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Every year for the holidays, I like to play the game of gourmet gifts. And as a big fan of praline, I (almost) never deviate from the tradition of making my own homemade rocks!
Last year, when the Breton biscuit factory The Trinity asked me to imagine a gourmet recipe with their cigarettes that I love more than anything (you may remember my strawberry charlotte or even my dark chocolate and caramel tart with a twist on Russian cigarettes?), I immediately thought of revisiting my rock recipe and the result was delicious!
Suchard style praline chocolate rocks…
Ah the Suchard rocks… I hope you know these rocks and that you have already tasted these commercial rocks. In my childhood, they had a nice chocolate and praline taste. I still remember that many of us in the family stole it from my great-grandmother’s treat cupboard…
But for newbies, I agree to reveal to you what these rocks contain: they are milk chocolate bites, garnished with a mixture of praline and crunchy (lace pancakes in particular, but here I used Russian cigarettes). Once the chocolate rocks have crystallized, you can coat them with a thin layer of melted praline chocolate… and then it’s madness!
Why make them at home?
The problem with industrial chocolates is often the excessive sugar concentration (which undoubtedly compensates for the poor quality of the chocolate). The advantage of making them at home is to control the quality of your ingredients.
If you have never made a praline…now is the time to get started because there’s nothing like it, that’s for sure. However, if you don’t have the time or the equipment to get started (because it requires the possession of a mixer), there are excellent ones available on the market now, but I advise you to look carefully at the ingredients and choose the best quality (especially rich in hazelnuts and almonds). Specialized pastry stores generally sell better pralines than supermarkets.
Finally for Russian cigarettes, the ones I buy at La Trinitaine are exquisite (like the rest of the biscuits!) and made in Brittany. But you can very well replace them with any other commercial cigarette or even better… lace pancakes (which gives an even crispier result).
Once the ingredients are assembled, all that remains is to shape the rocks and decorate them… Easy as pie! Ultimately, the hardest part will be to resist the temptation to devour everything.
Ingredients
- 100 g of La Trinitaine cigarettes (or lace crepes)
- 200 g of whole hazelnuts
- 200 gd’ whole almonds
- 350 g of white sugar
- 250 g of dark chocolate full-bodied
- 100 g of milk chocolate
Steps
In a pan over medium heat, roast the hazelnuts and almonds for a few minutes. Then pour in the sugar and let it melt until it caramelizes. Stir regularly.
When the caramel coats the dried fruits well, spread this mixture on a baking sheet covered with parchment paper and leave to cool. Crush the pieces of nougatine thus obtained and place them in the bowl of a food processor.
- Mix for a few seconds at medium speed until you obtain a powder, the praline (you can keep a few tablespoons for decoration) then continue to mix until you obtain a thick paste but still including a few pieces of praline for crunch. This usually takes 10 to 15 minutes. If your robot gets a little too hot, take breaks and start again.
At the same time, melt 100 g of dark chocolate with the 100 g of milk chocolate in a bain-marie or microwave (30 seconds at the beginning then in increments of 10 seconds if necessary).
- Add the melted chocolate to the praline paste then mix again at low to medium speed for a few seconds. Then add the coarsely crushed cigarettes and mix by hand using a spatula. Refrigerate this dough for 30 minutes.
Meanwhile, melt the remaining 150 g of dark chocolate in a bain-marie or microwave (30 seconds at the beginning then 10 seconds if necessary) and leave to cool.
Take the praline dough out of the refrigerator and form small balls with your hands. Roll them in the melted chocolate, shake off the excess and place them on parchment paper. To do this, I use a utensil for making chocolates but a fork will also do the job!
Sprinkle with broken cigarettes (or crepe lace) and refrigerate for at least 1 hour before serving, to give the chocolate time to harden.
Notes
You can keep these rocks for 2 weeks in an iron box at room temperature (but will you be able to resist them all that time?)
You can find other recipes imagined for La Trinitaine on the biscuit factory blog.
