Edinburgh Evening News 63 - Chocolate Bars

Chocolate recipes always go down a treat. This week I am sharing my recipe for the chocolate bars that we serve as petit fours at the restaurant.

These bars contain three squares, the outer squares are filled with salted caramel and the middle one contains passion fruit curd.

Once you have mastered the art of tempering chocolate then you can get creative and try an assortment of fillings. Chocolate bar moulds are available from some kitchenware shops and also online. Again once you have grasped the tempering process you can use whatever shaped mould you like.

In recent years Scotland has started to produce some amazing chocolate. The ladies at iQ Chocolate in Stirling produce theirs using coconut blossom instead of sugar and Chocolate Tree in Edinburgh creates some really outstanding bars.

I use a dark chocolate with at least 70% cocoa. The fillings in my bars are quite sweet and therefore they are balanced by a slightly bitter chocolate.

Tempering means improving the consistency, durability or hardness of a substance by heating and cooling it. Tempered chocolate is very glossy and has a firm finish. The process ensures that the cocoa butter in chocolate hardens in a uniform crystal structure. It is chocolate at its very best!

You can find the full method and recipe here.