truffles and wine and cakes oh my!

I can't seem to my act together and update this in the correct order! It doesn't do me any good to tell you about an event once it is already over, but that isn't going to stop me.

The first event of the month was the Chocolate and Wine Pairing Seminar at Let's Talk Wine. I am so glad we had a few trial tastings before the actual event, it is much more difficult than one would think to find a great combination. I was a little worried about the seminar, how can you educate people about something as subjective as taste? I was really pleased with the turn out, I have to say. We used 4 types of chocolate tasting squares: 3 of which were Michel Cluizel (72%, 65% and 50%) and my favorite, Amedei 70%. We had 4 types of wine that Ian chose after our trial tastings. They were a moscato di asti, a Banyoul, Jester Cab and Marietta Zin. My notes are illegible down towards the bottom, so I am going with my faulty memory! I think the biggest surprise pairing of the bunch was the Moscato and the 65%. People were pleased with the 50%/Moscato pairing until they tasted the 65%, it was what I am looking for a pairing to be; they blended harmoniously without taking anything away from either element. People always ask me when they are purchasing truffles, "what wine would go with this chocolate?" I always say that they are really at their best separately. I think to some degree that it may be easier to pair a truffle with the wine than it is the straight up chocolate, but it is still something you are going to have to play with to figure out. We have an amazing friend Paul who is a flavor savant and he recommended my coconut rum truffle with a Zin (I thought he had been drinking too much!) but it was an amazing combination. So, at the end of the day, there are amazing combinations to be had, but with plain chocolate it is a very hard thing. If you are willing to put in the work of methodically making combinations and taking notes ( a bit more detailed than mine), you may find something amazing, but it isn't as easy as saying, "oh, that's a dark chocolate, a cab will work." The absolute best pairing of the day: Jester Zin and chocolate chip cookies! Also, I think the best way to combine cab and chocolate is in a torte. I made one to show the difference in the taste, between the cooked and uncooked. It was the same chocolate and wine, just one in a little square and one in a flourless torte. Of course there were other elements to the torte that absolutely add to the combination, but that is my recommendation for a pairing.

The next event I am still cleaning up after! On saturday, June 20th, the hottest day of the year, I was at Let's Talk Wine again for one of their wine tastings. I was glad to be in the 64 degree shop that day, I think the heat index was up to 105 and I start getting crabby at about 80 degrees, chocolate or no chocolate! I brought along 13 different types of truffles and various bars. It was a rough week making the chocolates, not just because of the heat and humidity, but the kids were on their first week out of school. So, the block of time that I would normally have to work was interrupted every 1/2 hour or so with requests for food or for my referee services. I changed up the flavors a bit, didn't bring along some normal ones. There are so many great berries out right now, it was hard to choose. I thought with it being the day before Father's Day that I would try the more "manly" flavors; guinness, salty peanuts, rum. It was so nice to see my regulars, along with quite a few new people stopping in on their way to the Outer Banks. I love that people are not quite sure about some of my flavors, that I am surprising people, in a good way. Here is what I brought:

Modena: This was a labor of love. I love strawberries and balsamic vinegar (I love balsamic on just about anything really) and I wanted to find a way to make this into a chocolate. I searched around for recipes, I worked on this for over a month trying to get it right. You know when you have something very specific in mind and nothing really matches up to it? It finally did, this chocolate is a layer of strawberry pate de fruit (fruit gummy but in a way that you can't imagine) and a layer of ganache of 65% chocolate and reduction of balsamic. The name comes from where balsamic comes from.

Adamo: This was one of the chocolates that customers said, "really?" This is a 70% chocolate and lime, yes lime. Chances are, if you like chocolate and orange, you will like chocolate with just about any citrus (I do). When I taste limes, I think about Mexico. There isn't a lot of Art Nouveau architecture or artists coming out of Mexico. The Palace of Fine Arts in Mexico City was the most prominent example I could find. Adamo Boari, the Italian architect is who designed the building is where I got the name of this chocolate.

Gibson: I haven't don't the Gibson since the fall when the peanuts are fresh, but it is one of my husband's favorites. (I didn't have to go Father's Day shopping)

Ponce: Coconut and rum, it is summer after all.

Brittany: I can't seem to make enough of the sea salt caramel

Dublin: This is another chocolate that I have to say, "please just trust me!" This isn't overpowering Guinness. I don't think you have to love Guinness to love this chocolate (although I do). The dark richness of the Guinness blends so well with chocolate, I make a cake with it as well. I think of the flavors in the same way I think of coffee.

Paris: I never go to the shop without them!

London: Earl Grey, one of the most requested flavors.

Ankara: I am so pleased that people have taken to the tea truffles, I think it is a great combination.

Milan: I haven't done this in awhile. It is pure flavor, you really have to be an espresso fan for this one!

Somerset: It sat in the sun a bit too long before I got this photo! I was afraid that this would disappoint, as it isn't as minty as a junior mint or a peppermint patty, but that is exactly why they loved it.

Beardsley: Raspberries are another of those flavors that make me instantly think of England. I don't know why, it may be that delicious jam I had on my scones while we were at the Cheddar Gorge, it's funny how our minds make these connections. Weaving taste and ambience together. This is a fresh raspberry puree mixed in a equally fresh fondant. It is an old fashioned favorite. England and Art Nouveau leads me to Aubrey Beardsley, an illustrator.

Rosario: I might just be asked to leave if I came without these.

I am starting more chocolates tomorrow for a wedding reception, it is so nice to be included in such a big day! I am not sure what will come next. A chocolate and beer pairing seminar? A chocolate 101 series? Another wine tasting? I will let you know when I do, hopefully before it happens this time.

Go get your hands on some Amedei chuao bars or squares, they are well worth the effort of tracking them down!

Why didn't I become a carpenter?

Why didn't I become a carpenter, or a botanist or something?  It is so hot outside, 93% and 89% humidity last check, obviously not great chocolate weather.  Chocolate ice cream, maybe.

I have been getting a emails asking about my return to Five Points, I am hoping it will be soon.  I am fully stocked and ready to go, unfortunately with no air conditioning in the market, it isn't the best place to be.  I am working on a solution and will be there as quickly as possible.  

I am also getting questioned about why it matters, why is the heat and humidity such a problem.  Has anyone ever left their junior mints in the car?  I don't mean to sound snarky, really I don't.  Chocolates and heat just don't work out well together.  It is so stressful for me as well; it takes me a week to make all these chocolates, then I sort out which look perfect and which become samples to be chopped up.  After they have been sorted and photographed for brochures or tasting cards I have to transport them. At this point I am usually giddy with relief that I am getting the chocolates out of my house without either my dog, my children or my husband eating them.  Imagine a lovely in Tidewater with a heat index of 104.  I take the lovely chocolates out of my climate controlled work room (68 degrees and 39% humidity) to get them into the car and within 5 seconds there are little beads of condensation.  Chocolate and water get along even worse than chocolate and heat.  Where there is condensation there is imperfection and stickiness or gumminess, do I just chop everything up then? It is a nightmare!

I am hoping to do a bit more educational events over the summer and less actual chocolate work.  I have an event coming up on June 7th, a wine and chocolate pairing seminar, which has been alot of fun to investigate (my notes are incoherent thankfully Ian drinks for a living!). People assume them to be a natural duo, but it is tougher than one might think.  I am also doing some chocolates for the shop on June 20th for their regular tasting event(any Father's day flavor ideas?).   So far, that is it for the summer and I am good with that.  We have talked about a chocolate and beer pairing seminar as well, hopefully the interest is out there.

I am also mulling over the idea of starting a chocolate society or club or something to that effect.  There is so much great chocolate out there, though not available locally.  I would love to expose people to some great chocolate and educate them as to why it is so great.  Many of the big cities have them and I do think it's a great idea.  We'll see.

A week without chocolate

After 2 big jobs in a row, I took the last week off, the bonus of being your own boss.  The only chocolate I even looked at was junior mints while at a movie!  I don't want chocolate to be involved with any of my five senses.   Of course  I had other business details to take care of, re-ordering, spreadsheets, all that fun stuff.

Here are some photos from the Chesapeake Regional Medical Center's "Red, White and Chocolate" event:

I did 9 different flavors, I still haven't heard back from them but I am hoping that everyone enjoyed them.

The last event was the anniversary celebration for Let's Talk Wine.  I love the events at the wine shop, I get to chat with everyone and hear first hand comments about the chocolates.  I had the usual questioning looks on the faces for some of my flavor choices, including the favorite of the day; the Brittany, which is a caramel with sea salt:

The second favorite was the Ponce, which if I named it for a friend would have been Cynthia.  This truffle is milk chocolate, coconut and rum, which is Cynthia!

The Sorrento was the other surprise that people loved:

In all I did 12 different flavors for the event, some recipes enhanced or re-tooled, most exactly the same.

I am now feeling a little uninspired.  I need to hit the market and see what is out there that I can play with for some new creations.  Local strawberries are starting to come in, which will be fun.  I did play around with making some small bars, flavored with dried fruits and or spices.  I really enjoy them myself, so I took some along.  The pink peppercorn and star anise was my favorite:

I am also working on a tasting event at Let's Talk Wine, a chocolate and wine pairing type event. I have found the chocolates that I am going to use, now I just have to find the wine.  A rough day of work is ahead of me again!

humidity on the rise

I am getting ready for 2 events in May, so I have been busy ordering more boxes, chocolate, etc.  I try to take care of all the admin business during the down time, but down time included spring break for my kids, which it rained most of.  I am learning to take care of all the little things ahead of time, because chocolate is very temperamental (no pun intended) add the unpredictable weather as I am sure I have mentioned, and it is a complete set up for disaster.  Unfortunately, trying to get alot of the small details done requires me to have things done in advance.  Things like determining which flavors I will be doing so I can do all the ingredient labels and inserts ahead of time.  I am not a very organized person, phew, I am so glad I got that off my chest.  I am spontaneous so while I may plan to make truffles with filberts in them, and write it all down and print it all out, I will inevitably wake up on the day I am making them and decide that I really can't stand the smell of filberts again.  Another thing about me, I tend to make things far more difficult than need be.  Instead of just making the filbert truffles, I rip up all the labels and decide to make truffles with peanuts.  How hard can that be?  Well, I then have to go get the peanuts, then realize that the truffle base is a different cacao percentage then I planned for, so I have to search through my chocolate stash for what I need, weigh it all out etc, half of my production day is now wasted!  I am learning though!  Keeping flavors somewhat seasonal is helpful, especially when there isn't much in season.

It has been a very wet week or so, it never fails that the weather throws me for a loop when I am setting up for production.  I am debating a dehumidifier,  a few extra fans and some way to keep all the sun out of my sun room (which is my chocolate work room).  I am trying to find ways to make the production run smoothly and efficiently, which I think is tougher in a home based business. I am not a gadget girl, I have been hand tempering for 4 years.  It is what I know, I have a system and it looks great.  Yes, it is time consuming and stressful.   For those of you who haven't been  my assistant, tempered chocolate is the outside coating, it should have a nice crisp snap and look gorgeous (basically).  To temper chocolate you have to melt it to a certain temperature range, then let it cool to another temperature range, then heat it back up, very gently to a 3 degree window.  When it its that window you are off and running, and you need to find a way to keep it in that window. Which for a long time required a heating pad, and constant running back and forth to the double boiler on the stove.  It falls under the making things more difficult than need be aspect of my life.  I felt that if I used a tempering machine that it was cheating somehow.  That I wouldn't be considered artisan if I used one.  After a few years of my husband and friends trying to convince me otherwise,  I have finally relented and purchased a small machine. There is a learning curve with everything and the first run was a nightmare, requiring phone calls and emails to the manufacturer, my chocolate provider, a chocolate scientist and a fellow chocolatier in Israel!  I am so thankful for all the help!  

I am still working on some new flavors.  The ones I introduced for Spring thus far are:

Sorrento:  I am happy that nearly everyone who tried it loved it as much as I do.  It is my new favorite.  I originally worked on a lemon-thyme combination, but it had a medicinal quality that I wasn't crazy about.  Whenever I smell lemons, or lemon blossoms I think about Sorrento, Italy; the lemon trees everywhere, the lemon pottery, limoncello!  It is my kind of place.

Gaudi: I never made it to Barcelona, which I will remedy one day.  When I ask people what they think about when I say Barcelona, I get wine or Gaudi.  This bon bon is late harvest zinfandel and dark chocolate combination.  I have been working on a red wine truffle for quite awhile, I am finally pleased with this combination, and since I sold out of them, it appears that my customers are too!

Ankara: This jasmine tea truffle got much better with time.  I felt it was a bit too strong at first, but jasmine tea lovers really enjoyed it.  I went through 3 different organic jasmine teas before finding the fragrance I was looking for.  I am not sure if I am going to keep this around though, I had a lot of requests for the Earl Grey, maybe I will do a small box of just tea bon bons.

Somerset: I have a confession to make, I love junior mints, they are my favorite movie food. I have been working on my own version with fresh mint.  It is quite the process to make fondant, it starts as a boiling liquid in a pot (one temperature for stiff fondant, one for medium, one for soft), add in all the flavorings, slab it to cool then mold up.  I really shouldn't do the fondants or caramels, I burn my finger without fail.

The last of the new chocolates, I am sad to say, I didn't love, so it is back to the drawing board.  It was great in theory, it just didn't come out with strong enough coconut flavor for the coconut lovers I encountered.

 

Havana: This is a combination of white chocolate, cream and coconut cream dipped in a dark chocolate, with a bit of fresh coconut on top.  Maybe it will work out better next time!

I am donating a bunch of chocolates to Chesapeake Regional Medical Center's Red, White and Chocolate event the first weekend of May.  I am flattered to have been asked to contribute after someone tasted my chocolate at Let's Talk Wine.  It is a great cause and I am happy to contribute.

May 9th is Let's Talk Wine's first anniversary celebration, so I will be there all day during the celebration and tasting with my chocolates.  It is a great shop, filled with great wines and people so try to make your way on over!  I am still working on which flavors I will be bringing with me, but I will have plenty on hand to sample.

Here comes the rain again! 

Early April

Today is one of those gorgeous spring days in the Hampton Roads area of VA.  73 with 95% humidity and a tornado warning!  Not the best day to start chocolate.  But, what are you gonna do.  I have been researching dehumidifiers, either that or I close up shop from May until October.  Not ideal when you are trying to actually START a business.  Did I mention that it is allergy time?  

Yesterday I started infusing cream.  I finally was able to procure somewhat local cream from 5 points!  I think it has a somewhat higher fat content, which may or may not screw up my work. Today I have been ganache making.  My lovely lemon is amazing fresh out of the bowl.  I have also finished the Roma, Rosario, Reims, plus a few new ones I have yet to name.   Coconut and jasmine tea.  I will be researching the  art nouveau/coconut connection as well as the jasmine tea for the next few days.

Remember, chocolates make a great hostess gift for everyone out there traveling for the Easter holiday!

Upcoming Events

I have had a few inquiries as to when I will have chocolate out again.  This is what I am doing for the next month or so:

April 11th 

Five Points Community Farm Market 

2500 Church Street Suite A, Norfolk

9a.m. - 5p.m.

May 9th

Let's Talk Wine 

Anniversary celebration

236 Carmichael Way, Suite 308, Chesapeake

11:oo a.m. until I run out

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,