Hand-made chocolate reindeer mendiants for Christmas
Kids and grown-ups alike will adore these cute chocolate reindeer mendiants made from chocolate discs with pretzel antlers. Mendiants are a traditional chocolate sweet made from tempered chocolate discs, often with extra ingredients such as fruit and nuts added.
The word ‘mendiant’ comes from the French word for beggar and the chocolate ‘coins’ are a popular French Christmas treat. The discs are representative of money, enriched by studding them with fruit and nuts. They can be included as one of the Thirteen Desserts of Provence that I featured many Christmases ago – not that the reindeer variety would be authentic here!
The thing that makes these chocolate reindeer mendiants look especially appealing is that the chocolate is dark and evenly coloured without any unsightly marbling or white bloom. To achieve this, you’ll need to temper your chocolate. If you’ve never done this before, do not worry as it’s really very easy and I’ll talk you through how below.
I have decorated my reindeer using sugar paste and black icing. To speed up decoration, you can get googly-eye cake decorations but I made these eyes and noses myself quite quickly using a combination of ready-made sugar paste and black writing icing pre-made in little tubes.
There’s no real cake decorating skill required, simply roll white and red Tic-tac-sized blobs of sugar paste, dab these in position whilst the chocolate is wet and anoint each eye with a tiny pupil of black icing.
Curly pretzels are usually easy to find around Christmas. I have made them with seasonal bell shapes but traditional is best! The salty pretzels taste delicious against the dark chocolate with a sugar hit from the icings.
I have made and given these chocolate reindeer mendiants as hand-made Christmas gifts on several occasions. The only mildly tricky part is tempering the chocolate which gives the chocolate a rich dark even colour, rather than getting any white marbling in the re-solidified chocolate. You can skip that part without affecting the taste but for a more professional looking finish, it’s worthwhile making the effort. And not too difficult if you follow the steps below.
Why do we temper chocolate?
Tempering chocolate is a process used in chocolate making to stabilise the finish of reshaped chocolate. It’s a process used to make new shapes whilst maintaining a glossy effect to the finished chocolate. Tempering stabilises fat crystals in the chocolate to avoid leaving the white bloom effect you could otherwise get if you simply melted chocolate and left it to harden. Tempering chocolate should be done where the visual presentation of re-set chocolate is important.
There are various methods of tempering chocolate to be found online; I followed guidance given in William Curley’s book Chocolate Couture and the following method was easy and successful. The key is not to hurry or overheat and scald the chocolate. The technique involves cooling two thirds of the molten chocolate quickly, then mixing it back into the remaining third of the batch.
It’s best to use a heat probe or sugar thermometer for accuracy although probably after several goes you would manage without one. William suggests tempering batches of 500g chocolate although his book is pitched at wannabe chocolatiers rather than mini home chefs. I had success working with 150g at a time.
Red reindeer nose options
In the version pictured I have rolled balls of red sugar paste. These bring a bright red colour and are quick and easy. A down side may be that you have more red sugar paste you don’t know what to do with.
Alternatively, I have made the chocolate reindeer mendiants using glacé cherries. You could use entire half pieces although these come up rather big so you may want to cut them up. It’s down to personal preference and a mix of sizes – or types of noses – would add character to the batch.
I’ve also experimented using white chocolate for the eyes and mouths. This batch pictured below were more rustic than the main images – I think traditional knot pretzels look much better – but you get the picture, they look pretty fun however you do them. This isn’t a snack to take too seriously!
Packaging Chocolate Reindeer Mendiants
If you are giving your chocolate reindeer mendiants away as hand-made Christmas foodie gifts, you will need to package them carefully. You can layer your finished reindeer mendiants carefully in layers of tissue paper. This helps avoid their antlers getting crushed. Alternatively use molten chocolate to affix them to rice paper laid in layers inside a box. If wrapping them, be sure to warn recipients not to shake the package!
Or, if you are not too precious about these things, simply bag up the chocolate reindeer mendiants in a clear bag tied with a bright Christmas ribbon. I attach a little label instructing the recipient to store the chocolate reindeer mendiants in a cool dark place for 7-10 days.
Chocolate Reindeer Mendiants With Pretzel Antlers
Equipment
- sugar thermometer
- baking parchment paper
- Piping bag
- 2 Baking sheets
Ingredients
- 50 g sugar paste white
- 50 g sugar paste red
- 300 g dark chocolate good quality for cooking
- 100 g pretzels traditional knot shape, not straight
Instructions
- Beforehand, and it's best to do this first, roll Tic-tac sized balls of white and red sugar paste to use as the reindeer eyes and noses. You'll need around 48 white ones and 24 red ones - but it's best to make a few extra so you have enough ready to use before the chocolate sets.
- Using a double boiler, or heatproof bowl suspended over a pan of simmering water, break the chocolate into squares and melt slowly. As the chocolate melts the temperature will climb towards 40-43c. Avoid going above 45c and move the thermometer or heat probe to check the temperate is even.
- Once the chocolate is molten and smooth, turn off the heat and pour two thirds ONLY onto a baking sheet lined with a generously-sized sheet of baking parchment paper, setting the rest aside. Spread the chocolate out into a large rectangle around 1cm thick, moving it backwards and forwards with a table knife to eliminate air bubbles and help it cool down. As the chocolate cools it will thicken. Let it cool completely but do not leave so long it solidifies again.
- Draw up opposite edges of the baking parchment paper and from the outside of the paper, scrape the chocolate towards one end. Squeeze the cooled soft chocolate back into the double boiler and relight the heat on the lowest level. Agitate so that the cooled chocolate just starts to melt back into the third of chocolate that had been retained. As soon as the chocolate is mostly melted, turn off the heat and let the rest melt from the heat that’s retained in the chocolate. The temperature at this point should be around 30-35c.
- Using two baking sheets lined with baking parchment, arrange spoonfuls of molten chocolate in spaced out disc shapes. Make the discs thick and allow room to add the pretzel antlers. Space out 12 reindeer faces per baking sheet.
- While the chocolate discs are still soft, quickly press down a pair of pretzels per disc for the antlers. Then quickly dab down pairs of white sugar paste balls for eyes and single red sugar paste balls for noses.
- Using the black writing icing, dab on little black 'pupils' to the white sugar paste balls to bring the reindeer eyes to life.
- Leave the baking sheets in a cool place away from sunlight for the chocolate to set. Package up carefully once well set.
Notes
Like these chocolate reindeer mendiants? Try my Christmas wreath cookies too!
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