Chocolate Hearts

Preparation

1. Step 1

   Melt and temper the chocolate (see pages 25–30). Pour the chocolate into a paper pastry cone and cut off a 1/2-inch opening at the pointed end. Or pour the chocolate into a plastic squeeze bottle. Pipe or squeeze chocolate into the cavities of a mold with eighteen 1-inch-wide hearts. With a flexible-blade spatula, clean around the edges of each cavity, if necessary. Tap the mold on a countertop a few times to eliminate air pockets.

   Step 2

   Place the mold on a flat surface in the freezer for 15 minutes. Remove the mold from the freezer and turn it upside down over a piece of parchment or waxed paper. Hold the mold by opposite corners and gently twist it in opposite directions. The chocolate hearts should drop out of the mold. If they don’t drop out easily, return the mold to the freezer for another 15 minutes and try again.

   Step 3

   Wrap each chocolate heart in a square of red foil or delicately place a half sheet of edible gold leaf onto each heart. Use a thin sable brush to fit the gold leaf around the heart. Avoid touching the gold leaf; it will stick to your hands.

   Step 4

   In a tightly covered container, the chocolate hearts will keep for 1 week at room temperature; if the container is wrapped in several layers of aluminum foil, the hearts will keep for 1 month in the refrigerator or 2 months in the freezer. The edible gold leaf will dissolve if exposed to too much moist or humid air. The chocolate hearts taste best at room temperature.

2. VARIATIONS

   Step 5

   3 tablespoons of any lightly toasted, finely ground nuts can be blended into the chocolate before molding. Substitute white chocolate or milk chocolate for the bittersweet chocolate. Any shapes can be used for solid molding.