Coffee Truffles - Tribute to Cee

Unveiling... *drumroll*

*Tada!!!*

I have to thank Cee for the start of my home chocolate making venture. It's been months since I left off. After moving to a new city and bad bouts of morning sickness the past few months, I'm finally ready to hit the kitchen again.


She brought me 3kg of Manjari all the way from Singapore! I've never worked with this dark chocolate from Valrhona before, and it's a going to be lots of experimentation with this new flavor. Manjari has a very light and refreshing taste with sourish notes.


The first batch of chocolates from this bagful is coffee truffles. Cee has something for her coffee, be it a wake-me-up in the morning, caffeine-high in the office at 2 pm, or an after-dinner dessert. Just pure addiction for her. I think she would have love them if she could try some. Till we meet again in January, I can only dedicate these truffles to her for now!

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For this batch, I used:

- 350g of Manjari
- 250 ml of heavy/whipping cream
- 40g of butter (cubed)
- 40g of sugar
- 4g of instant coffee

1) Half melt the chocolate in a double boiler. (Some work with unmelted chocolate pieces. I use buttons too, but I find that many times, I cannot emulsify properly and get lumps or a grainy texture when I work with unmelted chocolate. Some chefs work with melted chocolate. I wonder what works for you?)
2) Heat cream in a saucepan over medium heat, add sugar and coffee. Stir till sugar and coffee granules are melted, and cream comes to a boil.
3) Pour cream over chocolate.
4) Stir mixture slowly. (A chocolate chef once told me to stir from in to out, meaning you work the chocolate from the center of the bowl and then outwards, in small and widening circular motions.
5) Add butter cubes slowly, a few cubes at a time.
6) Continue to stir till mixture is well emulsified.
7) Pour into a 8" square tray.
8) Let mixture cool till room temperature before putting the tray into the refrigerator. (Please be sure to wrap with plastic wrap, as chocolate takes on odors very easily.)
9) Leave overnight (or enough time to ensure a hard ganache to be cut into pieces.)
10) Cut into desired dimensions.
11) Coat or dust with cocoa powder.
12) Keep refrigerated! These truffles are not coated with tempered chocolate and do not keep well w/o refrigeration!

Thoughts:

- I like it a lot, but would have liked it more if it were to be more milky. The acidity and aromatic "roastiness" of coffee complemented with the sourish, refreshing notes of Manjari but it left too strong an aftertaste for me. But it's just me. It's just like how some people would add milk to their coffee, and some would never have anything else but black.

Chocolates seem to make me popular...

Haha... terrible blog title I know! Like all food bloggers or foodies would know, food unites. If there is something more I can add for chocolate, it's "Chocolate DELIGHTS".

It seems truffles have brought me some new friends, and have given me very good reasons to meet up with old ones. I enjoy packing things neatly, and adorning them with a simple ribbon; Nothing pleases me more when what's inside is edible. Sometimes I wonder if I have baked cookies and rolled truffles so I can package them and give away as presents? (and not really to eat them myself?) Nonetheless, the effects of my interests seem to have helped me break out of my sometimes-prolonged bouts of anti-social behavior, and I am happy I did. K. sent me a lovely test message telling how much the bag of truffles brighten her day. That text message brightens up mine too. :)



I met up with W. for coffee because he had long been a loyal guinea pig (well, I hope he no longer feels so...), and I wanted him to try this new recipe. Maybe W. (and E. and A.) didn't enjoy it, have not heard from him. It's okie! I think meeting up for coffee was the real deal.

Haha... silly post, I hope I'm the only one reading it! ^__^

Truffles Au Cocolat

Beautifully rich and austere, these truffles turned out lovely. I didn't quite know what to expect actually. Having made dozens of batches of truffles with cream, I found myself drawn to Alice's recipe (she has gotten the recipe from her landlady years back in 1973) in this book, which uses egg yolks and boiling water to emulsify with butter and chocolate. An "authentic and virually obsolete" recipe, I knew it was THE recipe to try (was my birthday actually, so I just had to try something different).

Pleasant pleasant surprise! The ganache turned out smooth and rich, definitely less creamy (but still as creamy? arrgghhh, I don't know how to describe that melting-on-the-tongue intense feeling). The best part was, the recipe didn't ask for a coating of tempered of chocolate! Woohoooo! Just the run-and-go kind of recipe I needed for that rushed afternoon in the kitchen. I came back 5 hours later to roll them out, half of them plain, and the other half with some Les Perles Croquantes (Valrhona chocolate pearls). I love some texture in the truffles but I find most nuts overpowering. These crunchies are a wonderful complement to the plain truffles. Not my first time making crunchy truffles actually!

As with all other batches, this is yet again too much for myself and S. to finish. I usually like to consume the truffles within 2 weeks, or it'll end up untouched beyond 14 days. I can't tell you how much chocolates ended up in the bin previously, and I feel horrible horrible throwing them away. (terribly wasteful, which eventually made me stop baking/chocolate making for a while). But now that I vowed to finish or give away everything I make or bake while they are still fresh before I start on another baking/chocolate projects, I have been conscientiously meeting up with friends and eating. Maybe I should vow to exercise too? (hahaa.... better not commit to something I have never really started doing...)



I made S. bring a whole tray full of truffles to his colleagues, I hope they enjoyed it! If not I'll be known as Miss Truffle-Shuffler-Into-Your-Face.

Some pictures from the process:

Crunchy Truffles

It turned out all delightful. It was partly because I was too lazy to infuse tea in my ganaches, so I looked through the kitchen stash, and decided to make some truffles with chocolate crunchies, a valuable buy from Shermay's.




It was a high cream to chocolate truffle. 500 ml of whipping cream to 300 g of Araguani! I always loved creamy yet dark, melt-in-the-mouth truffles, so I went to quite an extreme for the cream proportion. The ganache was surprisingly easy to roll, maybe because the morning was a chilly one.


All of it was shared with friends promptly and finished up in less than a week!


I was not working from my own kitchen, so I was a little short on some of my favorite tools and packaging materials. Nonetheless, I managed alright. No fancy pictures, no cookies with ribbons, no truffles in martini glass. Just a little hill of truffle balls, crying to be eaten, and rightfully deserving so.

Yum... I'm thinking of dark truffles of white chocolate balls now. It's true you can't stop once you start, be it the eating or the making.

Ganache 101

These truffles won't turn out well if I had not picked up Alice M.'s Bittersweet some time ago. The ganache broke:- curdled up into a oily puddle, greasing the sides of the bowl, instead of emulsifying into a uniform pudding-like texture. I panicked a little and wonder what wrong I did this time round. Could it be the tea? Or did I overmix (huh, I don't think so) or could it be the cream that got too hot and burned the chocolate? I didn't have much time to figure out while in the kitchen. I stared at the oily curdle, froze for a few seconds, and got down to fixing it.

I have done this twice (and I bet I'll still freeze in the state of panic the next time it happens) and it worked well for me. According to Alice M., no matter how much ganache you are fixing (I have never worked with over 1 kg of chocolate for truffle centers, so I can't testify it works if you work in a chocolate plant), heat up 4 tbsp of cream to a simmer, pour into a bowl, and slowly add the broken ganache to the heated cream, little at a time, stirring slowly. Voila! I was very relieved. To add to the distress, my visiting cousin was staying with us for a month, and she got into the kitchen just in time to observe the curdly mess. I was hoping she didn't quite figure it went "wrong" at first, as it would affect her tasting buds psychologically.



It seems this white tea dark truffle turned out well enough to get a few "wow"s from friends. I love it personally, small, bite-sized, bittersweet, smooth, deep, with hints of apricot and floral notes. So subtle that you won't think it had been flavoured. Think I would increase the white tea dosage in future.

Thumbs up to Alice M's tip! You could also refer to this page on Baking 911 a few ganache how-tos.

Welcome to the mystifying world of chocolate. ^_^

Belated Ganache Squares for the birthday girl

It was Jane's birthday on 2nd July and I texted to send her some morning greetings. She had a special request for chocolates or cakes (homemade). I haven't gotten an oven yet (yup, that quite explains why I am making chocolates, I only have all the baking/confectionary equipment except the oven), so most cakes are quite out of question. I decided to make some plain ganache with dusted cocoa powder... in a squarish box, and personalise it with her name. It'll be lovely to have a 4" by 4" ganache square further cut into 1" by 1". Love squares. (no squares for long names like Jennifer or Mirabelle ^^)



Huh... but I couldn't find a pretty box at home so I ended up making one. (excuses excuses to dish out the pen knife!). I spent so much time working out the die cut that when I fell asleep that night, I recalled my whole day was really just about the paper, ruler, pencil and pen knife. Other nights, I am thinking about chocolates, cream, a new mixer, new fabric prints. In this in-between phase of trying to start something on our own (entrepreneurship as they would put it), I sometimes experience bouts of guilt when I consume myself in such indulgences, instead on working on business plans. Maybe I should spend less time blogging too. It's turning into a chocolate blog. Hehe... okie that was a big sidetrack from the present.







For this ganache, I upped the cream proportion. 4 parts cream to 3 parts chocolate. No butter. I wanted something really melt-in-the-mouth. I decided on something simple, no fuss, but the proportions may not turn out too right. Whilst combining, I was very worried; The ganache wasn't like pudding-like, unlike what I had worked on before, it would take a longer time to set. I let it set for close to 24 hours (which is why it's belated) "Something has to be different", I thought, be it uglier, softer, creamier. It's after all, Jane's birthday.

Mmmmmmm...mmmmmm....mmmmmm..... this has got to one of the best chocolates I ever tasted. It's totally melt-in-the-mouth, creamy like... like... cream?? (pardon the lack of vocabulary). Chocolate taste lingers soothingly on the tongue, not overpowering, but still intense. Bittersweet, yes bittersweet... I like it as much as my favorite Royce chocolates! I am very glad Jane and Ed enjoy them, they said it's better than the first (the ugly yummy truffles). Man I was over the moon. I'll keep working on it, testing out different recipes and proportions for the classic ganache.


Yes, she likes the box too. ^^

References:

Die Cut adapted from Structural Packing by Josep M. Garrofe

Pseudo Chocolatier Fridays - The Revered Earl Grey

Alas... I jumped into making Earl Grey truffles, I had meant to try out the classics a few more times before I go on to try the infused ones, but I just couldn't wait, after drinking some very-fragrant earl grey tea.

After the ganache has set, I tasted it and to my dismay, the tea flavour turned out very strong, and further sharpened by an intense sweetness. I don't have a very sweet tooth to be honest, so the first reaction was "oh mannnnnnnnnnnnnnn". I was a little disheartened to roll them out to give out, so I scooped them (with a melon scooper) into tiny spheres and froze them (knowing I won't be able to continue in the same day).







I returned to the frozen balls of ganache yesterday (4 days after I first tasted them, no, please don't even start thinking I'm gross. According to Alice Medrich, with whom I would continue to "apprentice" fervourly, ganache can kept in an airtight container and be frozen up to 2 months.)

I was decidely very positive that morning and my head was almost ringing," I am sure some people with a sweet tooth would like to taste you". I went ahead to handroll them lightly with chocolate on both palms (another great tip from Alice M. from Bittersweet) in melted (untempered) bittersweet chocolate, and then drop them in trays of cocoa powder, nibs and chopped pistachios.

I tasted a few during the chocolate making process (and whilst photographing them.. keke..), it was as if I gained a sweet tooth or two, because I started finding them a little addictive. The cocoa powder created a bitter coat, and the chocolate coating was almost nonexistent. As I pop it into my mouth, the bitter coat melts almost seamlessly into an intense burst of bergamot flavour. The ganache though not as smooth as the previous plain truffles I made, is still mouth-melting. (arrgghh! how come not as smooth!??!! I suspect I need a finer strainer and I whisk a little too hard this time round...) Nuts and nibs tamed the sweetness with a crunch. (fine discovery, yup I admit that was more of an after thought and counter reaction to the ganache's sweetness.)

The earl grey flavour could be too strong for some, but lovers of full citrus flavour won't complain. I think I would lessen the amount of tea and sugar in my next try; I am a lover of earl grey but I am anxious to taste how a mildly flavoured earl grey truffle would be like (especially with such good chocolate used!), and definitely not as sweet as this one. Bittersweet is always yummier.

Sorry, but I can't resist putting this trivia down. You may have already known and find me silly actually: Do you know that earl grey tea is flavoured by an essential oil from the aromatic peel of the bergamot orange? And that the bergamot orange has no relations to the bergamot herb, which is grown primarily for ornamental purposes (and potpurri making). It is named so, because its "odor" is considered similar to that of the bergamot orange. All the while, I thought bergamot flavour had something to do with the bergamot herb! Yes, you would have realise I don't find knowledge that general, and sense not that common! haha... I love Wikipedia for many reasons.

^__________^

Reviews on truffles

(-) Negative (critical but constructive)

"They are too soft... but the taste is good" (from 2 folks who tasted some 6-hour-out-of-the-fridge truffles)

"They need to be more regular" (from the consistent)

"Too much nibs! Too bitter" (haha.. she ate 1 round one rolled all round with nibs)

(-+) Neutral

"....................." (silence.... she didn't like chocolates but picked up one of mine because she knew I made them, I don't know what to make out of this situation)

"Did you really make them???" (from unbelieving friends who never stepped into their kitchen more than necessary, not sure what to make out of the comment too!)

(+) Positive (encouraging and esteem boosting)

"Wowwwwwwww........." (before tasting, which means they probably like the box)

"Mmmmmmmm..........melt in the mouth, not too sweet" (definitely from folks on the dark side)

"Yummieeeeee............" (from the cheerful and greedy)

"The box looks so you!!!!" (huh, not sure if it's a compliment, let's assume it is? ^^)

Overall, I am happy with the results, but wait, I would be happy even if they didn't quite like them, because I'm really enjoying the process of making chocolates, especially the finger-licking part before washing up! (Don't tell me I am the only one doing it...)

Psuedo Chocolatier Fridays - Some Ugly Yummy Truffles

Haha... this post is going to be embarrassing... I didn't quite expect truffles to look good anyways, but I think mine turn out uglier than expected. Making them was quite a nightmare actually. I think it has to do with starting at 9 pm in the night and finish washing up past 2 am. Did I also mention my hands were full of chocolate and cocoa powder and I spastically tried to open the fridge with my elbows (pausing in front of the fridge wondering if I should dirty it or twist my arms)? And I had to very anal-ly insist on making very tiny squares so they are really bite-size, so I made about 100 instead of 50 as what the recipe suggests. I have to really kick myself in the ass for that...







They are done though! Definitely not pretty but I think they taste very good. (not my credit really, it's the very good chocolate used) It's really melt-in-the-mouth, smooth, not overwhelming but very intense, bittersweet, but with a sweetish aftertaste, with some crunchy bits of nibs.

To give a very blunt detailed description: (no wonder I never did well for English as a subject)

"These are ganache squares made from Valrhona 70% Guanaja, with President whipping cream (35.1% fat), President unsweetened butter. They are encrusted with a very thin chocolate crust made of Valrhona 55% Equatoriale, sprinkled with some cocoa nibs and dusted with unsweetened cocoa powder. To prevent your hands from getting dirty whilst enjoying them, they are served in tiny black paper holders. Because we eat with eyes too, they have been carefully packaged in a self-made box lined with some Japanese brown paper. (I just have to make some efforts to distract you from the not-so-pretty chocolate treats). Finally, because we all enjoy receiving presents, the box is finished with grosgrain ribbon."

I am dreaming earl grey and rose truffles already.. hee hee...

Because chocolates are best eaten fresh (I REALLY REALLY mean it... I was not a fan of chocolate until I ate some homemade 30-minutes old truffles made from very good dark chocolate), I am going to try give out all these truffles within the next 2 days.

While the Ganache sets...

Yay! Finally close to finishing all the chocolates from 2 weeks. I was eating chocolate barks almost everyday. Good thing they are 70%s, if I am a white chocolate person, I would be at least 2 kg heavier I bet (and start to look more like mom, kekeke...)

I started preparing ganache yesterday for truffle rolling with s.t. later. Guess it would be quite a fun couple activity for a Saturday.

I have gone through multiple chocolate books to compare ganache recipes. Chocolate Obsession by Michael Recchiuti & Fran Gage has loads of different infused ganaches, and very specific instructions. Real Chocolate by Chantal Coady featured a few recipes: Rococo's, Robert Linxe's (La Maison du Chocolat) and Michel Chaudun's. To top it up, I had detailed notes taken from Patrick Heuberger's chocolate making class some time ago. Chocolate, the definitive guide by Sara Jayne-Stanes has a just cream and chocolate recipe (no butter). It's interesting how different chocolatiers variate from the basic method. Some whisk the truffle mixture to aerate it. Some swear by invert sugar. Some pre-melt the chocolate before combining with cream.

Huh... confused and often tempted to try multiple recipes at one go, I decided to discipline myself to stick to just 1 in this weekend. Mine's a marriage of Chantal's proportions, and adapting methods from Michael's and Patrick's. I used

330g 70% Valrhona Guanaja
300g Whipping cream (35% fat)
75g Butter

Pre melt the chocolate (at about 50`C), bring cream to a rolling boil and add immediately to the chocolate. Whisk till well combined and then add diced chilled firmed butter.

I can't wait to for truffle rolling later today... dust them with cocoa powder and nibs!!!!!!!! Woohoooooooooo~~~~~~~~~

Some Conclusions

I am almost done collating feedback from friends and folks! Whilst most comments were encouraging and almost flattering, I was actually more motivated by the negative/neutral ones. It got me brainstorming into new flavours. What was more interesting is I am starting to notice some patterns how people enjoy their chocolates. From a small pool of 15-20 friends who have tried the 8th June recipes, I have drawn some extremely-unsubstantiated conclusions and stereotypes:-

1) Most like dark chocolates. (only 1 wished I had used milk instead)

2) Much to my surprise, most do enjoy nuts with their chocs. (some like it caramelised, some do like it lighted salted!)

3) Those who enjoy nuts with their chocs don't enjoy the nibs. (huh... am I the only weird one who love nibs?)

4) Some especially like the barks thin! not skinny thin like Lindt thins, but not blockish like regular bars either (oh yeah...)

5) The cynics just don't like things with their chocolates; Nuts and what-nots are contaminants (yes, designers are often purists)

I love dark chocolates, enjoy good, fresh, toasted nuts with them, LOVE the dark chocolate bark with cocoa nibs, like the bark thin enough to give a light snap and enjoy plain good bars tremendously. Not exactly the most critical person am I? (^_-)

Pseudo Chocolatier on Fridays - 3 Chocolate Barks

I am not sure if I can discipline myself to do this regularly, but I have finally started my chocolate dessert sessions. "Fridays would work well..." I thought, as I can share all the cocoa goodies with my dear folks and friends over the weekend. It would be unimaginable to be selfish to have a kg of good chocolate to myself (for fear of gaining the kgs too of course). Once a cookie churning monster, I never baked a tub of cookies, I always made a mountainful. I can't bear to do so much washing for just 40 cookies! At least 200, or enough to feed a few groups of friends! For chocolate recipes requiring tempering, it is also due to practical reasons as well; It is tough to temper small quantities of chocolate. This time round, I tempered 1 kg of chocolate with the seeding method, and I'm already finding it hard to handle the temperature fluctuations.

Loads of patience, good daylight, soothing music would be great ingredients for some chocolate recipes. Though they are no-bake recipes, that 6 hours in the kitchen still feels a terrific baking therapy. 3 Chocolate Barks with the Valrhona 70% Guanaja. I can't be a dessert critic because I am never too picky. I like all 3, so I am going to depend on my friends and folks to give some honest feedback.



Dark Chocolate Bark with Caramelized Macadamia & Orange Grate
Always a macadamia mania, I added orange grate during the caramelizing to add a citrus note.



Dark Chocolate Bark with Demerara & Cocoa Nibs
For lovers of good dark chocolate. The cocoa nibs add a crunch, without taking away the limelight from the chocolate. I hesitated adding demerara, (so I only added for half a tray). The demerara accentuates the bitterness of the cocoa nibs, yet gives a sweet aftertaste. keke.. yummmm.....



Dark Chocolate Bark with Pistachio, Hazelnuts & Salted Pumpkin seeds
Recipe adapted from Chocolate Obsession by Michael Recchiuti & Fran Gage, this has got to be one of best looking chocolate barks around. I really love the purplish pistachios. ^^