Chocolate Covered Marzipan Balls

Do you think it is hard to make marzipan? Not at all. It needs almond meal, water, rose water - and sugar.
Well, we don't eat sugar but there is a healthier solution.

Ingredients
150g blanched almond meal
100g xylitol
1 tbsp rose water
1 tbsp almond essence
100g 85% dark chocolate (eg. Lindt)


For the coating you will need toothpicks, aluminium foil and flat polystyrene. 


With a blender or a coffee grinder grind xylitol into a fine powder, the same consistency as icing sugar.
In a big bowl, mix almond meal and icing xylitol with rose water and almond essence and make a dough.
Take a teaspoon full of the dough and between your palms form a ball. Repeat it until all the dough is gone. Keep the balls in the freezer while you melt the chocolate but no longer.


Chop the chocolate roughly. On low temperature melt half of the chocolate. Remove from the heat then stir the rest of the chocolate in it. Leave it to melt.
Cover a flat polystyrene with aluminium foil. Stick a toothpick into a marzipan ball and swirl it around in the chocolate so that it's totally covered. Shake it a bit before you stick it into the polystyrene, so you won't waste too much chocolate. If the balls are cold enough, the chocolate will be hard very quickly. 
Once done, repeat till all your marzipan balls are covered with chocolate.

You should see something like this

If it's needed, place the balls into the fridge for 10-15 minutes.
When the chocolate coating is hard, you can cover the balls in coloured aluminium foil. 


Alternatively, you can roll the marzipan balls in Dutch (or raw) cocoa powder instead of the chocolate.  


Enjoy :)

Variations for wellbeing

Dairy intolerance: make sure to use dairy free chocolate.
Gluten intolerance: make sure to use gluten free chocolate.
Paleo: make sure to use dairy, gluten and soy free chocolate with high cocoa mass content. 

Home Made Bounty - Coconut Filled Chocolate

Nowadays it's easy to make your own filled chocolate. The first mold I had I bought from Ebay but they have become so cheap since then that even Aldi sells them - well, not continuously but occasionally. 
I made these little coconut filled chocolates a week before Easter but I almost had to make a new portion as  every time we drank a cup of cappuccino we ate a little chocolate heart with it. 


I always use 85% Lindt dark chocolate because it doesn't have dairy or soy, although there is sugar in it, only 5g in a 100g bar which I think is acceptable.
So these home made Bounty bites are not too sweet at all unlike the original one with milk chocolate. 
Try it :)

Ingredients
100g Lindt 85% dark chocolate
home made Coconella


Roughly chop the chocolate bar to small pieces. 
Place half of it into a sauce pan and heat on low temperature until the chocolate is almost totally melted. 
Put the sauce pan aside. Pour the rest of the chocolate pieces into the sauce pan and stir.


Fill your mold cavities using a teaspoon about 1/3 full then paint the inside with a brush. The chocolate should leave a thin coat everywhere. Place the mold in the fridge (Sydney is too hot for making chocolates) and rest it for 3 minutes.
Using a brush only make another coat in the cavities. Rest the mold in the fridge again for 3 minutes.
With a piping bag or a small coffee spoon squeeze Coconella into the cavities making sure not to fill more than 3/4 of the way up the sides. 
When all the cavities are filled, set the filled shells to a cool place to let the filling hard again. 
Spoon chocolate to fill in the top. You also can drag a straight edge across the cavities to flatten the bottom. 
Place the filled mold (cavitiy side up) on a flat, cold surface (preferably in the fridge) to harden.


The chocolates are ready to be released when the chocolate pulls away from the mold slightly. 
Once you think the mold is ready, turn it over on parchment paper. If your chocolate is tempered properly and it is completely hardened, the chocolates should just fall out of the mold. If they don't, give the mold a little tap on the bottom to help release the chocolates.


Enjoy :)

Variations for wellbeing

Dairy intolerance: make sure to use dairy free chocolate.
Gluten intolerance: make sure to use gluten free chocolate.
Paleo: make sure to use dairy, gluten and soy free chocolate with high cocoa mass content.