I am crazy about salt in chocolate. As I sit and sample a large assortment of chocolate and spice combinations, I find myself drawn toward the savory chocolates more and more these days. I have loved regular old white table salt my whole life. I have had a salt fetish for a few years now. Of course, Salt Works has had a lot to do with this craze in my recent life. But, check this out! Who would have thought of salt as [...]
I am getting way too impressed with myself. I can’t believe I made these candies! In the front I have dipped some of the sour cherry zinfandel fondant I wrote about yesterday. I put a piece of the starburst transfer sheet on the top. These would be prettier if I worked the fondant at a colder temperature. I could have gotten a more crisp shape. If I used a chocolate made specifically for enrobing, the foot on the bottom of [...]
I have to admit, this was a terrifying experiment with a pleasing result. Developing a perfected recipe will take some experimentation. However, round 1 has me excited for this adventure. When I was at the supermarket, I picked out some loose leaf tea to introduce into my chocolates. I chose jasmine pearl balls and Earl Grey (decaf). I had never eaten or made any chocolates with tea stuff in them when I picked these out. I was hoping to find [...]
What the Heck is Fondant? I am making fondant. Here’s the funny part: I don’t even know what it is! Of course I have to go and change the recipe, too. I’m not even going to know if it turned out ok! It is a pretty simple recipe: water, sugar, cream of tartar, bring it to soft ball temperature. So, I figure I’m going to want it flavored. I use zinfandel instead of water. This ball of goop is soooo sticky. [...]
Oh! Very Good! Inspired by Vosges Haut Chocolat, I mixed bacon into my 60% dark chocolate. I’d say there were about 2-3 slices of bacon which I cooked until completely crunchy. (95% Fat Free Turkey Bacon is my favorite!) Then I used my mini food processor to grind the bacon to a fine ground. I melted about 5 ounces of chocolate. I poured the melted concoction onto a sheet of textured plastic… Look what happened! It is textured! It came [...]
I came up with my first 2 recipe entries in the Jots & Tittles book. 1) Coconut Curry & Caramel in milk chocolate. It was pretty good. I’ll keep it in the line-up with some adaptations… maybe raisins instead of caramel. The milk chocolate wasn’t perfectly tempered. That was a disappointment. It was hazy. 2) Strawberry & Walnut in white chocolate. I used the freeze dried strawberries, which are slightly sour & crunchy, too. I was very pleased with this [...]
Last Tuesday I was telling my friends Colin & Rebecca that even though I am not a writer, and I’m not a chocolatier, I would like to write a book about making chocolates. I am exploding with recipe ideas. I told them I even have a name for the book: “The Amateur Chocolatier”. Rebecca very wisely stated, “Take a lot of careful notes.” I knew I would have to be thinking of recipes in order to write this book. Rebecca’s [...]
Oh, what Joy! Another box of chocolate supplies arrived today. I got a new mold in the shape of a cocoa pod. Very charming! I bought it at Chef Rubber. I also got unflavored pop rocks from this website. Holy Moly! This is the most fun chocolate recipe. I added a healthy dose of the pop rocks into dark chocolate, and added cayenne pepper and alaea Hawaiian salt (course ground) into the mix. I broke in the cocoa pod mold [...]
Some of the tools and supplies that I ordered have arrived. Here are some photos of my first round of experiments. I was fairly pleased with the items in the top photo. In the future I will try crushing the strawberry into powder. I think that will be more attractive. I was in a hurry. I’d like to let the chocolate drip more next time so the foot of the nugget is smaller. On the left is a 1/2 marshmallow [...]
I’ll let you in on a secret ingredient: Fruit Crunchies! It is tricky using fruit in chocolate because of the water content. Ha! This fruit has been freeze-dried. It is fabulously crunchy when fresh, and gets softer as it absorbs moisture after being open for a few days. Either way, it has intense fruit flavor. I’m not sure how I will use my fruit crunchies yet. One idea that keeps popping up is to crush them on top of dipped, [...]