Chocolate is a fickle mistress

I ended the last newsletter with a couple of photos from my first attempt at making chocolate bars and bonbons. I thought it went spectacularly and couldn’t wait for the weekend to find the time to make more bonbons. The first batch was gone in two days! It was a busy weekend, so I ended up making the ganache filling on one day and the bonbons on a following weeknight. My second attempt wasn’t as successful as the first, but I learned a lot and they were still delicious. As someone also into fitness, I can tell now that I’m going to have to throttle back how many desserts I make.

While shopping for ingredients for Portugal week, I ended up at a grocery store that sold passionfruit concentrate. This is exactly what I was looking for, as my first bonbons used a commercially made nut spread for the filling. The ability to play with flavors and make fun fillings is the whole point of bonbons for me! Making the ganache was far simpler than I expected. I used white chocolate, heavy cream, glucose syrup, and passionfruit concentrate, mixing a little butter in at the end. Because I didn’t have to temper the chocolate, this was just a matter of heating the ingredients and hitting them with an immersion blender to create an emulsion.

The chocolate shell is the part where things went a little sideways. I knew I was only creating a small batch, so I decided to temper just enough chocolate for the shells. Something to know about chocolate, the larger the batch, the better it holds temperature. Because I was working with such a small amount, I decided to try the seeding method of tempering. This is where you heat a portion of the chocolate and then add the rest of the chocolate in at room temperature, bringing the overall batch to where you want it. This part was fine and using the microwave was easier than the sousvide. Unfortunately, because the batch size was so small, the temperature fluctuations were much larger.  On top of that, I had pulled the mould in from the garage pantry, and last week was a cold one. I completely forgot to preheat the mould before adding the chocolate for the shell. This cause the chocolate to panic when it hit the cooler mould and caused some blooming. Also because the chocolate had cooled too much, too fast, it never really tempered. What resulted were some pretty bonbons that had several flaws, including the outer shell appearance. They were quite difficult to remove and a few had air bubbles that I could’t get out due to the lack of viscosity of the melted chocolate. You can also tell how thick the shell is in the cross-section picture.

To finish out the week, Deanna booked us on a tour of a local chocolate factory. We had the chance to talk about the chocolate making process and taste a variety of percentages as well as flavors. Creo Chocolate was founded by Tim Straub, a former farmer who decided to make his hobby into a business. We were incredibly lucky to have Tim conducting the tour. As part of the tour, we got to make our own bars. I need to take a note from the way they flavor the bars when it is based on added ingredients. Rather than having to create a shell, then fill in with an already blended inside, they pour the chocolate and add the ingredients to the bottom. This still delivers the flavor and texture, while also making it “pretty”.

Here are a few photos from our experience.

My baking isn’t limited to just chocolates, but the other bakes I did this week were specifically Portuguese. I look forward to sharing those with you next week! Until then, I hope you can find some happiness in your own kitchen. Leave a comment if you made something this week that you are particularly proud to share.