Matterhorn Chocolates Recipe with Honey and Spruce Needle Oil

Name: Matterhorn Chocolates Recipe with Honey and Spruce Needle Oil
Prep time: 30 min
Cook time: 30 min
Total time: 240 min
Yield: 40
Cuisine: Switzerland
Ingredients: 70 g whole cream; 10 g glucose; 5 g sorbitol; 5 g butter; 140 g milk couverture; 10 g Swiss forest honey; 1 - 2 drops of spruce needle oil; 500 g couverture dark | tempered

Matterhorn chocolate with a forest-flavoured filling

Let’s be perfectly honest, we Swiss are pretty proud of the Matterhorn! Thanks to its unique, striking ‘shape’, it is rightly one of the country’s most famous landmarks. As the Matterhorn is very close to our hearts too – and, after all, it features in our logo – we thought it would be brilliant to create a praline mould that represents the Matterhorn. No sooner said than done – together with our Italian partner, we’ve developed this fantastic mould and filled it with a delicious, extraordinary filling. Our Swiss landmark is filled with a delicious honey and spruce needle ganache that instantly transports you to the mountainous landscape. Be sure to give the recipe a go and get your ownMatterhorn mould! We look forward to seeing your results!

Key figures

Quantity:40 pieces

Chilling time: approx. 30 minutes in total

Drying time: at least 2 hours

Difficulty: medium

Shelflife: 3 weeks

Ingredients

Double cream	70 g
Glucose	10 g
Sorbitol	5 g
Butter	5 g
Milk chocolate couverture	140 g
Swiss forest honey	10 g
Spruce needle oil	1–2 drops
Dark couverture chocolate \| tempered	500 g
White couverture \| tempered	A little

Manufacture

In a small pan, bring the double cream,glucose,sorbitoland butter to the boil. Stir constantly to prevent the mixture from burning. Once the cream has come to the boil, pourit over themilk chocolate dropsand leave thebowlto standfora moment. As soon as the drops start to melt, whisk everythingtogetherwell until you have a smooth mixture. Now stirinthe honey and thespruce needle oil. We recommend that you start by stirring in just one drop, then taste it, and only add a second drop if necessary. Transfer the finished ganache to apiping bagand leave it to cool at room temperature.

Now it’s time to fill the chocolate mould. It’s really important that you polish theMatterhorn mould thoroughly. The best way to do this is with a kitchen towel and a bit of patience. Make sure you get right into the edges of the mould too, so that they’ll have a lovely shine later on. Once the mould has been polished to a shine, you can start painting it. Dip a narrowbrushinto temperedwhite couvertureand use it to paint the tip of the mould. Paint no more than one row of the mould with the couverture.

Once the tips of the first row are nicely covered with white couverture, you can now dip a second brush intodark tempered couvertureand use it to coat the rest of the mould. Start the brush where the white couverture ends and spread the liquid chocolate neatly into the corners and edges. During this process, you can decide just how heavily you want your Matterhorn to be covered in ‘snow’. You can now create subtle gradients and shading effects on the mould. Turn the mould over every now and then to make sure that every part of it is covered in chocolate coating.

If you’re happy with the result, you can carefully scrape off the excess chocolate with a metal scraper and put it back into the bowl of your tempering machine.

Now pour the tempered dark couverture into a piping bag and cut off a large piece from the tip. Fill each mould cavity to the brim with the tempered chocolate.

Once the mould is completely filled with the tempered couverture, you need to tap it several times on your work surface to release any air bubbles. Now turn the praline mould completely upside down and pour the couverture back into the tempering machine’s container. As the chocolate flows out, tap the edge of the mould with the back of aspatula. This encourages more couverture to flow out, making the chocolate wall thinner. Next, run the right-hand side of the spatula along the underside of the Matterhorn mould to scrape off the excess chocolate and clean the mould. Finally, you can run a metal scraper over the mould once more to ensure it is really clean. Place the mould in the fridge for about 5 minutes.

Next, fill the pre-poured chocolate mounds with the cooled honey and spruce needle ganache. Make sure you don’t fill the mould right to the brim with the ganache, but leave about 1 mm of space at the top. Now leave the mould to set at room temperature for at least 2 hours. This allows a thin skin to form on the ganache, making it easier to seal the pralines.

Once the pralines have cooled, place the mould on your work surface, fill a piping bag with tempered dark couverture once more, and pipe a small ‘drop’ of the liquid chocolate onto each filled praline. Tap the mould lightly on the work surface again so that the chocolate spreads evenly, then scrape off any excess couverture with a metal spatula. Make sure the mould is really clean, as this is the only way you’ll be able to remove the pralines from thepolycarbonate mould easily.

Now place the mould back in the fridge for about 10 minutes. Once the chilling time is up, you can turn the mould out onto the work surface. To do this, simply stand the mould upright and then flip it onto the work surface with a bit of a flick. If the pralines do not ‘fall out’ automatically, you’ll need to put the mould back in the fridge for a further 3–5 minutes.

Storage & Shelf life

The finished chocolates will keep for about 3 weeks, but of course they taste best when fresh!

Why not follow us on Instagram and share your results with us! What does your Matterhorn look like? Do you prefer it completely covered in ‘snow’? Or just the peak? Or perhaps just one side? We can’t wait to see!