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Almond & Black Cherry Chocolate Bar

Created by Chef Jesús Escalera on behalf of the Almond Board of California

Difficulty

Hard

Ingredients
Serves: 40 pieces
Crunchy Chocolate Couverture Ingredients
  • Dark chocolate 70%
  • Half pipe molds
Black Cherry Pâte de Fruit Ingredients
  • 705 g of pitted black cherry
  • 45 g of amaretto
  • 75 g of glucose
  • 270 g of sugar
  • 12 g of yellow pectin
  • 12 g of citric acid
  • 12 g of water
Caramelized Almond Praline Ingredients
  • 280 g of almonds
  • 220 g of sugar
  • 24 g of almond oil
  • 2 g of soy lecithin
  • 2 g of salt
Caramelized Almond and Amaretto Ganache Ingredients
  • 100 g of heavy cream
  • 40 g of amaretto
  • 14 g of inverted sugar
  • 112 g of milk chocolate 35%
  • 58 g of butter
  • 144 g of almond praline (Previous elaboration)
  • 72 g of almond butter
Crunchy Almond Gianduja Ingredients
  • 350 g of almond praline (Previous elaboration)
  • 148 g of dark chocolate 70%
  • 16 g of cocoa butter
Ingredients
Serves: 40 pieces
Sprayer Chocolate Ingredients
  • 80 g cocoa butter
  • 80 g dark chocolate 70%
Unmolding and Finish of Chocolate Bars – Final Components
  • Molds with couverture and filling (Previous elaboration)
  • Powdered chocolate (Previous elaboration)
  • Caramelized almonds (Previous elaboration)
  • 70% dark chocolate
  • Chocolate Blonde 35%
Preparation
Crunchy Chocolate Couverture
  1. Melt the dark chocolate 70% in the microwave at about 45ºC and warm it to 31ºC.
  2. With the help of a sleeve or a ladle, fill the cavities of the molds and vibrate by tapping them gently with the handle of a spatula to eliminate any air bubbles.
  3. Dump over another empty bowl, vibrating the mold to drain as much chocolate as possible and get a thin layer of chocolate.
  4. Still upside down, remove excess chocolate with a spatula and allow to set for about 30 minutes.
Black Cherry Pâte de Fruit
  1. Crush the cherries with the amaretto until obtaining a puree.
  2. When it is over 50 ºC add the sugar mixed with the pectin in the form of rain.
  3. Bring to 104º C without stopping moving with a spatula, remove from heat and add the citric acid diluted with water.
  4. Leave to gel in a container at room temperature for at least 3 hours.
  5. Blend in a blender until obtaining a fine cream and pass through a fine strainer.
  6. Store in a pastry bag and fill 1/3 of the chocolate coating molds. Note: If it is not cherry season, use frozen cherries or frozen pulp.
Caramelized Almond Praline
  1. Put the almonds to toast in the oven at 180 ºC for approximately 15 minutes until they acquire a golden color.
  2. On the other hand, make a dry blond caramel with the sugar (160 ºC), add the toasted almonds, mix vigorously and remove from the heat.
  3. Dump on a baking sheet and allow to crystallize.
  4. Blend in a blender adding the almond oil in the form of a thread until you get a very fine paste, add the lecithin and salt and blend a little more.
  5. Reserve in a cool and dry place. Note 1: Soy lecithin has an emulsifying function to prevent our praline from separating the fat from the solid part.
Caramelized Almond and Amaretto Ganache
  1. Heat the cream with the invert sugar to 70 ºC.
  2. Pour little by little over the melted chocolate with the butter while mixing with a spatula.
  3. Add the amaretto and emulsify with a blender while we add the almond praline and finally the almond butter.
  4. Continue emulsifying until you get a homogeneous ganache, trying not to get air.
  5. Store in the sleeve and filling the molds 1/3 part over black cherries pâte de fruit. Note: For the almond butter, we will toast the almond and crush it in a blender or processor until we get a fine paste (we can add up to 10% oil if necessary to make it more fluid).
Crunchy Almond Gianduja
  1. Melt the chocolate and butter separately and mix with the almond praline.
  2. Emulsify with a blender until a homogeneous mixture is obtained, trying not to introduce air.
  3. Fill the rest of the mold, leaving 2 millimeters free.
Sprayer Chocolate
  1. Melt the cocoa butter at 50ºC and mix with the chocolate.
  2. Reserve in a container at room temperature until use.
Unmolding and Chocolate Bar Finish
  1. Melt the dark chocolate in the microwave at about 45ºC and warm it to 31ºC.
  2. With the help of a sleeve or a ladle, cover the surface of the mold where the filling is with a little chocolate.
  3. Pass the spatula over the surface of the mold so that the chocolate enters the holes in the cavities that we leave free when filling.
  4. Remove excess chocolate from the sides and refrigerate for 15 to 20 minutes to achieve proper crystallization.
  5. Take out of the refrigerator and give a few strokes so that all the chocolate bars are detached from the mold.
  6. Melt the sprayer chocolate, put the chocolate bars in a paint gun to get a velvet effect.
  7. Put a few points pipping with blond chocolate along the nougat and finish with a caramelised almond on one of these points.
  8. Let set and reserve in an airtight container.
Did you know?

In addition to almonds being a delicious ingredient in our recipes they’re also heart healthy, gut healthy, and full of vitamins and nutrients - explore Health & Nutrition to learn more. Not only that, almond farmers are dedicated to sustainability - find out how they’re Growing Good.