“Fun and easy” is a phrase rarely linked to “elegant and artistic.” Unless you’re talking about chocolate modeling clay, an edible and delicious substance that families can make at home with just two ingredients.
Besides being yummy, it’s laughably simple: Chocolate is gently melted, blended with corn syrup, and left to harden. Then it can be kneaded and manipulated, just like Play-Doh or modeling clay. Only this clay is delightfully edible.
Tots to teens to pastry chefs can all use this pliable chocolate to create fun, original treats and decorations.
Children like rolling it flat with rolling pins and cutting it with cookie cutters, fashioning it freehand into birds and butterflies, or making tiny stick-figure people in funny poses. Top the little figures by putting a ball of chocolate clay through a garlic press, and, voila! Chocolate hair! Or, make lovely roses (we’ll show you how) and other flowers or shapes to adorn baked goods.
If you have Play-Doh toys, get them out, wash them in a sinkful of soapy water, rinse and let dry completely. Or just open your kitchen cabinets and see what you have to “play” with: a rolling pin, garlic press and assorted cookie cutters, for starters.
“I’ve never known anybody who started playing with this who didn’t go beyond it, coming up with ideas I’ve never thought of,” says Elaine Gonzalez, a master chocolatier with decades of experience. Gonzalez demonstrates chocolate art at festivals, trade shows and conferences around the world. “They make all kinds of things. It’s endless.
“The kids could be the ones to direct what they’ll make,” she adds. “This is like clay, and they’re accustomed to using it.”
Making chocolate roses, in particular, is where ease marries elegance, and fun begets art. Gonzalez’s technique has beginners producing chef-worthy results.
But the options really are endless. Unleash your inner child (as well as the one who’s working with you) and try anything.
Roll three “snakes” and braid them. Or make a bow: Roll the chocolate clay flat, cut into strips, form the strips into loops, and pinch loops together at the base. Or use your sweet clay to make several original, tiny “candies.” Put each in a ruffled paper candy liner, group them in a pretty box and present as a gift.
“The clay really lends itself to creativity,” Gonzalez says. “The roses can be made by kindergartners. You don’t have to have artistic ability.
“People have more skill than they think they have,” she adds. “Once they have ‘chocolate eyes,’ there’s no stopping them. They find ideas everywhere.”
How to shape
chocolate roses
These instructions for crafting a chocolate rose are adapted from Elaine Gonzalez’s book “The Art of Chocolate.” They’re lovely as is, or they can decorate cakes, cupcakes, cookies or even a bowl of vanilla ice cream.
1
Form 9 balls of clay, each no larger than a garbanzo bean. Place the balls on a sheet of plastic wrap. Cover the balls with another sheet of plastic. Using your thumb, press each ball flat into a disk: One end should be paper thin and the other should be about
1/4
-inch thick. Gently remove the top layer of plastic.
2
Lift the first petal by its thick edge, holding it so the thin edge is at the top. Roll it into a tepee shape — narrow at the top, flared at the base. (Don’t stress. This is the center of the rose, and little of it will show.)
3
Peel another disk off the plastic. Hold so its thin edge is even with the tepee’s top edge. Wrap this second disk around the tepee, pinching lightly at the base to form a petal. Turn the bud in your hand. Attach a third petal, overlapping the second and keeping top edges even. Turn the bud and attach a fourth petal. Continue with remaining petals.
4
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As you attach each petal, use your finger to roll the top edges of each petal back slightly, making it look as if the rose is blooming. Pinch off, or clip with scissors, any excess clay at the base. (You can use it to make more balls.) Use the rose immediately, or air-dry on wax paper for two days before storing in an airtight container at room temperature for up to a year. Don’t refrigerate.
5
To make leaves for your roses, roll the clay flat with a rolling pin. Cut out a leaf with a craft or paring knife. Trace veins in the leaf; lift it and drape it over the back of a spoon or the rolling pin, so it will dry curved.
— C.S.M.
Nesting instinct
We made this bird’s nest by feeding the dough through a garlic press and gently clumping it together into a nest. Though we used small balls of colored clay for eggs, jelly beans would work too.
First, make and mold the clay
1
To make a batch of chocolate clay, heat 10 ounces of semisweet chocolate chips (or coarsely chopped bars) in a microwave-safe bowl 1 minute at 50 percent power; stir. Repeat. If it still hasn’t melted, repeat at 50 percent power in 15-second increments, stirring after each. You want it just melted, not hot or cooked.
2
Stir in
1/3
cup light corn syrup with a plastic spatula until combined and mixture no longer looks shiny.
3
Turn the chocolate clay onto a sheet of wax paper, spreading it flat into a 7-inch square. Let dry, uncovered, 2 hours or overnight. Break clay into pieces; use immediately, or store covered in an airtight container or sealable plastic bag for weeks. Do not refrigerate.
4
When you’re ready to work with it, knead the chocolate on the counter using the heel of your hand. At first it will crumble, but it will become pliable as you knead. (If it gets sticky in your warm hands, set that piece aside to cool a bit before returning to it.)
White clay:
For a multicolored approach, make clay with white chocolate, then add food coloring to create
a range of spring or Easter-hued treats or decorations such as tiny eggs, flowers or leaves.
What’s commonly called white chocolate is sold in grocery and hobby stores as “confectionery coating,” often in blocks. Follow the same procedure as the semisweet chocolate clay, except use just
1/4
cup light corn syrup.
Color the clay with gel or paste food coloring, which won’t dilute your dough. (Gel food coloring, such as the Betty Crocker brand, is sold in many supermarkets. Paste colors are sold in kitchenware and craft stores.)