Chocolate Apprentice

It Must be Gelatin ‘cause Jam Don’t Shake like That!

With apologies to Chummy McGregor, of the Glenn Miller Orchestra (my Dad’s favorite) who, in 1942, wrote the unforgettable It Must Be Jelly ‘Cause Jam Don’t Shake Like That.

After last week’s adventure to the EAT! Vancouver food show, after marveling at the chocolate bolts made by Chef Christophe Bonzon for his impressive chocolate sculptures, and having him explain to me that he often uses gelatin to create molds for “just about anything you can mold”, I was fascinated and determined to have a go at it. [Read more…]

Edible Art at EAT! Vancouver

It was great fun to attend the tenth anniversary of EAT! Vancouver, the Everything Food + Cooking Festival, this past weekend, at BC place stadium.

I was there with my intrepid photographer partner, to check out the BC Chefs Association Chocolate Competition, open to culinary professionals, bakers, pastry chefs and advanced students.

We arrived on Friday afternoon, just as the festival was getting underway, and had the opportunity to get the “lay of the land” as the exhibitors put the last minute touches on their booths. [Read more…]

Bonbon Leftovers

This week’s post started when my younger son spotted the remaining dark chocolate with a hint of sea salt sailboats, which I had made for their father last week, sitting next to the bowl of slightly bland, but beautifully baked rolls I had made for dinner, the night before.

He picked up a sailboat and a roll, stuck a thumb into the roll, and finessed the “mast” of the sailboat into the doughy centre.  A quick warm in the oven to melt the chocolate: et Voila!

“Sorta like one of those, what do you call them, a pain au chocolat?  Really Mum, I’m just using up the leftovers.”

Absolutely, he is. [Read more…]

The Cure for Anything

My dear partner has been suggesting to me, ever since I started the chocolate making course at Ecole Chocolat, that we should do something to combine chocolate and sailboats.

One idea, of which he is really fond, is to have me make bonbons and truffles and, packaging them in waterproof bags, we would then take them around to boats at anchor in the marinas up and down the waters of Howe Sound, the idea being that nothing would be quite so wonderful after a day on the ”big blue” as some fine chocolate. [Read more…]

Chocolate Macarons

I was leafing through the beautiful pages of a new chocolate book given to me by my thoughtful partner, over a cup of coffee, looking for inspiration and new chocolate challenges.  The photography in this book  is absolutely stunning, filled with pictures of impossibly tall, mouthwatering chocolate structures, but the picture of the dark chocolate macarons was what really got my salivary glands going. [Read more…]