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Birth chocolates instead of sugarbeans

June 16th 2010 Posted at Chocolate, General, Projects
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Monday, June 14th 2010

Today I have been working on a little gift for a birth of a little human.  Instead of giving sugar beans and other stuff my friends had a more creative idea and have chosen to give a little chocolate gift.  So many ways to say thank you.

There were 4 different flavours, acasia honey-cinnamon with dark chocolate, hazelnut-pralinee with milkchocolate, fresh mint with white chocolate and nougat cream (from Vital Nougat) with milkchocolate.

Congrats to the parents of Vic !

Alain

Brewing bio chocolate beer @ Jessenhofke demobrewery

May 25th 2010 Posted at Brewing, Chocolate
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Monday, Mai 24th 2010

Today I went brewing a new beer based on chocolate.  The event took place at the Jessenhofke demobrewery

in Hasselt.  I can tell you, it was an amazing interesting day.  I can only recommend this experience.

We started out with grinding the malts used in the beer.

This malt goes into a kettle that is getting heated till a certain temperature to change the starch into sugars and then this hot soup of malt goes into a filterdevice.  The malt is being filtered from the liquid.

After filtering the liquid is being cooked togheter with the gold of every brewer : “hop”.

The cooked liquid goes through a cooling device and is then added into a sterile barrel. The secret spices are added and the yeast togheter with some sugar (the sugar is bio Arenga Palm Sugar).  In this barrel the beer will ferment for a week convert the sugars into alcohol.

Next week, after a week of fermenting, the beer is being poured into another barrel so it can lager for a few weeks.  After this lagering, I think at the end of June, the chocolate beer will go onto bottles where it can mature for another few months or years.

Thanks to Jessenhofke demobrewery for recipe and brewing and brewmaster Gert.

Lateron, the beer will b e available for tasting purposes.

Cheers Alain

Herbs and gelification

April 29th 2010 Posted at Chocolate, Experiments
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Thursday, april 29th 2010

A few days ago I was strolling in one of these flower malls and something caught my attention.  There was a stash of different herbs standing on a trolley and I found out that there was something special in it.

I found a mint plant which has a very specific mint chocolate taste.  Imagine yourself eating a chocolate with mint cream in it.  Amazing !!  I also bought a normal mint plant to compare both tastes in chocolate.  As you can see the leafs and the colors are a bit different.  I wonder what the difference will be in pralines with ganaches based on fresh mint.

Chocolate mint plant

Normal mint plant

I also bought a new product that is used in a lot of kitchens by pastry chefs.  The product name is Kappa.  It’s a carragene made from sea alges.  It has been re-invented by El Bulli in Spain.  It is used to make gels of products with preservation of the taste.  Once the product is ready I will post more about it.  (Thanks for the tip Xavier De Smit!)

Thats all for now, enjoy the last sun and perhaps a terrace and a good beer.

Alain

Best chocolate wishes for 2010

January 8th 2010 Posted at Chocolate
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I wish everybody a chocolicious 2010 !

Meanwhile I visited Megève, France for some skiing fun.  Chocolate is everywhere in the world, also in France.  I took a few pictures, yes a few, since it was too cold too stand outside for a long time with bare hands.  As you can see, the gift box isn’t quite cheap for what it contains but I am sure that they are worth it.  I didn’t have  the guts to buy the box, I prefer our quality Belgian chocolate.

Chocolate Other

Alain

Zotter, chocolate goes arty

September 28th 2009 Posted at Chocolate, General
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A few days ago I got a wonderfull present.  It was a bag full of chocolate, straight from Wien, Austria.

The bag contained different chocolate from different companies.  The one that attracted my attention the most was Zotter chocolate.  Zotter chocolate is very special and contains different ingredients such as sellery and portwine, chili, kirsch with marzipan (one of my favourites), peanuts and ketchup, …  All chocolate is produced under the Fair Trade label.  There was also a piece of chocolate with cashew nuts !! … mmmmm amazing what they do with chocolate.

Zotter Chocolate

Zotter

I also received Mozartkugeln.  The Mozartkugeln are a real delicatesse.

Mozartkugeln

They contain a heart of hazelnutpralinee, a layer of marzipan with almond extract and then a fine layer of chocolate.  If you never tried one, I recommend them !

There was also some other chocolate I received.  Some were from Coppeneur – chocolate with rose petals and grappa and a piece of chocolate with brittle nougat, Hachez chocolate with 70% origin chocolate, Hussel chocolate 100% cacao with jasmin and last but not least Green and Blacks butterscotch chocolate.

Hussel Green & Blacks

Coppeneur Hachez

Thank you very much !!

Addicted to chocolate

August 29th 2009 Posted at Chocolate
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Friday, august 28th 2009

I must admit it, I am addicted to chocolate.  Today I was walking in the wonderfull city of Bruges and I passed a window with some chocolate I never tasted.  The flesh is weak and I had to buy some of it.

The first one I bought is wrapped up like a bag of tobacco and is from Dolfin.  It contains 52% of cocoa and green aniseeds.  Amazing taste !  It tastes perfectly with a glass of cold pastis.

The second one I got was Lacasa, a Spanish brand of chocolate.  I am not really enthousiast about this chocolate.  It contains 70% of cocoa but the taste is not according to it.  Also I noticed that the translation of the ingredients on the package is wrong,  Lots of errors.

Dolfin Dolfin

Chocolade3

If you have any suggestions for good chocolate, please let me know and I will give it a try.

Enjoy !

Alain

Summer fun with chocolate

August 17th 2009 Posted at Butter mass, Chocolate, Ganache, Spices and herbs
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Saturday, august 15th 2009

Today I wanted to refine some chocolates that I like.  I made a mokka cream praline and a ganache with fresh mint with dark chocolate.  I also moulded some figures for testing purposes.  The came out well.  Lucky it didn’t get too hot and sunny outside since I have no airco present yet.

Chocolate Moulded figure

Moulded chocolate

Mokka cream Mint ganache

Mokka cream and fresh mint ganache

Chocolate Meringue Cookies

Chocolate meringue cookies

Enjoy the sun !

Marbre table

June 29th 2009 Posted at Chocolate
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Saturday, june 27th 2009

It’s been a while that I have posted something.  The lessons have finished and the practical and theoretical test are over.  I am waiting for my final result.

Meanwhile, I bought a marbre table, size 1m30 on 80cm and 10 cm thick.

I also purchased a new flexmould to make truffle balls.  It is a flexible mould that resists low and high temperatures.  I use it mainly with ganaches.  If you use a premade chocolate ball that you fill with ganache and then cover with chocolate, you have 2 layers of chocolate.  With this mould you have a ganache ball that you cover with 1 layer of chocolate.  This way the chocolate truffle is lighter and contains less chocolate and more of fine ganache.  If you need more information about this mould, please drop me an email and I will send you the information where you can get them.

More chocolate news soon !  Meanwhile, enjoy the vacation.

Pralines with liquor, definately worth a little secret

December 6th 2008 Posted at Alcohol, Chocolate
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Wednesday, december 3rd 2008

The lessons for this year are slowly coming to an end, so time for something special.

Close your eyes.  Imagine you bite in a praline with liquor in it (example : a Mon Cherie praline).  First you taste chocolate, then you bite through a little layer of sugar and then the liquor comes out.  To make these liquor pralines you need a good understanding of how the sugar is forming a crust around the liquor and a lot of discipline to work in the right conditions.  The technique is a little bit secret, that is why I don’t explain in detail how they are made.

(picture source : Chocolaterie Carre )

I don’t have pictures of the result yet since it takes at least 18 hours to let the praline create itself, weird huh…

I promise that there will be more pictures next week from the liquor pralines result.  I can’t wait.

Meanwhile, eat chocolate and be good.

Alain

Chocolate bullets for peace

November 13th 2008 Posted at Alcohol, Chocolate
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Make Chocolate, not war !

Wednesday, november 12th 2008

Today I learned more about using alcohol in combination with chocolate.  You can do so much different things with chocolate.  It is almost never ending.  Most of the items shown are made with Origine chocolate. Check the pictures and decide for yourself.

Snow truffle : White chocolate with cream and Glühwein

Advocat truffle : Darkchocolate with advocat 20degrees

Champagne truffle : Milkchocolate and cream with Marc du Champagne liquor

Passionfruit : Chocolate with passion fruit powder and Passoa liquor finished with powdersugar

Rhum truffle : Dark origine chocolate with 40 percent Rhum

Amaretto truffle : Milkchocolate with cream and Amaretto liquor

All truffles except the passion fruit truffle are made with alcohol.  Last week I learned more about alcohol and chocolate.  This week I get a better overview on how to use alcohol and chocolate.

See you next week !

Alain

Composed chocolates

October 20th 2008 Posted at Chocolate, Fruit
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Finally some technician managed to get my internet connection up and running !!!  Thanks a bunch !!

Last wednesday I did a lot of preparations for next wednesday.  I have a few examples of what has been made but not that much.  There will be more this week.

First of all this weeks lessons were about composed pralines.  Pralines that are made in different layes and tastes.  For example : a dark layer of pralinee filling and a marzipan layer, a marzipan layer with a fruit layer, … The possibilities are enourmous.

I also worked with gelatine and pectine to make soft fruit pralines with sugar.  Check the example.

A praline with a raspberry layer of 4 millimeter and a layer of praliné on top of it covered with dark origine chocolate.

This is a raspberry fruit bonbon, very soft and covered with sugar.

Next wednesday I go to a chocolate factory to learn to know the different machines used for making chocolates.  Although that I already use different machinery to make them, the goal that I want to achieve is handcrafted chocolates with a high quality standard.

See you on wednesday.

Alain

Ganache in all its forms

October 9th 2008 Posted at Chocolate, Ganache
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Wednesday, october 8th 2008

Ganache is made from chocolate and cream.  It has been invented in the 19th century by accident.  An apprentice chocolatier spilled cream in the chocolate he was melting and the chef called him “Ganache”, which means “fool”.  The result was delicious and the name was born.

So yesterday there were 8 or 9 different pralines created.  They all have different characteristiques and flavours and they are all based on cream, different chocolate and different tastes.  Except one praline that was an experiment conducted with my teacher.  You can read more after the pictures of the ganache pralines.

Munthé : Cream, fresh mint and white chocolate covered with milkchocolate.  If you take a look at the second picture you can see the little green points of the fresh chopped mint leaves.

Banéro : Cream, bananataste, pisang and white chocolate finished with spritsed chocolate (milk and dark chocolate)

Twinty : Cream, cointreau and dark chocolate finished with sugar on top

Brazil : Cream, bresillienne and milk chocolate finished with dark chocolate and bresillienne nuts

Salba : Cream, crusted caramellised almonds and milkchocolate, finished with hazelnuts and milkchocolate

Pastio : Cream, Pastis and dark chocolate, finished with a P from Pastis

Walhalla : Cream, honey, cinnamon and dark chocolate, finished with a W from walhalla

Anola : Cream, pineapple taste, pieces of pineapple on Marasquin with dark chocolate.  Finished with milkchocolate.

Maison praline : secret of the house

With my teacher, I also did an experiment.  I used a delicious West Vleteren trappist beer 12 to make a ganache.  The result is a praline with a creamy dark chocolate taste and a full body beer taste afterwards.  I gave it the name : The Sixtus.  This praline tastes so good that there will be more pralines in the future with different beers.

The Sixtus : a ganache made with West Vleteren 12

Next week I will present combined pralines.  This means that there are different ingredients in the pralines.  For example : marzipan with praliné, ganache with caramel and crème au beurre, …  Come back at any time on this site so you can enjoy my creations.

Have a good weeken and dream of The Sixtus praline !!

Alain

Luxury cream pralines on october 1st

October 2nd 2008 Posted at Chocolate, Cream
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Wednesday, october 1st 2008

The first of october and I am advancing with my chocolate lessons.  The ingredients get much better, the techniques to create them are more difficult and take more work but the result is that the chocolates do look better and they taste even better than I thought.

This weeks pralines are all about cream, alcohol and expensive.  There is a lot of work on this type of cream pralines what makes them expensive.  The commercial idea is to replace the “petits four” by a praline which is a bit smaller but is at least as tasty.

I have 9 different pralines to present.  I hope you like them.

Advocat : Milkchocolate filled with advocat and on top white and dark chocolate

Mokka : Dark chocolate filled with mokka cream and finished with coffeebean print

Passoa : Dark chocolate with cream made of Passoa and white chocolate

Cognac – Coffee : Milk chocolate filled with mokka – Cognac cream finished with a white coffeebean

Raspberry : Dark chocolate with raspberry cream filling, finished with chocolate shavings

Butterfly : Dark chocolate with roasted walnut cream finished with butterfly wings

Pralinee : One with dark chocolate and one with milkchocolate, filled with a caramelised hazelnut on the bottom, pralinee base mass and finished with a sugared walnut on top

Apricot : White chocolate filled with apricot pieces on the bottom (on this picture its caramelised apple pieces), cream with apricot brandy and finished with a white piece of prepared chocolate.

The only disadvantage of this praline is that you cannot keep them long time because the ingredients used are fresh and cannot be stored long time.  Well, this way you have a reason to eat them quickly.  I am sure that they won’t last 2 weeks.

Enjoy the rest of the week dreaming about chocolate.  Next weeksome special about Ganache pralines.

Cheerz Q.

Lubeca, the best filling there is !

September 26th 2008 Posted at Chocolate, General
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Wednesday, september 24th 2008

Today  we are experimenting with the best pralinee there is, “Lubeca”.  It is a very fine and delicious type of pralinee and it is also a bit more expensive than the pralinee large production sites use.  I will present 8 different chocolates and then 1 special chocolate that has been created just for testing purposes.
Turo

Turo : Clear pralinee filling, white chocolate and brokencacaomass with a small  slice of marzipan on top

Familia

Familia : Clear pralinee filling and white chocolate, dark pralinee filling and dark chocolate and rice crisps in between

Marsoko

Marsoko: Clear pralinee filling, marzipan with Cointreau, feuilletine and white chocolate

Muzica

Muzica : Both clear and dark pralinee filling, milkchocolate and caramelised cornflakes

Penatras

Penatras :Clear pralinee filling, chopped roasted peanuts, milkchocolate

Sicilië

Sicilië : Dark pralinee, dark chocolate, sun dried and cutted apricots

Paradiso

Paradiso : Dark pralinee, dark chocolate and roasted cocos

Lazoo

Lazoo : Clear pralinee, white chocolate and orange taste

Paprika heart

This chocolate was prepared with paprikapigments.  This makes the praline extra spicey

Next week there will be more.  Then it’s all about chocolates with whipped cream.  Meanwhile, support the poor cocoafarmers by eating their chocolates.

Have a good weekend

Spouted chocolates with butter mass

September 18th 2008 Posted at Butter mass, Chocolate
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Wednesday, september 17th 2008

Fall is coming into the country, you can feel it in the morning and evening.  There is a little fog, tres loose their leaves and it’s earlier ligth and dark.  Time to do things with butter mass.

Butter mass is easy to make.  Take butter, add fondantsugar, add cream, add taste substance or liquor and last but not least, add tempered chocolate.

It’s amazing what you can make with a simple buttermass.  You can add almost anything to give it a good taste or flavour.  That’s why I present here 6 different butter mass pralines.

Sina

Sina: Butter mass with orangetaste, Mandarine Napoleon liquor and white chocolate

Mokta

Mokta : Butter mass with mokka taste and milk chocolate

Citra Citra

Citra : Buttermass with citrus taste, citrus liquor and white chocolate

Marco

Marco : Buttermass with Stroh rum and a raisin and milk chocolate

Bombe advocat

Bombe advocat : Buttermass with advocat and white chocolate finished with a slice

Pista

Pista : Buttermass with pistache liquor and white chocolate finished a pistache nut.  (this one has been modified slightly.  I added champagne taste and finished with milk chocolate)

This are the chocolates for this week.  Next week I have praline filled chocolates – Lubeca.

Have a good one !

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