9 posts tagged “chocolate”

Frozen Mocha Mousse Pie

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I hadn’t thought ahead and acquired some chocolate wafers for an “oreo” crust, so I fell back on the graham cracker crust for this Icebox pie too.  

The filling was made of sweetened condensed milk, really good quality 70% chocolate, instant coffee mixed in hot water, and whipped cream.  I used a lot of chocolate, about 8 ounces.  

For the coffee I tried Starbucks Via, their new entry into the instant coffee market.  Since I don’t use instant coffee for drinking, but only for cooking, my requirements are different.  I want it strong and not too bitter with that deep winy taste characteristic of most instant coffees.  It’s that deep bottom flavor that adds character to many chocolate desserts and even savory sauces.  The Starbucks Via was good.  I liked how the very fine powder dissolved so quickly in hot water. And it gave the chocolate mousse mixture a marked mocha flavor.  Like the peanut butter pie this one had a wonderfully smooth texture, but because there was no cream cheese in it, more whipped cream instead it had a lighter texture.  It melted more quickly too which is why it’s not so photogenic.  I could have added whipped cream rosettes and some chocolate curls, but alas I was too lazy.

I have to say that I’m not a chocolate person so the additional coffee to mocha it up was delicious.

From Good Food Producer Connie Alvarez:

I missed Evan's birthday last week, and though I knew she'd be happy with a hug, I had wanted to get her a little something.  Over the weekend, I was driving up Crenshaw Blvd. in Torrance when I spotted a cool strip mall sign that simply said POP MONSTER.  Of course I had to pull in and I am so glad I did!  It had all the Japanese pop knick-knacks I never knew I wanted.  The best thing I found in there was the perfect gift for Evan!  Would you believe it's chocolate-scented?!

Chocolate Calculator

Thanks to Carol for this picture of her Bacon Chocolate Pie.  She writes:

Bacon-Chocolate Pie

A few weeks ago I interviewed Nat Bletter about his Pure Origin chocolate that he makes in Hawaii with local cacao.  Here are some pics he took from the Kona Chocolate Festival last month. 

Wild Cacao

Beautiful wild cacao growing in an abandoned fruit orchard in Waipio Valley

Making Truffles

Chocolate festival goers have a try at piping out truffle dollops

Fig Fennel Truffle

Theo Chocolate's Fig Fennel chocolate truffle

Good Food takes a field trip to New York City.  Matt Lewis and Renato Poliafito of Baked are putting a twist on the American bakery with their homemade oreos and whoopie pies.  Niki Federman is the fourth generation of Russ to be selling smoked fish on the Lower East Side at Russ and Daughters.  Robert Sietsema of the Village Voice tells us where to eat in the Big Apple.  Joel Bukiewicz is making handcrafted kitchen knives.  Charlie Sahadi of Sahadi Fine Foods has been selling Middle Eastern delicacies to Brooklynites for 60 years.  Rick Mast and his brother Michael are making bean-to-bar chocolate in their Williamsburg factory.  And Suvir Saran tells us everything you need to make Indian food at home.  Plus two market reports.

Cacao drying

Ethnobotanist and Guest Blogger Nat Bletter prefers the word "chocophile" to "chocoholic."  Living in Hawaii, he has access to fresh cacao, which he makes into bars for his artisanal chocolate company Pure Origin.  Nat blogged from the Kona Chocolate Festival.  Here's his first entry:

I'm usually pretty excited about chocolate, stemming back to when I first saw cacao pods growing on the streets of Bali in 1997. But I've come a long way since then, when I didn't recognize the cacao tree used to make chocolate, to now when I work with cacao and chocolate on a daily basis.

The Kona Chocolate Festival took place on the Big Island of Hawaii, where we toured local vanilla growers, and we toured the only cacao farms in the 50 states including the Original Hawaiian Chocolate Factory.  There is so much going on in the world of chocolate in Hawaii with breeders, growers like Koa Kahili of Garden Island Chocolate, and single origin Hawaiian chocolate makers like Malie Kai that produce many novel tastes and blends.

Our company, Pure Origin entered the tasting competition at this festival with a few of the tropical flavors we make: passionfruit, ginger cardamom, and coconut milk and kaffir lime leaf.  We also make açaí, red wine, feijoa (pineapple guava), silverberry, maya spice (chipotle and allspice), and sea salt and black pepper.

I made my first batch of chocolate bars from the rare Criollo variety cacao from pod to bar. The cacao pods were hand picked from trees on a friend's farm in Northeastern Oahu, fermented at home (part of the traditional process of making cacao less bitter and more palatable), and then winnowed, ground, conched, and tempered into chocolate bars in the chocolate, kava, and coffee lab of Skip Bittenbender here at University of Hawai'i Manoa where I work. The chocolate turned out incredibly light, almost peanut butter colored due to the Criollo beans which are often completely white compared to the dark-purple-brown Forastero variety that's used for most of the commercial cacao grown around the world. The Forastero is thought to be closest to the wild variety of cacao that is native to the northern end of South America, around Venezuela whereas the Criollo was thought to be bred by the early Mesoamericas especially around the Yucatan area where the Maya and their predecessors the Olmec and Barra lived. The Criollo has a much mellower flavor and lighter color that the Mesoamericans may have preferred, but it has much lower production levels so is quite expensive.

If you want to learn more about the history of cacao, here are some great resources:

The True History of Chocolate by Michael and Sophie Coe

New Taste of Chocolate: A Cultural & Natural History of Cacao With Recipes by Maricel Presilla

Chocolate in Mesoamerica: A Cultural History of Cacao, edited by Cameron McNeil

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Dr. Nat Bletter has a Ph.D. in Ethnobotany from the City University of New York and New York Botanical Garden, where he researched medicinal plants of Peru, Mali, and the Guatemalan Mayans, ethnobotany, taste-modifying plants, and stimulant plants such as cacao, which has spurred him to start a traditional-ingredient, high-antioxidant, artisanal chocolate company Pure Origin. He now works at University of Hawai'i Manoa researching plants and migration in Thailand and Laos, and making chocolate from scratch.

A Year in Chocolate

Master Chocolatier and Pastry Chef Jacques Torres will be signing his newest book, A Year In Chocolate on Saturday, March 21st. from 3:00 - 5:00PM at Madame Chocolat in Beverly Hills.

Books are available for purchase, courtesy of The Cook's Library.