Archive for March, 2009
Payard Chocolate and Truffles Review
Posted by: | CommentsWe went to Las Vegas last week. Gambling isn’t our thing, but FOOD is. As you might already know, Las Vegas has some of the very best restaurants in America. Almost every famous chef (particularly those celebrity chefs) has one or more restaurants in Vegas. It’s foodie heaven.
Aside from trying out good food (we’re not going to review it here), we seeked out world chocolates to try. Since we’re in the chocolate business, we constantly compare ours with all the competitors. Tasting chocolate is a hard job (a little cliche), but somebody has to do it, right?
We toured the local Vegas chocolate factory, Ethel’s Chocolate. Tasted some too. Honestly, we can’t say that we like it very much. Don’t get me wrong, it’s reasonably good chocolate considering the price, but it lacks complexity for our taste buds.
We also had the opportunity to buy some of Francios Payard (regarded as one of the very best chocolatiers in the world). His shop is located in Caesar Palace. We bought a few of his truffles since truffles are closest to our fudge. Now, the quality of the chocolate he used is excellent. Personally, we find it just a tad too sweet in most of the flavors. The raspberry truffle has the most complex taste. It’s tart, sweet, and bitter all at the same time. Very similar to our Razzmanian Devil and our Lemon Shiver. Only ours has a little salt added to bring out the tartness a bit more. The truffles are very smooth and light. The texture is perfect. Overall, we weren’t disappointed. Payard’s chocolate is definitely one of the best we’ve tasted.
Tags: Artisanal Chocolate, Chocolate, Chocolate & Fudge Making, chocolate review, Chocolate Truffle, Food, food review, Fudge, Gourmet Food, TruffleRelated posts
How to Cut Chocolate – Part 2
Posted by: | CommentsLet’s continue from our previous discussion: how to cut chocolate.
A second great way to cut chocolate is to use a specialized tool. You can look for this in high quality kitchen shops, online, or in baking supply shops. It is called a chocolate chipper and looks almost like a tiny pitchfork.
Again, start with your block of chocolate balance well on a heavy cutting board. Start at one corner or side, and begin chipping away at the block of chocolate. You’ll see pieces coming off quite nicely.
A Third Way to Cut Chocolate: when you need to get very small, fine pieces of chocolate you may need a different technique. In the first method we looked at, using a serrated knife, produces shavings or shards of chocolate. The second method, using a chocolate chipper, gives much the same result. For finer pieces, try grating your chocolate.
What kind of grater should you use? We suggest that a good old-fashioned box-style grater works really well for chocolate. You can choose a finer or a coarser side for grating with, depending on your recipe. Again, start with a heavy duty cutting board. This time, place the grate on the board and hold it firmly with one hand. In the other hand, hold your block of chocolate. Then, simply begin to grate.
Tags: Artisanal Chocolate, Chocolate, Chocolate & Fudge Making, Chocolate Blog, Chocolate Fudge, Fudge, Gourmet FoodRelated posts
Chocolate Fudge Packaging
Posted by: | CommentsWe’ve been working hard on packaging design the last two weeks. Here’s what we’ve come up with. Probably still changes down the road but at least the template is up.
Chocolate Box Template
