Delicious Chocolate Rocks at Home

What you need is:

150 gm. Bitter Dark chocolate- roughly chopped
50 gm. Roasted almonds/cashews
½ tbsp. Orange essence
A Plastic spatula for tempering*
Butter paper
Some ice
Chocolate paper for wrapping

To begin, place the chocolate chunks in clean dry vessel, preferably a bowl and place this vessel in a pan with water (filled about 1/3rd with water). Do not cover the vessel. Heat this on a low flame. This is the double boiling technique used for melting of the chocolate. When about 1/3rd of the chocolate has melted and looks soggy shut the gas and remove the bowl from the water. Add the essence to it. Now the chocolate has to be cooled to room temperature. By room temperature we mean the temperature at which the chocolate would neither be cool nor hot. This is known as tempering* of the chocolate. For this, place the bowl on a vessel filled with some ice and stir it from left to right and right to left using a flat spatula. (Ordinarily, to make chocolates by filling them into moulds you do not need to place the vessel on ice. This is done only for making rocks.) Tempering is not only the ideal way to cool chocolates but it also makes the chocolate richer. You could dip your finger to check and see if it has cooled to be sure. When you feel that the chocolate has cooled to room temperature add the nuts to it. As soon as you realise that the chocolate is cooling down using your fingers place dollops of chocolate along with 1 or 2 nuts in each dollop on butter paper twirling your hand slightly so as to give it a nice shape. Go on doing this real fast and your rocks will be ready. Remember that each piece has to be bite sized and not too large to fit into your mouth.

This has to be done very soon or else the chocolate will cool down and harden and will have to be reheated. The art of making these beautiful rocks neatly will be mastered with practice. Therefore in the beginning one can try making only a few rocks using very little chocolate. Place this tray of rocks in the refrigerator for at least 15-20 minutes. Remove from fridge, separate from paper and wrap them into chocolate paper. Now you are ready with the beautiful, delicious almond rocks you always adored in chocolate shops.

Ms. Arwa Manasawala

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