Wine in chocolates

Hi,

My area I like to play with most is pastry & confections. I make chocolates every year for friends and family. I experiment every year with new flavors. The last year was chilies and chocolate. The habanero, mango, rum truffles were a big hit. This year was tea. Again the big winner was the milk chai tea truffle.

I would like to start playing with adding wine to the mix as it were. I know there are champagne truffles out there but I would like to look at other pairings. Actually I don't get champagne truffles. The champagne has is flat when mixed in or when used as a concentrate in marc de champne so doesn't that make it chardany?

Any thoughts?

Thxs for your time,
Jim

Jim
I noticed some commercial offerings this christmas using merlot / cabernet sauvignon in chocolate bars. I didn't taste, so can't comment. Perhaps more interesting might be sangiovese?

For some inspiration, try Pierre Marcolini's website - they experiment with flavours in chocolate and IMO do a very fine job.

regards

Ian

Hi Jim, and welcome to the forum ! We're into the chocolate making too - last year we did orange truffles and fresh peppermint truffles (infused the cream with fresh leaves) - this year my husband has an idea for a sweet balsamic vinegar truffle, which isn't too different to your wine idea. I actually think a port truffle might be nice as well. What I'd like to figure out is licquer filled chocolates, but I haven't got moulds that work well enough to seal up. Do you dip your truffles in tempered chocolate like we do, or do you roll in cocoa ?

Port is one to try.

As for liquor filled chocolates, one way I've come across doing them is to use the same principle as cherry cordials. You mix some alcohol with fondant and dip/mold the candy. As it rests the alcohol with turn the fondant to a liquid. The more alcohol the clearer the liquid.

The other way is to make a sugar syrup and pour it into corn starch molds. Cover with more starch. The outer will harden and leave the center liquid.

If you want more detailed info I can send it to you via email after I get back from NY.

Here are the ones I did this year:
[img]http://img181.imageshack.us/img181/299/candy2jg8.jpg[/img]

[img]http://img207.imageshack.us/img207/6189/candyut1.jpg[/img]

I use poly molds & hand dip. I have a tempering machine to do my chocolate in. I've tried the cocoa method but most people around me are a bit clueless & lick the cocoa and say it tastes bad, duh...

As you can see I do some regular flavors as well as the exotics.

Jim

Those look fantastic, Jim! I guess the box you sent to me got lost in the mail......

I am a cocoa person myself. Now I am going to have to make truffles.

Oh, and yes, welcome to the Forum and Happy New Year!!

Thanks. Sorry though we are fresh out for the year of the boxes

I just picked up a bottle of Barnhart Black Cherry Table Wine from River Myst Winery up in my in-laws area of Ogdensburg NY. I'm going to try it both straight & in a reduction with Lindt 70% (nice & dark with a strong berry flavor but not bitter).

It is a winery that just opened up in their area and they have quite a few fruit wines. If this works out I'll definitely try their citrus based wines.

Any other advice on the pairings?

Thxs,
Jim

Wow, candymaking. I never even thought to try that. Can you recommend how one can learn the basics?

Beautiful chocolates, Jim!

Pedro Ximenez sherry is the first wine that comes to mind for me. Ought to work very well with chocolate.

On a somewhat related note, my wife got a bunch of fresh cherries back when they were in season, put them in jars full of brandy, and then let them sit in the basement for about six months. She pulled them out a couple of weeks ago and dipped them in tempered chocolate. They were then put into small decorative boxes and given away over the holidays (with firm warnings that the pits were still there!) They were delicious.

Gorgeous chocolates, Jim ! Much fancier than what we make, we either just do plain moulded chocs, or dipped hand-moulded truffles. Which brand of chocolate do you like to use ? Our preference is always Callebaut, and we use their standard 811 dark callets, 70% Cuba and an absolutely wonderful milk Java that they have. I also use their white chocolate, but only for baking. We temper by hand (best thing we ever bought was a waterproof digital thermometer), and find that the funny little Korean heatmats (you push a metal disc which causes a chemical reaction, and heats the mat up) are just perfect for holding the chocolate at temper while we dip.

Stuart, a really good place to start with candymaking is the book Truffles, Candies and Confections by Carole Bloom. There's also lots of stuff online about how to temper chocolate by hand, though it does take a little trial and error.

Jim, I'm sure you probably know about this site as well, but I'll post it here in case - this is a fantastic place to buy chocolate moulds ! Candyland Crafts - we once bought a great Ferrari mould from these guys, and made a 50th birthday gift for a Ferrari-mad friend.

We always do brandied cherries, but I never took them that one step further, Mike. Great idea! And I love all combinations of chocolate and cherry. Duh! (But we pit ours..... )

Love brandied cherries. It also works great with rum. Also macerated strawberries in red wine with fresh ground black pepper, to die for.

On books for candy making I remember a couple off the top of my head & I'll post the others after I return home. Most are available at 1/2 Price Books Stores (the best place for buying cook books in the world.)

The Chocolate Bible - author to follow - a fantastic guide to all forms of chocolate. It covers two different forms of tempering. It is European though & contains unusual ingredients but gives a very good foundation in pastry, cakes. and candies.

Candy Making - author to follow - the one I started with. It is full of no fail recipes (trust me they can still fail though ) that cover all the basics of candy making including some old time recipes rarely seen today.

I have a couple ones put out by some professional candy makers (world completion level) that are good but a lot of people find them a bit boring as they are very technical. Great info but a little to like chemistry for most people.

As for the tempering machine, um I never have been able to successfully tackle tempering by hand. I just don't seem to have the touch. The chocolates aren't that fancy. Most are just molds with fillings. I get the molds from http://www.jbprince.com. They average about $20 apiece except for the magnetic which are about $40. I just paint them with a brush for a complete but thin layer of chocolate, put them in the freezer and than do a thicker second layer, than freeze, fill & cap with a piping bag. The hand dipped ones are messy but fun. I use the technique in the above Candy Making book. I cover my palm in chocolate and than wrap my hand around it. Nice thin coat every time.

As for what chocolates I use I've been experimenting with different ones. I didn't like Peter's for mold shells, to much sugar making it to thick. I do like it for hand-dipped though, gives a nice shell around caramel & toffee. This year funds were limited since we moved from one house to another and are still trying to sell the first. I've been working with locally acquired chocolates such as Lindt & Ghirardelli. Both have worked really well at the dark shells. I used Lindt for the milk chocolate and Peters for the white. Ghirardelli didn't have milk available and neither had white available locally. I had some white Peters left over from the trial runs of it and the only local white available was a bit out of budget at this time I suffered through it.

If you get as chance Albert Uster Imports hosts a class called Frutta Prima Dessert Composition Road Show that has a class Des Alpes Methodology based on the wine tasting technique that is a real learning experience. The methodology class was individual a couple years ago & free when I took it. I don't know about the new two day class. Chef Anil Rohira is amazing, patent and fun to listen to.

Here is the guide:

~ Orlando, FL 3/5/08
~ Minneapolis, MN 4/1/08
~ Providence, RI 4/10 - 4/11/08
~ Washington, DC 4/22/08
~ Atlanta, GA 4/22 - 4/23/08
~ Baltimore, MD 4/24/08
~ Seattle, WA 4/29/08
~ Richmond, VA 5/15/08
~ Houston/Austin, TX 5/28 - 5/29/08
~ Miami, FL 5/28 - 5/29/08
~ San Francisco, CA 6/11/08
~ New York, NY 6/12/08
~ Los Angeles, CA 6/24 - 6/25/08
~ Salt Lake City, UT 6/26 - 6/27/08
~ San Diego, CA 7/8/08
~ Philadelphia, PA 7/25/08
~ Atlantic City, NJ 7/30/08
~ Honolulu, HA 8/5/08
~ Maui, HA 8/6/08
~ Dallas, TX 8/12 - 8/13/08
~ Denver, CO 9/24 - 9/25/08
~ Kansas City, MO 10/1 - 10/2/08
~ Charlotte, NC 10/2 -10/3/08
~ New Orleans, LA 10/7 - 10/8/08
~ Las Vegas, NV 10/8 -10/9/08
~ Boston, MA 10/15/08
~ Milan, OH 10/15 - 10/16/08
~ Phoenix, AZ 10/28/08
~ Chicago, IL 11/5 - 11/6/08

If you need more info PM or email me & I'll forward it on to you.

I think I've rambled on enough for one post here. This is where my passions lie big time.

Jim

Jim, Celia, many thanks!

As for wine with chocolate... there's Banyuls and there's everything else.

Jim, I have long lusted after a tempering machine. My problem is you have to commit such a large amount of chocolate to them each time. Do you have a brand you're happy with ?

Thanks, Celia

I have a Revolation 2.

It is a two pound machine that will do about 100-120 pieces or 4-5 molds when filled to max. It is small enough that I can do a small batch of about 25-30 or 1 mold with a little left over which I just harden up & put in the first part of process the next time. The advantage of the Revolation 2 over the Revolation 1 is the ability to vary the temp. If you want to be very specific to the chocolate's tempering temps you need the Revolation 2.


The killer is the price $479 through http://www.chocovision.com/therevolation2.htm and you need to continually invest in scrapers @ $8.25 + S&H. Good news is that the scrapers last a long time. I get about 3 dozen uses (though I should change more often probably) each and the machine comes with one.

If you get one be very careful about assembly. The pins in the baffle bend easily and the baffle is pricy to replace. I had a manufacturing issue with my baffle (cold solder joint) and Chocovision was great on customer service for a replacement. They also answered my questions on use quickly and at a level I could understand.

Jim

Thanks Jim. I might stay with hand tempering - it's a bit too much for my budget ! Though it must be nice to have a whole pool of chocolate to make art with...

Here are some of those books:

Candy Making - Ruth A. Kendrick & Pauline H. Atkinson - ISBN 0-89586-307-3 - Great book on basics. Most recipes can be done with little chance of failure

Chocolate Bible - Christian Teubam - ISBN 0-670-87371-3 _ Gives a European view of pastries & candies

Truffles, Candy & Confections - Carole Bloom - ISBN 0-89594-559-2 - Good home cook source for recipes, very little theory

Making Artisan Chocolates - Andrew Garrison Shotts - ISBN 1-59253-310-8 - Great book on theory but reads like a chemistry class

Truffles - Dede Wilson - ISBN 1-55832-230-1 - A good book

Sweet Heat _ Melissa Stock & Dave DeWitt - ISBN 0-89815-817-6 - For those who want to play with fire

Chocolate Passions - Tish Boyle & Timothy Mariarty - ISBN 0-471-29317-2 - Great book overall on pastry, good candy making but some unusual ingredients & complicated steps

The Good Cook Candy - Out of Print but available at used book stores - Fantastic step by step

Celia, I can understand the budget issue. I saved a lot of pennies for that toy. As for hand tempering I wish I could, there are times when it would be nice for just making some decorations.

Jim

Jim, hand tempering takes a bit of fiddling around, though I have found a pretty good method. I melt a small bowl of chocolate in the microwave until it gets to a certain temp (115F for dark), then throw in a large chunk of tempered chocolate, and give it a stir. I leave it on the bench, coming back in and out of the kitchen to stir occasionally. When the temperature starts to drop towards the low 90's, I pay a bit more attention, stirring more often, and when it just drops below 90F, i put a smear onto a scrap of parchment paper and pop it in the fridge for half a minute to check it's tempered. I then fish the leftover chunk out, and keep it for next time.

The hard thing is keeping the chocolate at temper long enough to work it. I've found that a heat pad, topped with a layer of polarfleece scrap, keeps it at exactly the right temperature for enrobing and dipping. These are the pads I use http://www.shinbio.com.au/

An easier method, though less reliable, is to melt some chocolate in the microwave until just barely melted (still with solid bits in it, that breakdown when you stir), and then immediately add almost the same quantity again of tempered chocolate (in callet form). If you're lucky, by the time the chocolate has completely melted, the mix will be at temper. I use this when I need a tiny bit for topping a cake or cookies.

Funny things are always happening to me.

This month's issue of Fine Cooking has a small article on pairing wine & chocolates.

Jim