Name: Rudolf chocolate figure
Total time: 4 h
Yield: 1 piece
Cuisine: Belgian
Ingredients: 80 g marzipan; 1 tsp food colouring (red, suitable for marzipan); 50 g ready-to-roll fondant; 500 g chocolate (tempered (dark or milk)); 1 pair eyes; 50 g modelling chocolate (for hands and feet)

Equipment

rolling pin
chocolate mould
can of cooling spray
warming plate
ice cream cone mould
blowtorch
cheese board
various decorative items
patterned roller

Method

Get cooking

Base

Fill the mould with chocolate.
Tap gently on the table to remove any air bubbles.
Leave to crystallise.
Put in the fridge.

Moulding the body

Make sure the chocolate is slightly thicker than usual. Achieve this by filling the mould completely. Slightly thicker chocolate is needed to produce a sufficiently strong figure.
Tap on the table to remove remaining air bubbles. Leave to rest for about 4 minutes.
Tip upside down, tap the side a few times for about 4 seconds and scrape with the palette knife.
Leave to crystallise.
Once everything is sufficiently hard, remove excess chocolate.
Put in the fridge.

Moulding the head

As for the body.

Moulding the ears/nose

As for the body.

Ears

Fill a paper piping cone and pipe the ears. The ears consist of 10 small balls and a thin strip at the end to allow them to be inserted easily into the head.
Leave to crystallise.
Turn over and pipe the same again.
Set aside for later.

Hat

Use approximately 80gr marzipan, add some colouring and knead well until evenly red.
Make a neat ball of 50gr and keep the remaining 30gr for the scarf.
Hold the ball between your palms and shape it into a cone.
Turn it over and bend the tip to form a Christmas hat.
Press the hat slightly flat on the table and set it aside upright.
Roll some sugar paste into a long thin strip.
Press the strip with the back of a knife at intervals of no more than half a centimetre.
Wrap the strip around the hat and remove the excess.
Leave to rest.

Scarf

Take the remaining marzipan and roll it into a long sheet, 2–3 mm thick.
Cut it to make a scarf 2 cm wide.
Make cuts at the ends.
Leave to rest.

Assembling the body

Remove all the chocolate from the moulds.
Prepare a paper piping cone with the appropriate chocolate.
Provide a base of at least 7 by 7 cm.
For the body, warm 2 halves on the warming plate for a few seconds and stick them together.
Pipe some chocolate in the centre, slightly towards the back.
Briefly melt both the top and bottom of the body on the warming plate.
Place it on the base where you piped the chocolate. Use the spray if necessary.

Assembling the head

Do the same for the head. Take the 2 halves, briefly place them on the warming plate and stick them together. Pipe some chocolate onto the top of the body. Briefly place the bottom of the head on the warming plate and attach it to the body. Again, use the spray if necessary.

Ears

Take a knife and heat it thoroughly with the blowtorch.
Take 1 half and cut it in 2 with the heated knife. You now have 2 ears.
Briefly place them on the warming plate and attach to the head. Definitely use the spray here.

Nose

Repeat for the nose: take 2 halves, warm briefly and stick them together.
Heat an ice cream cone mould with the blowtorch and make 2 nostrils in the ball.
Briefly melt the nose on the warming plate, pipe some chocolate onto it and attach to the head.

Ears

Briefly place the hat on the head and burn a hole to the left and right of the hat using a heated ice cream cone mould.
Put some melted chocolate on it.
Attach the ears, pipe some extra chocolate and/or use the spray.

Spraying

Cover the cheese board with foil. Make sure you can turn it.
Place the figures on it.
Spray the figures while gently rotating the board.

Finishing

Attach the hat to the figure with some melted chocolate.
Attach the scarf around the figure.
Attach the feet, hands and eyes with some chocolate.
Add any extra decorations, such as a snowflake on the scarf or hat.

Source / inspiration: CVO Gent – Simple Chocolate course The group thought this lesson was exceptionally good and ended it with a round of applause.