Learn to make shiny and professional-looking white chocolate bonbons with vanilla bean ganache with celebrity pastry chef, Christophe Rull. Christophe teaches us how to prepare a delicious ganache, how to make beautiful bonbon shells, and how to fill and close your bonbons.
Melt your white chocolate in the microwave in 30 second increments to prevent burning or over a double boiler until it reaches 104ºF (40ºC). Set it aside.
Add your heavy cream and trimoline to a medium saucepan.
Scrape the vanilla bean seeds by cutting down the center of the bean first and then scraping the seeds with the flat side of a knife.
Add the vanilla bean seeds to the saucepan.
Bring your cream to a simmer over medium-high heat (stirring occasionally) and let it simmer for 1 minute and then remove it from the heat. Don't boil the cream.
Strain the mixture through a fine strainer to remove any bits of bean pod.
Add half of the cream mixture to your melted chocolate and stir until smooth. Starting with half will help prevent separation.
Then add in the rest of the cream and stir until smooth. It may look curdled before it looks smooth and that is normal. Just keep mixing.
Cool your ganache to around 104ºF (40ºC) so it doesn't melt your butter.
Pour your ganache into a tall measuring cup or glass and add in your softened butter.
Use an immersion blender to mix the butter with the ganache. Hold the immersion blender at a slight angle under the surface of the ganache to blend. Do not incorporate any air.
Cool your ganache to 34ºF and add in your tempered cocoa butter from the EZ Temper machine. If you don't have an EZ Temper you can skip this step. The tempered cocoa butter will help the ganache set up much faster than untempered cocoa butter.
Place some plastic wrap on top of the ganache and set it aside to firm up (make sure your room is below 70ºF) or your ganache and chocolate may not set up. If your room is too warm you can place the ganache in the fridge but your room should be below 70ºF anyway to be working with chocolate.
Chocolate bonbon shells
Place some parchment paper onto your work surface to catch the chocolate and get your bench scraper ready.
Fill your piping bag with your tempered chocolateand twist the ends so the chocolate doesn't spill out.
Cut a small hole (⅛") in the tip for the chocolate.
Begin filling each bonbon cavity all the way to the top with the chocolate by pinching and releasing the opening of the piping bag.
Pick the mold up by holding the edges and try not to put your hands agains the cavities directly or the heat from your hands can ruin the temper of the chocolate shells. Tap the edge of the mold with your bench scraper to release any air bubbles.
Turn the mold over and tap out the excess chocolate to create a nice thin shell.
Scrape off the excess chocolate from the surface of the mold with your bench scraper.
Set your mold on its side for five minutes to help the chocolate to set evenly.
Place the mold cavity side opening down onto parchment paper for 20 minutes.
Filling and closing the bonbons
Fill your bonbon shells just shy of the top of the shell to leave room to close the shell.
Let your bonbons crystalize at room temperature until the ganache has firmed up. It helps if your room is colder than 70ºF. You can put the bonbons in the fridge but you can risk adding condensation to the ganache which can compromise the integrity of the bonbon and mold can grow.
Pipe the tempered chocolate onto the back of the bonbon until it's halfway covered using the pinching technique.
Place your acetate onto the back of the mold and use the bench scraper to scrape away the excess chocolate.
Place the bonbons into the fridge for 10 minutes.
De-mold your bonbons by quickly turning the mold over onto parchment paper to release them from the mold.