Dark Chocolate Plastique Food

DARK CHOCOLATE PLASTIQUE

Steps:

• Melt the chocolate in a stainless steel bowl over a pan of simmering water. Once the chocolate is melted, stir in the corn syrup. Remove from the heat and allow the mixture to come to room temperature, stirring occasionally. The chocolate plastique should come together with the consistency of a pie dough or a slightly melted Tootsie Roll, and it will become more flexible as you work with it. Roll it out on a work surface covered with parchment paper. Roll it thin (about 1/4 inch) in order to cut designs with cookie cutters. Store the remaining chocolate plastique covered at room temperature or in the freezer in a tightly wrapped sealable plastic freezer bag.

WHITE CHOCOLATE ROSES

Steps:

• Soften the white chocolate plastique so that it is malleable. Knead the mixture on parchment paper as if it were bread dough. It should feel dry to the touch like Play-Doh, and you should be able to mold small chunks of it without it sticking to your fingers. If it is too sticky, you can sift some cornstarch over it to dry it up. Divide the dough into 3 or 4 different disks if you plan to knead in food coloring. To color the plastique, use parchment paper over your work surface and latex or vinyl gloves. Add a few drops of food color to each disk of white chocolate plastique to create different hues for roses and leaves. Knead the color in until it is fully incorporated and you achieve the shade you like.
• For the roses, roll out a disk of the plastique on parchment paper with a rolling pin as if it were a pie dough. Roll it until it is thin, about 1/4 inch. Then, make small circles using the back of a pastry bag tip. If you don't have a pastry bag tip, you can use a bottle top from a milk jug or anything that will cut uniform circles about 1-inch in diameter. Separate the circles (which we will now call "petals") on the parchment paper, and flatten the outer edges of each petal with the back of a spoon to make them almost transparent.
• Peel up the first petal off the parchment paper (a small offset spatula helps with this job) and roll it tight, like a cigar. Pick up the next petal and wrap it around the first one. Each petal should get successively looser and wider, mimicking the way a rose in full bloom opens. You can attach as many petals as you like to create the style of rose bouquet you want. Place each completed rose on a plate covered with parchment paper, wrap the plate with plastic wrap, and put in the refrigerator until you are ready to use them.
• To make leaves to round out your bouquet, add a few drops of green food coloring to a disk of the white chocolate plastique, roll it out thinly as above, then use a paring knife to cut free-form leaf shapes. Once you have completed a number of roses and leaves, you can form a bouquet in a plastic cup that fits inside a flower vase.

WHITE CHOCOLATE PLASTIQUE

Steps:

• Melt the chocolate over in a stainless steel bowl over a saucepan of simmering water, and stir in the corn syrup, then the cornstarch. Allow the mixture to come to room temperature, stirring occasionally. If your room is warm, put the plastique in the refrigerator for 10 minutes or so for it to firm up. If you plan to add food coloring to part of the batch, this is the right time to knead it in. It should come together with the consistency of a pie dough or a slightly melted Tootsie Roll, and it will become more flexible as you work with it. Store the plastique wrapped in plastic or in a sealable plastic bag.