Chocolate Horse Showpiece

A chocolate horse showpiece makes a great centerpiece for a fun party or event. Chef Christophe Rull shows us how to transform tempered chocolate into a strong and stable chocolate horse! You can use these same techniques for many different types of projects.

Course Dessert

Cuisine French

Prep Time 10

Cook Time 10

Assembly 30

Total Time 50

Servings servings

Calories 528kcal

Author Elizabeth Marek

Equipment

Newsprint
Large and Small Acetate Sheets
¼" thick acrylic strips
Horse Template
Wire Brush
EZ Temper Machine (optional)
Cold Spray

Ingredients

For the tempered chocolate

1000 grams couverature chocolate
10 grams tempered cocoa butter paste (optional)

Instructions

Making the Chocolate Pieces

Lay your newsprint down onto the table and then place your large sheet of acetate over the top.
Arrange all your templates on top of the acetate to make sure you have enough space for all the pieces.
Make a border with your ¼" plexiglass spacers around the templates. Remove the templates and set them aside for now.
Fill your pastry bag with the tempered chocolate and glue the spacers down.
Fill the center of the square with tempered chocolate.
Use a ruler or straight edge to make the chocolate flat and even.
Once the chocolate starts to look slightly matte (after about 5 minutes) and is slightly tacky but not fully set. You may need to start tracing in areas where it is set. The chocolate doesn't always set at the same time.
Trace between the chocolate and the plexiglass border and remove the border.
Place the template on top of the chocolate and trace around it with your skewer to cut out the shapes. Work quickly before the chocolate fully sets.
You can make extra pieces just in case of breakage.
Remove the templates and discard them.
Place the chocolate pieces on top of a large sheet pan or plexiglass with parchment paper underneath. Put some parchment on top of the chocolate. Place a large piece of plexiglass or heavy sheet pan on top so as the chocolate sets in the cooler, it does not curl.
After 10 minutes you can take the chocolate out of the cooler.
Remove the chocolate pieces from the surrounding chocolate. If you have any cracked pieces watch the video to watch how Christophe fixes broken pieces.
Brush the chocolate pieces with a wire brush to create a wooden texture. Brush off the excess chocolate dust with a pastry brush.

Assembling the Chocolate Horse

Begin attaching the legs with tempered chocolate and set the pieces with cold spray. Pay close attention to making sure your pieces are straight.
Wipe off any excess chocolate with your fingers to keep the structure clean looking.
Attach the curved pieces of chocolate to the base with tempered chocolate and set with cold spray.
Attach all the cross pieces with tempered chocolate and set with cold spray.
Attach the horse to the base with tempered chocolate and cold spray, making sure the horse is straight up and down.
Finally, attach the seat to the top of the horse.
You can add more details like eyes, ears, handles or other decorations and details if you want.

Video

Notes

EZ Tempering Machine

Waring Chocolate Warmer

Cacao Barry Chocolate

Cocoa Butter Drops

Thermometer

If you haven't watched Christophe's video on how to temper chocolate with the EZ Temper machine, you'll want to watch that first.

No tempering machine? No problem! You can temper your chocolate in the microwave or use the traditional seeding method to get your chocolate tempered.

Nutrition