Tag Archives: Chocolate

Mango Chutney Truffles

by The Baker

Mango Chutney Truffle

120 grams cream

25 grams glucose

120 grams milk chocolate, chopped

150 grams dark chocolate, chopped

25 grams butter, room temperature

100 grams mango chutney, chopped

confectioner’s sugar

1. Heat cream and glucose in a small saucepan over medium heat. Put both chocolates into a small bowl. When steam begins to rise from the cream, pour mixture over the chopped chocolate.

2. Let mixture sit for 30 seconds, then stir with a rubber spatula (do not use a whisk–you do not want to incorporate air into the ganache).

3. Add the butter, stir to combine, then fold in the chutney. Cover the mixture with plastic wrap and let sit at room temperature overnight.

4. Form the ganache into balls (easiest method is to use a small ice cream scoop) and roll in confectioner’s sugar.

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Goat Cheese Brownies

by The Baker

Goat Cheese Brownies

10 tablespoons cold goat butter, cubed

2 cups all-purpose flour

4 ounces bittersweet chocolate, melted

4 ounces unsweetened chocolate, melted

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

8 ounces chèvre

1 3/4 cups sugar

1 egg

4 egg yolks

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

1. Preheat oven to 350 F. Butter and flour a 9×13-inch baking dish.

2. In a bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder and salt. In a separate bowl, beat the butter, chèvre and sugar on medium speed for 5 minutes.

3. Add the melted chocolate and beat to incorporate. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and beat in the whole egg and the egg yolks one at a time. Add the vanilla and mix to incorporate.

4. Using a rubber spatula, fold in the flour mixture. Pour into the dish and bake for 25 minutes. Allow brownies to cool to room temperature before cutting.

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Summer in the City: Marshmallow Peanut Butter Chocolate Shake at Deluxe

While eating breakfast this morning at Deluxe, I watched a man step behind the bar and start fiddling with the shake machine. I always sit at the counter, so I saw him grab a jar of Skippy Peanut Butter and a tub of Marshmallow fluff. Finishing off my three eggs, potatoes, and toast, I heard him chatting with another diner. “This is a special shake,” he explained, adding milk and a dash of chocolate syrup to the silver shake canister. “And no, I don’t work here.” “Anymore,” he added, grinning like a lazy cat as he processed his magic mix. He poured off two shot glasses worth of the Marshmallow Peanut Butter Chocolate Shake and handed one to me. Continue reading

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Restaurant Review: Lola Rocks On

Michael Symon cooks with soul. Or so Michael Ruhlman famously proposes in his book The Soul of a Chef, and so Food Network has carefully engineered his “brand” over the past years. Supposedly Symon, a Food & Wine Best New Chef 1998 and member of the Iron Chef America cast, inflects his food with boisterous energy that leaves little room for subtlety. He is a gentle giant, shaven head, booming smile that shows too much tooth. He is, to employ the cliché, larger than life. While no longer in the kitchen at Lola every night, his presence looms over the menu and casts a shadow across the dimly lit dining room. Lola belongs to Symon, he possesses her, and thus his celebrity chefhood never feels phony. Although the restaurant, much like Symon’s television personality, feels overly tweaked, an admirable layer of authenticity persists. If Symon himself appears absent, his soul remains present, lending the food itself a similar degree of depth.

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Saving the Cake: Making Mistakes and the Process of Perfection

Cooking isn’t really about making mistakes.

In fact, as Michael Ruhlman so elegantly articulates in his book The Soul of a Chef, cooking constitutes a journey towards perfection, a search for flawless product and execution that never ends. American schools emphasize the accidental and imperfect nature of science—Fleming messed up and discovered Penicillin! And recent developments in culinary historiography emphasize “grandmother cooking,” a certain imprecision and willingness to err. But this seemingly American desire to revel (and perhaps wallow) in optimistic failure conflicts with the ultimate goal of professional cookery. Maybe this tension explains why so many Americans are uncomfortable with European-style fine dining that focuses on control over the minutest imperfections. Continue reading

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