Port of Busan
Yonggungsa Temple in Busan
Yonggungsa Temple in Busan
Yonggungsa Temple in Busan
Fish Market
Street Market
Beijing
Posted in travel on March 18, 2012 by thebrokenganache
Flight over
Double Happiness Hotel
Double Happiness Hotel
Tiananmen Square
At The Forbidden City
Forbidden City
Forbidden City
Forbidden City
Beijing Zoo
At the Great Wall
Cable car at the Great Wall
At the Ming Tombs
Temple of Heaven
At the Temple of Heaven
YongHeGong Lama Temple
Eating Snake At the night Market
Trying Starfish at The Night Market
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Bean 2 bar contiuned
Posted in bean to bar, chocolates with tags bean to bar, chocolates, homemade chocolate on July 17, 2011 by thebrokenganacheIt’s been awhile since I have posted, I have been busy making chocolate from bean to bar. I’ve made 4 different batches of chocolate so far, two batches of 56% dark chocolate (my first batch didn’t come out as expected so I did it again), a 67% dark chocolate, a 70% dark chocolate and just last weekend a Vanilla bean white chocolate. All the dark Chocolate was made with the “La Red” beans from the Dominican Republic, which has lovely dark fruity undertones. All the dark chocolate I have made so far is completely vegan and gluten free. I used is organic cane sugar, organic cocoa butter and organic cocoa beans no fillers or lecithin. I’m not a big fan of white chocolate but my best friend Sara is. I think it came out rather nice, very creamy, not to sweet with a wonderful vanilla flavor. I ordered 3 new organic beans that came in this week: Venezuelan “Mantuano” which are Criollo beans, Madagascar “Sambriano Valley” which are Trinatario beans and some beans from Costa Rica “Upala” . I can’t wait to try them out. But first I plan on making a dark milk chocolate with the last bit of the “La Red” .
Homemade 56% Dark Chocolate
Homemade 67% dark chocolate 4 oz bars
Homemade 70% dark chocolate 1 oz bars
white Chocolate with Tahitian Vanilla Bean
Day 1 of Chocolate from Bean to Bar adventure
Posted in bean to bar, chocolates with tags Chocolate, chocolate bean to bar, Cocoa bean on May 1, 2011 by thebrokenganacheToday is day 1 of my bean to bar adventure. I began by roasting the beans at 400F for 10 minutes than 350F for 10 min and finally 300F for the remaining 10 min. Stirring every 5 minutes through out the process.
Roasting Beans
The whole house was scented in a yummy cloud of roasted chocolate – I did find it odd that every time I opened the oven to stir the beans my nose was assaulted by a slight acidic almost vinegary scent which quickly went away.
Cocoa beans in coco mill
Once the roasting was done and the beans had cooled completely it was time to place them in the coco mill. Which cracks the husk from the nibs of the bean. As soon as everything was cracked it was time to move outside to begin winnowing the beans – I used a blowdryer to blow the husks away from the nibs. It felt like I was out there forever baking under the hot Florida sun. I was covered in coco husks from head to toe and so was our patio. Luckily we still had Don’s leaf blower to blow the discarded husk into the flower beds (where they will do some good).
After winnowing
I got most of the husks separated from the nibs so now it was time to extract the coco liqueur from the nibs and remaining husks using the Champion Juicer. A very long and noisy process and after running it through twice it was time to clean the juicer to get it ready to run the liqueur through a final time (but that will have to wait until tomorrow as the juicer components need to dry 100% because if even 1 drop of water gets onto the liqueur its ruined). So tomorrow I will run the liqueur through a final time in the juicer then place it in the melanger to conch it with sugar and coco butter.
Extracting chocolate liquor from the nibs and husk
Chocolate liqueur
That’s it for now
Hercule Poirot and Apricot Jam
Posted in other things with tags Homemade apricot Jam on April 18, 2011 by thebrokenganacheLast night I was watching Agatha Christie‘s Hercule Poirot’s: The Third Girl and about 20 minutes into it I thought wouldn’t it be nice to have some Earl Grey Tea with some biscuits and jam. Unfortunately when I went to get some the cupboards were bare! All I had was bag of dried apricots. So I put Hercule on pause to make some jam. Normally making jam out of dried fruit its best to let the fruit soak for 24 hours in water so they get nice and plump, but I couldn’t wait that long, I had a movie to get back too. 3 hours later I was ready to resume the movie and enjoy my late night snack.
Homemade Apricot Jam
This is how I made apricot jam:
- Chop up 8 oz bag dried apricots
- Pour boiling water over top of apricots so they are completely covered and let them soak for and 1 1/2hours
- Strain apricots and save the liquid
- Pour the reserved liquid in a pot add i cup organic cane sugar and juice and zest of 1 lemon and and bring to a boil and reduce to quarter of it’s volumePlace soaked apricots in a food processor and pulse a couple of times
- Add the apricots to the pot and simmer until it is nice and think about 15 minutes.
Since I like cold jam on biscuits I had to place the jam in an ice bath to cool it down quickly. You may ask was it worth putting the movie on pause just to make some jam – YES. That yummy sweet tart flavor on a buttered biscuit with a pot of tea watching a good film. nothing could be better.
That’s all for now.
Missing Coco Mill and Homemade Thin Mints
Posted in baked, chocolates, cookies with tags Chocolate, Thin Mints on April 17, 2011 by thebrokenganacheI felt like a kid on Christmas morning when I woke today because I was so excited about opening the packages that came from Chocolate Alchemy. The first box was filled with roasted and un-roasted cocoa beans from the Dominican Republic, cocoa nibs, organic coco butter, lecithin, and five different chocolate bar molds. The next box contained the Champion Juicer which will turn the coco nibs to liquid chocolate. The last box had the Ultra Melanger which conches and refines the chocolate, sugar, coco butter and lecithin which gives it that silky smooth texture. Then I realized that I was missing the coco mill which is used to crack and separate the hulls from the nib. I ran to my laptop to send off an email to see what was going and within five minutes I got a response that it was on back order. I was relieved that it wasn’t lost but a little disappointed that I wouldn’t be making chocolate today. In reality I still could make chocolate, I wouldn’t have to do the first few steps and go right to the juicer to make the chocolate liquid. But I really had my heart set on experimenting with the whole process from beginning to end. So I will wait.
Melanger, Juicer and Cocoa Beans
So I was looking for something to make when I ran across a Thin Mints recipe from Heidi Swanson’s blog 101 Cookbooks which is really a wonderful blog with great recipes. Her recipe called for whole wheat pastry flour which I didn’t have so I substituted a 1/2 cup cake flour and 1/2 cup whole wheat flour to equal ! cup whole wheat pastry flour. I also thought tempering the chocolate for the cookie was a better way to go than just melting it, that way the chocolate would not melt on your fingers when eating it. I also ended up using a 53% Callebaut Dark Chocolate since that’s all I had. They came out rather yummy and I just love the mint with that nice crisp cookie inside!
Homemade Thin Mints
Thin mints anyone?
A busy week in the kitchen
Posted in baked with tags Chocolate, graham crackers, macaroons, panna cotta on April 16, 2011 by thebrokenganacheWhat a week, I think we must have gained 20 pounds from all the sweets I’ve made. Every evening after work last week I felt compelled to whip up a yummy treat. It all started with the arrival of raspberry freeze-dried fruit powder that I had ordered to add to chocolate. It’s a wonderful product because you get the great fruit flavor with out adding any moisture to ganaches. Of course I had to try it out right away so I made a white chocolate and raspberry tart with almond crust. which was so yummy that we ate it as soon as it was done and unfortunately we didn’t take a photo. Then it was on to a creamy Tahitian Vanilla bean Panna Cotta, homemade Cinnamon Graham Crackers, Coconut Graham Cracker Bars, then I thought perhaps I should make something a little healthier so I made some Chewy Granola bars. Healthy is no fun so I decided to make more Macaroons, actually a lot more Macaroons with a variety of fillings from a Pear Williams and dark chocolate ganache to a peanut buttercream. I must admit I became slightly obsessed with macaroons trying to get them perfectly crisp on the outside with a soft chewy center. Andy was a good sport about being a taste tester for all those macaroons since it’s not his favorite dessert.
Tahitian Vanilla Bean Panna Cotta with pears poached in Pear Williams
Cinnamon Graham Crackers
Coconut Graham Cracker Bars
I ended up baking over 10 different batches of raspberry and chocolate Macaroons two batches a night with some success and others complete disasters. I did learned a few things along the way, such as: 1. When I baked Raspberry Macaroons at 350F for 15 mins. they came out a light brown color, but when I baked them at 300F for 18 mins. they came out a lovely shade of pink. 2. Make sure egg whites are stiff with a nice satin sheen. 3. When folding the powder sugar/almond mixture into egg whites the consistency shouldn’t be too stiff nor too loose. With all the ups and downs I experienced with making macaroons It was a lot of fun, I do look forward to the day when I can constantly make a prefect batch every time. So I will keep practicing, I just won’t be eating them all other wise I will be as big as a house.
Chocolate Macaroons with a Pear williams chocolate ganache
more Chocolate macaroons with a raspberry/dark chocolate ganache
But for the moment I will take a break from macaroons. Since all the equipment for my chocolate from bean to bar experiments have arrived. I haven’t unpacked the boxes since I told myself that I wouldn’t open them until I quite smoking. So tomorrow will be the big day, I can’t wait to get my hands on everything and see what type of cocoa beans I have to work with. As you can image tonight will be spent smoking like a chimney, saying good-bye too my old friend tobacco for tomorrow will say hello to my new friends taste buds. I’ve heard when you quit smoking your taste buds and sense of smell improve dramatically. I’m sure it doesn’t happen the day of quitting, but I would like to think so.
Raspberry Macaroon with a Vanilla bean buttercream baked at 300F
Raspberry Macaroon with a Milk Chocolate ganache baked at 350F
P.S. If anyone out there can recommend an amazing macaroon recipe it would be greatly appreciated. Even though I’m getting back to chocolates I just love those little things so much.
Here are the recipes I used over the course of last week and how I changed them:
Tahitian Vanilla Bean Panna Cotta from Epicurious
- I Spilt/scraped 1 Fresh Tahitian Vanilla bean and steeped it in heavy cream for 10 minutes.
- I also used organic cane sugar.
- The recipe came out quite nice the only thing is that I wish that the Vanilla bean was suspended throughout the Panna Cotta instead of settling on the top and bottom of the bowl.
Cinnamon Graham Crackers from Smitten Kitchen
- I used 1 cup of whole wheat flour and used dark muscovado.
- They came out fantastic, better than any store-bought brand I have ever had. differently a winner. The only thing I would do different is to roll them out thinner they where a bit to thick. And next time I will dip then in Dark Chocolate.
Coconut Graham Cracker Bars from All Recipes
- I didn’t add the layer of chocolate on to because I thought they where already a bit to sweet for me. I don’t think I would make these again.
Chewy Granola bar from Joyful Abode
- I did make a few changes to the recipe since I wanted to use what I had on hand.
2 cup whole oats
1/2 cup wheat gem
1/2 cup wheat bran
1 cup pecans
a handful of sour cherries and dried apricots
Macaroons from David Lebovitz (My favorite recipe out of all the ones I tried)
- For the raspberry Macaroon I just substituted freeze-dried raspberry powder for coco powder and baked at 300F for 18mins.
