experiments

As I mentioned before, when spring rolls around I think of lemons.  Lemons like crazy.  I have worked on a lemon flavored truffle recipe, I have made lemon risotto, lemon cake, lemonade.  I am not sure why, but there you go.  I have heard that when it comes to sweets or desserts, there are two types of people, lemon people and chocolate people, I am sorry I can't reference where I heard that, but I did.... believe it or not (given my profession) I am a lemon person, so the lemon truffle  was a great experiment for me.  I don't really know how other people come up with recipes, but typically I take as many as I can find, look for similarities, change things up, depending on the chocolate % I want to use, then start mixing.  It took 3 tries, but I now have a lemon truffle that has taken the top spot on my favorite list.  

I have also been experimenting with red wine truffles, for a long time.  I started last summer, and it never works out well.  So, I go about my business, always coming back to the red wine truffle, it is like the giant jigsaw puzzle I leave out and come back to every so often.  I have annoyed everyone at Let's Talk Wine incessantly about which red wines to try, and why.  They are then tortured with the horrible truffle autopsy, why didn't this work.  Now, Ian (my wine guru) and I do agree, generally red wine and chocolate don't go well together.  You have to find the right combination, which in my primary wine education, requires the wine to be sweeter than the chocolate (that is my basic knowledge generalization).  It is a really popular combination right now, and people are always asking about it.  After experimenting and tons of research I have found a great combination.  As with the framboise, another dessert wine has worked the best, for me. Drum roll please, a late harvest zinfandel, yay!  

I am also working on a new tea truffle, I love the tea truffles, all of them so far.  I admit that part of the reason seasonal flavors appeals to me is that I don't (and hopefully my customers don't either) get a chance to get sick of what I am making.  It is still pretty tough right now though, as there isn't much out but citrus, and spinach.  My 8 year old son has told me, due to his strawberry craving, "mom, if we drive there, it is local." I love how their brains work.  We drove to Florida last summer!! I am off to the Five Points Farm Market again, hopefully there will be something amazing, or at least a coconut or two!  

I have taken this last bit of down time to organize recipes.  Sounds like fun, huh?  No one tells you these things when you are starting a business.  I guess by the time I am ready to open a shop I will have all the kinks worked out, which was part of the reason for starting small, and at home.  I am still trying to find better ways of tracking my costs, of making invoices and of getting all my boxes and labels and such ready when I take my chocolates on the road (the only drawback of not having a storefront thus far).  I have come to the conclusion though that I really only want to make the chocolate.  I love the process, the creating.  I am thankful for all my friends that are willing to be tasters, especially when they are completely honest.  Taste is so individual and it is something I find fascinating, how nothing changes within one group of samples, but everyone gets something different from it. 

I have a few more days of experimenting before I start chocolates for Easter, wish me luck,