Yogurt & Berries Chocolate Bonbon

These light and fresh chocolate bonbons are the perfect little treat on a sunny day. They are filled with a yogurt white chocolate ganache, a hint of freeze dried red berries and an almond sablé for the crunch. And all this deliciousness is covered in a thin dark chocolate shell.

Special material requirements

2 Polycarbonate chocolate moulds (CW2295)
Cotton pads
94% (or higher) alcohol
Scraper
2 paint brushes
Piping bag
Chocolate melting machine
Cookie cutter: 2cm diameter (or the wider side of a nozzle)
2 silicone airmats (optional)

Recipe

Yield: 64 bonbons | Difficulty: hard

Ingredients

Almond pate sablé

155g butter (cold)

105g powdered sugar

250g all purpose flour

40g almond flour

1 medium egg

pinch of salt

Decoration (chocolate shells)

Red coca butter (I used raspberry red)

White coca butter

900g dark chocolate (tempered)

Yogurt ganache

295g white chocolate

110g greek yogurt

37g butter (room temperature)

20g freeze dried red berries (small crumb-like pieces)

Directions

Almond pate sablé

In a stand mixer with a paddle attachment, combine cold butter (cubed), powdered sugar, flour, almond flour and salt. Mix until you get a bread crumb consistency.
Then add the egg and mix just until well combined. Don't over mix it. If there are still some crumbs which are not incorporated, kneed it into the dough by hand.
For this recipe you only need 70g of dough. You can wrap the rest of the dough in cling film and put it in the fridge or freezer.
Spread the dough between two baking sheets and roll out to 2mm thickness. Put it in the fridge for at least an hour, until the dough is firm.
Preheat the oven to 165°C fan. Take the dough out of the fridge, remove one baking paper and cut out 64 circles which are 2cm in diameter.
Place the airmat on a baking tray (preferably perforated). Place the dough discs on the airmat and place another airmat on top of the dough discs. If you do not have airmats just place the dough discs on baking paper without covering them.
Bake for about 5-10 minutes, or until golden brown. Take the tray out of the oven an let it cool. Then remove the sablé discs.

Decoration

Put about 1 tablespoon of pre-coloured cocoa butter each separately in a lid and place into the chocolate melting machine. Set the temperature of your chocolate melting machine to 31°C.
Dip the cotton pads in alcohol and polish the moulds.
When the cocoa butter is completely melted paint the moulds. To achieve the marble effect, brush a dab of the red cocoa butter in the mould, then use the white cocoa butter and swirl with the brush around the edges of the red dab. Use different brushes for each colour. As soon as the cocoa butter has set after the marbling, brush the whole mould with white cocoa butter. make sure to evenly cover the mould, otherwise the dark chocolate shell will shine through. Brush two layers of white cocoa butter if necessary.
Mould the shells by filling up the cavities of the mould with dark chocolate. Turn the mould upside down and tap out any excess chocolate. Scrape off the excess from the mould and place it on the side to rest at room temperature and crystallise.

Yogurt & Berries chocolate bonbons

Place white chocolate in a bowl and heat up in the microwave in impulses, while stirring in between, until the chocolate has completely melted.
Add the butter and whisk until fully incorporated and smooth. Let the chocolate cool down to about 35°C or before it starts thickening again, then add the yogurt and whisk until the ganache is smooth and homogenous. Transfer into a piping bag.
When the ganache is at around 30-33°C pipe into the prepared moulds. Make sure to leave enough room for the sablé and the berries. Sprinkle some freeze dried berries on top and swirl around with a toothpick.
Place a sablé cookie on top and slightly press it into the ganache, so that the ganache and sablé cookie are levelled out. Let the ganache rest, until it's crystallised and firm.
Re-temper your excess dark chocolate from the moulding. Close the bonbons by filling them up with dark chocolate and scraping off the excess. Place the moulds in the fridge and let them set for couple of hours.
Take them out of the fridge, slightly bend the mould to loosen the bonbons from it and then un-mould. If some bonbons are still stuck, place them back in the fridge for longer. Sometimes you just need tap a little harder for them to fall out. You can enjoy the bonbons immediately after un-moulding.

Notes

Almond pate sablé: for this recipe you only need about 70g of sablé dough. If you have left-overs, use these. The recipe for the sablé on this page will yield a lot of left-overs. You can try preparing less, but I have already reduced the recipe to the smallest measurements. To reduce it further you will need to split the egg which in my opinion is rather difficult. However, you can use the leftovers for other recipes, such as the Hazelnut Coffee Tart or the Spiced Apple Cheesecake Tartlets. You can wrap the dough in cling film and freeze for up to one month.
Ganache: if it is easier for you, you can add the freeze dried berries directly to the ganache and then all together into a piping bag. However, I prefer my method because the berries colour the ganache a bit and I want it to be white, not pink. Also bigger chunks of freeze dried berries may block the piping bag, making it more difficult to pipe.