted to make this chocolate bark so I could test a simplified
technique for tempering chocolate without a thermometer. It sounded too good to
be true, but worked fairly well, which is the problem. Is fairly good, okay?
Properly
tempered chocolate will snap when broken, and retain that gorgeous glossy
sheen. Poorly tempered chocolate is sort of dull grey, and the texture is soft,
and waxy. This was somewhere in the middle.
Using this method, you will get close to properly tempered
chocolate, and you might get lucky, and actually end up with perfectly tempered
chocolate, but in hindsight, since using a thermometer isn’t really hard, and
the extra steps required not that strenuous, I’ll probably just do it the right
way next time.
In fact, I may do a future chocolate truffle video as an
excuse to show you the “professional” method, but in the meantime, check out this great article I found on Allrecipes, as well as this video from Monarch Media that does a good job of explaining the steps. There
are also hundreds of other videos online that take you through the procedure.
Regardless of which method you go with, quick and imprecise, or deliberate and
exact, I stand by my assertion that this would make a great holiday gift. I
hope you give it a try soon. Enjoy!
Hi Chef John and Merry Christmas! I always enjoy your videos, and the recipies of yours that I have made have all been excellent. I do have a question, I watched a lady from Australia named Ann Reardon who used what she called powdered coco butter to seed her chocolate for tempering. I've never seen it here in the States, have you ever used it? If so, how were your results?
Every Christmas, my mother makes a plate of different cookies for our friends. I was planning to make chocolate covered pretzels this year to add the plate, but I've been convinced to try this recipe instead. Looks excellent!
Great method worked for me. I was afraid it wasn't tempered correctly and was not setting properly, but then I left it in the fridge for a few hours and it came out beautiful. I am giving this as gifts this Christmas. Thanks John!
Hi Chef John, Could you do a rugelach video? It's a bit of a weird dough, and you could have fun with the flavor combinations too. Thanks, love your videos!
Random question: a month ago I had the best pumpkin pie I've ever had and I'm trying to figure out how to duplicate it. It had a smokiness to it, very subtle. And a unique crust. Thin and crisp. I just had a thought that maybe the crust was made from a "lace cookie" type dough. Have you ever heard of anything like this?
11 comments:
Chief John, does this method work with less cocao %? My friends like sweet chocolate. Do I have to change something in the recipe? Thank you!
Chief John, does this method work with less cocao %? My friends like sweet chocolate. Do I have to change something in the recipe?
Hi Chef John and Merry Christmas! I always enjoy your videos, and the recipies of yours that I have made have all been excellent. I do have a question, I watched a lady from Australia named Ann Reardon who used what she called powdered coco butter to seed her chocolate for tempering. I've never seen it here in the States, have you ever used it? If so, how were your results?
Every Christmas, my mother makes a plate of different cookies for our friends. I was planning to make chocolate covered pretzels this year to add the plate, but I've been convinced to try this recipe instead. Looks excellent!
What's a good amount of cayenne to add to make this a spicy bark?
Great method worked for me. I was afraid it wasn't tempered correctly and was not setting properly, but then I left it in the fridge for a few hours and it came out beautiful. I am giving this as gifts this Christmas. Thanks John!
Wow, it's looking very delicious.
Thanks for sharing such a nice post.
I will try this recipe definitely.
Hi Chef John,
Could you do a rugelach video? It's a bit of a weird dough, and you could have fun with the flavor combinations too.
Thanks, love your videos!
Hey Chef John!
This looks great, albeit kinda weird. My family always put saltines under it.
Anyway, could you do a video on rugelach? It's kind of a weird dough and the fillings can be anything you can think up.
Love your videos, they've taught me to cook!
Thanks!
Looks good. Would it be as good with dried cranberries?
Random question: a month ago I had the best pumpkin pie I've ever had and I'm trying to figure out how to duplicate it. It had a smokiness to it, very subtle. And a unique crust. Thin and crisp. I just had a thought that maybe the crust was made from a "lace cookie" type dough. Have you ever heard of anything like this?
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