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Hey Everybody,
I am trying to find a chocolate mold of a bridge. It doesn't have to be very big. I have spent quite some time looking for a mold with no success. Any help would be greatly appreciated !!!
Every search that i make comes up with bridge the card game....
Thanks
Justin Schaffer
Hi,
I migrated with my family about a year ago down under. In my country of birth, my hobby was making chocolates so I did a 2-year course to become a certified chocolatier. Here I would like to make chocolates my profession. I would like to start with selling my chocolates on a local market. I am thinking of using a bar fridge on the market to display my boxes. I am going to pre pack the chocolates at home so there will be no lose chocolates in the fridge. I know that chocolates are best stored between 10c and 18c with a humidity of 50%. I would like to know if I use a little bar-fridge and have the thermostat altered to 18c how this would work. There is no humidity control in the fridge and summers can be really hot here ! On the other hand, we have a dry climate. That brings me to my second question. With the knowledge that chocolate melts at 36c... With summer days up to and over 40c Chocolates will be melted before people get home ! Can anyone advise me on the use of polyfoam as a packing material ? Thanks for your advise !
So, given this great opportunity, I had the feeling that other people who like that same adrenalin rush of learning new thing, creating and sharing, might want to have the chance to share it. Sometimes people just need that first break to get started: at the right place, at the right time, with the right people. Thus~ the incubation of 'Pods' for new business' to 'Beta-test chocolate' at the Bucks County Chocolate Show . Am I crazy? It's just me in my chocolate Muse role and I see it as pioneering a new trend. I'd love to share recipes with you...
Candied Bacon-Chocolate Chunk Cookies
Ingredients:
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, cold, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
1 large egg
1 teaspoon pure amoretti vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup semisweet chocolate chunks (Chips are fine.) can add pecans too
1 cup Candied Bacon Bits (recipe follows)
Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 325F. Line three baking sheets with a Silpat liner or parchment paper.
2. Beat the sugars and butter together until smooth. Mix in the egg, vanilla, and baking soda. Whisk together the flour and salt, then siftthem into the batter. Stir in the chocolate chunks and bacon bits.
3. Using a small cookie scoop or a teaspoon, scoop the cookie dough into small balls, about 1-inch in diameter, and place them 2 inchesapart on each of the baking sheets.
4. Bake for 14-16 minutes, or until pale golden brown. Rotate sheets halfway through baking for even browning. Remove from the oven and coolon a wire rack.
The cookies can be stored at room temperature in an airtight container for 3-4 days, if they last that long!
Makes about 3 dozen 2-inch cookies.
Candied Bacon Bits
Ingredients:
8 strips bacon
1/2 cup light brown sugar - generous
Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 400F.
2. Lay the strips of bacon on a baking sheet lined with a silicone mat or aluminum foil, shiny side down.
3. Sprinkle half of the brown sugar evenly over each strip of bacon.
4. Bake for about 15 minutes. Midway during baking, flip the bacon strips over and drag them through the dark, syrupy liquid thatscollected on the baking sheet. Add the rest of the brown sugar andcontinue to bake until a deep mahogany color. Remove from oven and coolthe strips on a wire rack.
5. Once crisp and cooled, chop into little pieces, about the size of grains of rice.
Candied bacon bits can be stored in an airtight container and chilled for a day or so, or stored in the freezer a few weeks ahead.
Enjoy!
I have a particular love affair taking place with Tempranillo at the moment. Okay,so maybe I actually have a love affair taking place with many food and winelovelies right now, but will get to those later on. 
I was first struck by Cupids arrow when I tasted the Tempranillo from Famila Gascon , 2008. Now that was love at first taste. Tempranillos are usually lighter, not heavy in bodyand easy to drink. This onehowever was different. It wasfuller bodied, spicy and full of personality. It seduced me completely and initiated a curiosity about howthe varietal expresses itself here in Argentina.
When I arrived at the winery OFournier and tasted their young Tempranillo I was intrigued once again. Here was another Tempranillo full ofspice, particularly cassis which I love. So I decided to experiment, surely there was a way to pair these whichchocolate.
Normally Tempranillo is not a wine that you would think to pair with the chocolate because it is lighter bodied. The go to wines are usually cabernetsor amarones, that have either lots of body and spice or lots of mature fruit. However I am convinced that any winecan be paired with chocolate, you just need to find the right chocolate andcombination.
So could this Tempranillo hold up to chocolate? I was about to findout. I began rummaging in mylittle wine fridge, that doesnt have a stitch of wine but instead is filled tothe gills with 15 kilos of chocolate. And yes, I do keep it stashed away in my bedroom.
I pulled out a range of chocolates, from 62% to 88%, different beans and different countries as well as the OFournier UrbanEco Tempranillo 2008 . This was a good starting point at least and I am happy tosay we came up with some fascinating conclusions:
88% dark chocolate from the Amazonia region in Ecuador: Here the wine brings out citrus notes in the chocolate, and the bitterness of the chocolate actually brings the acidity of the wine down, balancing itout. There were still someslightly astringent notes, but they were pleasant and created a harmony withthe citrus notes coming out. This combination was fresh and clean particularly onthe finish.
80% dark chocolate from the Carenero region in Venezuela: This is aninteresting match. The wine brings out all the earthinessin the chocolate that is not apparent when eating the chocolate by itself. It is a rich earthiness, reminiscent ofa forest. The wine remains thesame, the chocolate neither enhances it or makes it worse. However, with the addition of a bit ofbasil to the combination a transformation occurs. The fruit in both the wine and the chocolate come out, andthe wine balances out, the acidity goes down and there is no bitterness. Now add some quince and pear juice tothe mix. It goes up one morenotch. Both the chocolate and thewine have completely harmonized in the mouth, all the fruits in both explodeand it leaves you with a lovely fruity finish. It makes the wine better (not that it wasnt great to startwith).
72% dark chocolate from Moxos, Bolivia: this is also an interesting combination as the wine enhances the chocolate, bringing out all its lovely flavours of cinnamon andthe hidden fruit. However the wineremains somewhat flat. It isgiving itself up in this relationship, compromising its personality to allowthe other to shine.
62% semi-sweet chocolate from the Rio Arriba region in Ecuador: With this onethe wine remained completely flat however the chocolate really shined, bringingout all of the cinnamon and spicy notes in it. But it was a complete one-sided relationship, the wine inthis case losing itself completely.
It was an interesting tasting because we realized that the more bittersweet chocolates that had many citrus notes werepairing better than ones with a lower cacao percentage and more spice. Not something I think most people wouldexpect, but a lovely surprise. Iwas quite excited about the 88% and the 80% pairings and I believe I can createsome interesting combinations with these. You can count on that one as part two..
