The first time I ever really tasted chocolate, it was from a man I’d met in a dark alley. Actually, it wasn’t really a dark alley, but in a barren parking lot in a scruffy section of San Francisco. I had taken a tour of an industrial bakery with a group of local baking enthusiasts, and afterward, a strange man sided up to me, pulled…
It seems like there’s a wave of macaron questions that are sweeping my way. Unlike les brownies or le gâteau weekend (poundcake), successful macarons are more the result of the technique, rather than following a mere recipe. There’s lots of tips and tricks around the web that will help you out with these little devils, including some interesting recipes, too. You can find my chocolate…
Yet another friend is moving back to the states (woosies!) and she had a going away party last night on one of the bridges over the Seine. Since I’d stashed a few clandestine bags of marshmallows, which were getting a little long in the tooth, I thought it time to use ’em or lose ’em. In fact, they were a prominent staple on my Too…
Earlier this year I was sent some of the new chocolates from Valrhona to play around with. While I made quick work of the rest of them, one stood out in particular: Xocopili, smooth balls of chocolate flavored with a myriad of spices, including a heavy dose of cumin. Frédéric Bau, a professor and head chocolatier at the fantastic Ecole de Grand Chocolat Valrhona, developed…
Of course, I picked the hottest day of the summer to make popsicles. After the success of my Vietnamese coffee popsicles, I thought it’d be fun to try something dipped in chocolate. In retrospect, am I insane? Our summer in Paris has been uneven; some cool days, and a few nice warm ones. Unfortunately the day I decided to make chocolate-dipped popsicles was the one…
Rochoux’s caramel-filled chocolate bar. At the shop, they advise you that after you’ve started it, to store it upright to prevent the caramel from running out. That is, of course, is based on the assumption that there’s going to be any left over in the first place. John-Charles Rochoux 16, rue d’Assas (6th) Tél: 01 42 84 29 45 (Map) Related link: John-Charles Rochoux; Parisian…
A while back it was cannelés. Those little eggy pastries baked with a cracky-crust, that everyone was going ga-ga over and just had to bring home the copper molds to make. (Hands up, folks. How many of you have ever used them?) Then everyone moved on to macarons, dainty little “sandwiches”, made from two crispy almond meringues, with a layer of buttercream or jam in…
Living in Paris, it isn’t always very interesting watching television, which I sometimes like to do during dinner. Sure there’s some great French channels, but I’m kinda lazy when I’m eating and prefer the English-language ones, which usually means CNN International. So I often find myself flipping through cookbooks while I dine, glazing over the text and scanning the glossy photos. But when I came…
My search for the perfect, most luscious and intense chocolate mousse brought me right back from France, to America, to Julia Child’s recipe. Although I have a few other chocolate mousse recipes in my repertoire, her recipe is a classic and has that perfect slightly sticky texture, that sticks to your tastebuds, then hits you with a wallop of pure dark chocolate flavor. This recipe requires a bit of whipping….
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