Punch-praline

A happy first Advent to you all! The Advent wreath is on the table, the Christmassy tablecloth out of the cupboard and outside it's snowing - like ordered. Christmas is great, everyone is baking like crazy and I can keep a low profile ;-)

Freddy (my new oven) goes off like a rocket and so I cannot wait to get up in the morning to switch him on. I just baked Christmas-Brownies and now I am preparing dinner (pumpkin dumplings with vegan schnitzel and redwine sauce).

Yesterday I made these pralines. Finest dark chocolate filled with a cream of punch and white chocolate...hmmmm.

For 20 pcs.:

For the punch-essence:
8 fl. oz vegan redwine (250ml)
4 pinks
Cinnamon, cardamom, coriander
Grated rind of half a lemon
Juice and rind of a orange
5 tablespoons gelling sugar (or Pektin with raw cane sugar)

Boil up the redwine with spicery, orange juice and citrus zest. Stir in the gelling sugar and cook it like mentioned on the packing. Take it of the cooker and let it chill over nigth.
You need about 4-6 tablespoons (about the half) of the punch essence for the praline filling. The rest fits quite well into some cups of hibernal fruit tea.

For the punch-cream:

7 oz vegan cream (200g)
3-4 vegan white chocolate (100g)
1-2 oz coconut fat (25-50g)

Cool the cream well, then whip it. Melt and add the chocolate and coconut fat. The more fat you add, the stiffer gets the filling. Take 1 oz (25g) for the punch cream, if you prefer a mousse, take 2 oz (50g). At last stir in 4-6 tablespoons of previously made punch essence. Let the finished punch cream chill for 2-3 hours.

In the meantime you can prepare the chocolate mould:
8 oz dark chocolate (250g)

Temper the choclate. The lighter the choclate is, the less sensitve it is regarding heat and doesn't form unlovely streaks. Melt 5 oz of dark chocolate at 108°F (42°C), then add the remaining chocolate and cool it down too a bit below 86°F (30°C). Now it can be used.
Pour the chocolate into moulds and strip off the excessive mass, then let it drip off.
Cool the moulds for half an hour, then fill in the mousse/cream and let it chill for another half an hour. At last seal the bottom of the pralines with the remaining chocloate and let it cool of for at least one hour.

Now you know why I didn't manage to do anything else yesterday ;-). The permanent cooling, tempering and cooling again took the whole day. But the result was worth the effort. The chocolate cracks nicely and glazes terrifically!