Chai tea pralines

We start with the ganache, as it needs to cool a little after preparation.

Put 225 g Milk couverture into a large glass bowl and melt it for 1.5 minutes at 600 watts in the microwave. If you don't have a microwave, a water bath works too.

Pour 135 g whole cream into a saucepan and add the contents of 2 chai tea bags.

Add 1 tsp Cinnamon powder and stir gently, then bring the mixture to the boil. Once it boils, take the pan off the heat and let the cream steep for 10 minutes. This way it absorbs the full aroma of the tea and spices.

After the 10 minutes, heat the cream once more and then remove it from the heat. Pass it through a small sieve directly onto the melted chocolate. Press down with a spoon so that all of the cream runs through and only the tea leaves remain in the sieve.

Stir the cream into the melted chocolate until you have a smooth, glossy ganache. Finally, add 15 g soft butter and stir again until fully melted.

Fill the ganache into a piping bag. Stand it in a measuring cup so you have both hands free. Leave the ganache at room temperature while you prepare the chocolate shells.

For the shells you will need 500 g dark Callebaut couverture, 3 to 4 polycarbonate praline molds, a cake rack, some cotton wool, a chocolate scraper, a Thermometer and a dough scraper.

Clean the molds with a dry piece of cotton wool and do not rinse them under water before use! The cotton wool removes the last small traces of dirt and limescale. Otherwise you will get marks on the chocolate, and the pralines may stick in the mold.

If you melt chocolate without observing specific temperatures, it develops white or grey streaks and will not release from the mold. So follow the temperature guidelines exactly, and it will shine beautifully and release easily.

We temper using the seeding method, the simplest approach: melt two thirds of the couverture in 1-minute bursts at 600 watts in the microwave until it reaches 42 to no more than 48 °C. Then add the remaining third of unmelted chocolate and let everything cool to about 31 °C.

Always work with couverture rather than supermarket chocolate bars, as the latter is stretched with fat. We particularly like Valrhona and Callebaut.

Put 375 g dark couverture into a glass bowl, as glass distributes heat nicely and evenly. Warm it for 1 minute at 600 watts, never more, or the chocolate will scorch and become hard. Then stir gently and carefully until it has completely melted, and give it time.

If you are unsure, check the temperature with the Thermometer after stirring for a minute: it should read 45 °C. If it is still too cold, warm it again for 10 to 20 seconds. Be careful, though, that it does not rise above 48 °C. At 50 °C it scorches and crystallises, and then it can no longer be saved.

Once the chocolate has melted completely and reaches 45 °C, add the remaining 125 g of unmelted couverture. Now be patient: it is normal that not everything melts right away. At this stage, do not heat the chocolate under any circumstances.

The unmelted chocolate brings cocoa butter crystals with it, which ensure that the pralines will shine later. During this, the chocolate cools to 31 to 32 °C, the perfect working temperature for dark chocolate. If it is warmer, the shells become too thin; below 29 °C, they become too thick.

Get everything ready: the molds cleaned with cotton wool, a cake rack with a container or baking paper underneath for the excess chocolate, the Schokoladenspachtel and baking paper to protect the work surface. Otherwise chocolate makes a mess of everything!

The quantity is enough for several molds, but always work on one mold at a time.

Pour plenty of chocolate into the Praline mold so that all the cavities are filled. Spread it evenly into every hollow with the Schokoladenspachtel.

Tap the mold on the table or with a small rolling pin so that the air bubbles rise. This is very important: otherwise you will see holes on the surface of the pralines after demolding.

Then pour the excess chocolate back into the Bowl. Tilt the mold while doing so and use the scraper to help the chocolate run off well.

Draw the scraper firmly across the mold so that it becomes as clean as possible. It should look like this afterwards: thin, even shells and clean edges.

Place the mold upside down on the cake rack and let it drain for at least 5 minutes. Then scrape over the mold once more with the scraper so that it is completely clean, and put it in the freezer for 5 minutes.

Pipe the chai cinnamon ganache into the moulds and fill them about three quarters full. Don't fill them to the top: leave 2 to 3 mm free so you can seal the moulds with chocolate afterwards. Place the mould in the freezer for 10 minutes.

Now comes the final step! Pour the tempered chocolate over the filled moulds. If it has become too thick, warm it for 10 seconds at 600 watts in the microwave. Make sure it does not get warmer than 33 °C.

Scrape the mould clean once more and place it in the freezer for a final 10 minutes.

Now it's time to take the pralines out of the mould! If you tempered the chocolate correctly, they will release on their own: simply turn the mould over onto baking paper, and the pralines will fall out.

If they don't come out by themselves, tap the mould on the table. Don't worry, it is very sturdy and won't break. Tadaa! And look at that shine: that is the sign of successful tempering.