My best homemade chocolates so far: nama choco with fruit powders

Actually, these would be perfect for Mother's Day, and they are so easy to make!!

Nama choco are my favourite Japanese chocolates, to make them I followed this recipe from talented blogger Nami of Just One Cookbook. Basically it is the same recipe for chocolate ganache: two parts good quality chocolate to one part of cream, and this time I used Whittakers Dark Cacao 62%. Brake the chocolate with a knife and then melt with the cream over a pot of water at Bain Marie. Pour into a rectangular/square container, smooth the top and refrigerate. When set cut with a warm knife, rinsing the knife in hot water and drying it between each cut. Yum, the chocolates already look yummy as they are!!

At this stage you should dust them with cocoa, but after doing that I added some colour.

Mostly I used Fresh As powders: passion fruit, pineapple, strawberry and blackcurrant. Then I used some Fresh As dried blueberries slices, and some spirulina powder (green tea would go well too!). So all the colour are naturals, and yet they are so bright and beautiful!

I have to say that they looked and tasted so professional that I will make them again. At home we are real  intense chocolate lovers, so these nama choco went down a treat (when I told the kids that I made nama choco they said "YESSSS!"), then I tried them on my Italian language students, and they liked them too, so I thought of putting the recipe on the blog :-). The fruit powders works well not only for colour, but to offer a fresh fruity note to the intense and creamy chocolates. These should be stored in the fridge, but take them out 20 minutes before serving them, unless it is a hot day, or you are one of those people who like chocolate straight from the fridge (and that I can never understand!).

And when these are finished (I still have a couple left in the fridge) I'll move on to the goodies that my husband brought me from South America, lots of chocolates (from the expensive to the 'over the counter') to try, and the first are going to be my favourite: Alfajores! Usually he gets them from Argentina, but this time they came from Chile, I wonder if they are going to be very different. Maybe Gloria can tell me if this is a good brand?

Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini ©

I am entering this recipe for Sweet New Zealand #10, the monthly blogging events for Kiwis, this month hosted by Jemma of Time for a Little Something.

We are still looking for a host for June, especially if you haven't had a turn yet!!!

Please contact me if you like to host: remember that you must be living in New Zealand, of be a Kiwi living/blogging overseas.

Last item on this post: Tomorrow Arantxa and I will be here all day to show kids how to make sugar roses. Please come and join us, Corban Arts Centre, Henderson, Auckland

Free art workshops and activities, children's performances, schools' art exhibitions of children's art, photography and multi-media.

Date: Saturday 5 May, 2012 | Time: 10 am – 4 pm | Free entry and parking (onsite).