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Earl Grey tea, Ginger root, and Sour cherry chocolate truffles recipes

April 19, 2011 by Georgette Leave a Comment

Ginger root, earl grey tea and sour cherries chocolate truffles

Chocolate truffles are the easiest of the chocolate confections to make and one of the best “medium” for experimenting with flavors. Luckily, Passover is celebrated for 8 days, so you should have another opportunity to prepare these and surprise your family and friends.

You do not need any special equipment, except if you feel like to splurge, you may want to purchase a chocolate tempering machine. They are quite expensive, but if they really work (which may not always be the case), they worth the expense because they taking the uncertainty out of the equation. But more about this another time.

It is a good idea to buy some disposable pastry bags and dipping forks, both of which can be found in a candy-making supply shop or the larger cookware stores, like Williams-Sonoma, Sur la Table, Crate and Barrel, and others.

The followings are the recipes I used in the creations of the truffles shown above; I would be curious to hear from you if you used other types of ingredients, different ratios of cream-to-chocolate, or butter-to-chocolate: how did the truffles taste? how did they look? why did you select those ingredients, etc.?

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Filed Under: chocolate truffles, chocolates, Create your own confections, working with chocolate Tagged With: bonbons, dark chocolate, dark chocolate ganache, earl grey tea ganache, ganache, ginger, ginger root ganache, milk chocolate ganache, pecans, sour cherries ganache, tempered chocolate, vanilla bean

Standout Ingredients in Baking. Part I.

March 4, 2011 by Georgette Leave a Comment

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Flavoring Agent: Vanilla

The most important thing you can do for assuring the high quality of your cakes, pastries, cookies, confections, etc., is buying high quality ingredients. The only way you can do that if you know the criteria for high quality for each and every ingredient you are planning to use in a specific product. It sounds easy, but it is far from it. Particularly in the times we are living, when you can purchase ingredients from anywhere in the world (the world became one huge single market), when imitators and crooks are looming in every corner of the world, when “organic” is not always equals to quality and when the same product can be great or mediocre, depending on its intended use.

We are starting a series here to assist you in this process. The first ingredient that I’d like to review is vanilla, which is a flavoring agent.

Vanilla (Vanilla Planifolia)

Vanilla is my favorite flavoring ingredient. I use it in everything I bake and in most of my chocolate creations. Vanilla’s aroma is intoxicating. In your bakery, place anything in your oven to bake, that contains vanilla and within minutes you’ll have people buying up everything from your display unit. The aroma of the vanilla travels quite a distance and people unconsciously or counsciously will follow it anywhere. Many entrepreneurs use this “trick” for their advantage.

Did you know that natural vanillin is also found in other foods such as asparagus to which it imparts its distinctive fragrance and taste?

Origin

Vanilla beans come from the only fruit-bearing orchid. Once the flowers are open and pollinated by hand (in Madagascar it happens in May/June), they stay on the vine throughout the growing season. The ovary, which is located between the flower and the vine’s stem, is the part of the flower that turns into the green seedpod. In July/August the following year the green pods are harvested by hand, then cured in the sun and aged for months until vanillin (not to be confused with the synthetic product) is released and the pod turns into the familiar black color. The flavor of a vanilla bean comes from enzymes that are activated by the repeated sweating and drying of the curing process.

The flowers are pollinated manually (and that is one the reason that they are so expensive) because the birds and the bees that used to pollinate the greenish/yellowish flowers are extinct. It was Edmund Albius, a former slave on the Indian Ocean Island of Reunion that discovered a practical method to polinate the flowers manually. Cultivation in Madagascar soared after the French colonized the island in 1896.

Properties

Vanilla was studied extensively and these studies reported about its aphrodisiacal, euphoriant, calming and sexual stimulant properties. Since we discussed these earlier during the days leading up to Valentine’s Day, I will skip this data and concentrate only on the different varieties.

Types

Most vanilla plants are originating in Madagascar; but it is also grown in the West Indies, Tahiti and Mexico.

Madagascar and Tahiti are the high quality producers but Tahitian vanilla is the most expensive one.

Madagascar and the Comoros are former French colonies; Vanilla bean from this region has a mellow, rich flavor, a sweet aroma and some spicy notes.

The Mexican beans are more robust looking, has a richer, deeper, earthier flavor as compared to the Madagascar one and its aroma has a touch of smokey tone with stronger spicy notes. You do have to be careful where you are buying the Mexican vanilla because it maybe adulterated with coumarin, which is a highly toxic substance.

The Tahitian vanilla are plump, provides a lovely sweet fruity taste to any product it is used with (it actually taste totally different than the other two vanillas) and it has a highly intoxicating floral aroma. Some botanists actually claim that it is from a different species and that is why it is more glossy and moist then the other two vanillas. In addition, their pods deliver significantly more seeds as compared to the other two varieties and scraped out easier. It is, however, the only product among the three varieties that resistant to other spices and herbs; therefore, it is not advisable to use in products where stronger spices are also needed.

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Filed Under: Baking, Ingredients Tagged With: vanilla bean

VALENTINE’S DAY WITHOUT CHOCOLATES? DO N’T EVEN THINK OF IT.

February 12, 2011 by Georgette 1 Comment

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Rouge Passion by Richart's Chocolates

Just as we cannot see celebrating Valentine’s Day without chocolates, it would be a sin not to seek out the best possible selection for your Valentine. We have reported previously about the products of top chocolatiers in the US ( (please see previous posts); and just by thinking about the tastes of these wonderful creations, I start to feel warm all over and cannot wait to open my box of surprise (or maybe not a surprise at all, since my Valentine knows my flair for the best). This is the holiday when you should not settle for anything less than the best. However, if you recall, I also said that selecting chocolates is a highly personal decision; what maybe the best for me it may not be your choice. So, please go ahead and read about all the top 10 chocolatiers we reviewed previously, because we conducted a very thorough tasting process and these artists were selected by consensus.

In the interim, however, I had a wonderful opportunity to taste the newest inventions of Richart, so I am going to add here a brief report about my feelings about these gems.

Richart's Chocolates

If you want to lift your mood, if you want to indulge in life’s luxuries, if you wish to be in the mood – what you do? You grab a box of chocolate, the best you can find and do not stop until the box is empty. Chocolate is the embodiment of love, passion, and sexual desire. It is the absolute perfect gift for those we care about deeply; so I hope you will threat one another with one of these delights and create a weekend to remember for years to come.

Richart created a special box for Valentine’s Day, named perfectly as “Rouge Passion”. It composed of two chocolate bonbons with variations of a ganache based on passion fruit’s aromatic bouquet, the delightful refreshing taste of berries and the seductive power of salted butter caramel coulis. Michel Richart likes to develop new products designed with the pleasure in mind; it shows. Michel doesn’t only put a lot of passion into his work, but he transfers that excitement you feel when you are in love into his creations. When you place one of these bonbons into your mouth its an instant exhilaration combined with the pleasurable sensation of sexual arousal. Get this box for your Valentine, but enjoy it together.

The other two newer products that we tried called CHOCOMAC and WINTER JUBILEE. CHOCOMAC has 8 pieces developed with the idea to help you to get the most pleasure from tasting chocolates. It has the light crunchy feel of french macaroons, the smooth, silky feel of a perfect ganache and a wafer thin solid chocolate to exert a desirable strength for the connection of the multitude of experience. Richart even thought about to provide you a “pleasure guide” (he calls it the “Wheel of Pleasure) with these elegant creations, which certainly adds to the tasting experience. This “Wheel of Pleasure” is color coded to assist you in identifying and differentiating the aromas the chocolate exudes, the texture that corresponds to the feel in your mouth and the taste that actually drives your feeling of pleasure. Some of the chocolates contain multiple ingredients in high concentrations that are known aphrodisiacs (i.e. spices, coffee, etc.) so double your pleasure and indulge.

The Winter Jubilee contains seven dark chocolates with unique chocolate ganache fillings. The dark chocolates are from Venezuela and the ganache contains chocolates from Santo Domingo and Tahitian vanilla, of course. These beauties are not only an art work to look at, but contain a variety of ingredients with significant aphrodisiacal powers, like pineapple, cinnamon, peppermint, vanilla, almonds, hazelnuts, coriander, and star anise. I left the last ingredients to be reported separately, because Richart correctly calls this chocolate a “FLAME”; it contains quinoa from Peru and sea salt from Guerande and of course the chocolate from Venezuela – one of these will not only ignite old intense loving feelings but create new ones with a flame that will never die.

Richart's Chocolates

TOP TEN CHOCOLATIERS IN THE US

Richart’s Chocolates
1-800-RICHART (1-800-742-4278); http://www.richart.com

La Maison du Chocolat
744-7117; http://www.lamaisonduchocolat.us/us/en/

Norman Love Confections
866-515-2121; http://www.normanloveconfections.com

Michel Cluizel

http://www.cluizel.com

Knipschildt Chocolatier
838-3131; http://www.knipschildt.com

Recchiuti Confections
800-500-3396; http://www.recchiuti.com

Kee’s Chocolates

http://www.keeschocolates.com

Christopher Elbow

http://www.elbowchocolates.com

Chuao Chocolates

http://www.chuaochocolatier.com

L.A. Burdick
800-229-2419; http://www.burdickchocolate.com

Please remember that you may not agree with our selections; therefore, we would like to hear from you. Actually, if enough of you would respond we could create a readers’ selection. Wouldn’t that be fun?

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Filed Under: chocolates, global artisanal chocolate, Valentine's Day Tagged With: almond, aphrodisiac, aphrodisiacal, bonbons, caramel, cardamom, chocolate, CHOCOMAC, christopher elbow, Chuao chocolatier, cinnamon, coffee, coriander, dark chocolate, ganache, Guerande, hazelnut, Kee's chocolates, Knipschildt, L A Burdick, La Maison du chocolates, Michel Cluizel, Norman Love, passion fruit, peppermint, Peru, pineapple, pleasure, Recciuti, red quinoa, Richart chocolates, Rouge Passion, salted butter, Santo Domingo, spices, star anise, tahitian vanilla, vanilla bean, Venezuela, venezuelan chocolates, Wheel of Pleasure, Winter Jubilee

EXOTIC LOVE-FRUITS FOR YOUR VALENTINE’S DAY

February 6, 2011 by Georgette Leave a Comment

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“A perfectly ripe piece of fruit shared with your lover is a true romantic moment.”

While I am writing this post, I cannot help but think: why are we talking, writing, and reading about foods with aphrodisiac properties only for a few weeks leading to Valentine’s Day? Are we interested to have a great sex life for a week or two annually, then back to doldrums? I would hope not. I suggest we keep these posts, articles, books handy all year long (mainly scattered in the bedroom, the kitchen, the bathroom, etc., ) and consult them daily. I am confident we will be a happy society with no time to kvetch or revolt; our production of goods and services would skyrocket, our economy would flourish and we would live happily ever after….

So, let me know what you think about this suggestion.

At first I wrote about the mythology of aphrodisiac, how it derived from Aphrodite, the Greek goddess of love; and how some foods became labeled as aphrodisiac and used as sexual stimulant …….and then it dawn on me that this story must be getting out of your elbow by now, so I discarded that draft. However, I still love the story of Paris, the young prince of Troy who was charged with choosing “the fairest” of three goddesses to be the recipient of the golden apple. Hera, goddess of marriage and birth, offered Paris riches and dominion over all men. Athena, goddess of wisdom and war, promised Paris knowledge and renown as the bravest, most invincible of heroes. Then the goddess of love and beauty spoke. In a sweet voice, teasing with laughter, Aphrodite said, “Choose me and I will give you love and the most beautiful woman in the world for your wife.” Of course, Paris chose Aphrodite and true to her word, she introduced him to the lovely Helen, wife of the King of Sparta. Paris proceeded to abduct Helen and the rest is, as they call it, myth history; think Trojan War!

Let me know if you share my sentiment, or you hate this story too?

Anyway lets get back to the title of this post and talk about the variety of exotic sensual fruits that in the right circumstances, can get your sexual energies flowing; so keep them handy at all times.

I’d like to start with my favorite one (as our domain name implies): FIGS

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Filed Under: Valentine's Day Tagged With: aphrodisiac, Aphrodite, apple cider, arugula, Athena, B vitamins, black mission figs, blue cheese, cardamom, chocolate, Cleopatra, cranberries, creme fraiche, dried currants, endive, Eve, female sexual organ, fertility, figs, fruit, ginger, Gorgonzola cheese, Helen, Hera, Hesperides, honey, King of Sparta, Le Creuset, libido, Manchego cheese, melon, Meyer lemon, Paris, post-coital, prosciutto, quince, quince marmalade, quince paste, raisins, raspberry, raspberry vinaigrette, rocket, sexual stimulant, Tarte Tatin, Trojan War, Troy, vanilla bean, Venus, Vitamin A, zinc

CHOCOLATES YOU MUST KNOW – TOP TEN CHOCOLATIERS

December 18, 2010 by Georgette Leave a Comment

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Recchiuti Chocolate Samples

INTRODUCING THE SEVENTH CHOCOLATIER:

RECCHIUTI, SAN FRANCISCO

The Artisan:

The Bay Area is the epicenter of great artisanal chocolate products. Michael Recchiuti is one of the top masters of the trade and his chocolates are a true works of art. He has a production facility in the southeastern section of San Francisco, and a successful, high profile shop in the Ferry Building.

The Chocolates:

The truffles and bonbons contain a perfectly smooth and silky-textured ganache with intense flavors and elegant presentation. We highly recommend that you do not miss out on this one if and when you are visiting the San Francisco area; however, if you can’t get there personally, you can make your order online and enjoy the entire box upon its arrival to your home. I can’t imagine a more elegant and extravagant gift than these delicate and perfectly balanced chocolate creations.

Michael Recchiuti produces a sublime Champagne Truffle with 2001 Schramsberg Blanc de Noirs sparkling wine and a delicate touch of powdered sugar, which is a must – and you will never buy truffles from anyone else. His crunchy sesame nougat is another stunner with its earthy depth, and addictive texture that lingers in one’s mouth for eternity. The Tarragon Grapefruit is a leap of faith into the unknown, but every bite is a reaffirmation of Recchiuti’s extraordinary talent. The Fleur de Sel (salted with French sea salt) contains a pleasantly chewy burnt caramel coated with dark chocolate; the flavors are nicely balanced and the burnt caramel is one of the best we have ever tasted (and we tasted plenty). In fact, we can honestly declare that Michael Recchiuti should be imitated by anyone that wants to create the perfect burnt caramel (not to mention, he should be inducted into the Hall of Fame as the World’s Best Burnt Caramel Producer)

Lemon Verbena is an extra-bitter, dark chocolate ganache with a bright and clear taste of Lemon Verbena, coated in dark chocolate with a beautiful white leaf pattern adorning the top surface. The chocolate is rich and refreshing at the same time. The Force Noir is made with extra-bitter chocolate ganache infused with whole vanilla bean. It is absolutely out-of-this-world; the extra-bitter chocolate gives a pure, clean, intense chocolate experience and the vanilla bean adds that sweetness you need to balance the bitterness. I cannot complete this review without mentioning the Piedmont Hazelnut chocolate. It is a beautiful piece with silky, buttery texture of the gianduja ganache complemented with the light crunchiness of the Piedmont hazelnut (the best in the world). We also ordered their Dragee Sampler which comes with Burnt Caramel Almonds, Hazelnuts, Peanut Butter Pearls, and Cherries Two Ways – WOW! Talking about indulging.

I own a copy of Michael’s book: “Chocolate Obsession” and I am glad I do. At first, I hesitated to purchase it because, being a chocolate snob, I decided that I had enough training; I do not need another book to tell me how to temper chocolate. I was surprised, however, that despite my resistance, I still learned a few things or two from his book; not to mention the experimentation of creating some his recipes was truly events to remember. Although I do not reproduce his creations in my repertoire (I do not think it would be fair), some of his techniques assisted me in developing my own master pieces.

The book primarily discusses the simple forms of chocolates (i.e. truffles, dipped and moulded chocolates), for the home maker, but I was delighted that he included his signature creation: the s’mores. In general, what I liked most about Michael’s book is the tone of his writing. When you reading the recipes, or the stories attached to it, you feel as if an old friend wants to share his knowledge with you in the most intimate manner possible. Anyone interested to learn and experiment in working with chocolates should own a copy. Moreover, it is a great conversation opener when placed on your coffee table in the family room.

How to Order:

One can always order online: http://www.recchiuti.com. Recchiuti’s elegant signature is also evident on his website. Every box is appealing and every chocolate is described in the most tempting manner. They are listing their gift boxes, as well as their individual bonbons, from which you an create your own personalized candy box. They also sell sauces (see above the writeup about their burnt caramel); and chocolate bars (We will review the bars in another upcoming post).

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