Milk Chocolate Mendiants Recipe
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Traditionally served during Christmas, a mendiant is a French confection made of a chocolate disc topped with various nuts and dried fruits. In French Provence, Christmas meals are followed by serving 13 desserts representing the 12 apostles and Jesus Christ. Chocolate mendiant has since been adopted by the rest of the world as a year-round confection making it a perfect gift for chocolate lovers.
This elegant dessert is actually simple to make. First, temper the chocolate then pipe in mounds and top with toppings. The traditional mendiant topping consists of dried figs, raisins, hazelnuts, and almonds. It’s a blank canvas and the variety is limitless.
What kind of chocolate to use?
Not all chocolates are created equal. Some are best for baking while others for coating. For chocolate mendiants, we need to use real chocolate which contains cocoa butter. Most good-quality chocolate bar you can find at the grocery store has cocoa butter in them. A few popular baking brands of chocolate wafers like Guittard are also great options. Just pay attention to the label. For this recipe, I used the “Pound Plus Milk Chocolate” from Trader Joe’s. Baking chocolate chips are unfortunately not ideal for coating and enrobing because they use other fats such as vegetable oil instead of cocoa butter.
Options: milk chocolate, dark chocolate, semi-sweet chocolate, 72% chocolate (choose the one you enjoy most)
Compound vs Real Chocolate
Chocolate couverture or real chocolate contains cocoa butter and is best to use for coating. The proverbial “melts in your mouth, not in your hands” stems from the fact that cocoa butter melts at body temperature. Melting real chocolate alters its molecular structure resulting in a dull and chewy mass once cooled. To help the chocolate restructure its molecules back to their original state, tempering is required. Tempered chocolate hardens with a snap and gloss once cooled, just like how it was before melting.
Compound chocolate, on the other hand, is made from lesser quality cacao beans with other forms of fat like vegetable shortening and sugar. Compound chocolate is much cheaper and is often used as an alternative to real chocolate in baking and enrobing.
Read more about how chocolate in my bean-to-bar blog here.
Here are other options of chocolate to use for coating:
Guittard semi-sweet chocolate wafers (Also, available at Winco Bulk Section)
Trader Joe’s “Pound Plus” block of chocolate (Available in milk chocolate, dark chocolate, and 72% dark chocolate)
most bean-to-bar chocolate or your favorite bar with cocoa butter content
What equipment do you need?
Food thermometer (or a spatula with a thermometer pictured below)
metal or glass bowl
small pot (to use for double boiler)
spatula
parchment paper or a silicone mat
pastry bag or ziplock bag
What nuts and dried fruits to use?
The traditional mendiants use almonds, hazelnuts, raisins and dried figs. It’s really up to what you like to eat. Chocolate is an excellent pair to many different nuts and dried fruits. Get creative with it!
Here are some options:
Nuts: almonds, hazelnuts, pecans, macadamia, pistachio
Dried fruits: fig, mango, apricots, orange, kiwi, papaya
Others: sunflower seeds, coconut shaving, sea salt, Oreo crumbs
Freeze-dried fruits: strawberry, raspberry
For sprinkling: salt, cacao nibs, Oreo crumbs
How to temper chocolate?
It’s easy to assume that when melted chocolate is cooled, it hardens back to its original state. Unfortunately, once melted at a certain temperature, chocolate becomes a dull and chewy mass instead. After a certain temperature, its molecular structure changes. To help the chocolate harden with a shiny glow and a snap, just as it was prior to melting, tempering is necessary.
Tempering is tricking the altered molecules to restructure back to their original state by adding unmelted chocolate. Tempered chocolate results in glossy chocolate with a snap once cooled, much like its original state before melting. To be able to coat a confection with a nice glossy finish, tempering is necessary.
There are many ways to temper chocolate but for this recipe, I used the double boiler seeding method which requires a food thermometer. Pay close attention to the temperature and make sure that the chocolate does NOT get in contact with any water. Also, different kinds of chocolate have different tempering temperatures. Refer to the chart below.
Double Boiler Seeding Method
The temperature on this tutorial is for milk chocolate. Refer to the temperature chart below for dark and white chocolate.
Finely chop or shave the chocolate to help melt them faster without using excess heat.
Fill 1/4 of the pot with water making sure it doesn’t touch the base of the bowl.
Place 2/3 of the chopped chocolate into a glass or metal bowl and place it on the top of the pot at low heat.
Do NOT boil the water, turn it off once it starts to simmer.
Mix until all lumps are melted making sure that the chocolate temperature does not exceed 113°F. I usually take it out of the heat at around 110°F since the bowl retains some heat. (The temperature is for milk chocolate, refer to the chart below if using dark chocolate).
Take the bowl out of the pot and dry with a towel.
Add half of the remaining chopped chocolate (aka seeds) into the melted chocolate until all lumps are melted; then add the rest of the remaining chopped chocolate and mix until melted.
Keep mixing lowering the temperature to 82°F. (refer to the chart below to get the right temperatures for the kind of chocolate being used)
Place the bowl back to a heated pot and heat the chocolate to the working temperature of 85°F to 87°F.
Before coating, make sure that the chocolate is tempered correctly by placing a thin coat in a small piece of parchment paper and place in the freezer for 3 minutes. It should come off the parchment paper easily with a gloss and snaps when broken in half.
Chocolate Temperature Chart:
Dark or Semi-Sweet Chocolate: heat to 120°F then cool to 82°F and heat again to 89°F to start coating.
Milk Chocolate: heat to 113°F then cool to 81°F and heat again to 86°F.
White Chocolate: heat to 113°F then cool to 79°F and heat again to 82°F.
How to make milk chocolate mendiants…
Ingredients: 1/2 pound of milk chocolate makes 30 pieces of 1-inch (diameter) mendiants. Nuts (roasted almonds and candied almonds), dried fruits (kiwi, papaya, apricot), crumbs from chopped candied almonds.
Prepare all toppings you need and set them aside. If needed, slice the dried fruits and nuts into smaller sizes.
Temper chocolate. Refer to the instructions above.
Place and flatten parchment paper or silicone mat in a sheet pan.
Pour the tempered chocolate into a pastry bag or a ziplock bag and snip the edge.
To get a perfect disc, keep the piping bag straight while gently squeezing the chocolate out. I prefer the smaller 1-bite mendiant so I first pipe it less than an inch in diameter.
If a pastry bag or ziplock bag isn’t available, you can drop a dollop of tempered chocolate using a spoon into the parchment paper.
Gently tap the baking sheet to flatten the chocolate mounds into thinner discs.
Add the toppings and allow them to cool at room temperature. If tempered right, there is no need to refrigerate the chocolate. It should harden on its own in a few minutes and it should come off the parchment paper easily.
Best if stored in an air-tight container.
Though traditionally a French holiday confection, chocolate mendiants have become a year-round confection around the world. I love that you can customize it to your liking. In fact, many Keto recipes include this as a dessert option using 82% dark chocolate. The choice is yours! Make your mediants as your palette pleases. Cheers!