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Panyan beans are the best chocolate beans ever. They need very little processing and you just warm them up in a pan with a little milk or butter and sugar and they turn instantly into the most delicious chocolate. Unfortunately panyan beans do not grow anywhere on the planet Earth. The Lombarders could only get them when they went to the planet Panya.
However, it is possible to cheat a little and use chocolate chips – the sort you put in muffins, cakes and biscuits. And the better the chocolate chips, the better the Lombardy Chocolates turn out.
Also, fun for decorating, are chocolate strands or chocolate vermicelli. Again, the better the chocolate the better the Lombardy Chocolates turn out. They also look nice if you put them in little paper sweet-cups.
The following places supply some of the things you might need for making really chocolaty Lombardy Chocolates:
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Sweet papers (bonbon cups): Lakeland at http://www.lakeland.co.uk/product.aspx/kitchenideas/baking!11748_11744 |
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Chocolate chips: Montezuma’s at http://www.montezumas.co.uk/littlebits/?g=6 |
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Solid chocolate: Montezuma’s at http://www.montezumas.co.uk/cooking/showitem.asp?&r=14&g=37&i=887&pg=1 |
Do get an adult to help you with this, as you will be working with a heavy pan which will become very hot.
| 100g | chocolate chips or solid chocolate broken into chunks |
| 100g | unsalted butter |
| 250g | icing sugar |
| a few drops | vanilla essence |
| 48 | bonbon cups (optional) |
| 1. | Melt the butter and the chocolate very slowly over a low heat in a heavy-bottomed saucepan. |
| 2. | Stir in a few drops of vanilla essence. |
| 3. | Turn out the heat. |
| 4. | Put the icing sugar into a large bowl. |
| 5. | Slowly stir the melted chocolate, butter and vanilla essence into the icing sugar until you have an even, stiff mixture. |
| 6. | Form small balls about 1.5cm diameter, and place each ball in a bonbon cup. (If you’ve not managed to get bonbon cups, just spread the balls over a piece of parchment, grease-proof paper of aluminium foil on a tray.) |
| 7. | Sprinkle with coca or chocolate powder, or with icing-sugar, or with chocolate strands |
| 8. | Keep in a cool, dry place until they are firm, then store in a larder or fridge. Eat within two days, though they will probably be gone long before that. |
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