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Step 6. Painting the Egg
Jean François uses a tiny pastry bag, fashioned from parchment
paper, to make a tiny writing utensil. fter folding the cone, he
fills it with tempered white chocolate or cocoa butter, then snips
off just a tiny tip off the end, and begins writing. The egg mold
and/or a metal pastry ring are used at various in times in the process
to prop the egg at the necessary angles for work. Needless to say,
our favorite pastry chef has a lot of natural artistic ability and
decades of experiece. He adds the intricate embellishments to the
writing, seemingly effortlessly.
Step 7. Painting the Egg
Using pure cocoa butter, colored with powdered food colors, the
true artist in Jean François comes out. This egg, like the
ones that are sold at the Sutton Place Hotel, are decorated with
a floral design. Jean François' artistic talents go far beyond
this, however, as you'll see by checking out his Easter
Chocolate Gallery.
 
 
Step 8. Joining the Egg Halves
Now comes the crucial time to join the two egg halves together.
You must work quickly in order to handle the chocolate as little
as possible and to minimize unwanted melting.
What Jean François did next was quite interesting,
although impractical for most home cooks (don't worry, we'll give
you an alternative). Taking a blow torch to his stainless steel
work table, he heated the surface just enough to melt the chocolate
slightly on contact. Working quickly he rubbed the egg halves on
the heated surface to completely level them, as well as slightly
melting the chocolate into a glue that will harden and hold the
two sides together. If anything is to be placed inside the egg,
such as a small bag of the chocolate bunnies that were made in Step
2, now is the time to do it, or forever hold your peace!
 
Step 9. Finishing the Egg
To finish the egg, Jean François propped up his creation
in a metal pastry ring and proceeded to fill another tiny pastry
bag, this time with dark chocolate. He then piped a line of tiny
chocoalte beads neatly along the seam. This border didn't reach
completely to the bottom, as the bottom of the egg will rest upon
the base that was made back in Step 2.
To attach the completed egg to the base, Jean François
just uses a little more tempered chocolate, which acts as a glue,
and carefully sets his masterpiece in place. A little packaging
and this edible work of art is ready to go!

After the egg sets in the base, it time to display
it for all the world to see. Take
a look at Jean François' Easter Egg Gallery.
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Get the molds you need to make your very own
Exquisite Chocolate Easter Eggs.

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