RECIPE BLOG! Chocolate Spiders

Now that you know how to temper chocolate, (see December 1st blog), here is a very simple recipe for making chocolate spiders. Maybe they're a little bit too big and scary looking (see picture), but the good news is that if I can make them, anyone can!

INGREDIENTS
200g The Chocolate Box chocolate pastilles
100g packet of Pre-cooked Fried (non-flavoured) noodles
2 tablespoons of Peanut Butter (crunchy or smooth)

IMPLEMENTS
Double saucepans or a bain-marie
A tablespoon
A dessert spoon
Small pattypans (if you can find them) or waxproof paper

INSTRUCTIONS
1. Break chocolate pastilles into smaller pieces for quicker melting.
2. Melt chocolate in an empty smaller saucepan sitting on a larger saucepan partially filled with simmering water. Do not boil water, keep stove at low temperature. Do not allow any water to get into the small saucepan. See post "How to cook couverture chocolate" below.
3. When chocolate is smooth and melted, stir in 2 tablespoons of peanut butter, until mixture is thoroughly mixed.
4. Stir in noodles, until they are completely covered in chocolate.
5. Scoop out mixture using spoons and place into pattypans, or in blobs on greaseproof or baking paper.
6. Allow to cool. When chocolate solidifies the spiders are ready!

The Dark List

The Dark List was something I created a few months ago for dark chocolate afficianados. It is, of course, a list of quality dark chocolate products, with their corresponding cocoa percentages.

But first, a little bit about dark chocolate:
If you have a quality dark or bittersweet chocolate, you can sometimes rate it for it's chocolatey-ness on a scale of percentage of cocoa solids. So 80% is extra dark, 70% is dark!, 50% is dark but bittersweet (also sweet), but much lower than this and you're in milk chocolate territory.

Some of the products on the list have additional ingredients to dark chocolate, and some of these may include dairy or nuts, etc, so you should look at the ingredient listing of any product if you are in doubt about what it may contain.

Now on to ...
THE DARK LIST

Dark Chocolate Happy Heart Hamper Box

Belgian Bar - Noir Bittersweet** - 70%

Dark Wraparounds* ** - 63%
*(Smaller quantities without custom wrappers can be purchased from our stores)

Single Origin Grenade 135g Box (jar not available) - 60%

Dark Block, 100g** - 55%
Dark Bar 50g** - 55%
Dark Chocolate Novelty Frogs** - 55%
Dark Chocolate Novelty Hearts** - 55%

Dark Chocolate Almonds - 55%
Dark Chocolate Hazelnuts - 55%
Dark Chocolate Orange Straws - 55%
Dark Chocolate Coffee Beans - 55%
Dark Chocolate Ginger - 55%
Dark Chocolate Marzipan Bar - 55%
Dark Chocolate Licorice - 55%
Dark Chocolate Raspberry Jellies - 55%

Dark Chocolate Triple Almond Block - 54%
Dark Chocolate Triple Honeycomb Block - 54%

Dark Organic Block, 100g - 52%

Dark Chocolate Peppermint Truffle

Dark Sugarfree Block 100g - 46%

We also have a pure dark chocolate assortment: Dark Chocolate Classic Assortment and Dark Chocolate Rocky Road.

** Solid chocolate