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accomplished This week, I was seized with a compulsion to make ice cream bonbons... except they had to be sugar-free bonbons, what with the diabetes in the family and my not wanting it (are there sugar free Dibs on the market? Hell no; why would there be?). So, this was where I started:
If I'd had my druthers, that would be a properly squeezy melon baller, which would cough up everything it scooped out. The non-squeezy models are more time consuming, and just work poorly on non-melon foods. :\
There are hot pads under this cookie sheet, the better to slow the melting process. Thanks to my speed at chucking the sheet back into the freezer, all the teeny scoops stayed round and cold. I left 'em in overnight.
Step two, the next day, begins with cheapass sugarfree chocolate and equally cheapass coconut oil. Thus commences the making of the Awesome Sauce, teh homemade magic shell which stays runny at lower temps than regular chocolate, and will let us coat our ice cream balls without melting them.
After chopping chocolate. Mmm, sticky.
(Have you ever tried photographing your right hand with an actual camera? Even if you're already a lefty, it's fecking hard.)
The kitchen scale worked well enough for the chocolate, but how to weigh/measure the weird, oozy coconut oil?
MUPPET BABIES TO THE RESCUE! <3 <3
Three parts chocolate + two parts coconut oil, melting in the double boiler. Looks appetizing, dunnit?
I think next time I'll put in the coconut oil first. And maybe some sugarfree chocolate flavoring or a drop or two of vanilla, because coconut oil tastes blehh.
Looks like an awesome sauce to me.
You have to let this stuff cool before you can use it, or it will melt your ice cream centers anyway. Take the double boiler off the heat, then take the saucepan off the boiler & let it get some air underneath. It'll stay runny, no worries.
The coating process is best done at high speed, by someone very experienced with chopsticks. Even so, it's normal to not get a perfect coat first time. You'll have to freeze the cookie sheet over and over; it's okay to go back later and pour extra chocolate over the bald spots.
The two giant sloppy ones in the lower right actually have rum buttercream (frosting) centers... which should have been frozen first, and were not. Hooray for a learning experience.
Total yield: about forty bonbons (using five ounces of Awesome Sauce). Thirty-six of them fit in this container & are chilling in the freezer right now. :D
