Filled Chocolate Platter Project

By Bob Sherman

For several years I have been thinking about how to make gourmet chocolates more accessible to home chocolate crafters and home or part time chocolate businesses. While a professional chocolatier might spend hours creating gourmet chocolates from expensive fresh materials and tempered chocolate, these are made with chocolate coatings and pre made fillings. Although they are substantially less expensive in both time and money, they still have a high end taste.

The filled chocolates featured in this article are what I call " Gourmet Inspired" and I hope will be the first of many similar projects. Like gourmet filled chocolates, they have multiple complimentary flavors and textures, yet are simple and inexpensive enough for anyone to make at home.

This project was inspired by a family get together my wife's cousin throws yearly. Last time I brought cookie embeds which were a big hit (no surprise there), but this year I wanted to expand the offerings even further while keeping the chocolates in the same theme. The end result was this article which features the three most popular chocolates served at the pool party. In addition to these, I made a whole platter of embedded Oreos® which are not shown here but basic cookie embed instructions for them may be found here.

This multi part project article offers a variety of ideas and techniques. The key technique is using appliqued chocolate. This simplifies making two color chocolates as there is no mold painting needed which saves lots of time. This allows for easy color coding of the different flavor profiles, as well as allowing the use of a cookie embed mold which was not available in my chosen theme (flip flops for a pool party). To use this technique for a different theme, simply select a mold that fits atop the plain cookie embed mold.

Although this applique technique may be applied to standard embedded Oreos®, in this small series I have also experimented with the use of multiple flavors and textures to create a variety of flavor profiles. Either way you can produce a visually striking platter.

PLEASE NOTE!! - Although chocolate making is relatively safe for the entire family to participate, adult supervision is required.

Chocolate Making Supplies And Materials

Each part of this series will include its own materials list to prevent confusion.

Instructions

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Disclaimer: The information presented here is accurate to the best of my knowledge and usage practices as of the time of this writing - originally published in August 2010 and updated in November 2010. The author and the publisher accept no liability for the use or misuse of any of the information presented in this article. This article is presented for informational purposes and is used at your own risk.

Author: Bob Sherman

Publisher: Bobby's Craft Boutique Inc.

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