Now Try This # 4 (b) Espresso Infused Cream based Filled ChocolatesThis recipe is for a cream based chocolate ganache (not condensed milk based) and the cream has been infused with espresso flavor. How is it possible to get the coffee flavor into heavy whipping cream and hence the ganache without making coffee? Chop up the roasted coffee beans and put them in the cream of course. But what if you dont want any coffee beans or grounds in the confection at all?Lets look at peanut butter. Which is most popular; creamy or crunchy? I like crunchy but that is not the question. I looked at the grocery store shelves and there was a great deal of space taken up in the peanut butter section by jars of creamy Jiffy. Someone likes creamy better, lots of people in fact.Some people just dont like crunchy espresso chocolates either. They would buy a nice creamy, intensely espresso filled chocolate truffle. I dont mean coffee with cream taste but dark, strong espresso that is smooth and creamy on the palate. How to do it?Heres a technique that I like and the nice thing; its variable. You can make the espresso taste stronger or less intense as you like. And, you can use decaffeinated coffee also.Lets just sum it up in one word: Quench.Thats it. Use the simple method that I showed in Now Try This #4 (a) to roast the green coffee beans in a hot-air popcorn popper like the Pop-Lite. Roast to the same level, not to overdone. And then, while the beans are still hot, dump them in a sauce pan partially filled with heavy whipping cream. This cream neednt be pre-heated as you would do with an infused cream because the coffee beans will be about 450 degrees F. when they hit the cream and it will boil up with the quenching process. I then cover the sauce pan with a sheet of plastic wrap to contain the flavor oils and steam. (For larger batches of coffee beans there are counter-top roasting machines made. Some operate on electricity, some on natural gas or propane.)Now, let the coffee beans and cream cool. When youre ready to make the ganache of chopped chocolate, re-warm the cream so it doesnt stick to the coffee beans. Pour into the espresso cream through a strainer onto the chocolate. And continue to process as you would any ganache.I usually dont at butter to my chocolate ganaches because the home roasted chocolate that I make still has all the cocoa butter in it and I even add several ounces of cocoa butter per 4.5 lb batch of nib liquor ; so I really cant taste any improvement if butter is added to the ganache. In your system, you may add butter if it helps.For decaf espresso, just buy decaf green coffee beans from the same source as regular beans (Now Try This #4 (a).What really amazed me with this method is the intensity of the espresso flavor in the cream. Its hard to describe how strong the coffee flavor is. Because the creamy ganache melts in your mouth you get a real rush of flavor on the first bite. Try it, youll love it.Until Next Time,Mr. WineCandyPS: on a second trail, I used Madagascar Sambriano Valley chocolate; what I call light milk which is 47% Cacao rather than the regular 55% Cacao milk chocolate. I used Sumatra Lintong Grade One coffee beans; about 2/3 cup of green beans then roasted and quenched in one cup of heavy whipping cream. This with the Madagascar chocolate did not have the intense chocolate/espresso flavor as with the Mexican chocolate. Also, the zingyness of the chocolate detracted from the espresso flavors. A less acidic chocolate than Madagascar would work best for this espresso cream method.