Designing
the Egg
Compliments
of FabulousFoods.com
Step
6. Painting the Egg
Jean François uses a tiny pastry bag, fashioned from
parchment paper, to make a tiny writing utensil. fter folding
the cone, he fills it with tempered white chocolate or cocoa
butter, then snips off just a tiny tip off the end, and begins
writing. The egg mold and/or a metal pastry ring are used
at various in times in the process to prop the egg at the
necessary angles for work. Needless to say, our favorite pastry
chef has a lot of natural artistic ability and decades of
experiece. He adds the intricate embellishments to the writing,
seemingly effortlessly.
Step
7. Painting the Egg
Using pure cocoa butter, colored with powdered food colors,
the true artist in Jean François comes out. This egg,
like the ones that are sold at the Sutton Place Hotel, are
decorated with a floral design. Jean François' artistic
talents go far beyond this, however, as you'll see by checking
out his Easter Chocolate Gallery.
Step
8. Joining the Egg Halves
Now comes the crucial time to join the two egg halves together.
You must work quickly in order to handle the chocolate as
little as possible and to minimize unwanted melting.
What Jean François did next was quite interesting, although impractical for most home cooks (don't worry, we'll give you an alternative). Taking a blow torch to his stainless steel work table, he heated the surface just enough to melt the chocolate slightly on contact. Working quickly he rubbed the egg halves on the heated surface to completely level them, as well as slightly melting the chocolate into a glue that will harden and hold the two sides together. If anything is to be placed inside the egg, such as a small bag of the chocolate bunnies that were made in Step 2, now is the time to do it, or forever hold your peace!
Step
9. Finishing the Egg
To finish the egg, Jean François propped up his creation
in a metal pastry ring and proceeded to fill another tiny
pastry bag, this time with dark chocolate. He then piped a
line of tiny chocoalte beads neatly along the seam. This border
didn't reach completely to the bottom, as the bottom of the
egg will rest upon the base that was made back in Step 2.
To attach the completed egg to the base, Jean François just uses a little more tempered chocolate, which acts as a glue, and carefully sets his masterpiece in place. A little packaging and this edible work of art is ready to go!
After the egg sets in the base, it time to display it for all the world to see. Take a look at Jean François' Easter Egg Gallery.
