282 – Homemade Chocolate Candies with Pumpkin Ganache – Halloween Special! / سكاكر الشوكولاته مع القرع القاناش

Ingredients :

• 1/2 cup (118 ml) pumpkin puree
• 2 tablespoons (full) brown sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/8 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly squeezed lemon juice
• salt and pepper
• 1/4 cup (60 ml) heavy whipping cream
• 9 ounces (255 grams) good quality white chocolate
• 1 pound (450 grams) dark chocolate 60-70% cocoa content
• chocolate molds or small paper cups

Directions :

Preparing the Pumpkin Ganache
1- Put all the ganache ingredients in a large bowl: white chocolate, pumpkin puree (from a can or homemade, check out my video on how to make it), brown sugar, heavy cream, and the spices (cinnamon, gingner, nutmeg, and salt). Finally, add the lemon juice.
2- Place the bowl with the ganagche ingredients over a saucepan filled with boiling water, and continue cooking the water it on medium heat. This is a ‘bain marie’ method where the chocolate is melted with the steam coming from the boiling water below.
3- Once the white chocolate start melting, mix the ingredients until well integrated.
4- Remove the bowl from the boinling water when all ingredients are well mixed. Place the pumpkin ganache in a plate and cover the surface with a plastic wrap (the wrap has to touch the surface of the ganache so the ganache does not create a ‘skin’).
5- Place the pumpkin ganache in the fridge until it’s completely cooled down before using it.
Prepaking the dark chocolate
1- While the ganache is cooling down, we are going to prepare the dark chocolate. When working with dark chocolate, usually, we need to temper it. This means we have to melt the chocolate to a certain temperature, then cool it down to another temperature. But today, I am going to show you an easy way to do it without a thermometer.
2- Place 2/3 of the dark chocolate (300 grams) in a large bowl and melt it in a bain marie (over boiling water). Then later we will add the rest of the chocolate (the other 100 grams) to the melted chocolate to lower the temperature.
3- So first melt the 300 grams on boiling water, once done, add the rest of the chocolate (chopped). Mix well until all the chocolate has melted.
Making the chocolate candies
1- This is the fun part! You can use chocolate molds or just small paper cups.
2- First, fill the molds with the melted dark chocolate. Wait 1 minute, then turn the mold over your chocolate bowl and shake the mold, this way all the chocolate excess is poured back in the bowl.
Note: if you are using paper cups, just fill one third of them with chocolate.
3- Place the molds (or the paper cups) in the fridge for 10 minutes for the chocolate to cool down.
4- Once the chocolate is set, take the pumpkin ganache out from the fridge (it should be cold by now) and place it in a piping bag.
5- Pipe the chocolate molds (or paper cups) with the pumpkin ganache.
6- Cover the ganache with a layer of melted chocolate.
7- Place in the fridge for 1 hour.
8- Unmold the chocolates (do not unmold the paper cup ones) and serve immediately!

Bon Appetit!