Recipe: orange chocolate lollypops

Preheat the oven to 150°C.  Bring the water and sugar to the boil. Pour into a bowl with the slivered almonds, stir to combine and sprinkle with sugar.  Transfer to a baking tray and bake in the oven for 10 to 15 minutes, turning the almonds half way through baking.  Set aside.

Chop the chocolate and melt over a bain-marie; remove from the heat.  Blend in the praline, followed by the butter.  Fold in the candied orange peel, then the feuilletine (crushed Gavottes® crêpes).  Roll out on a sheet of parchment paper.  Cover with a second sheet of paper and roll to 4 mm thick.  Refrigerate for 30 minutes.  Remove the sheets of paper and cut the crunchy orange praline into 6 x 3 cm rectangles.  Set aside.

In a saucepan, bring the cream and honey to the boil.  Melt the milk chocolate over a bain-marie.  Pour the hot liquid onto the milk chocolate and mix gently with a whisk.  Fold in the praline, then the Cointreau®.  Refrigerate for 30 minutes.

Coarsely chop the milk couverture chocolate.  Prepare a large bowl with cold water.  Place the chocolate in a bowl; melt over a bain-marie of gently simmering water.  The bottom of the bowl should not touch the water; shine and smoothness may be lost.  Heat until the temperature reaches 45°C on a cooking thermometer.

Remove the bowl from the heat and place over the bowl of cold water; stirring continually with a spatula to cool and until the temperature decreases to 26°C.

Remove the bowl from the cold water and return to the bain-marie to reheat, stirring gently, on and off the heat if necessary to avoid over heating the bowl and heating the chocolate too fast.  When the chocolate reaches 29°C, remove immediately from the bain-marie.  The chocolate should be smooth and shiny; it is ready to be used.

Use a brush to coat the lollypop mould imprints with tempered milk chocolate.  Refrigerate for 5 minutes or until the chocolate is set.  Keep the tempered chocolate at 28-30°C.  Whisk the praline ganache to emulsify and lighten in colour.  Transfer to a pastry bag.  Pipe the ganache into the chocolate coated imprints to half full. Position the wooden sticks into the space for the sticks. Place a crunchy orange praline rectangle into each imprint.  Fill each imprint with remaining praline ganache.  Smooth the surface with a metal spatula to remove excess ganache.  Pour a little tempered chocolate onto the imprints and immediately smooth with the metal spatula.  Transfer to the freezer for 2 hours.  Keep the tempered chocolate at 28-30°C.

Unmould the lollypops, and one by one, dip into the tempered chocolate.  Leave to drain, then place the bars onto a clean work surface.  Add the crispy almonds straight away.