Recipe: Chocolate Lollapoloozas

recipelink.com Chat Room Recipe Swap - 2001-07-27
From: recipelink.com

Chocolate Lollapoloozas
From: lkadlec
Newsgroup: rec.food.recipes
Date: 9-26-99

1 cup unsalted peanuts
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
1/4 cup water
1/2 ounce unsweetened chocolate, chopped into 1/4-inch pieces
12 ounces semisweet chocolate, chopped into 1/4-inch pieces

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Toast the peanuts on a baking sheet in the preheated oven for 1 minute. Cool to room temperature. Process the peanuts in the bowl of a food processor fitted with a metal blade until finely chopped, about 8 to 10 seconds. Set aside. Heat the sugar, cream of tartar and water in a 1 1/2-quart saucepan over medium-high heat. When hot, stir with a whisk to dissolve the sugar. Bring to a boil. Boil the mixture, stirring often, for 8 to 10 minutes, until the mixture takes on a light honey color. Remove the pan from the heat. Add the unsweetened chocolate, and stir gently and carefully (this is very hot stuff) to incorporate. One at a time, dip 1-inch of one end of each popsicle stick into the hot sugar mixture. Divide the dipped stick onto 4 nonstick baking sheets, leaving lots of space between sticks. Use a metal spoon to stir the mixture for 3 to 4 minutes, until it begins to get very syrupy in texture (even though I said texture, that doesn't mean you can touch, it's still too hot to handle at this point). Pour a full tablespoon of the sugar mixture over the dipped ends of each stick, allowing the mixture to flow into a round lollipop like shape. Allow the chocolate lollipops (that's right, they're not lollipaloozas yet) to harden at room temperature.

Heat 1-inch of water in the bottom half of a double boiler over medium heat. With the heat on, place the semisweet chocolate in the top half of the double boiler. Use a rubber spatula to stir the chocolate until completely melted and smooth, about 3 minutes. Transfer the melted chocolate to a 1-quart bowl. Place the chopped peanuts on a baking sheet. Grasp (or perhaps you would prefer to hold) a chocolate lollipop by the stick end and dip the hardened sugar end into the chocolate to completely cover. Allow excess chocolate to drip off before sprinkling chopped peanuts on both sides to cover the chocolate. Place the lollipalooza on a baking sheet. Repeat with remaining lollipaloozas. Refrigerate to harden the chocolate. Store in a tightly sealed plastic container in the refrigerator until ready to serve.