In the chocolate room of the Cinnamon Grand, we are making Easter Eggs. The symbol of Easter, spring, and young life, Easter eggs are essentials, much sought after by children as Easter Sunday approaches.
They can be expensive to buy, and so this holiday season, we suggest two recipes for you to try at home. They’re safe for small hands to try and guarantee delicious results. For the first recipe, the Cinnamon Grand’s Executive Sous Chef, Chef Liyananage works with Chef Warnaviraj to make luscious, gleaming chocolate eggs.
The better your chocolate is the tastier your eggs will be, so start with 400g – 500g of your favourite cooking chocolate (you must judge this quantity for yourself based on the size of your egg moulds). For the fillings, you’re only as limited as your imagination. From small toffees to chocolate pralines, fruit coulis and almond cream, there are plenty of choices.
If you’d like to try something with a Sri Lankan twist, Chef Liyanage suggests you mix a spice such as cardamom, cinnamon or chilli into the chocolate paste to make the filling. In their new range of savoury chocolates, he even uses tiny slivers of karapincha or curry leaf to give his chocolates a unique flavour.
(The display was created by Chef Sujit Chandana)
Milk chocolate, dark or white
Method:
Break the milk chocolate into small chunks so that it melts evenly. It’s best to melt the chocolate slowly in a microwave or bowl placed in a pan of hot water. If you have a thermometer you can make sure you keep between 40 – 45 degrees centigrade. If not, dip your finger in the chocolate and touch it to your lip, suggests Chef Liyanage – if it’s barely warm, you’ve got it right.
Stir it till there are no lumps in the paste and you have a smooth paste.
Take out the chocolate moulds. Use a ladle to pour your chocolate into the mould. Chef Warnaviraj fills them to overflowing and cleans off the excess. If you want to create a full chocolate egg, then you need just refrigerate this.
However, if you’d like a hollow shell, you must now pour out the chocolate. Tilt and roll the mould around until the chocolate covers the whole surface.
Clean the mould to ensure that the edges of your egg are clean, otherwise they will appear jagged and untidy when you bring the two halves together. Put it into the fridge. It should set in about 30 minutes.
That first layer is like a thin coat of paint, says Chef Liyanage. If you’d like a thicker chocolate shell, it’s simply a matter of repeating the process until you have the thickness you want.
Insert the fillings.
When you’re done, paint the edges of the chocolate egg halves and put the whole egg back in the fridge for 5 or ten minutes. The chocolate works like a gum and seals it closed, says Chef Liyanage.
A recipe for White Chocolate
Egg from Executive Pastry Chef Gerard Mendis at the Hilton
Ingredients
- Eggs
- 1 kg White chocolate
- 800 g Milk chocolate
- 250g Hazelnut powder
- 250ml Fresh cream
Method
- Begin by taking a real egg and draining it of its yolk. Wash thoroughly and then set aside until it dries completely.
- Melt the milk chocolate.
- Blend the hazelnut powder and fresh cream together.
- Add the milk chocolate to the hazelnut and cream mixture.
- Coat the inner egg shell with melted white chocolate by pouring into the egg, and cool it until the chocolate has set properly inside.
- Next, pipe the filling in to the egg shell.
- Seal the shell with white chocolate and leave it to cool.
- Once the chocolate is set, you can peel the egg (as you would a boiled one) to reveal the finished chocolate egg inside.
Alternate filling: To make eggs with almond filling inside instead, substitute hazelnut powder for 250 grams of almond powder and combine with 200ml of fresh cream. |
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