Ian Sutton
1000+ Posts
A really fun Italian lesson this evening, focused entirely on cioccolato. We studied some history on Ferrero including the very effective brands they've created: Ferrero-Rocher, Kinder, Nutella, Pocket Coffee, Mon Cheri etc. (and this from a company that started out by 'stretching' what little cocoa they had post war, with local hazelnuts, creating nutella but also a huge tradition of chocolate with hazelnut in - from puree to whole nuts).
However the reason for this post was we were then tasked with creating our own chocolate, the brand, the slogan, the ingredients, the name, who it was targeted at, etc... Huge fun, and both teams of three came up with ideas that I reckon were really good. One team really captured the Ferrero idea of packaging small numbers of individual chocolates such that they could be cheap enough to be easy purchases at a bar, cafe, train station etc. but covering fruit fillings that are currently a gap in that market. The other team developed an idea around flavours that represented the Italian flag, but also identifies with the north, south and centre of the country by the choice of ingredients. Such a clever lesson, including us having to present our 'pitch' ... all in Italian of course (and we're not that good at it!).
I think I may have to attempt one of them for next week's lesson, as I have some of the ingredients already plus an incredibly simple but effective recipe for cream-free pseudo truffles.
Melt
2/3 weight dark chocolate with
1/3 weight water/liquid flavouring (e.g. espresso coffee or lemon or licorice syrup, etc.)
Whisk the two together for ~ 5 mins, then let the mixture set overnight in the fridge. The following day, whilst still cold, shape into small balls and roll in cocoa or coconut or icing sugar or chopped nuts etc. Refrigerate until needed and serve at a temperature where you like the texture - anything from chilled to room temperature. The liquid helps convert the hard chocolate texture to something closer to a truffle, giving it a better 'melt in the mouth' feeling. I rather like the slight hardening on the outside you get after a few days in the fridge.
So feel free to either have a go at this simple recipe, or have a go at coming up with your 'concept' chocolate. We had great fun doing the latter.
Regards
Ian
p.s. if using milk chocolate, put much less liquid in, or it will never set. Not sure on white chocolate, but I'll have to experiment!
However the reason for this post was we were then tasked with creating our own chocolate, the brand, the slogan, the ingredients, the name, who it was targeted at, etc... Huge fun, and both teams of three came up with ideas that I reckon were really good. One team really captured the Ferrero idea of packaging small numbers of individual chocolates such that they could be cheap enough to be easy purchases at a bar, cafe, train station etc. but covering fruit fillings that are currently a gap in that market. The other team developed an idea around flavours that represented the Italian flag, but also identifies with the north, south and centre of the country by the choice of ingredients. Such a clever lesson, including us having to present our 'pitch' ... all in Italian of course (and we're not that good at it!).
I think I may have to attempt one of them for next week's lesson, as I have some of the ingredients already plus an incredibly simple but effective recipe for cream-free pseudo truffles.
Melt
2/3 weight dark chocolate with
1/3 weight water/liquid flavouring (e.g. espresso coffee or lemon or licorice syrup, etc.)
Whisk the two together for ~ 5 mins, then let the mixture set overnight in the fridge. The following day, whilst still cold, shape into small balls and roll in cocoa or coconut or icing sugar or chopped nuts etc. Refrigerate until needed and serve at a temperature where you like the texture - anything from chilled to room temperature. The liquid helps convert the hard chocolate texture to something closer to a truffle, giving it a better 'melt in the mouth' feeling. I rather like the slight hardening on the outside you get after a few days in the fridge.
So feel free to either have a go at this simple recipe, or have a go at coming up with your 'concept' chocolate. We had great fun doing the latter.
Regards
Ian
p.s. if using milk chocolate, put much less liquid in, or it will never set. Not sure on white chocolate, but I'll have to experiment!