Calling this a “recipe” is a bit of a stretch. Like an enormous stretch. Kim Kardashian becoming the next POTUS stretch. Okay, sadly, maybe that isn’t quite impossible anymore. Either way, it’s more like melt some stuff and pour it into a gemstone mold, similar to Sprinkle Explosion Unicorn Bark!
Making chocolates is something that I never really got into, despite having worked in a chocolate factory for a couple of years. That may be the reason that I never did. Being able to watch people in the kitchen making all the confections, I knew what it took properly temper chocolate and 1. I’m lazy and 2. I don’t have enough room for that. There is that whole melt half in the microwave then add unmelted chocolate to bring the temperature back down that is supposed to work. But let’s face it, when you work in an organic and fair trade chocolate factory where the office is in the same building as the roasting, molding, wrapping, confections, and store are, you become a HUGE chocolate snob.
Story time: One of my co-workers at Theo, Erin, used to walk around with various chocolate items and hand you something and say “eat this.” After I had got over my suspicions of this strange guy (#sorrynotsorry Erin) walking around handing out unknown edible items, I was rewarded with eating tobacco flavored chocolate and a bar of dark chocolate that had expired five years earlier. Surprisingly (to me), both were excellent. The dark chocolate bar tasted like brownies and roasted marshmallow.
This isn’t your average 10 y/o expired chocolate bar: Gemstone ChocolatesClick To TweetNow that I’ve had my usual getting totally off track story detox, it’s time for MOLDED CHOCOLATE GEMSTONES! The secret, I mean shortcut? Candy melts.
Admittedly, candy melts are incredibly gross. They are more for making things look cool than making things taste good. However, while at the store the other day, I spotted something I hadn’t seen before. A particular brand of chocolate that starts with a G and ends with Hirardelli has “melting wafers” (you gotta love the marketing on that one) in both white and dark chocolate that have enough cocoa solids in them for the FDA to allow them to call it chocolate.
I won’t get too sciencey on you, but basically, candy melts have some extra not-at-all-chocolate ingredients added so they will harden once cooled and won’t bloom even though you haven’t tempered them. THAT is what makes this Molded Chocolate Gemstone recipe easy and not really a recipe. Things can still go awry, though, so melt the wafers slowly and use a gel based food coloring that you add in small amounts until you reach your desired color.
Feeling ambitious? Make a filling! In one chocolate gemstone trial, I filled the gemstones with a white chocolate passion fruit ganache, but you could fill them with anything! Okay, maybe not anything, but any proper chocolate compatible filling, not like pepperoni. Weirdos.
Fill these chocolates with anything! Okay, maybe not like pepperoni, weirdos. Chocolate Gemstones!Click To TweetThe only particular item you need for the Molded Chocolate Gemstones is, well, a chocolate gemstone mold. Other than that, go crazy!
INGREDIENTS FOR MOLDED CHOCOLATE GEMSTONES
- 1 cup white chocolate melting wafters
- Gel-based food coloring
DIRECTIONS FOR MOLDED CHOCOLATE GEMSTONES
- Melt wafers in the microwave at 40% power, checking every 30 seconds until you can see a few small, unmelted pieces. Remove from microwave and stir until completely melted.
- Add food coloring one drop at a time, stirring after each addition, until you reach your desired color. If the chocolate gets a little thick, put it back in the microwave for 15 seconds at 40% power.
- Pour or spoon chocolate into the gemstone mold and scrape off the top with an offset spatula to make sure the bottoms are flat.
- Put mold in the freezer for 15 minutes, or until chocolates are hard. Remove from freezer and pop the gems out!
- Pretend you are in that old Rice Krispies treat commercial and throw some flour on your face and pretend this was SUPER hard, so your friends think you are a chocolate wizard.
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