Elephants and pandas and chocolates, oh my!

Today I finished the peanut butter and sesame gianduja chocolates, which are the two fussiest ones to make.  The sesame is a mix of milk chocolate and tahini (sesame paste) on a base of dark chocolate mixed with homemade sesame croquant (caramelized sugar + toasted sesame seeds).  Delicious, but lots of steps and fairly time-consuming.  The peanut butter is perfectly straightforward (dark chocolate + peanut butter + confectioner’s sugar), but the gianduja needs to be tempered, which I’d never done before, and I had to scrub down the entire workspace after finishing the peanut butter ones, since I have a friend with a lethal peanut allergy.

Anyway, I had considered topping them with chopped peanuts and toasted sesame seeds, but decided that I wanted to play with my new custom transfer sheets!  So here they are:

The lines are a little blurry for my tastes – I was hoping for sharper details – but they look pretty darn cool nonetheless.  And they are seriously tasty!  I particularly love the sesame, with the creamy milk chocolate-tahini center and the crunchy sesame croquant underneath.

And, for those who prefer more technical views, here is a shot of some nicely-cast chocolate shells, ready for filling:

The one thing I did NOT do today, however, is dye the fabric for the Autumn Splendor muslin.  I thought about it and decided that one messy, time-consuming, space-hogging activity was enough. Dyeing and chocolate are totally incompatible activities, since dyes shouldn’t be used around food, and chocolate leaves greasy smudges on everything (which will ruin a dye job).  And chocolate is taking up all my extra space indoors, leaving no room for batching the dyed fabric.  So I think I will focus on weaving for the next few days – I have one and a half more dark panels to weave, which should keep me busy through the beginning of Chocopalooza!

Off  to the loom!