Daring Baker's Challenge For August 2011 : Candylicious

This month Daring Baker's Challenge was too sweet with full of candies, home made chocolate, barks, truffles....

Our lovely hosts for this month are Lisa from Parsley Sage, Desserts and Line Drives and Mandy of What The Fruit Cake.  The two ladies made us to dream about chocolate all night, it was a wonderful challenge. Among the given choice, I was able to make a few and few due to lack of ingredients I skipped it.  I couldn't make the Pate de fruit since I couldn't find pectin.  I did made the honey comb but I couldn't publish it since I forget to picture it, which is still resting in my fridge.  Yes unfortunately I couldn't taste one of the truffles or chocolates which I made,  since I made them when I was fasting, I pictured it and left my home before I break the fast.  It'll take an another week for me to taste those truffles.

One thing which I found very challenging was to handle the chocolate in this heat.  The room temperature is 30+ degrees here and it was quite hard to set, that's the reason why I couldn't take to my mom's place when I left home, I know it's all going to be sticky, gooey and loose all it's shape after 12 hours of journey.  So the rich chocolates are still safe in my refrigerator.  So far you have read what I didn't make for the challenge, now let's have a look at what I made for the challenge.

Ingredients:
For Bounties:
Dessicated coconut- 100 g
Condensed milk- 100 g 
Milk powder- 2 tbsp
Butter- 2 tbsp
Tempered Chocolate- about 200 g

For Peanut Butter Fudge:
Refer to the recipe here


For Truffles:
Heavy cream- 600 ml
Chocolate- 500 g 
Pistachios and almonds or cocoa to coat the truffles 

Method:
Tempered Chocolate:
Melt the chocolate on a glass bowl sitting on top simmering water. Chocolate is melted and heated until it reaches a temperature of 45 degree Celsius.  Pour it on a smooth marbled surface and move around with a scrapper until it looks thickened and cooled.  Now heat it again until it reaches a temperature of 32 degree Celsius.  Now it's ready for dipping, pouring in the moulds etc.
Note:
I haven't mentioned the amount of chocolate, use it according to your recipe suggests.

For Bounties:

Mix the condensed milk, milk powder and coconut in a pan and bring it heat .  Keep stirring until it looks thickened and leaves the sides of the pan.  Take it off from heat, quickly beat the butter and stir well.  Pour the mixture in a square tin, lined with aluminium foil.  Let it cool down completely and put them in the refrigerator for overnight to set completely.  Once set, cut them into squares and dip them in the tempered chocolate.
Warning!
Don't try to taste the coconut slices, you'll end finishing them on their own without leaving anything to be dipped in chocolate.

In the same way dip the peanut butter fudge also in the tempered chocolate and let them to set.

For Truffles:

I know I have used here quite lot of chocolates just to make the setting process quicker.  This may not work for cold climates, but to me this is the best for hotter climates.

Heat the cream in a pan just under boiling point, take it off from heat.  Quickly add the chopped chocolate and stir well until all the chocolate gets melted.  Pour it in a bowl and let it sit in the refrigerator for about 2 hours, stir them with a spoon in between.  Continue this process until it's thick enough to roll them into truffles.  Scoop out a small amount of chocolate mixture roll it into balls and then roll them in nuts or cocoa powder.

Storage:
If your room temperature is 18-20 degrees you can store it in a air tight container.  If it's more than 30+ degrees store them in the refrigerator.