Salted Chocolate: And A Wedding

Create your own homemade salted chocolate and wow friends and family alike. All you need for this recipe is some good quality milk chocolate, fleur de sel, chocolate moulds and a bit of time. It makes a fabulous homemade gift.

It was my lovely cousin’s wedding last weekend and as she was getting married to a Welshman, the wedding took place in Wales. Now this was not your average wedding but a rather grand affair lasting three days. Due to work commitments, they had no time for a honeymoon.

The three days gave the bride and groom a chance to spend time with their family and friends and likewise gave me an opportunity to have a proper catch up with my family.

Day one was a spa day for some, with others such as myself, meeting the bride to be in the evening for a glass of champagne. CT and I took the opportunity to visit Shaheen at her vegan cafe in Newport.

Prior to the trip, I wanted to make my cousin something as a pre-wedding soother. And chocolate seemed the appropriate choice.

Salted Milk Chocolate

I wasn’t sure what her preferences for chocolate were, but guessed she might be a milk chocolate sort of girl. I decided to make a bar of salted milk chocolate and also some plain milk chocolate spoons in case she didn’t like the salted option. Luckily, this turned out to be a favourite of hers.

I also used a Good Luck label mould that I bought from Sew White just before Christmas along with the chocolate spoon moulds. So, it was time to put some of the tips I’d learnt from this chocolate course to good use and try my hand at chocolate tempering once again.

I used a Golden Ticket mould, sent over from the chocolate queen herself Celia of Fig Jam and Lime.

The next day, the Golden Ticket looked beautiful. Sadly, the spoons had bloomed and did not look beautiful at all. I suspect that my digital thermometer has not been calibrated correctly (mainly because I couldn’t figure out how to do it) and is showing a lower temperature than the actual one.

I’m assuming that as the salted chocolate had been left longer and was stirred a second time, it had in fact cooled to the correct temperature, whilst the first batch was still too hot.

Salted Milk Chocolate Top Tip

Grease your moulds very lightly with a neutral oil such as sunflower oil. Use a piece of kitchen towel to do it. This makes it easier to release the chocolates from their moulds and helps to keep them shiny. I didn’t do it on this occasion.

The Wedding

The Wedding Day itself dawned bright and fair, but there was still a decided nip in the air. Caerphilly Castle proved to be a rather impressive setting for the wedding. It was built in the 13th Century by an English baron at the time of Henry III in a successful bid to keep the Welsh at bay.

Surrounded by a moat and lakes, this is the second biggest mediaeval castle in Britain, Windsor being the first. It is particularly famous now for its leaning tower, damaged during the Civil War, which, whilst not quite as tall as the leaning tower of Pisa, inclines at a steeper angle. We had plenty of opportunities to explore the castle thoroughly.

Impressive the castle may have been, but warm it was not. There was many a goose pimple to be seen throughout the day and evening as we all shivered in our wedding finery. Stiletto heels were in abundance. How they coped with the terrain I do not know, but thankfully no injuries occurred.

The bride looked absolutely stunning and the wedding breakfast (at 16:30) was impressive. The waiting staff were excellent – friendly, but professional. Not only did they manage to serve the food so it arrived hot but more importantly they delivered it to the right people.

My vegetarian options were scrumptious. I had a saffron, pea and asparagus risotto to start with and a tomato polenta stack for my main course. The pudding was a chocolate fondant which was appreciated by all.

We’d previously enjoyed canapés along with champagne up in one of the towers. How those stilettos made it up and down the ancient spiral staircase, I’ll never know. The canapés were also served warm and were particularly welcome. Speeches and dancing followed with the bride and groom doing an impressive first dance inspired by Dirty Dancing.

They must have been practising for quite some time as they were excellent.

There were so many nice touches. We all had a thank you present laid on the wedding breakfast table and there were vases of white hydrangeas everywhere. The wedding cake was in fact a cupcake tower and looked very impressive.

Wedding Day Three

Day three of the wedding was another gathering of family and friends. This time for a hefty lunchtime meal in a nearby inn, with lashings of punch for those not driving.

Many stayed the night, along with the bride and groom, but not us. With heavy stomachs but cheery hearts, CT, my mother and I wended our way back home to Cornwall.

Other Homemade Chocolate Recipes You Might Like

• Gingerbread chocolate truffles (vegan)
• Lemon balm chocolate truffles
• Mint chocolates
• Passionfruit caramel chocolates
• Sesame truffles (vegan)
• Swirled chocolate bark (so easy)

Keep in Touch

Thank you for visiting Tin and Thyme. If you make this salted chocolate, I’d love to hear about it in the comments below. Do you have any recommendations or advice for tempering chocolate?

Please rate the recipe. If you post pictures of your creations on social media, use the hashtag #tinandthyme so I can see them.

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If you’d like more event stories, follow the link and you’ll find I have quite a lot of them. All involving food, of course.

Choclette x

Salted Milk Chocolate. PIN IT.

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Salted Milk Chocolate

Create your own homemade salted chocolate and wow friends and family alike. All you need for this recipe is some good quality milk chocolate, fleur de sel, chocolate moulds and a bit of time.

Cook ModeToggle to keep screen awake

Prep Time30 minutes mins

Cook Time0 minutes mins

Setting Time30 minutes mins

Total Time1 hour hr

Course: After Dinner

Cuisine: British

Keyword: chocolate

Servings: 4 people

Calories: 254kcal

Author: Choclette @ Tin and Thyme

Ingredients

• 200 g milk chocolate (I used Green & Blacks 38%)
• 1 pinch fleur de sel or other good quality salt

Metric – US Customary

Instructions

• Melt 150g of the chocolate in a bowl suspended over a pan of hot, but not boiling water.
• Remove from the heat and add the remaining 50g of chocolate. Stir until all of the chocolate has melted and the temperature has cooled to 29C.
• If wanting some unsalted chocolate, carefully spoon into your chocolate moulds. Mine went into six spoon moulds and one label mould.
• Add the fleur de sel to the remaining chocolate, stir then pour into your chocolate moulds. I used a Golden Ticket mould.
  1 pinch fleur de sel
• Leave in a cool place to set, but not the fridge. They should be ready in thirty minutes. Carefully turn the chocolates out of the moulds and pack up as desired.

Notes

Top tip is to grease your moulds very lightly with a neutral oil such as sunflower oil. Use a piece of kitchen towel to do it. This makes it easier to release the chocolates from their moulds and helps to keep them shiny. I didn’t do it on this occasion.

Please note: calories and other nutritional information are per serving. They’re approximate and will depend on serving size and exact ingredients used. Please refer to my nutrition disclaimer for further information.

Nutrition Estimate

Serving: 50g | Calories: 254kcal | Carbohydrates: 30g | Protein: 2g | Fat: 17g | Saturated Fat: 10g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 0.5g | Monounsaturated Fat: 6g | Sodium: 18mg | Potassium: 145mg | Fiber: 3g | Sugar: 26g | Calcium: 12mg | Iron: 1mg

Tried this recipe?Leave a comment below letting us know how you got on and do share a photo on Instagram. Tag @choclette8 or use hashtag #tinandthyme.

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