Healthy and homemade chocolate bonbons: 3 recipes for small sins

Flavored with chocolate, nuts or sweet spicy ginger. You can make your own chocolates that you can even give away.

Whether for Christmas, a birthday or any celebration, chocolates are among the most popular gifts. And the good thing is that if you make chocolates yourself, there are almost no limits to your creations and you can use only natural and healthy ingredients. Experiment with marzipan, ginger, white chocolate or very dark chocolate. Nothing to do with commercial chocolates, full of unhealthy fats and additives.

HOW TO MAKE HOMEMADE CHOCOLATES

If you make chocolates yourself, you should have the following things in the kitchen:

Necessary utensils

• Pots and bowls for the water bath
• Whisk, wooden spoon or spatula
• Mold of chocolates or ice cubes, preferably silicone
• Grid
• Pastry bag
• Kitchen thermometer

Make sure the ingredients are organic, regardless of whether you want to give the chocolates as a gift or enjoy them yourself. It is also worthwhile that they are fair trade.

HOMEMADE HEALTHY CHOCOLATE RECIPES

1. BANOFFEE CHOCOLATES

Banoffee is a British cake that is also very popular outside the islands. Based on cookies, bananas and caramel cream, a cold cake is created that is also perfect for a chocolate recipe. Hazelnuts or chopped almonds add a crunchy touch to this delicate temptation. These chocolates are intended for immediate consumption.

Ingredients (for 15 chocolates):

• 400 g whole-grain or oatmeal crackers
• 200 g dark chocolate
• 200 g dulce de leche
• 1 ripe banana
• 50 g chopped hazelnuts (or chopped almonds)
• 1/2 vanilla pod (inside scraped with a knife)
• 5 tablespoons cocoa powder

Elaboration:

1. Finely crumble the cookies with a rolling pin. To do this, roll the cookies in a clean, dry cotton cloth so that the crumbs do not spill everywhere or crush them in a food processor.
2. Mash the banana and mix well together with the dulce de leche cream, nuts, vanilla pulp and crumbled cookies to form a dough.
3. Let the mixture cool in the refrigerator for 30 minutes.
4. Form balls with the mixture and place them in a baking dish. The fountain should be the right size to fit in the freezer. Put the balls in the freezer for 2 hours.
5. For the praline recipe, chop the chocolate and melt it in a water bath.
6. Now take the dumplings out of the freezer, stir them in the chocolate with a spoon or fork and place them on a rack.
7. After the coating has hardened, sprinkle them with cocoa powder.

2. CHOCOLATE TRUFFLES WITH SALTED ALMOND HEART

Ingredients (for 30 truffles):

• 250 g white chocolate
• 250 g dark chocolate coating
• 100 ml cream (optionally 20 ml can be replaced by butter)
• 30 almonds (toasted and salted)
• Chopped nuts, defatted black cocoa (optional)

Elaboration:

1. Bring the cream to a boil and simmer briefly.
2. Put the pieces of white chocolate in the warm cream, melt while stirring and then let cool.
3. Using a piping bag, put the cooled cream on a baking sheet (lined with baking paper) press the sleeve and bring out hazelnut-sized dough, put an almond inside and cover it completely with the truffle cream, then let it cool.
4. Chop the dark cover and melt 2/3 of it in a water bath (no more than 40 degrees). Incorporate the rest of the coverage and let it melt at a maximum of 30 degrees. Heat to 32 degrees while stirring.
5. To finish the truffle chocolates, dip the balls in the liquid coating with a fork and let them drain on a rack. As soon as nothing drips, let the chocolates dry on baking paper. Sprinkle with chopped nuts or pure cocoa before the chocolate hardens.

3. SPICY GINGER CHOCOLATES WITH ORANGE

Ingredients (for about 20-25 chocolates):

• 400 g milk chocolate
• 100 ml cream
• 25 grams of butter
• 40 g ginger (candied in syrup + 2 teaspoons syrup)
• 2 – 3 drops orange oil (for food use)

Elaboration:

1. Melt 300 g of chocolate in a water bath.
2. Pour the melted chocolate into the ice cube pan to the brim. Let the chocolate dry in the pan for about 5 minutes. Now pour the rest of the chocolate, which is not yet solid, out of the mold so that you have the holes of the ice bucket lined. Collect the rest of the chocolate and let the mold cool for 2 hours.
3. Finely chop the ginger with a little syrup.
4. Bring the cream to a boil in a saucepan, reserve and melt 100 g of chocolate while stirring. Then add the butter first, then the ginger and finally the orange oil.
5. Use a piping bag to fill the ganache almost to the edge of the ice bucket and let cool overnight.
6. Now melt the remaining chocolate again and use it to seal in the blanks.
7. Cool to room temperature for about 1 hour and, when firm, carefully remove the chocolates.