Late October

Updating this has been at the top of my list for awhile, but I can't seem to utilize the 24 hours a day I was given to their full potential. I guess I could if I would just give up sleep, but quite honestly, sometimes it is the best part of my day.

I really admire those women that do everything; be a great mom, work, write books, maintain friendships, start businesses, cook dinner every night, have wonderful marriages and all the while looking absolutely gorgeous. I don't know how they do it. Being a mom of 3 boys (one of which has an ASD), and a husband who has been gone quite a bit has always been enough to keep me busy. Once they went off to school I thought, "here comes my time!!" It is sad to say that I have realized I was delusional! No one person can do all that, without help. Being a military wife, always away from family has made me very self reliant, to a fault. I pride myself on being able to do everything by myself. Now I am beginning to ask, "why?"

I love fall, I love it better in a place where fall has that storybook look, the hills, gorgeous leaves, fog and cool temps, but.... I love fall. I love the warm, comforting flavors of fall, cinnamon, pumpkin, apples, ginger, all the things that make you feel like snuggling up in a pile of blankets for a nap. I tend to forget all the allergies and the colds, the tissues and vicks vapo-rub and the spilled bottles of cough medicine, until it is staring me in the face. So, on October 16th, I started working on my chocolates for an event at Let's Talk Wine on October 24th. I had been working on a new truffle, had all my ingredients ready; I was fully prepared for everything, I thought. On the 18th, I woke up with a bit of a tickle in my throat and I thought my eyeballs were going to pop out of my head from sinus pressure, but it was Sunday, everyone was home, I had things to do. I had a small chocolate job to finish and I needed to start infusing some cream for the next batch. Did I mention that my husband rescued a 9 month old puppy? A 9 month old Bernese Mountain Dog(Romeo) who weighs in at 75 pounds? Yes, he is adorable and looks so much like our 6 year old Berner, Lucy that he is tough to resist, but... it has been raining and he likes the mud! I am sick, he can rest his head on the counter and apparently never met a food he didn't love. Needless to say, if there was a week in my life that I shouldn't be making chocolate this was it. I had to stop the chocolate to buy my 8 year old a new pair of shoes,(teething puppy) I had fencing lessons with my 12 year old, (a 35 minute drive and I can't see while I am sneezing) I had to go find another batch of star anise (which isn't very common in my part of the world) because Romeo ate the first pack. More chocolate, I get sicker and am positive I am dying of the H1N1 or something far worse. But I need to assemble boxes and print labels and take photos and make more ganache, and breakfast and fill lunch boxes, then make dinner then ....... go buy a new cell phone because Romeo ATE MY cellphone, which is my work phone.........and as much as I would like to call in sick, I can't; my work is my life, I don't mean that in a type A workaholic way, I mean all of this stuff is my life, my everyday life in my "yay it is the me time part of my life!!"

I did survive, on nyquil and cuppa soup. The chocolates did work out well, except for one recipe. They should really put on the nyquil bottle that it impairs the ability to do math of any kind. I spent the 24th, a little congested, but no worse for the week, except now my 12 year old is sick. Thankfully, no chocolate this week and I can take care of him.

There may soon be an additional place to pick up my chocolates, Krysia Witkowski Branum the owner of INTEGRATIVE Manual Therapy & Wellness, has been kind enough to take some samples to see if her clients might be interested in them. I was delighted to hear the excitement when I dropped them off yesterday! I have been asked about sugar free chocolates so I am going to start some research into that. It is honestly not something that I have ever considered, but I do have a few diabetic customers and I would love to get something tasty and not dangerous to them!

cream infusing with spices for Istanbul

All the chocolates for the Let's Talk Wine event

The only new one of this run was the Balyan:

Named for the most well known architect of Art Nouveau style in Turkey. I had been making bars with fresh ground pink peppercorn and star anise for awhile. I love the combination, and thankfully did quite a few people. I started playing around with a truffle with these flavors. As usual, I initially made things far too complicated. The flavors are balanced so well with a great 65% chocolate. I personally think that you can add anything to the Felchlin 65% and it will taste amazing (which may be giving away a huge secret!)

I brought back the marshmallows, by request. I do love the Bewitched style transfer. I loved all the halloween transfers available and hope that bit of whimsy doesn't turn anyone off the chocolates. I realize that a couple of them would have looked much better with white chocolate, but honestly, with the week I was having, I was lucky to get any of them done!

I am just going to sit here in the chocolate room, watching the leaves in the breeze while I am sipping my chai tea. I am pretending that it is about 55 degrees and crisp. I am ignoring the 70 degrees and 98% humidity and the big muddy puppy rolling in the mud.

No new chocolates for you to track down and eat yet, hopefully next week. Although, my 8 year old is sniffling now!

It's below 90!!!!

Yay! It is finally below 90 degrees. It is still humid and too warm for me, but atleast I can wear clothes and not be completely miserable on when I run to the car! As the temperatures fall it is time to start thinking about chocolate again. Last night, it was about 65 and breezy, I actually craved a chai tea truffle (that never happens).

I have to say, I haven't been completely idle this entire summer; I have 3 boys at home, so that is next to impossible. I have repainted my chocolate room, I have been working on a new brochure, checking out new packaging, researching new products, typing up all the recipes that I came up with that were written on chocolate stained sticky notes and I have been rereading some chocolate books for inspiration.

So, fall is no longer just a distant dream, in a few weeks the first pomegranates will show up and the pumpkins, it truly is the small things that make life so much better! Soon I will be able to turn off the dehumidifier and everything!

There will be a tasting at Let's Talk Wine on September 19th from 1200 to 1600, I am not sure which wines will be featured, but you can bet they will be amazing. While I know that technically fall is a few weeks off, I have fall flavours spinning around in my head, so just think of this run of truffles as ushering in fall! Right now I am thinking that I will be making the following:

Tiffany:Pumpkin

Istanbul:Chai

Turin:Hazelnut

Roma:Cappuccino

Paris:Classic

Brittany: Sea Salt Caramel

and hopefully Rossetti: Pomegranate

Hope to see you there!

Chocolate in July?

Is anyone thinking about chocolate in July, especially here in the South? The only chocolate that I can think about is chocolate ice cream or milk shakes. So, what is a chocolatier to do in the dog days of summer when eating, let alone making chocolate is the last thing on her mind? Nothing fun, let me tell you. I have been working on new marketing strategies, rearranging my workspace, taking inventory, compiling new recipes to try out, making list after list after list. Have I ever mentioned that I just want to make the chocolate? I am trying to figure out the best way to paint my chocolate room next, how can I do that without actually moving anything? How can I enlist my children without breaking any child labor laws?

Although I don't seem to have anything but time on my hands these days, I have no idea where it is going and I have absolutely nothing to show for it, aside from some key lime pie made with white chocolate in a chocolate cookie crust. If you don't have Fran Bigelow's cookbook Pure Chocolate, you should pop on over to amazon and get it. I have changed her recipe up a bit, made it a bit more sassy. People are always surprised at the combination, when are they going to start to trust me??

I have also been spending a bit too much time at these sites:

www.pastryscoop.com

www.thechocolatelife.com

www.allchocolate.com

www.doriegreenspan.com

www.davidlebovitz.com

If you are looking for a great beach read, here are a few (which are proof I need to get a life outside chocolate!):

• The Chocolate Connoisseur: For Everyone with a Passion for Chocolate

by Chloe Doutre-Roussel

• The True History of Chocolate by Sophie D. Coe and Michael D. Coe
• Chocolate A Bittersweet saga of Dark and Light by Mort Rosenblum

Enjoy what remains of summer!

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!