Welcome to How To Cook That I am Ann Reardon
Today we are making chocolate nests.
You can use these as a dessert or decoration on top of a cake and they obviously taste
good because they are made of chocolate.
Firstly we need to make a concentrated sugar solution.
To do that add your sugar and water into a saucepan and stir until they are dissolved.
I'll put all the quantities that you need for this recipe on the website howtocookthat.net
in g and oz and cups and everything that everyone needs and I'll put a link to that recipe in
the description just below the video.
Bring it to the boil and then remove it from the heat.
Pour that into a sealed container and place it in the freezer for 2-3 hours to let it
chill right down.
You will see when you take it out the water on the sides fromt he condensation is frozen
solid but the sugar solution down the bottom is still liquid.
This is because adding sugar lowers the freezing point of the water.
And that is exactly what we want, something that is still liquid at zero degrees but is
food safe.
So sugar and water is safe we can use that with our chocolate.
Take some foil and lightly scrunch it up towards the middle so that you end up with a smooth
hemisphere.
You only want it lightly crushed so that way you can squeeze it smaller at the end to get
it out of the nest.
Pour your cold sugar syrup into a wide container.
Place the chocolate into a ziplock bag and cut off a tiny corner off.
Pipe chocolate across the top of the solution.
And you'll see it just floats on top.
Firstly we want to make lots of tiny sticks interwoven for the structure of our nest.
To do that run the bag quickly back and forth across the surface and then change the angle
so it criss-crosses to make it strong.
Using a fork quickly pull it off the cold solution before it has a chance to set firmly.
and drape it over the foil shape.
Continue to make more pieces like this and drape them over until all the foil is covered.
Make sure you temper your chocolate or it will not hold its shape of the nest at room
temperature if you are not sure what that means to temper chocolate then click to go
through to the channel at the end of this video and watch the videos on what chocolate
to use for decorations and how to temper.
Now we want to fuse all those pieces together so to do that just drizzle some more chocolate
over the nest in a few different directions to make sure they are all joined together.
Next to make some 3D twigs, to do that pipe chocolate along the surface of the cold syrup
and then pipe a branch going the other way and then just give it a push it down under
the solution before it is firm to give it a 3D shape.
And leave ti there to firm up and pipe some more.
These will make the nest look like it is made up of individual twigs and not just drizzled
chocolate.
Once they are set remove them using a fork and let them drain.
Use some melted chocolate to carefully put them into place where you think they need
to be.
Once you are happy with it take the nest and flip it over onto a serving plate.
Squeeze that foil to make it smaller and remove it from the nest.
Now add a few more detailed twigs around the top of the nest.
Some nests also have a dried out leaf in them that was on one of the twigs bird has used
when they were making the nest.
And sometime have feathers of course.
If you go to the How To Cook That Channel at the end of this video there are videos
there showing you how to make chocolate feathers and how to make chocolate leaves as well.
To make our eggs for inside the nest take some cake and crumble it up add to that some
melted chocolate and some flavour of your choice.
I am using a squeeze of orange juice and some orange rind.
I'll put the amounts of the ingredients that I used here on the website howtocookthat.net
Stir it together than shape it roughly into egg shapes and place it in the freezer to
firm up for about 30 minutes.
If you have an easter egg mold you can of course use that to make your eggs as well
and there is a video on that on the channel as well.
Once they are chilled give them another roll to make the shape more perfect.
Place your egg into tempered white chocolate.
and using a fork lift it out.
Tap on the fork to remove any excess chocolate and wipe the base of the fork on the edge
of the bowl, then carefully place it onto the non-stick paper.
If you want your eggs to look speckled scrape some beans from a vanilla bean and mix it
in.
Re-dip your egg to give it a second coat.
This helps give a really nice smooth finish.
and let that set then you can add an egg into each of your nests.
Subscribe to how to cook that for more chocolate, creative desserts and cakes, click here to
go through to the channel and watch the videos on tempering chocolate and how to make chocolate
leaves and chocolate feathers.
And this one will take you to the recipes on the website.
Put all of your requests in the comments below, don't forget to share the video and I'll see
you Friday.
[music youtube.com/setsail used with permission]