selfmade edible chocolate leaves

Chocolate Leaves

We all know:  The eye eats with us. Beside real edible flowers, you can also decorate your food creation with self-made delicious chocolate leaves. Their look and their intensive taste will convince your guests.
And it is also suitable as a small treat in between meals or a little snack during the day. 

INGREDIENTS

  • leaves (beautifully shaped) 
  • cacao paste (how much depends on how many leaves you want to “produce”)
  • a clean brush
  • parchment paper or silicone baking mat
Cacao Paste

directions

  1. First of all, go for a walk and pick off some tree leaves that look interesting. Look for leaves that are not too thin or brittle. Durability is important. The leaf will need to hold shape under the chocolate. 
  2. When you’re back home, wash your leaves with soapy water and dry them completely
  3. Prepare a baking sheet by lining it with parchment paper or anything similar
  4. Pour cacao paste in a bowl or a cup over simmering water and take care that you don’t overheat the paste. This is the only way to preserve the healthy ingredients – more than 65 degrees will them boil of 
  5. Time to brush a thick layer of chocolate on the underside of the leaf. (the underside has more pronounced veins, which give a better pattern) Be generous with the layer, if it’s too thin, the chocolate leaf will crack when you remove the real leaf.
  6. Once you finished painting your leaves, put the baking sheet in the fridge to set the coating. It won’t take long.
  7. After 20 minutes you can pull your leaves away from the chocolate carefully and – voilá… your edible leaves are ready to garnish
selfmade edible chocolate leaves

You can decorate any dish. Or you can simply give your leaves as sweets with a cup of coffee. If you freeze your edible leaves, they will keep for a long time.

Tip: For those who like the candy after eight – use mint leaves, they will give your chocolate leaves a slightly mint taste. If you want your leaves to be real minty skip point seven, the color mix of green and brown will make your chocolate leaves also more decorative.  (like in the photo above)

And for sure, you can prepare those leaves for a cacao ceremony as well!

You may
also like