I did Chocolate Rose Leaves yesterday for the September Bake-Off. It was quite fun, as Hector said. I feel like a painter, using a small brush to apply the chocolate to the leaves. Out of 6 leaves 3 turned out. I think the reason why the rest didn’t turn out was because I apply too thin of a coating. I did 2nd coat of the rest and here’s the result. One of the leaves has a strange color - I’m not sure why. I do have a couple of questions. It was hard to avoid getting the chocolate on the other side of the leaves - and as a result, when I peel the leaves away, they all tore so I couldn’t reuse them. I wonder if there’s a technique to do this easier? Also, since I had all the melted chocolate, I thought of making a chocolate cup - using a small plastic cup. But the chocolate isn’t thin enough for me to be able to dip the plastic cup in (to coat the inside of it) and let the chocolate pour out of it. Am I using the wrong technique or the wrong chocolate? (It was Callebaut bittersweet chocolate from Whole Foods) or do I do something different to the chocolate?
PS: Sorry for the picture quality. I don’t have any software to modify picture size so this is a cut and paste job using the Microsoft Paint sofware .

Lemon leaves work well, and they’re a little more sturdy in my experience… you might want to try them sometime.  Try making chocolate cups by dipping small inflated balloons into melted chocolate.  place them on a silpat or waxed paper to harden, then pop the balloon and you’ll have a cute chocolate cup.

Jenn, your leaves look nice, I can see the veins and everything.  I saw on a YouTube video how just after painting the chocolate on, you clean any chocolate off the edges of the leaf so it will release more easily.  Your discolored leaf could be from chocolate that lost its temper- out of the “ideal” temp range- was it either first (chocolate too hot) or last (too cold) in the batch?

I was also hoping to make chocolate leaves, but am having a difficult time locating leaves.  I would love to get lemon leaves, but not from a florist, where they are sprayed with chemicals.  The sturdy leaves in my yard are poisonous (rhododendron, peony), and my maple tree has already changed color so the leaves (the few still left on the tree) are brittle and delicate.  I think I’m down to elm or lilac.

In any event, all that will need to wait until next week, today I am making pie crust leaves for the open face designer apple pie.

Julie - good point, I didn’t even think of the chemicals part. My rose leaves came from the florist. I’d have to remember to ask them about chemicals next time. I wonder if anyone else has suggestion about where to get the leaves. I want to make the designer apple pie too one of these days. Please post about your pie crust leaves. I’d love to hear about it.
Oh and the discolored leaves was one of the last ones I think.

Jenn, your leaves very good considering it’s the first time you made them. I have never attempted to make them so I cannot give you any suggestions or tips except that the chocolate may have lost its temper (as Julie mentioned) and that’s why that leaf turned out to be different.

You can order pesticide free foliage from the florist, but I’m sure it will cost more.  How about getting leaves from a friend’s garden?  I wonder if you could do this technique with silk leaves?

Or maybe you could use mint leaves. It’s edible and the veins are so clearly marked.

You can order pesticide free foliage from the florist

Or maybe you could use mint leaves

Patrincia and Rozanne, great ideas, thanks for the tips!

Thanks for the tips!

Rozanne - 23 September 2009 09:32 PM

Or maybe you could use mint leaves. It’s edible and the veins are so clearly marked.

What a great idea - I’m sure the leaves would impart a bit of their wonderful flavor to the chocolate as well.  They’re smaller than rose or lemon leaves too - I like when there are various shapes and sizes available.

Here’s my September Bake-Off entry - chocolate birthday cupcakes for one of my kids.  These cupcakes were originally intended to be the Designer Baby Grands pictured on page 304 of Rose’s Heavenly Cakes (flat with a glass-like surface of Lacquer Glaze).  However, my cupcakes did not come out of the oven flat at all.  As a matter of fact, they were quite domed (see photo).  Consequently, I opted to frost them with the Chocolate-Egg White Buttercream from page 302 instead of the lacquer glaze.  I did use the Chocolate Ganache Syrup in the baby grand recipe, but instead of brushing the ganache syrup on, I squirted it inside the cupcakes with a small plastic squeeze bottle.  I smoothed any extra ganache syrup puddles over the surface of the cupcakes before I applied the buttercream.  I haven’t sampled the cupcakes yet, but the buttercream is really good, and so simple since there’s no need to make a sugar syrup.

Patricia, they look great! Looking at these cupcakes is torture because I want one NOW   Happy b’day to your daughter or son.

Rozanne - 25 September 2009 01:30 PM

Patricia, they look great! Looking at these cupcakes is torture because I want one NOW   Happy b’day to your daughter or son.

Daughter - thanks

Oooo.. I wish I could have one of those now… They look so yummy Patrincia, great job applying the BC.. do you use piping bag with round tip?
I ordered RHC book, it’s supposed to arrive on Monday! I’m so excited… I want to join the bandwagon of baking my way through the book…

Thanks Jenn - I hope you get your book on time!

Yes, I used a large round tip.  It’s about the same size at the 1M Star tip.  My daughter is a real chocolate lover, so I’m sure she didn’t mind the triple whammy chocolate overload .  Time for me to go pick the birthday girl up and hear how all the kids liked the cupcakes - then we’re off to work at the concession stand at the other daughter’s volleyball games.  I’ll report back later.