Aren't these chocolate mice ADORABLE ? I had such good fun making them. These are dark chocolate and filled with hazelnut ganache.
I made a load of traditional sugar mice too, with traditional cotton tails..... just because... ! The chocolate ones in the hand made box above are in the post to my mum. Hopefully they will have arrived today.
The sugar mice went to nursery (after Oliver scoffed a couple). He kept telling me "They're just so cute Mummy !". I must admit - I had fun photographing those.... with their cheeky little noses poking out the bag !
Incase you haven't already guessed, this is another brand new silicone mould in our chocolate collection series. You can find it here. Oven safe up to +260deg C - so you could also make some little miceMadeleines. If you do - I'd love to see those !
If you look closely at the mould, you will see that the three mice on the left have tails, whilst the three on the right do not. This is no accident ! Traditional sugar mice have cotton tails inserted into them, whilst I thought chocolate mice would look better with their tails curled up their backs. Having some with and some without felt like the right thing to do - so you have both options in just one mould
Chocolate Mice with Hazlenut Ganache
melt some good quality chocolate
(I like to use Callebaut - which comes in milk, dark and white)
Put about a heaped teaspoon or so (until well covered) in each mould. Use the back of the teaspoon to coat the inside of each cell. Pay particular attention to the ears and tails to make sure there are no air bubbles in there !
Once this is done, pop the mould in the fridge for 5 mins or so until the chocolate hardens.
Meantime, make some ganache as a filling.
350g of good quality chocolate (dark, milk or plain)
1 cup of double cream
2 tablespoons of butter
* small amount of your favourite alchohol - can be ommitted
I additionally added approx 2 tablespoons of chopped, roasted hazelnuts.
Put the cream in a pan and bring to the boil. Immediately, remove from the heat and our straight on to the chocolate. Keep stirring the chocolate and cream until all melted and combined. Stir in the butter until combined. If adding alcohol - you can add up to about 50ml now and stir to combine.
Whilst the ganache is pouring consistency (but cool) you can pour into the chocolate mice shells. There will be enouh ganache to make about 40 mice ! Remaining ganache can be chilled in the fridge. You can spoon this into more mice later - or hand roll to make truffles
Top each mouse cell with some more melted chocolate to seal. Chill again in the fridge to harden before releasing from the moulds.
Warning - these "beg" to be eaten..... and make delightful gifts. I've already promised Oliver we'll make a load for his friends when it's his birthday !
SUGAR MICE RECIPE
(makes approx 7)
200g sugarpaste / rolling type fondant icing
tiny little bit of water
flavouring extract
food colouring
cotton string - for tails !
Sugar mice are made from little except sugar and glucose.
The easiest way to make them is by traditional methods and I made a few batches of these to get them just right and write a recipe.
The sugarpaste / rolling icing is the stuff you can buy in premade blocks in the supermarkets, suitable for rolling out to cover cakes.... same as they have used to make every factory produced sugar mouse
Cut the string to make tails - about 3" long. Put a tail into each cell. This needs done now, as the mixture starts to set the second you pour it and the tails would not stick hen I tried to place them on top immediately after pouring.
Chop up 200g and place in a small saucepan. Add a tablespoon of water (be aware you may need to add a little more), a tiny bit of food colouring and a capful of flavouring extract. We used mint, orange and strawberry (made 3 batches). Turn on the heat and bring up to just below boiling point, until the icing is melted and thick, but pourable. You may need to add a little more water. The icing will crust in the pan and start setting even on the heat. Give it a good stir and pour into each cell.
On pouring each one, Pull the cotton tail (covered in sugar mix) back out and pop it on the top (to become the base)
Leave the mice to harden for approx 30mins until cool and then they'll practically fall out the mould. The mould needs no preparation for sugar or chocolate mice - but will require greasing and flouring if you want to make little mice cakes.
Leave to harden for a couple of days before using food colouring pens (or a brush) to put on the eyes and noses. I did mine straight away, and the colour bled a little as the mice hadn't matured. Saying that - they didn't last long enough to mature !
And a GIVEAWAY......It's been a while since we did one of these !
To enter, you need to be a blog follower and leave a comment below.....
Oliver will draw one winner out a hat next Friday :-)
The prize is going to be a set of 4 silicone chocolate moulds (buttons, mice, handbags & shoes, plus another new one I've not taken photos of yet), plus a digital thermometer (suitable for chocolate, making sweets, jam etc). I've also got a little chocolate melting pot (240v) if the winner is in the UK. If the winner is overseas, I'll substitute it with a cupcake book - Vegan Cupcakes Take Over The World (the chocolate cupcakes in second last post was a recipe adapted from that book)
Good Luck !
Sarah-Jane Nash, August 11 - www.siliconemoulds.com
