Chocolate Frogs
'What are these?' Harry asked Ron, holding up a pack of Chocolate Frogs. 'They're not really frogs, are they?' He was starting to feel that nothing would surprise him.
'No,' said Ron, 'But see what the card is, I'm missing Agrippa.
'What?'
’Oh, of course you wouldn't know - Chocolate Frogs have cards inside them, you know, to collect - Famous Witches and Wizards. I've got about five hundred, but I haven't got Agrippa or Ptolemy.'
Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone
J.K Rowling
So, it's about that time of the year that I reread all the Harry Potter books. now I've started this little project as well, I'm paying a lot more attention to the absolutely delicious foods that appear within its pages. There's probably going to be a bit of an abundance of the foods that appear within the series pages appearing soon.
It's been a rushed few months, with the summer being sweltering hot every move seems slightly exhausting - not to mention working in both a busy bakery and an overheating restaurant. I'm in my last week of hospitality work currently before I switch to a corporate setting - something that I've never done before in my life. It's going to be an interesting change and I feel that my need to explore creativity through this blog will increase at a hurried pace.
*Note: you will need chocolate frog moulds for this recipe
Chocolate Frogs
Makes approximately 9 frogs
Ingredients
200g + 350g good quality dark chocolate, if not using chips make sure it's chopped roughly
1/2 cup cream (I used coconut but any will work)
1 tbsp butter
Heat the 1/2 cup of cream on the stove until it's lightly bubbling and very hot. Remove from the heat and add in the 200g dark chocolate.
Mix quickly as to melt the chocolate while the coconut milk is still hot. Once he chocolate has melted in with cream add in the tbsp of butter. Mix together until melted into the chocolate mix. Place in fridge for 2-3 hours or until solidified into a fudge-y ganache.
While the ganache is setting is a great time to start the coating of the frogs. Heat a pot of water on the stove until boiling and place a metal or glass bowl on top, ensuring that the water doesn't touch the bowl.
Place about 2/3rd of the 350g of chocolate into the bowl and make sure to continually stir it with a rubber spatula or wooden spoon to stop the chocolate from burning.
In order to temper the chocolate and get a lovely shiny coat to it it's best to make sure the chocolate doesn't heat over 48C - if you don't have cooking thermometer the best way to tell the chocolate is ready is by the shininess it will appear to have as melting.
Remove from the heat once the temperature is reached and add in the remaining third of dark chocolate quickly, stirring to melt it from the heat of the already melted chocolate.
Drip the melted chocolate into your frog chocolate moulds, making sure to evenly coat the sides so there are no weak parts. It can be a little tricky to do this part without making the top super thick in chocolate - just do your best. There will be melted chocolate left over - keep this to the side in the bowl to remelt on the pot of boiling water for when you need to close over the frogs.
Leave to harden - about 2-3 hours. You can speed this along by placing it in the fridge but the chocolate will look better if left to harden not refrigerated.
When both the moulds and ganache filling are ready, press small spoonfuls of the ganache into the chocolate coating of the frogs, pressing down to fill up the crevices.
Now is when you want to remelt that leftover chocolate, once ready drip it over the top of the filled chocolate moulds, sealing the ganache inside. Leave to harden for at least 4 hours.
After about 4 hours have passed you can attempt to get the frogs out of the moulds - they should come out very easily, if not, they're not properly set - leave them for another hour or so.