Win Chocolate?!?! Outta my way!

So! Amano Chocolates is holding a "Guess The Origin" Contest for a Chance To Win aYear's Supply of Chocolate!!!
This lovely pic of these super cute and chubby beans (remind you of anyone ? *^.^*) are the beans used for their new chocolate and if you can guess where they are from, you could win a one year supply of chocolate!

About the taste of the beans:

"They have a beautiful rich chocolate flavor with some very nice fruity notes. We have made a number of test batches and the chocolate made from these cocao beans is wonderfully complex. The finished chocolate is unlike any of our current chocolates."

Based on that description - my expert chocolatey-person advice? They could be anything :S If you win, remember your ol' pal Les, would ya?

Good Luck!

Countdown to James Rosselle class!

Tomorrow is June 18th. Apart from being the due date for my Professional Chocolatier course Research Assignment 6: Sourcing Your Packaging, Equipment Supplies AND my Chocolate Maker final EXAM (!!) it also marks the beginning of my countdown to Ft. Lauderdale to meet James Rosselle for his chocolate flower making course!!!!! He's such a cutie! I mean look at him! ------>>>

The class I'm taking is the
JAMES ROSSELLE "CHOCOLATE, CHOCOLATE, AND...MORE CHOCOLATE!" on JULY18, 2010

So it's a business expense, right? right....?!

This is his cake shop website. His sugar work is A-MAZING! I guess that's why they call him the sugar flower guy.

James won 3 consecutive food network challenges! Or is it 4? Either way, I rrrrreeeally, really hope I can get a picture with him! I hope I don't embarrass myself too much either ^_^

Just 28 Days 14 Hours 16 Mins and 35 Secs to go!
Can't wait!

Rogue blogger returns... or does she?

Holy hiatus Batman! So I've been completely busy studying/working on assignments/getting sick/applying for visitor visas/ hosting guests/ trying to take over the world and totally neglected my poor bloggy in the process... which I thought didn't matter cos no one was reading it anyway. Thanks to Matt for proving me wrong! Usually I would put up a picture now but I'm now realizing I don't have any pictures of you (?!) But I guess that's not by accident - you're a crafty one Mr. Lee - I'll give you that... ;b

But in all seriousness, I have Matt to thank for introducing me to truly fine chocolate in the first place - even though my mom devoured most of them before I got a taste ^_^* ... Yes, Soma Chocolates

I think they were chocolate covered coffee beans?* They were dusted with cocoa and they had a nice thick melty layer surrounding the bean and I remember being warned they were addictive ;) I have a bad memory but Matt's an awesome gift giver - thanks Matt!

(*MATT says they were hazelnuts - you rock Matt!)

Soma has such slick website too ... check it out below :

Fun with Silicone Putty!

Look mom!!

I just made my own silicone putty mold!

And it was easy!

Slimy, yes but hard? NO!

First I chose this cool "jade" dragon medallion.

Then, I got out my silicone putty components (the white's the base and the pink's the catalyst) and kneaded them together.

Then I caaaarefully squished my dragon medallion into the putty and left it to set up. It takes about 20 minutes to start turning all rubbery but it was in the A/C so I left it in a hour or two longer to make sure. Check out the detail, kimosabi!

Then I poured in some dark chocolate couverature and presto! Voila! Hidden Les, Chocolate Dragon!

Signature Recipe Assignment

Here are the recipes I came up with for the assignment. A far cry from the grandiose plans I had in mind when the course started - I can't believe I got sick again!!! What's going on?! They came out pretty ok though - I also did the dark chocolate covered tambrind balls - and they were yyyyuummy!!

Assignment 5: Develop Your Signature Chocolates

Sarah Babies
ganache with passion fruit tea infused cream
Enrobed in pink chocolate drizzled with white chocolate.

Citrus Midnight
fudge – orange flavoured angostura bitters
Enrobed in dark chocolate and drizzled with white chocolate

Gold Fire
Cinnamon flavoured fondant –tinted yellow
Piped into dark chocolate shell, decorated with gold leaf*/placed cutout baby flower.

Chewy Cuties
Soft caramel
Piped into dark chocolate shells – cavities first drizzled with pink chocolate.

Crunchy Lauries
Croquant – sliced almond
Enrobed in milk chocolate decorates with white mittens!

Recipes
Sarah Babies
Addition to Master Luxurious Truffle recipe:
After scalding, add two passion fruit tea bags and immediately removing from heat. Use a large spoon to keep the bags submerged if necessary. Allow to cool for 30 minutes.
I was inspired to use pink chocolate because it was in my mind from the beginning of the course to make the cutest pink bonbon for my baby cousin Sarah because really cute – and pink! That lead me to use the passion fruit tea as I was going for a subtle flavour to go into a delicate bonbon

Citrus Midnight
Changes to Master Fudge Recipe:
· 6 0z bitter sweet chocolate called for in master recipe is replaced by 3 oz Hershey’s semisweet baking bar, 1 ½ oz Valrhona Alpaco and 1 ½ oz Valrhona Abinao.
· Substitute 5 ml of vanilla with 5 ml of Angostura Bitters Orange. Yummy!

I used dark chocolate here because I just love how it goes with orange and the bitters just brings out the decadence of the dark chocolate. I just couldn’t imagine using anything else.

Gold Fire
Fondant recipe from about.com : candy
(For 2 cups of granulated sugar, 1/2 cup water, and 2 tbsp corn syrup)
Work in 5 ml of Goldschlager cinnamon schnapps during kneading. Tint with 5 drops of yellow food colouring.
I used dark chocolate here because I thought white or milk would have detracted from the kaboom effect of the cinnamon schnapps. Also I thought the gold leaf would have been particularly striking against the dark chocolate – now if only I could catch one of those rascally gold flakes!
Important note: Do not allow helpers (especially moms) to get into the schnapps as they will be completely useless afterwards.

Chewy Cuties
Master Caramel recipe for soft caramel centre. Unflavoured.
My reasoning for using dark chocolate again is twofold:
1. Caramel is soooooo sweet! Milk and white would have distracting/overkill.
2. Dark chocolate is just awesome! I don’t know if there’s anything more alluring (and uber-luxurious-looking) than caramel oozing out of a dark shell after biting into it! Is there anything dark chocolate can’t do? I thought not – but then I tried to make croquant…

Crunchy Lauries
Master Croquant recipe using almond slices- rolling as thin and flat as possible.
I used milk chocolate after deciding that the dark chocolate was competing with the caramelized sugar. Upon reflection I’m thinking that my decision to use milk chocolate stems from my relative disdain for brittle-esque formulations – we mostly only see brittle sold by street vendors. But then again it might also be saying something about the level of success with my croquant! If that’s the case I might revise my choice of coating in the future as my technique improves.
Note: This recipe was so named for my cousin Lauren who ate most of my croquant when I wasn’t looking. (Hi Looenne!)

Let's go Tobago!

Here's a big ole tourism magazine about Tobago I found for your reading pleasure.

I think Duane Dove is back in town - I hope we can check out the plantation soon - and I hope they're still doing tours!

And here's a cute lil' soca baby! You can't see it too well but this is cousin Leigh's baby, Ava, wearing her T & T Soca Baby top from her favourite auntie Les!

Oh well, one cutie-petutie picture deserves another!

Look at those little lips!