Creating Pucker

As I continued reading Notter's The Art of the Chocolatier last week, I came to a section on pâtes de fruits. These French confections are made of fruit paste through a process that is quite similar to making jam. They're typically tossed in sugar that makes them sparkle like jewels, but it's also possible to enrobe them in chocolate. How do they taste? What is their texture? Think really delicious gummy. 

When I did my chocolatier program several years ago, pâtes de fruits was one of the first things I made. Not because it was required, but because I had read about them and was curious to try something new. I made them with strawberries and rhubarb, and they were a hit among almost everyone who tried them. But there was one individual who remarked that they were just too sweet.

Now, I have a number of friends who would say that there's no such thing as "too sweet." And while they may be right, I would also suggest that he wasn't wrong. Pâtes de fruits are sweet. There's a great deal of sugar in the fruit paste itself, along with pectin. The rolling in sugar is a key element of the presentation. So how does one balance something that is sweet combined with sweet and dusted in sweet?

Enrobing them in dark chocolate is one answer. But despite making pâtes de fruits a few times since then, I've never attempted to dip them in chocolate. The soft centre would likely be challenging to dip and, I suspect, would stick to the dipping forks, so I'd either need to dip them by hand (literally) to be able to control the chocolate or I would have to apply a chablon first (more on that in another blog). 

The other answer? Citric acid. While I had always thought of this as an option if I wanted to make sour gummies, Notter points out that adding a little citric acid to the sugar used to finish pâtes de fruits will give them a very slight pucker, mimicking that of fresh fruit. And that should help to balance the sweet.

And so my shopping list grows! Food grade citric acid isn't the easiest to find and it's more expensive than you might expect. It's $8.99 for 100g on Amazon and at Bulk Barn it's $6.89 for 96g. Nevertheless, it's now my intention to make pâtes de fruits again and try both of these techniques to find the balance that the original recipes were missing. 

Stay tuned for the results!

Pear in a Bottle?

During last Monday's dedicated reading time, I finally cracked open Notter's The Art of the Chocolatier. Not surprisingly, it started with a history of chocolate, the cultivation of cacao, and the transformation of chocolate as it moved from one culture to another across the globe. But I wasn't expecting the descriptions of "other ingredients" employed by chocolatiers to be so interesting. In particular, the section on alcohol in chocolate, and specifically brandy, was eye opening.

I've experimented with alcohol in chocolate on more than a few occasions. While training, I made a port wine truffle as one of my assignments. I've also made truffles with local beers and ciders - pictured here is a dark chocolate truffle flavoured with Island Folk Cider House blueberry cider and rolled in pulverized freeze dried blueberries. Most recently, I made cointreau truffles following the Notter recipe. As I've tested these recipes, I've observed the interesting effects that alcohol has on the texture of the ganache and enjoyed the flavour possibilities (though it's clear from my circle of chocolate testers that alcohol in chocolate is divisive).

Brandy, however, is a bit of a foreign concept to me.

Apparently my grandmother kept a bottle of apricot brandy in her fridge. Not that I ever saw it, of course, but my aunt Rosella told me about it back in the late 1990s. You see, my grandmother also kept a bottle of apricot brandy in Rosella's fridge for when she was visiting the east coast. Years after nan's passing, while I was "in town" pursuing my undergraduate degree in music, Rosella still had her apricot brandy in the crisper drawer of her fridge. I don't know if Rosella ever drank any of it, but it was clear that the bottle had meaning for her.  

Apricot brandy doesn't make it into Notter's book; he instead focuses on Kirschwasser (cherry) and Williams pear. The description of Williams pear brandy is fascinating:

"Many bottles of Williams pear brandy are sold with a pear inside. To achieve this, growers hang empty bottles on their trees and insert the young fruit buds, which are trained to grow inside the bottles until the fruit becomes fully matured and ripened. The bottle and pear are removed from the tree and carefully cleaned. The brandy is then added and the bottle sealed." (Notter, The Art of the Chocolatier, page 24)

Now, I've heard of a letter in a bottle. I've seen a model ship in a bottle. I've even danced to the song "Genie in a Bottle" during my clubbing days. But a pear in a bottle? It feels like a "when I see an elephant fly" moment. Finding one also sounds like exactly the sort of quest that my nerdy self enjoys, so it's going on the bucket list!

First, though, I think I should find a bottle of apricot brandy to toast my grandmother. And I'm adding "develop an apricot brandy bonbon" to my list of chocolate inspiration. That's the point of this Monday-night chocolate exploration, of course - to identify new techniques and flavour combinations that I can work on to advance my craft. 

Prost! 

Returning to Chocolate

I've been on hiatus from blogging for longer than I realized. It was surprising to log in this morning and see 2018 as the year of my last post. In 2023, I'm hoping to get back into blogging and trying new chocolate techniques, which was a focus of my writing in 2018 when I did my professional chocolatier course. 

The inspiration for this reorientation came late last year. As I was planning my four-piece chocolate box for the year, I turned to Ewald Notter's The Art of the Chocolatier and found a recipe for a cointreau truffle that used butter instead of cream. I decided to try it. I made a half batch and was thrilled with the results -- the ganache was easy to work with and the shelf life would be longer than one made with cream. 

I scooped the centres, refined the shape into a sphere, and then rolled them by hand in two coats of tempered chocolate. They were delicious. 

But while I had followed Notter's recipe, I didn't attempt his method, which called for piping the ganache onto a chocolate disc and then dipping the piece into tempered chocolate. The resulting truffle would have a sort of peaked dome shape. I didn't have the time to experiment with this technique before Christmas, but made a mental note that I should try it in the new year.

The cointreau truffle joined a spiced molasses honeycomb toffee enrobed in chocolate, a salted caramel enrobed in milk chocolate, and a white chocolate fruit and nut cup featuring dried cranberries and pistachios. I packaged 24 boxes to give out to family, friends, and colleagues. They were a hit.

Over Christmas, I reflected on my chocolate training, as well as my desire to continue learning new techniques and to maintain what I've already learned. I decided that the best way to do this wouldn't be to register in another course, but to commit to self-directed study. Notter's book is the assigned reading for Monday nights going forward. And I'm excited to try new recipes and techniques in the not-so-distant future!

And that means, I hope, the return of this blog.

Happy 2023!