4 posts tagged “yumm”

It looks like most of the chocolate for our Adoption fund raiser Saturday night is finished.  My mom has made/is making a few other kinds also so they are not on here.  Looks yummy, right?  Oh yeah!

LOL!  How do you like that title?  Well, there are a lot of things I should be doing with this moment.  But I don’t feel like doing any of them except writing.  So here I sit.  And I shall tell you about my work with chocolate.

 

We’re having a fund raiser this weekend for our adoption.  It’s called “Art & Chocolate” and I’ve been enjoying making lots of delightful flavors and combining them with chocolate.  I’m looking forward to seeing how this event goes over.  There will be a delightful harp and violet duo playing.  Wasn’t it lovely of them to offer?  And I’m borrowing silver from Mom so I believe the display will look pretty also.

 

So here are a few of the flavors I have photos of so far:

 

 

This is white chocolate ganache with cranberry puree dipped in milk chocolate.  It’s a lovely balance of sweet and tart.

 

 

This is a vanilla truffle made by steeping a vanilla bean in warm cream for a while, the straining out the bean and using the cream to make white chocolate ganache.  It's a rich flavor molded in dark chocolate.

 

 

I’ve gotten into the habit of calling this one “Red Rose” though it actually started out to be “Red Hot.”  It’s a dark chocolate truffle with a dark chocolate ganache filling with cinnamon, nutmeg and cayenne pepper.  It is very mild but comes off as dark chocolate with an exotic flare.  And those little red roses on top are sooo cute!   

This is “Earl Grey.”  I steeped warm cream in Earl Grey tea until the flavors were infused.  I then used the cream to make white chocolate ganache.  This is molded in milk chocolate and it pretty much just melts in your mouth.  I wrapped these in silver foil and they look pretty in an assortment. 

I found South American dulce de leche (caramel) and paired it with toasted pecans and milk chocolate for an extra yummy version of the turtle. 

 

More caramel but this time paired up with Cashews and dark chocolate.  Oh yummmmmm!

 

This is dark chocolate and when you open it up it is fresh white chocolate crème de mint inside.  Mercy, I love these flavors.  I'm garnishing some of the chocolates in the colors of the Colombian flag so that the display of the mixed pieces looks really beautiful.  So that meant that this mint (usually green) got dressed up in blue (with a tiny white snowflake) for the event.  My mother disapproves, but my mouth can't tell the difference.   

 

 

This is a blueberry truffle.  Now I’m not crazy about the combination of blueberries and chocolate – it just doesn’t work in my opinion.  So I did this completely in white chocolate.  And let me tell ya, which chocolate ganache with blueberry puree, dipped in white chocolate – well I may be biased… but I think it’s really wonderful.  Blueberry is a fairly delicate flavor and this one won’t bash you in the mouth.  It’s more of a ballad than an anthem.  *rolls eyes!*

 

Your monitor is scratch-n-sniff, right?  Sorry, don’t mean to torture you.  There are other flavors coming.  I’ll be mailing out a box to the Shush and Butt Rock Ken family.  (Send me a mailing address you two!)  Anyone else want to place an order?  I’ll be photographing the other kinds and putting them up here when I get a chance.  Anyone brave enough to try ordering chocolate when it could sit in the Mail Person’s 140 degree mail truck for a day?  I'm pretty sure I'll have extra from the event. 

 

I’m planning the Chocolate for a fund raiser coming up next month.  Since we are adopting from Colombia I’ve used the flag colors of red, blue and yellow as an inspiration for the colors and flavors for the chocolate.  And I’ve looked to South American deserts for inspiration for these truffles. 

 

Here are the twelve flavors I’ve got in mind at the moment:

 

They are:

White chocolate lemon ganache molded in dark chocolate garnished in yellow.  I may put some gold leaf in this one for the fun of it.  I happen to already have it so it would be no big deal but I think it would look amazing.

 

Dark chocolate black raspberry ganache molded in milk choc and wrapped in red foil

 

White chocolate blueberry ganache dipped in milk chocolate with blue garnish

 

Vanilla truffle (the cream for the ganache is infused with a South American vanilla bean until the flavor is full tilt rich orchid goodness) in dark chocolate garnished in white.  I can’t wait to try this one but I only have one vanilla bean and since they are rather expensive I don’t think I’m going to get a trial run on this one.  I hope I get it right.

 

White chocolate cranberry almond in white chocolate garnished with red.  Hubby hates this one but I think it’s pretty good and it’s a good texture contrast to the others and the only one coated in white chocolate.

 

Marzipan (a personal favorite) dipped in milk chocolate garnished with almond

 

Earl Grey truffle (I can’t wait to try this one!) in milk and wrapped in silver foil.  (Ok, it’s not the least bit South American, this one is all about me!)

 

A red hot South American chocolate flavor:  Dark chocolate ganache with cinnamon, nutmeg and cayenne pepper in dark chocolate with tiny red rose medallion garnish. (I’ve already tried this one and love, Love, LOVE it!)

 

Pecan praline in milk ganache with a pecan half garnish.  This sounds divine and easy to make.  Maybe I’ll get time for a trial run this week.

 

Dulce de Leche (a South American milk based caramel) cashew in dark or milk (Have not decided) chocolate.  Sounds good.  Don’t know whether to make my own or buy it online.  If I made it I’d never know if I got an authentic end product.  Hmmm… undecided.

 

Hazelnut truffle in dark chocolate wrapped in blue foil.

 

A dark chocolate, blue and white layered peppermint with snowflake garnish.  Coooool!

 

I’m looking forward to it.  I think it will be a feast for the eyes as well as for the taste buds.  I’ve done some serious chocolate making years ago so this is a real flash from the past.  I hope the old skills are still in there as far as dipping and handling the chocolate.  I hope so anyway.  It certainly will be a nice change from what I’m usually doing these days!

Chocolate cake cut in the shape of a guitar, iced in buttercream on the top and chocolate on the sides.  The fret board, head, bridge and tuning pegs are all of fondant.  Was fun to create.  Client loved it.