Tempered Chocolate Joyous Almond Mounds
Joyous Almond Mounds - Homemade Low Carb Candy with A Tempered Chocolate Coating
I finally did it! It's been driving me crazy ... I miss candy. I love the dark chocolate and coconut in Mounds bars, but I wish it had almonds in it. And I love the coconuts and almonds in Almond Joys but I really don't like milk chocolate coatings. Of course, add to that the challenge of sticking to a low carb diet, and the outrageous cost of store-bought low carb chocolate bars. Besides, the sugar alcohols give me... ahem. And to top things off, I don't like making chocolate candy that you have to keep refrigerated since, to me, chocolate tastes best when it's about body temperature. So, I made my own Mounds / Almond Joy bars, with a tempered dark chocolate coating. I called La Maison du Chocolat for some advice, and they were kind enough to talk me through how to temper the chocolate! Here's the skinny:
N.B.: DO YOURSELF A FAVOR AND READ ALL OF THE INSTRUCTIONS BEFORE YOUR START!!!
Coconut-almond filling
Preheat oven to 325 degrees
Ingredients (optional ingredients are in parenthesis):
six egg whites, or 1/4 cup Just Whites (no wasted yolks!) (0 carbs)
if using Just Whites, you will need 3/4 cup water ( I used 3/4 c DaVinci Coconut syrup) (0 carbs)
two cups of granular Splenda (or equivalent in your sugar substitute, or to taste) (48 carbs)
1/4 tsp cream of tartar (0 carbs)
1 (or 2) tsp vanilla extract (I used 2) (0 carbs)
1 cup unsweetened coconut shreds or powder (I use powder because it's a lot cheaper) (55 carbs - 27 grams fiber = 18 net carbs)
1 cup almonds (I used unblanched, sliced almonds because that's what I had on hand) (19 carbs - 11 grams fiber = 8 net carbs)
Assembly:
Run the Splenda through a food processor with the metal blade attachment, or run it through a blender, until the Splenda is the consistency of powdered sugar. Set the Splenda aside for the moment. In a large bowl, combine the coconut and almonds. In a separate bowl, beat the egg whites (or Just Whites together with water / DaVinci) until soft peaks form.
Add the Splenda, vanilla, and cream of tartar, and beat until stiff peaks form. (The whites at this point will be tooth-achingly sweet, like melted marshmallows, but the end product will not be as sweet).
Fold the whites into the coconuts and almonds. The resulting mixture should hold its form when handmade into patties (approx 2" in diameter) or bars (approx 2" x 1"); both should be about 1/2" thick. (If they are too thin, they will fall apart when dipped into the chocolate.) At this stage, you should have a dense mix of coconuts and almonds, with just enough whites to bind them together -- you don't want a wet mix. (If your mixture is too dry and does not hold its form, just beat another 2 egg whites / Just Whites as above, and add them to the mix.)
Bake on a well- Pam'd cookie sheet at 325 degrees for 20-25 minutes, or until the very edges are browned. The tops will not brown, so don't over-bake them. They should be chewy, not crisp.
Chocolate coating
Ingredients:
4 ounces of unsweetened Baker's chocolate (4 cubes) (32 carbs - 16 fiber = 16 net carbs)
1 cup granular Splenda, powdered the same way as for the filling (24 carbs)
6 Tbs butter, divided into 5 + 1 (0 carbs)
1/3 of an approximate 1 ounce store-bought chocolate bar, or the equivalent in store-bought chocolate chips, plus an equal amount in reserve. (I used a Pure DeLite dark chocolate bar, .33 (point 33) carbs); you can use any kind of bar, as long as it is store-bought,
1 or 2 tsp vanilla extract (0 carbs)
You'll also need a large cutting board or platter covered with aluminum foil, for putting your chocolate candies on as you work, and a fork, slotted spoon, or slotted pancake turner to use while dipping your candy into the chocolate. I used a cold-meat fork because it has such widely-spaced tines.
Assembly and tempering:
OK, let's face it: for the fabulous folks at La Maison du Chocolat, tempering chocolate is like breathing. For us mere mortals, it's a bit trickier. But we can do it! So first of all, a note about why you're tempering the chocolate, and what it is that you're trying to accomplish overall.
You want to get your chocolate so that, when it's finished, it has a beautiful sheen, it covers nicely, it isn't gritty, and it has that crisp-sounding crack you hear when you break a chocolate bar in two. Most of all, you want it to cover your confections so that it holds its own and doesn't have to be kept frozen just to keep from melting. In other words, you want it to be able to keep solid at room temperature.
For dark chocolate, this happens at between 88 degrees and 91 degrees F. But you will need a higher temperature than 91 degrees to get the chocolate melted in the first place. So, you want to melt the chocolate at the lowest possible temperature, then cool it to 91 degrees by beating it, or spreading and folding it on a cool marble surface, or by some other method. I chose the easiest method I could find; it works, and it will work even better when I have had more practice. To test the temperature of your chocolate, dab a bit of it underneath your bottom lip; at 91 degrees it should feel barely warm.
You're going to need to sweeten the unsweetened chocolate, hence the Splenda, and you're going to need to add some kind of fat to it, hence the butter. (You could use heavy cream for its fat content, but that would result in milk chocolate, and I like dark chocolate. Also, milk chocolate has a different tempering point than dark chocolate - between 84 degrees and 87 degrees F.) Vanilla really brings out the taste of chocolate, so we add it, but you have to be very careful with it. If just one drop of liquid touches your melted chocolate before it has been fully tempered, it will immediately seize up into a gritty mess. If this happens (and sure enough, it happened to me!) you can salvage it by adding more butterfat, hence the reserved 1 Tbs of butter, and adding the reserved piece of starter-chocolate; it will temper, but it will never regain its lovely satiny texture. If you were a perfectionist, you'd start over; I hate to waste, so I went on. For my second batch, my timing was a bit better, and I added the vanilla after the chocolate was tempered; it didn't seize up, and remained velvety.
Finally, store-bought chocolate bars are already tempered, and pre-tempered chocolate will help your new chocolate to temper. I think of it kind of like a sourdough starter; the old starter helps your new batch of dough. That's why we use part of a store-bought bar. (When you finish tempering, you can pour off about a third of your chocolate, and keep it to temper your next batch. The advantage to doing this is that each time you use some of your last batch to temper a new batch, your newly-tempered chocolate has less and less of the sugar alcohol or real sugar that was present in the original store-bought bar. Eventually, you can have chocolate without any polyols or sugar at all!)
So: here we go.
Chop the cubes of baker's chocolate until they are about the size of tollhouse chocolate chips. Pour them into a medium-sized bowl, and melt them in the microwave on defrost (if your microwave has this option) or the very lowest setting. (You can do this in a double-boiler, but I didn't feel confident enough to fool with one, because I was afraid of getting my chocolate wet). You want to melt the chocolate at the lowest heat that will get the job done. Give it a good 45 - 50 seconds, then check the progress of the melting every 10 seconds or so thereafter, giving it a good stir every time you check; it is crucial not to burn or overheat the chocolate.
When about 1/2 the chocolate is melted, take it out of the microwave (or off the stove). Stir in the 5 Tbs of butter and the piece of store-bought chocolate. The residual heat in the bowl will be enough to melt the butter and the rest of the chocolate. Stir the chocolate constantly, to cool it down to 91 degrees. If it has stubborn lumps that refuse to melt, put it back in the microwave for a second or two. But it's better to have to scoop out a few unmelted pieces than to burn it! As you stir it, check its temperature periodically by dabbing a bit of it underneath your bottom lip; when it reaches 91 degrees, it should feel barely warm. If you want to, you can stir it while the bowl sits in a deeper bowl of cool water -- just make sure not to get it wet.
When it reaches 91 degrees, it has tempered! Now add the vanilla, and give it a final stir. (If you are making milk chocolate coating, continue stirring until the chocolate drops to between 84 and 87 degrees, then add your vanilla and heavy cream.) If you have mis-timed this by adding the vanilla when it's too hot, as I did on my first try, it will seize up and look awful. In that case, just stir in the reserved butter and the reserved pre-tempered chocolate, beat it like the dickens, and it should reconstitute itself enough to give you acceptable results. If you want to, you can now pour off an ounce or so of your chocolate to store as a pre-tempered piece for a later batch.
Using a fork, slotted spoon, or slotted pancake turner, dip your pre-baked coconut-almond bars into the chocolate, turning them to cover them well. Let the excess chocolate drip back into the bowl, and place the candies on the aluminum foil-covered board / platter. Put the finished pieces in the fridge to let them harden, then wrap them well in layers of waxed paper, and store them in an airtight container. I honestly don't know how long they'll keep; certainly give them a taste within a week, or refrigerate them if you plan on keeping them longer than that. Just be sure to let them come to room temperature before you eat them, to get that wonderful chocolate flavor. As I plan to serve mine at Christmas, I've wrapped mine in plastic-coated freezer paper, placed them in sealed plastic bags, and put them in the fridge next to my been-soaking-in-brandy-since-January fruitcake.
Makes 2 dozen, 1"x2" bars; Fitday calculated the whole at 102 net carbs, or 4.5 net carbs each. I know that's more carbs than most store-bought sugar free bars have, but with practically no polyols, fresh ingredients, and at a fraction of the cost of store-bought, I say it's worth it!
A final by-the-way: making powdered Splenda is easy in a food processor, and you can use it for all sorts of stuff -- for instance, I like cake frostings made with powdered sugar (i.e. Splenda) better than with the old cream-cheese standby. Try it!
Good luck, all! I hope you try this. Mine came out really well. I had beginner's luck, for sure, but I'm strutting like a peacock anyway, as pleased as can be.
--BettyB
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