~ Curious Charlie ~

Mini Chocolate Christmas Puddings @ Tuesday, December 06, 2011

Last night I made Mini Chocolate Christmas Puddings ^^, for all the staff (who are nice to me, with one exception, no points for guessing, I've already mentioned who he is). The packaging was the hardest part - other than the motivation to move it. For the presentation I found clear cellophane bags $3 for 40 (though there were about 38 in the bag I got) from one of those amazing cheap asian shops (similar to the $2 Shop, but better), I'll explain it later. I had one pudding per a bag - though I believe two is ideal, as the receiver can have one, and they'll give the other one to say their partner. I think that's nicer, rather than having one. Though the good thing about having them individually packed is that you have twice as many. I made 35 (one was all cracked), there are two 2 packs, and the rest are one packs, though I think I only needed about 24.

Mini Chocolate Christmas Puddings

Ingredients:
- Arnott's Dark Royals Biscuits (each pack has 12)
- White chocolate melts
- Mint leaves (Safeway brand, it's candy)
- Red m&ms

Method:
1. Chill the royals, leave in fridge till you need them
2. Line a tray with baking paper (get one big another to have all the royals on it)
3. Sort the m&ms (kids love doing this)
4. Cut the mint leaves in half horizontally, making the leaf half the width (if not it's too thick to stay on)
5. Melt the white chocolate, I used a glass bowl and measuring jug. Chocolate in jug, jug in bowl, hot water in bowl. Though you can use a double boiler. Also I find it's easier to make enough chocolate to work with 12 at a time.
6. Take the royals out from fridge. Place on tray, do leave room between them a little.
7. Using a knife point, cut off the top of the royal (the pointy bit, it makes the things stick better)
8. Using a teaspoon spoon half a tsp of chocolate onto the top of the royal, let it drizzle down the sides, but don't put so much that it drizzles onto the baking paper and covers the entire royal.
9. Place a mint leaf and m&m onto the chocolate coated royal immediately, hold for 5 seconds.
10. Leave to set.

Notes:
- this recipe makes 12
- Royals have a biscuit base, a marshmallow inside and dark chocolate coating. They come in Milk Chocolate too, but they have a layer on jam - and not everyone likes that, plus it would make them too sweet. oh and safeway sometimes has royals 2 packs for $8
- use 2 white melts per royal
- don't use real mint leaves - they will wither (shrink, dries, dies - doesn't look nice)
- currently in the xmas season you can get packs of m&ms that only come in red & green

Presentation:
If you're hosting a party, you could display it like Bianca. Or if giving them out at work you could package them the way we did. Place them in clear cellophane bags and decorating them is up to you, and limitless - but do remember that if you stick a ribbon on it, most people won't keep it. I found clear cellophane bags $3 for 38 from Stuff 'n' Nonsense at Chadstone (these bags, especially in clear are hard to find, I called up 6 places before finding them). Placed 1-2 in each bag (pure genius, didn't figure out that two fit in each bag till the end) and seal (the bags have a seal on them). To finish it off I added a thank you sticker. You can do anything with the thank you stickers, the design.

Tilt to the left 90 degress - blogger decided it wants to rotate this picture.