Extra Dark Chocolate Truffle with Amaretto |
 Extra dark chocolate has been difficult for us to work with for several reasons. Primarily, it is difficult for flavors to come through with the robust extra dark chocolate. Today we had some success with our newest truffle flavor. Our new Extra Dark Chocolate Truffles with Amaretto is my new favorite truffle. We started with our favorite European Extra Dark Chocolate, a reduction of Amaretto liqueur and fresh heavy cream. As usual we used only the best ingredients, no preservatives, and no added sugar.I was a little worried that like other attempts at working with Extra Dark Chocolate, all of the flavor would be lost in the chocolate. I was very happy with how the ganache turned out. I made the ganache with Shelly who contacted us last week and volunteered to come help make chocolate so she could get some hands on and learn a little bit about what we do and what makes our chocolate so good. Since we had a guest today, I wanted to create a few new things and wanted her to be a part of the creation. It was really flattering to have a fan of our chocolate volunteer their time to hang out and make chocolate with us. In addition to the new Extra Dark Chocolate Truffles with Amaretto we also made a new Earl Grey Tea caramel filled chocolate. It smelled a little funky to me as the tea was steeping in the heavy cream so I wasn't sure how this chocolate was going to turn out. Fortunately, it was really nice and a splash of Anisette liqueur really rounded out the flavor and added a little complexity to the caramel. I only freaked out once today. I have gotten better about dealing with failures. As a chef, it was always easy for me to succeed and prepare really good food, but chocolate is different. It is so temperamental and finicky which makes chocolate challenging to work with. I have come to accept now that making chocolate is difficult and we aren't always going to succeed 100% of the time. It is also really great now that we have more really great help. Our new kitchen manager Chef Amy is a real pro. The only person I have ever worked in a kitchen with that I would choose to go to battle with. Chef Amy is awesome, fast, very knowledgeable and a blast to work with. We also hired Terry who came to us during her externship with the culinary school. We have become good friends with Terry and appreciate her wisdom, kindness, and spirit. We are excited to offer more extra dark chocolate truffles. We will be releasing several more extra dark chocolate truffle flavors over the next months to complete our collection. Next week, we will be working on an Extra Dark Chocolate Habanero Truffle. Habanero has been one of best selling truffles since we started in 2005. Next, we want to come up with something completely different than any of the flavors that we currently do. I am hoping it will come to me in a dream or maybe I will find it in a good meal or a memory of my childhood growing up in Louisiana. I would also like to say one thing about a Chef I have come to admire. I personally don't care for a lot of the TV personality Chefs but have come to admire Anthony Bourdain and his show No Reservations. Jennifer just finished one of his book Kitchen Confidential: Tales from the Culinary Underbelly. She says that he and I are a lot alike in the kitchen and in our personal lives as well. The first No Reservations show I saw was a visit to New Orleans. The episode was touching and inspiring to me. Since then, I have watched several other episodes and have been captivated by all of them. Some people might look at him as one of those guys that eats weird foods. If they were to look a little deeper, Anthony is learning about different cultures, religions, traditions, and people. He respects people and wants to understand the differences between people and their cuisines. Eating weird foods is a by product of his adventures but certainly not the focus. So props to Anthony Bourdain. I hope that if he ever visits Austin that he gives us a call. Click here to shop for Extra Dark Chocolate Truffles... |
