Easy & Sweet Garnish: Chocolate Leaves

Chocolate leaves are so easy to make!

Use them for decorating cakes, cupcakes, cheesecakes, add them to ice cream or make desserts more special with some chocolate leaves as tasty garnishes.

Items Needed:

Fresh herb leaves (washed & patted dry)
Melted chocolate
Small pastry brush or paintbrush

Directions:

• Taking a clean pastry brush, paint the melted chocolate on the back of a leaf. Make sure to paint a good layer of chocolate over the center vein (so it won’t break once it’s been chilled) and paint right to the edges of the leaf (wipe along the sides with your finger if needed). Place the leaf chocolate side up on a cookie sheet lined with wax paper.
• When you’ve finished painting all the leaves, place the cookie sheet in the refrigerator. Chill for about 30 minutes or until chocolate has hardened.
• Next take each leaf and carefully peel away the leaf from the chocolate.
• You’ll have a chocolate leaf ready to enjoy!

Tips

• Chocolate leaves can be a bit fragile so package them carefully when storing away until needed. You can place them in an airtight plastic container, but don’t shake or jar the container when moving around.
• When painting on the chocolate, it’s best that the chocolate isn’t too hot. When you’ve removed the chocolate from the heat, let it cool for a couple minutes before painting the leaves.
• If a chocolate leaf is dangerously weak down the middle (because of a large vein), re-paint with melted chocolate over top of the chocolate leaf (the back side) and chill again. If a chocolate leaf breaks, re-melt it and try again.
• Use leaves from herbs that are pesticide and chemical free so that the chemicals do not transfer to the chocolate.
• You can use any kind of leaf, not just from fresh herbs. You want to make sure though that the plant or flower leaf is edible and not poisonous–even though no one will be eating the actual plant leaf, you don’t want to risk anything bad leeching into the chocolate.