Things To Dip in Chocolate

In the previous blog, I gave you an instant home recipe for a chocolate dip you can make without fuss or bother right at home. There are much finer recipes but they all call for professional gear and professional patience. It can take several hours to prepare certain gourmet chocolates at the exact temper and mix needed for gourmet-level tournament and competition perfection. Whether you use my home brew or a more professional chocolate dip, here are a few interesting things you can dip in chocolate. They each cool differently, but you will get best results by laying them onto a 3/4 inch thick marble tile for perfect cooling.

WHOLE DRIED FRUITS

Hold the dried fruit by one end -- the smaller end is best -- and dip into the melted chocolate to cover 1/4 to 1/3 of the fruit, up to a maximum of 1/2 the total mass of the dried frut...except, of course, in the case of the raisins. They will be totally immersed, mixed fished out of the chocolate with a granny fork, then set out to cool on waxed paper. Many of the larger dried fruits can be skewered with a fondue stick which can be obtained just about anywhere, then cooled and served kabob-style, by merely planting the fondue sticker point-down into a large flat hard styrofoam sheet, available at any craft and hobby or most fabric shops.

Here are just a few ideas for chocolate-dipped dried fruits:

Papaya
Fig
Apricot
Apple
Kiwi
Peach
Raisins
Pear
Pineapple
Coconut

VEGETABLES:

White Sweet Potato Tempura
Orange Sweet Potato Tempura
Zucchini Tempura
Lettuce Chunks
Radishes
Corn on the Cob

...and best of all:

Hot Raw Peppers -- both green and red work ... the hotter, the better!!!

You'll want to refrigerate the dried fruits both before and after dipping. Best if eaten within a few days, but they will keep for quite a while if refrigerated properly. The vegetables, with the exception of the raw hot peppers, must be eaten within a few minutes of preparation.

OTHER DIPPIBLES:

Pretzels -- large, small, twists, straights -- they all work. My personal favorite is peanut-butter filled pretzel chunks.
Nuts of all types, whole, chopped or buttered. My favorite for dipping is the Cashew.
Chocolate Chip Cookies (should be 1/3 dipped for best effect).
Peanut Butter Cookies.
Actually, any cookie, including sauerkraut and celery flavored.
Any non-chocolate candy bar.
Any cupcake.
Any cake or baked item, such as a croissant, bear-claw or scone.
Any pie of any kind.
Ice Cream.
Pickles. Yes, pickles. Both sour and sweet work better than you'd think they will.
Cheese both hard and soft (for soft, roll into ball and dip and remove with granny fork or tongs).
Cotton Candy or any other form of straight whipped sugar.
Licorice -- red and black both work well.
Chapstick.
Anchovies.

Just kidding about the chapstick ... but not about the anchovies.

Marshmallow Dip Chokolade

Here's how to make an incredible Psychic Marshmallow Delite:

1. Obtain 1 large bag marshmallows of any kind. There are in fact handmade marshmallows that are entirely organic and made in the gourmet style, for about $1 to $5 per marshmallow. You can get them online from a number of independent organic gourmet marshmallow makers. This type of marshmallow must be devoured within 3 days of manufacture, and must be shipped overnight express in a thermal container along with 2 or 4 restorable ice packs.

2. Now you are ready for the chocolate dip. There are many excellent recipes for chocolate dips -- I am a gourmet chocolate chef and offer a variety of different types and origins of chocolate in my online http://chocolateobsessions.com shop, but you don't want to be spending as much time and money as I spend on making "the perfect chocolate", so here's a quickie plan:

3. Take a half dozen chocolate bars of your choice and on the top of a double-boiler, slowly bring their temperature up to about 99 degrees, stirring constantly, never allowing any of the chocolate to stick to the pan or to scorch even slightly. Want an easier method? Stick the chocolate in a microwave oven for about 15 seconds at medium heat. Not quite melted? Stir and stick it in there for another 10 seconds. Still not enough? Okay, stir and give it another 10 seconds, then stir again until the entire bowlful is melted -- but NOT hot to the touch.

4. Using any type of gripper such as the Gastromax Food Tongs, Weber Style 6441 Professional-Grade Chef's Tongs, Progressive International Stainless Steel Appetizer Tongs or a Rada Triple-Tine Cutlery Granny Fork, dip each marshmallow separately in the chocolate, then drip the excess away and place on a sheet of waxed paper. Do not attempt to use something other than waxed paper for this job. Calfalon or other types of non-stick don't work with this.

5. You can also dip other things in your melted chocolate, but keep in mind that this is merely melted chocolate, not tempered chocolate. To make real tempered chocolate takes skill and a few special pro kitchen tools. I produce a gourmet chocolate marshmallow treat with 89% single-source fair-traded organic chocolate and special gourmet marshmallows, but boy, is it costly! Try the campfire style first just to see if you like it.