Chocolate Covered Raspberry Roses

Directions

1. Modeling Chocolate
2. If your dark chocolate is in a bar, break it up in to small pieces for even melting.
3. Place chocolate pieces in a double boiler (I use a metal bowl over a pot of simmering water) and stir till melted.
4. Remove bowl from pot and let chocolate cool until it is 91 F. If you do not have a thermometer, you can test the temperature by placing a dot of the chocolate on your lips. It should no longer feel hot. If it still feels hot, wait awhile longer.
5. When your chocolate has reached 91 F, add in the corn syrup. Stir quickly and scrape the sides of the bowl to incorporate all the melted chocolate.
6. Pour your chocolate out onto a cool surface like a metal counter, marble slab, or chilled sheet pan. (I ended up just using my silpat but I had opened all my windows in the middle of winter to make it cold enough.)
7. Knead the chocolate on the chilled surface until it comes together much like playdoh and develops a glossy shine. If your chocolate starts getting greasy or sticky, it is probably too hot. Let is sit for a little while before continuing kneading. If your hands are too warm, run them in cold water before kneading.
8. When your chocolate clay is pliable and glossy, mold it into a thin, flat disc shape. Wrap it in saran wrap and put it into a container. Let it sit for at least 30 minutes before using. It can sit much longer (I usually let it sit overnight.) It will dry out the longer you leave it out. If you leave it too long--more than a week--you may need a drop or two of corn syrup to help bring it back to a pliable state.

1. Chocolate Covered Raspberry Roses
2. Melt the dark chocolate using the same method used for the modeling chocolate.
3. Raspberries, unlike strawberries, do not have a center to stab a skewer through. Because of this, their bottoms with the hole must be dipped in chocolate to keep the skewer in place. Dip each raspberry in chocolate and set them on a cooling rack (or another similarly gridded contraption) with the chocolate side facing up.
4. Watch the chocolate set up and suppress the urge to eat all of the chocolate dipped raspberries. When the chocolate is almost set--it will start to look almost matte instead of shiny, slide a skewer into the chocolate.
5. Let the skewered raspberries continue to set until the chocolate has hardened enough to grip the sticks.
6. Take each skewered raspberry and dip completely into melted chocolate. Place dipped raspberry in a jar or glass. Multiple skewers can be placed in a glass, but don't let the raspberries touch or they will stick together.
7. Let the chocolate covered raspberries set. You can speed up this process by putting them in the fridge, but I left them at room temperature overnight.
8. Take you modeling chocolate (that should have hardened a bit), break off a small piece, and knead it till it becomes pliable again. Once again, colder temperatures are your friend here. Chocolate likes to become unruly when it gets too warm.
9. Start making the petals. Roll a small ball out and flatten chocolate into a circle roughly the size of a silver dollar. This can be done with your hands or, alternatively, if you have a small circle cookie cutter or the sort used for fondant roses, you can use that. I also used a plastic dowel from some forgotten utensil as a makeshift rolling pin. Don't make it too thin because you need the thickness to help blend it with the other petals. Make three circles like this.
10. Make four circles of chocolate about 30% larger than your first three circles.
11. Take one chocolate raspberry and one small circle. wrap the circle around the raspberry, pinching the edges of the petal to flatten it to make it more rose like. The first petal should be wrapped pretty closely around the raspberry, since this is the beginning of the bud.
12. Repeat this process with the other small circles, overlapping each over the prior petal.
13. Take your larger circle and repeat the process of attaching the petal, but this time, let the top edge flare out slightly. Only blend the bottom edge about a third of the way up.
14. Repeat this process with the other larger circles, overlapping each over the prior petal, and letting the edges flare out progressively more and more.
15. This number of petals will make rose buds. If you want a rose in full bloom, add 3 to 4 more of the larger circles and repeat the process until you are satisfied with the look of the rose.
16. Repeat the petal process on each chocolate covered raspberry. This may take you more than one session to finish, especially if your work space is too warm. If so don't fret, rewrap your modeling chocolate, and stash the chocolate covered raspberries in the fridge or a cool, dry place. Come back to it when the chocolate is cool again and you're re-energized.
17. For presentation, place your skewers in a wide mouthed vase or tall mason jar. Tie a ribbon around the rim and present to your sweetheart! (Or just consume them all yourself, chocolate covered raspberries are delicious!)