Caramel and Walnut Chocolate Lollipops
Caramel and Walnut Chocolate Lollipops
Type of chocolate: Le Noir 68% Baking Bar, Valrhona Le Lait 39% Baking Bar
15 minutes of preparation and 12 hours of resting time
Makes 50 Lollipops
Ingredients
1 ¼ cup sugar
1 cup cream
1 vanilla bean
3 ounces Le Noir 68% Baking Bar (Valrhona Dark Chocolate)
2 ½ ounces Valrhona Le Lait 39% Baking Bar (Valrhona Milk Chocolate)
¾ Tbsp butter
¼ cup chopped walnuts
Additional dark chocolate for dipping
Lollipop Sticks
Preparation & Assembly
- Heat the cream together with the vanilla bean.
- Place sugar in a small pot. Stir with a small amount of water, just to make it the consistency of wet sand. Make sure there is no sugar crystals on the side of the pot. Cook without stirring until it reaches a dark caramel color
- Remove the vanilla bean from the cream and pour the hot cream onto the caramel little by little (watch out for splatter!).
- Bring the caramel mixture to a boil and cook to about 240F degrees (around 5/7 minutes) and pour onto the chopped chocolate, add the butter and vigorously mix until you obtain a shiny texture. Add the walnuts and immediately pour into a silicon pan, let harden for 12 hours in the refrigerator
- Remove from pan onto a cutting board. Cut circles with cutter and stick in the lollipop sticks
- Melt chocolate and dip lollipops in to coat them
Chef’s tips:
For a change of flavor, replace the walnuts with coarsely ground coffee beans and add the zest of an orange, vanilla and a pinch of aniseed or powdered cardamom.
