Chocolate Apprentice

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Clotted Cream and Caramelized White Chocolates

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“Uh, dearest?”

“Yes?”

“Do you see this?”

(Showing him a clear plastic bag with a small handful of blonde  chocolate fèves in the bottom)

“Oh yes, they are really good.”

“Uh …”

“I ate them.”

“Yes ….”

“Were you saving them for something?”

“The blog.  I was going to make something with them.”

“Ohhh …   They were really good – especially at night, when you wake up and you just want a little something tasty …

(sees me shaking the sparse contents of the bag)

“Can you do anything with that many?”

“I guess I’ll find out.”

“Well, at least there are enough to photograph.” [Read more…]

Filed Under: Flavours and Textures, Other Foods, Technique Tagged With: clotted cream, dulcey, feves, Valrhona

Caramelized White Chocolate

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I first heard about caramelized white chocolate Last January, when I had the good fortune to attend the Ecole Chocolate Graduate Luncheon in San Francisco.  There, we were treated to samples of fabulous chocolates and bonbons, one of which was made with Valrhona’s “blonde chocolate”, Dulcey .

According to the company’s executive chef and director, Frederic Bau, Dulcey was created by mistake, after he left white chocolate in a bain marie. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Technique, Tempering Tagged With: David Lebovitz, Valrhona, white chocolate

Ecole Chocolat 10th Anniversary in San Francisco

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I have just returned from San Francisco.

I adore San Francisco.  I remember it as one of the first “big foreign cities” I ever visited as a child.  In the summer of 1968 my family moved from London, Ontario to Vancouver and Dad decided to make it a big driving adventure vacation, with a trip to visit family friends who lived in San Francisco, as the penultimate stop. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Chocolatiers, Flavours and Textures Tagged With: Bart van Cauwenberghe, Frederik Bau, Gail Ambrosius, Pam Williams, Paul Debondt, Philippe Givre, Valrhona

Brown Gold

I love cocoa powder.

The “virtuous” half of chocolate, cocoa is the low-fat component:  the part of chocolate rich in antioxidants, caffeine and theobromine.  These exist in only very small quantities in chocolate’s other half – cocoa butter – which has its own glorious qualities, giving chocolate its richness, smoothness, creaminess, meltiness.  Like a perfect partnership, the chocolate whole is greater than the sum of its parts … but the parts are pretty amazing.

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Flavours and Textures, Other Foods, Tastings Tagged With: Costa Rica, Cuisine Camino, Ghirardelli, Valrhona

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