Returning from the trip, my days were sacrificed in research for chocolate and all possible flavour-combinations: lavender? speculoos? cinnamon? chilli? basil? I was in full-gear, fueled by my recent discoveries in Paris. Oh, the fun!
Truth be told, playing with chocolate was an idea that's been boggling my mind for a while. It wasn't until now that I've given it ago and I have to say that I abso-friggin-lutely love it! I wish I had the courage to give it a go sooner. I had so much fun creating these babies... and I plan to do more!
When it came to making the little chocolates, I wanted to create my own mini-version of what I had tasted at Fouquet's cafe in Paris. So.... being miss-indecisive-of-what-i-want, I created a list of all the things I wanted to achieve in the chocolates themselves:
* I wanted to use dark chocolate but I didn't want it to be too dark. Mainly because I wanted to avoid the overwhelming, bitter taste of the cacao. Personally when it comes to chocolates, I opt for dark chocolate because I think it's a good "vehicle" for flavours. Dark chocolate carries them well because it's not sweet.
* Most importantly, I didn't want to chocolate to be sweet: some people have this automatic (and irritating) belief that chocolate = sweet.... when in fact, it's NOT*!
*just depends on the amount of cacao the chocolate has. Anything above 60% falls under dark chocolate (....I think, please don't quote me on that!)
* Lastly: I also wanted to play with the textures in chocolate: just like at Fouquet's, I wanted the chocolate to be light in taste and airy in texture with a crunch or snap to it (NOTE: this proved difficult! why oh why am I making life harder for myself?)
L’expérience de chocolat
clearly hasn't played with chocolates yet.
So what have I done?
I created earl-grey chocolate mousse with a torte base, all encased in dark chocolate.
I created earl-grey chocolate mousse with a torte base, all encased in dark chocolate.
the two most difficult steps:
1. Infusing & Steeping the desired flavour
2. (quite possibly the MOST important step) Tempering chocolate
Whoever said patisserie doesn't involve science,1. Infusing & Steeping the desired flavour
2. (quite possibly the MOST important step) Tempering chocolate
clearly hasn't played with chocolates yet.
If you're chocolate-obsessed like me or have done some chocolatier-ing work before, then chances are you know what tempering is. Basic explanation is this: tempering is a heating-cooling method used to achieve the professional-quality look and feel of a chocolate bar.
Professional-quality: smooth and clean finish with a nice glossy sheen on the surface of the chocolate. When broken or bitten into, you can actually get a proper snap from the chocolate.
As you can see from this photo, the tempered chocolate yields a smooth and ultra-glossy finish.
Beau.ti.ful.
Aside from look and feel, tempered chocolate gives a more desirable quality to work with: the chocolates don't bloom (the whitish deposits you get on the surface of the chocolates, note: chocolate would still be safely edible... just not desirable to look at) as much and best of all, when handled with fingers, they don't melt as easily as improperly tempered chocolate.
Especially when it comes to molding chocolates, tempered chocolates are god-sent! They release from their molds easily due to their desired smooth finish. So BIG TIP: if you're planning on dipping chocolates, molding chocolates or creating truffles... then temper your chocolates!
What does tempering do? Tempering allows the crystals in chocolate to be distributed and suspended evenly throughout the final product. Correctly tempered chocolate will yield a bright, crisp, and shiny chocolate, while incorrectly tempered chocolate will produce results that are streaky and dull. Help on tempering chocolates are here.
It's a whole lot of work but trust me, the end product is worth the effort. Oh...and another tip: as always with other forms of baking, ALWAYS use the best ingredients available even though it's $1 or $2 more: best ingredients always cost more. Personally for me, i would rather buy a good quality chocolate instead of your $0.50 chocolates over at the tuck-shop.
In plain english: don't bother making chocolate truffles if you're just going to use generic-brand creme. Why? Because you're risking flavour.
Seriously? what's the point of baking a cake if your butter doesn't taste like butter, it's like using kid's art glue to fix a broken toy?
Enough said.
Professional-quality: smooth and clean finish with a nice glossy sheen on the surface of the chocolate. When broken or bitten into, you can actually get a proper snap from the chocolate.
As you can see from this photo, the tempered chocolate yields a smooth and ultra-glossy finish.
Beau.ti.ful.
Especially when it comes to molding chocolates, tempered chocolates are god-sent! They release from their molds easily due to their desired smooth finish. So BIG TIP: if you're planning on dipping chocolates, molding chocolates or creating truffles... then temper your chocolates!
What does tempering do? Tempering allows the crystals in chocolate to be distributed and suspended evenly throughout the final product. Correctly tempered chocolate will yield a bright, crisp, and shiny chocolate, while incorrectly tempered chocolate will produce results that are streaky and dull. Help on tempering chocolates are here.
It's a whole lot of work but trust me, the end product is worth the effort. Oh...and another tip: as always with other forms of baking, ALWAYS use the best ingredients available even though it's $1 or $2 more: best ingredients always cost more. Personally for me, i would rather buy a good quality chocolate instead of your $0.50 chocolates over at the tuck-shop.
In plain english: don't bother making chocolate truffles if you're just going to use generic-brand creme. Why? Because you're risking flavour.
Seriously? what's the point of baking a cake if your butter doesn't taste like butter, it's like using kid's art glue to fix a broken toy?
Enough said.
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