For Mum's and Aunty Margaret's

Small words say the best things xx

Mexican Tasting Bars

Experimenting with ways of presenting origin chocolate for tasting. These are 5g bars. 

Pleased with the shine created by the mould and the effect of the transfer.

Fancy one with a nice single origin coffee? 

Now you're talking :)

I'm happy with this mould - the mirror shine is excellent.
Planning to order four more to increase the batch.

The transfer is good but its sugar base is discernible to a sensitive palate. Nevertheless useful as a way to tell chocolates apart from one another.

The Mistakes...

Despite all the advice I have benefited from, my first attempt at these tasting bars involved me believing that I somehow have a super ability to temper less than half a kilo of chocolate. Well... let me share the outcome of my delusional moment: if you're piping chocolate that's one thing. But if you're trying to fill moulds, however shallow they are, FORGET IT!!!

1. Attempting to temper too small an amount of chocolate.
Needless to say, it wouldn't set!

3. The chocolate was too cool and too thick, setting on contact. This made it impossible to 'run off' the chocolate and make a nice finish.

2. Adding some more callets to try to recover by seeding
the chocolate

4. The outcome... lots of bubbles and missing corners, uneven finish and a transfer that has not 'transferred'.

The good thing with chocolate is... you can melt it back down and start all over again - in this case adding a further 350g. So no waste other than precious time and energy spent feeling annoyed at ones own stupid nuances. 

Second time around, the transfer sheet works beautifully, leaving little to clean off the mould afterwards.








The photographs, as ever, make the work so beautiful thanks to my talented 13-year old daughter.

Electric Blues

Sigh... the newly arrived air conditioning unit has a broken wheely foot which renders it wobbly and warrants a replacement (foot or machine?... I am awaiting the verdict).

The washing machine man has called to let me know that my machine is beyond repair. He is bringing me a new machine today. Clean pants take precedence over holiday fund.

The good news is... it's a cool cloudy day in Manchester so chocolates are being made. Single origin 'mexique' taste bars and a new recipe... not too Chilli Truffles.

Cool it!

I have taken receipt of an air conditioning unit. It has been half unpacked in the lounge for three days but tomorrow is its day of reckoning. The manual is imposing. The bits and bobs I've twiddled with so far are like a scaled up form of Lego minus the connecting bumps. I can see the need to put on my gold head band and twirl until cleavage and super powers arrive. But first some super sleep.

Dark Espresso Chocolates

The wake-up of espresso and the lingering aromas of dark chocolate. A gorgeous slap-and-caress of the senses.

Fresh roasted coffee beans, ground to an espresso grade and added immediately to a dark chocolate ganache. 

I used a single origin Mexican bean with liquorice, tobacco and leather in the flavour - all of which compliment the spicy notes in the dark chocolate.

Using three different moulds to make the same chocolate is the only way to go for a girl with few moulds looking for an improvement in her effort:outcome ratio.

The transfer sheet is made with natural cocoa butter and colouring and I've used it here to finish off the bottom of the chocolates.

Mistakes were made in the making of these chocolates. This will be a blog of the good, the bad and the ugly...

But it's good to start on a high.