Black Coffee Patties




Black Coffee
Patties




Some years ago, I was given a box of Bentinck's chocolates—not their peppermint assortment (which I've had since), but an assortment of coffee-flavoured chocolates.   Among them was a patty filled with coffee fondant and coated with bitter chocolate.   I thought it was delicious; but I think it cannot have sold well and been discontinued, for I have never seen it since.   This is my attempt to make something similar, based on a recipe for peppermint patties.



Ingredients


½ lb icing sugar
2 tbsp white corn syrup
4 tsp freeze-dried coffee
1 tbsp butter (unsalted)
1 tbsp milk
6 oz unsweetened chocolate (i.e., 6 squares,
        if you are using unsweetened baking chocolate)





Directions


Making the Fondant
Put the icing sugar, corn syrup, instant coffee, butter, and milk in a mixing bowl.   Mix them together with a spurtle or wooden spoon.   Let stand for at least one hour.   Then knead well.

Initial Preparation
Place a piece of waxed paper on a baking sheet.   You will be putting the finished patties on this, and setting them aside for the chocolate to get hard; so you want the waxed paper to be supported by something you can pick up and move.

Shaping the Patties
Roll out the fondant on a clean flat surface (such as the kitchen counter) that has been dusted with icing sugar.   Roll the patties quite thin—no more than a quarter of an inch thick, at most.
        Using a circular hors d'oeuvres cutter or a small liqueur glass, stamp the fondant out into discs.   Lay these on a piece of waxed paper on the kitchen counter.

Dipping the Patties in Chocolate
Melt the unsweetened chocolate in the top of a double boiler.   Be careful not to scorch the chocolate, nor to get any steam in it.
        Using a chocolate dipper or a fork, lift one of the centres and dip it into the chocolate.   (If you are using a fork, don't spear the patty with it.   Just slide it underneath.)
        Turn the patty so that it gets completely coated on both sides
        Gently remove the patty, and put it on the sheet of waxed paper that you laid on the baking sheet.   Repeat the process with the rest of the centres, making sure to set each a little apart from the others, so their chocolate coating doesn't touch.
        When all the centres have been dipped, set the chocolates in a cool place until the coating has hardened.

Storage
When the chocolate coating on the patties is hard, put them in a tin.   Store them in a cool place, such as a pantry or a lower shelf in the refrigerator.

Makes several dozen patties.





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All original material on this webpage copyright © Greer Watson 2006.