They  make the perfect birthday, anniversary or Christmas gift – Fill with a surprise of goddies and then smash the lid and eat all of it!

Filled with celebtaion chocolates                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               Add a secret note or surprise!

It makes the perfect birthday, anniversary or Christmas gift – Fill with a surprise of goddies and then smash the lid and eat all of it!

What a birthday treat that must be!!

Tempering is the perfect alignment of the cocoa butter crystals in chocolate.
Cocoa butter is intrinsically unstable and unpredictable:
Tempering stabilises the ‘good’ crystals.

Chocolate is properly tempered when it’s shiny and snaps cleanly when broken. It will also set quickly and contract slightly away from the surface of molds
making it easier to work with. In poorly-tempered, chocolate the crystals haven’t formed an orderly structure. It may look dull or streaky and will have a more
pliable texture that is difficult to work with and doesn’t melt as cleanly in the mouth. The chocolate bars or chunks that you buy to cook with should already be
tempered, but once it’s melted you will need to re-temper the chocolate in order to mold shapes, make slabs or dip ganaches.
Unfortunately just melting chocolate isn’t enough to make it behave, and tempering takes some practice.

If you want to temper a small amount of chocolate at home (up to 500g), we suggest trying the seeding method.
To temper chocolate by seeding you melt chocolate then add solid tempered chocolate to ‘seed’ the right crystals and encourage them to form in your melted chocolate.
It’s simple and clean, though you will still need a good thermometer, preferably digital, as successful tempering requires a high degree of accuracy.

How to seed chocolate

Break your chocolate into pieces and put two thirds of it in a bowl that’s the right size to sit on top of a saucepan.
Pour boiling water into the pan and put the bowl on top, making sure the water doesn’t touch the bowl and your bowl fits tight so that no steam escapes.
If you’re tempering a very small quantity you could even do this in a small bowl over a mug of freshly-boiled water, or of course you can use a bain marie if you have one.
Melt the chocolate until it’s fluid and smooth.

Chocolate Type Melting Cooling Tempered

Dark 50-55C 28-29C 31-31C
Milk 45-50C 27-28C 30-31C
White 45-50C 26-27C 29-30C

Never heat Milk or White chocolate above 50C or you will not get a smooth finish.
Tempered chocolate must be kept at these tempratures while you work with it.

Check the temperature chart and make sure your melted chocolate falls within the required temperature range and take it off the pan before adding the remaining third
of solid tempered chocolate, which should be at room temperature.
Stir vigorously with a rubber spatula. The movement will encourage the correct crystals to form while the solid chocolate cools the mixture.

When the chocolate reaches tempering temperature on the chart (for this method, ignore the cooling temperature), all of the solid pieces of chocolate should be melted.
If they have melted and the chocolate is too hot you need to add more chocolate. If you’ve put a single chunk in as the seed, just remove any remaining solid chocolate at this point.
Check that your chocolate is tempered by dipping one side of a small piece of silicone or greaseproof paper, or even a spatula, into the chocolate.
Leave it at room temperature for a few minutes with the chocolate side up. If it sets evenly with no streaking and breaks cleanly, it’s ready to use.
You will need to keep your chocolate at tempering temperature while you use it.
You may find that after a while you need to pop the bowl back over the saucepan briefly to keep it up to temperature, and stir it occasionally to keep the temperature even throughout the chocolate.
You can also put a folded tea towel under the bowl on your work surface to prevent it cooling too quickly.

Easter eggs are simple to make and can be filled with all manner of things this has a secret message !

Milk Chocolate with White chocolate insert with Maltesers, fudge, honeycomb, crisp pearls and chocolate sprinkles .

Secret message inside

Milk Chocolate with White chocolate insert with Maltesers, fudge, honeycomb, crisp pearls and Marshmallows & chocolate sprinkles

Easy to make

All Chocolate ready available from our web site.

Red Hot Love Truffles

This recipe will make about 12 1.5-inch hearts

Ingredients:

• 6 oz semi-sweet chocolate, finely chopped
• 1/2 cup Double  cream
• 1/2 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
• 1 tbsp butter, softened to room temperature
• 12 oz chocolate for coating
• Small heart-shaped cutter
• 1/4 cup cocoa powder
• Chipotle chili powder or cayenne (optional)

Preparation:

have a dinner party soon ? why not impress your guests with this easy to make chocolate bowl.

blow up a balloon give it a quick wash then place in a big rimed cup

Melt chocolate, different colours give a good look, slowly pour over the up turned balloon.

Put in the fridge for a few minutes until the chocolate has set.

keep repeating until you have the desired look.

Pop the balloon , then fill with strawberrys !!

Exclusive Chocolates have a facebook page, we would appreciate it if you would “like” our page

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All you have to do is click on the link above and it will take you straight there.

Please feel free to leave us a comment or just say hi!

100% Food Grade Cocoa Butter Buttons

In the simplest terms, cocoa butter is the fat in chocolate  derived from the seeds of the cocoa bean.
Cocoa Butter is commonly  know and used as an aid for tempering chocolate, keeping it fluid for longer.

Pure cocoa butter shaped into “buttons” are easier to measure and melt opposed to a hard block

Cocoa butter is one of two
essential elements of chocolate, the one that gives it its creamy,
smoothness and richness that makes it melt in your mouth and in your hand.

Cocoa butter has a melting point that is around body temperature, meaning
that it is a solid at any temperature below that point and a liquid at
any temperature above it.

The advantage of cooking with Cocoa Butter

Cocoa butter is resistant to high
temperatures without burning, which sets it apart from other fats that
tend to burn at 200 ° C.

Cocoa butter is commonly  know and used as an aid for tempering chocolate, keeping it fluid for longer.

Using Cocoa Butter in your cooking reduces the calories by 50-70%, compared to using other fats.

Cocoa Butter is Suitable for Vegans, Has  No Cholesterol  and No Dairy.

It can be used for frying: it brings out the natural flavour of the ingredients

It can also be added to cake frosting to keep it firmer at room temperature

This 100 % Food grade Cocoa Butter not the same as Cocoa Butter used in the manufacture of some cosmetics and soaps.

It is not related in any way to dairy products.

Used by Chocolatiers, pastry chefs, and Cake makers, for great results Try some today

                                          Happy Halloween

Below are a few ideas using Chocolate Barns flavored and cloured chocolate and oil based food dyes.

Added to butter icing and icing as Creative toppings for your cupcakes. 

Basic Fairy Cupcake Recipe

This recipe can be summed up as “the 4/4/4/2 recipe” which once you know you will never have to look up again.

• 100g/4 oz butter (softened)
• 100g/4 oz SR flour
• 100g/4 oz caster sugar
• 2 eggs

Put the oven on first – on medium (Gas 4/180 C/170C fan).

Whisk all the ingredients until creamy and spoon into a cupcake tin or cup cake cases it makes 12.

Cook for about 10 – 15 minutes until cooked.

To check they are cooked just press gently and they should spring back.

Once cooled, the cakes can be decorated with any topping you require.

Variations

Once you’ve got the basics you can do anything with these:

Add  some cocoa to make chocolate buns

Add chocolate  chips to make choc chip cakes

Add lemon zest to make lemon cup cakes.

 spider cakes

Cup cakes with piped Orange coloured butter icing with a spider on top very easy but very effective .

Ghostly Face cup cake

Cup cakes with white icing and black icing shaped eyes drizzled with our lime chocolate Wooooo

Spider Web cupcakes

These take a little bit more skill

For the topping, make two piping bags out of greaseproof paper
put 2 spoonfuls of melted dark chocolate in one bag and the same of
white chocolate in the other.

1. Spread the cupcake
   top with dark chocolate, letting it run down a bit, then pipe four
   concentric circles of white chocolate on top.
2.  Using a small skewer, drag through the circles at regular intervals, from the center to the edge, to create a cobweb effect.
3. Repeat with the white chocolate and decorate with the dark.

All flavored chocolate and oil based food dye’s are available on our website.

Icing

Mix icing sugar and (any colour dye ) to make icing and spread it on the cupcakes when cold and decorate

anything you like (sprinkles, sweets, cherries).

Your kids will
love this bit. And the eating bit, of course!

Over heating chocolate separates the cocoa solids and other dry ingredients from the cocoa butter.

Chocolate solids and dry ingredients will burn if heated to 130 degrees.

The result is a dry, discolored paste.

There’s no retrieving burnt chocolate, so be very careful when heating.

For a guide on tempering chocolate have a look in the Tempering categories

The result is a dry, discolored                 paste.

There’s no retrieving burnt chocolate, so be very                 careful when heating.

 can be used in making the healthiest chocolate chips for ice cream.

When raw have a slightly bitter taste but brings a good chocolate flavor to desserts,
cakes and biscuits they can be crushed and ground and mixed too.

Many people eat these as a snack on their own too.

They are full of Antioxidants more so than Red Wine, Blueberries or Green tea.

Product Details

Cacao nibs are dark, crunchy and bitter, totally natural, and bursting with antioxidants and minerals.

They make a potent nourishing snack that keeps you going !
Great added to cereals, salads, deserts as well as baking.

Serving Suggestion

Cacao nibs have a slightly bitter taste.
If you find this too bitter you can grind up the nibs and mix with a sweetener for example syrup.