Sunday 23rd October - Home made passion fruit and caramel truffles

On Sunday 23^rd October, I made some fresh truffles and flavoured my concoctions with homemade passion fruit coulis and caramel. This time, I experimented with a different brand of chocolate and percentage of cocoa. My aim was to determine how the different ingredients would affect the flavour and consistency of my chocolates. I used Waitrose home brand of Ecuadorian 75% dark and Tanzanian 40% milk chocolate. I also bought some cooking fudge pieces, which I used to make the caramel for the truffles. Its sounds truly calorific, but I wanted to try and use my favourite flavours incorporated into a truffle.

Firstly, I cut open two passion fruits and extracted the juice by passing the pulp through a sieve to remove the seeds. I then added lemon juice and icing sugar into the mixture, and heated the ingredients on a medium heat until it boiled.  I removed the coulis and set aside to cool.

I heated the whipping cream until it boiled, and then added a mixture of dark and milk chocolate until the elements had completely melted. Once cooled, I added the passion fruit coulis and caramel and mixed the ingredients together until it reached a smooth shiny consistency.  I was told by my new favourite chocolatier ‘Paul Wayne Gregory’ that cocoa fats of dark and milk chocolate melt at different temperatures. As a result this produces different flavours.

Once the chocolate had cooled, I placed the mixture into a piping bag and piped approximately 30 truffles. I set the truffles aside to cool in the fridge and whilst the truffles were chilling I heated and tempered 250g of dark chocolate. I removed the truffles from the fridge after 30 minutes, dipped them in the tempered chocolate and then coated with cocoa powder.

The truffles tasted amazing especially with the hint of passion fruit and caramel. I wish I had a photo to show you my finished masterpiece, but they were all devoured within minutes amongst my family!

Chocolate Unwrapped 2011

On 16^th October I went to Chocolate Unwrapped show in London which is perfect for someone with an incredibly sweet tooth like me! The show features some of the best chocolatiers in the world such as William Curley, Paul A Young, Lindt, Artisan du Chocolat, Amedai, Kallari and many more. The Chocolate Unwrapped show features demonstrations, tastings, and the chance to meet people from the growing countries too. Special events include the chance to hear about the cocoa plantations which provide us with our beloved sweet treat and there is even a mini chocolate factory which shows you the whole process from bean to bar.

For me, my favourite chocolatier was Paul Wayne Gregory who is an award winning chocolate maker. He has supplied chocolates for the Queens 80^th birthday and he describes his chocolates as luxurious like a Bentley car. His chocolates were the best I have ever tasted and I tried salted caramel, raspberry and passion fruit chocolates. They literally hit the spot and they were full of intense fruity flavours and weren’t too rich. I was particularly impressed with Paul Wayne Gregory’s enthusiasm and passion with his chocolate making business which really came through when I chatted to him. He is artistic in his chocolate style and he created a face made out of chocolate which was very impressive.

                                    

By the end of the event, I was completely chocced out!!! I have never eaten so much chocolate in my life!!! I am looking forward to the next Chocolate event in December which will have all of the new Christmassy chocolate range!





Chocolate making with Mychocolate

On Sunday 9^th October, I went on my second chocolate making adventure in London with a company called Mychocolate. They run workshop events for corporate entertainment, hen parties and for individuals who love chocolate. I was with a group of 20 individuals who were all very excited about the prospect of making and eating chocolate. First of all, we were given a small talk about the history of chocolate and I learnt that Christopher Columbus discovered cocoa beans from South America and was the first to bring the beans back to Europe between 1502-1504. I also found out that cocoa beans were used as a currency by the Aztecs and the beans were the natives' "coins." A list of Aztec trading prices looked something like this:

1 small rabbit = 30 cacao beans
1 turkey egg = 3 cacao beans
1 large tomato = 1 cacao bean

After a brief talk about the history of chocolate we tasted and compared high quality chocolate to low quality chocolate. Good chocolate is shinier in appearance, snaps more cleanly and taste slightly bitter. Bad chocolate is brittle and dull in texture and tastes of sugar and vegetable fat. Once the tasting had finished we did the fun part which was making chocolate. I made truffles, a massive chocolate button and individual chocolates coated in ingredients you would find at a kids party!!!!! I had so much fun although my presentations skills really need to improve, but apart from the aesthetics the chocolates tasted amazing.

William Curley's chocolate truffle making course

On Saturday, I went on my first chocolate truffle making course at William Curley’s shop, in Belgravia He is an award winning British Patissier, and Chocolatier and has won the prestigious accolade of Best British chocolatier (2007-2011). I went to London on one of the hottest October’s on record with temperatures reaching 30 degrees Celsius, so it wasn’t the best climatic conditions to make chocolate. The shop itself is relatively small, but as you step inside you are automatically drawn to the gorgeous looking patisseries and chocolates on display. I was offered a complimentary chilli hot chocolate by a friendly shop assistant, so I would definitely give praise to their customer service.

On the course there were 8 people participating and we were given a talk about the origins of chocolate and the type of chocolate they use to make their truffles. William Curley uses a high quality bean called Criollo which is regarded as one of the finest and rarest types in the world.  It is found in South America but is difficult to grow as it’s more susceptible to diseases, unlike its ancestor Trinitario and Forastero. The chocolate brand he uses is Amedei which is known as one of the most expensive chocolate in the world.

To make approximately 30 truffles you will need:

160g 70% Chocolate

145g Whipping Cream

25g unsalted butter (soft)

250g tempered chocolate

150g Cocoa powder

1)  Heat up the cream and bring to the boil

2) Chop the chocolate finely and gradually add the cream, stirring continuously, until the mixture forms a smooth emulsion.

3) Add in soft butter, mix until fully incorporated and leave to set

4) Once the chocolate ganache is firm, spoon into a piping bag and pipe bulbs onto a silicone lined tray or greaseproof paper.

5) Leave to set in a cool place.

6) Prepare a bowl of tempered chocolate and a tray of cocoa powder.

7) Coat each truffle in tempered chocolate and roll individually in cocoa.

8) Allow the chocolate to solidify and ‘sieve’ the truffle to remove any excess cocoa.

I would definitely recommend anyone to go on the course and I learnt a great deal about the chocolate making industry! Although the truffles did not look like the ones you would buy from the shop, they tasted amazing. The bitter sweetness combination complimented the flavours perfectly, and they were one of the best chocolates I have ever tasted.