Q Chocolate

General Chocolate Interests

Archive for September, 2009

Q balls with Kriek beer

A few days ago I tried a recipe from chef Maarten Pauwels from Brasserie Brouwershof in Haacht.

His recipe was based on Tongerlo Prior 9 beer.  I made a few changes and tried to make the ganache with Kriek Lindemans beer and with Belcolade chocolate Origin Noir Collection Peru 64 which has a bitter taste with a fruity aftertaste.

The original recipe from Maarten Pauwels is here :

Ingredients :
450 g cream
300 g Tongerlo Prior beer
190 g trimoline
550 g grenada chocolade
75 g butter

Preparing :
Melt cream, beer, trimoline and butter.
Pour onto the chocolate and stir well.
Let it cool down and fill your pralines.

My recipe with Kriek Lindemans and Belcolade Origin chocolate is following :

450 g cream
300 g Kriek Lindemans
200 g trimoline
600 g Origin Noir Collection Peru 64 from Belcolade
80g butter

I prepared the ganache the same way but I added some tempered chocolate after cooling down.  Otherwise the ganache was too fluid.  I used a flexmould to create balls and covered them again with Belcolade Origin chocolate.  The result is good.  A good texture with a fruity Kriek aftertaste.

kriek praline

I am still looking for all kinds recipes for beer pralines.

Enjoy !

Zotter, chocolate goes arty

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 !!

Broodway @ Kortrijk

Wednesday, september 17th 2009

Broodway

Today, I went to an exhibition in Kortrijk, named Broodway.  It was all about baking bread, icecream and ofcourse chocolate.  If you are working in one of these categories, it was definately worth a visit.  The major chocolate companies were there such as Valrhona, Callebaut and some smaller.

I also spoke with Matthias Haeck from Vital Nougat.  Vital Nougat from Nevele has the best nougat you can find. You can use the nougat to make pralines and other fine chocolate products.  Please give their site a visit for more recipes.

Nougat