LIQUOR FILLED BONBONS

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The next few posts are going to be a continuation to the most amazing Daring Bakers' Challenge. I was so excited all month long, and busy with all my experiments that I didn't have time to write all about it in one only post. The post would also be too long. The challenge was about candies of all sorts, including chocolate. One candy that caught my attention was the Paté de Fruit which is made with natural fruit, but unfortunately, after three attempts I still couldn't get it right. But I'll come back to that some other time. It was then that I decided to focus on chocolate and posted mainly about chocolate tempering , and I also showed the photos of my accomplished results. Now, with little more details, I will start with my favorite which was the Liquor Filled Bonbon.

 I challenged myself into finding an effective technique of holding the liquor inside the chocolate shell without adding any syrup to the liquor, or sugar shells, or fondant. I wanted plain liquor and no leaking :o)

I chose a mold for small bonbons. Having to bite into a large liquor filled chocolate is very likely to be messy, so if they are small, you just pop the whole bonbon into your mouth.

On a piece of parchment paper draw circles (I used a coin, previously washed and sterilized). Then, turn the paper and use the other side over a light colored surface so that you can see the lines clearly.

Choose a coin that is the same diameter of your mold.

Fill the mold with tempered chocolate and then turn it upside down over a tray to form the shells. Scrape the tray and refrigerate for around 10 minutes or until set.

Pipe some tempered chocolate on the parchment with the circles, making thin chocolate coins that should be as perfectly round as you can get them . Refrigerate for around 10 minutes.

When your shells and coins are set, remove from the fridge.

Carefully fill all the shells with your favorite liquor (an unused ketchup bottle will work well), being careful not to wet the edges where you will seal the bonbons. 

Don't fill too much.

Pipe some tempered chocolate around the edge of the mold and carefully place a chocolate coin (flat side up) on top and press gently. Scrape the edges carefully.

Refrigerate for 10 to 15 minutes or until the chocolates release easily from the mold. Don't tap the mold, these bonbons are fragile and could crack and leak.

This was my first experiment. It wasn't totally successful because some bonbons still leaked. So, I gave it another shot using a slightly different technique which I will show now, but I still think that if I had used a wider round piping tip it would have worked perfectly.

I made the chocolate coins slightly smaller than the diameter of the mold allowing it to go slightly deeper into the shell, but not deep enough to touch the liquor, leaving room for piping some more chocolate for a stronger sealing. It worked as a charm, they didn't leak at all, but were more difficult to make. I might give it a third try using what I learned from both experiments and will update the post by then.

I used a sterilized pin to help me with the job.

The chocolate coins did not touch the liquor.

Then I filled the mold to the top with chocolate and let it set in the fridge until they could pop out of the mold easily.

 They were DELICIOUS!