I’m pleased to announce that it’s Matcha Chocolat’s 2nd year anniversary!! I’ve been really looking forward to this day and to saying a big ‘thank you’ for supporting my work with Matcha Chocolat over these last two years. Every order that’s come through has made a difference to keeping my fledgling artisan chocolate business up and going, and growing! I’ve loved the feedback and enthusiasm that people have shared with me about Matcha Chocolat and I look forward to hearing your thoughts about Matcha Chocolat’s future releases.

The Highlights

As you might imagine there’s been a few of highlights across these first two years. Winning 8 Great Taste Awards, making chocolates with the Botanical Baker, and reading reviews of Matcha Chocolat posted by some of the UK’s top bloggers all stand out. With that in mind a special ‘thank you’ to Chocablog, Chocolate Reviews, and Mostly About Chocolate for covering so many of Matcha Chocolat’s selection boxes over the last two years.

New Chocolates and a Few Competitions to Enter!

In addition to saying thanks I wanted to share with you some updates I’ve made, such as new chocolates, and let you know about two competitions going on in celebration of Matcha Chocolat’s anniversary. Firstly all the photography of the individual chocolates has been redone on our Chocolate Guide (hope you like!) and there are new flavours such as Matcha & Pistachio, Yuzu, Lavender & Vanilla and many more. Secondly, there are two competitions in honor of Matcha Chocolat’s 2nd year anniversary. I am giving away a box of my award winning Masala Chai Caramels at Matcha Chocolat’s Facebook page. To enter just follow the link here, and enter your details to win. Good Luck!

And lastly, the lovely Kavey of Kavey Eats is hosting a competition, in conjunction with her review of my Mixed Selection. Kavey’s post also contains an interview with me about my first two years of running Matcha Chocolat. So if you want to learn more about what it’s been like then visit her site, leave a comment, and enter for the chance to win a Mixed Selection too!

Looking forward to seeing what the next year brings,
Katie

Our Award Winners Selection showcases an assortment of Matcha Chocolat’s fresh chocolates that have picked up accolades from both the Great Taste Awards and from the Academy of Chocolate.

And the Dark Chocolate Selection which offers an assortment of our ever expanding selection of dark chocolates.

Chestnut & Japanese Whiskey – a rich dark chocolate centre with chestnut puree and Yamazaki 10 yr single malt whiskey.

Vanilla Sea Salt Caramel – a gold swirled dome of dark chocolate blended a lightly salted, muscadavo caramel centre infused with Tahitian vanilla.

Rum, Orange & Honey – a milk chocolate ganache blended with rum, orange zest and honey. Dipped in milk chocolate and topped with a of candied citrus peel.

We’ve also given a new look to two of our award winning chocolates.

Matcha Chocolat has been presented with a two Gold Star award for its Rosemary, Raisin & Walnut chocolate and 5 one Gold Star awards for its Pink Grapefruit, Cardamom & Banana, Jasmine Pearls, Masala Chai Caramel and Vietnamese Cinnamon chocolates; making Matcha Chocolat the most awarded chocolatier within the combined chocolate categories of truffles and filled chocolates for the 2011 GTA!!

So here are the new award winners to tempt your taste buds this summer.

JASMINE SILVER NEEDLES

Description

Jasmine Silver Needles – Two star Great Taste Award winning chocolate comprised of a white chocolate dome of white chocolate ganache infused with Jasmine tea- one of the most well known Chinese teas. Each box contains four giant Jasmine Silver Needles chocolates in a Matcha Chocolat branded box.

Each exquisitely decorated chocolate egg is filled with a silky chocolate ganache centre flavoured with some of my favourite tastes from Japan:

Raspberry & Wasabi – dark chocolate egg filled with milk chocolate ganache blended raspberry puree and a touch of wasabi.

Matcha & Ginger – dark chocolate egg filled with dark chocolate ganache infused with matcha green tea and fresh ginger.

Sencha & Cherry Blossom – white chocolate egg filled with white chocolate ganache infused with cherry blossom scented sencha tea, blended with pieces of dried cherry.

Yuzu – dark chocolate egg filled with dark chocolate ganache blended with yuzu juice, a Japanese citrus fruit with notes of lemon and grapefruit.

I hope you find these Easter offerings intriguing and that you’ll give them a try. By doing so you’ll be helping me help Japan as 10% of all proceeds from the Easter Egg Selection will be donated to the Japan Society Tohoku Earthquake Relief Fund.

Masala Chai Salted Caramels

Whilst the benefits are obvious, getting to grips with tempering chocolate can often pose a challenge for the home chocolatier, but it really needn’t be that way! Although tempering chocolate can at first be a bit tricky, I recommend holding these two points in mind: 1) a lot can change with a just bit of practice and 2) if you provide the right circumstances you won’t be able to stop chocolate from going into temper- it’s what it naturally wants to do!

A bit about this guide

As you may have already noticed there’s a lot of information on the web about tempering chocolate. Many of the available instructions are quite brief and don’t offer much in the way of trouble shooting tips, so I here I want to provide something a bit different.

My guide has lots of background info on tempering so you can get a good understanding of how the process works. This guide also has my personal technique, which I think is a bit novel and works very well in a home kitchen. If the background on tempering is a bit too technical (mind you I use to work as a biologist) just jump to the Method and Technique sections below.

Although I do provide a lot of technical sounding info here, my tempering technique is the easiest I’ve come by. It’s also been tested by fellow bloggers, and you can even check out a testimonial from the Cityhippyfarmgirl blog.

I. So onto the background on tempering chocolate…

Tempering chocolate, perhaps more accurately referred to as the process of “precrystallising” chocolate, usually rears its head as one of the initial hurdles when you’re first learning how to make handmade chocolates. So let’s start off with a brief background on what tempering is all about.

Cocoa butter is the reason why chocolate needs to be tempered. Cocoa butter is a polymorphic vegetable fat, with the ability to form a variety of different crystalline structures (i.e. six varieties), and only one form of cocoa butter crystal, the Form V or beta structure, will result in chocolate possessing the desired properties. Tempered chocolate has gloss, snap, is solid at room temperature, and has a smooth mouth-feel. Whilst untempered chocolate lacks sheen, is blotchy in appearance, does not dry easily at room temp, and has an unpleasant grainy texture- to name but a few of the unpleasantries.

Moulded Chocolate Domes

Temperature- the word “tempering” stems from the crucial role that temperature plays in inducing the formation of cocoa butter crystals. Temperature plays three important roles, briefly these are: i) the initial melting of the chocolate uses heat to remove the existing cocoa butter crystals from the chocolate, ii) lowering the temperature then encourages the formation of coco butter crystals (types III, IV, and V) and, iii) rising the temperature just slightly melts out unwanted coco butter crystal varieties so that only the desired Form V remains.

Agitation- simply put, it encourages the formation and even distribution of many small cocoa butter crystals throughout the chocolate.

Time- lastly time allows the process of crystallisation to unfold. The correct temperature, or series of temperature changes that chocolate goes through in the precrystallisation process does not necessarily ensure the chocolate will be properly tempered. Time is required to melt out all the unstable crystals and time is also needed to form the crystals at the correct temperature. The appropriate amount of time at each of these stages is referred to as residence time.

II. Method

There are a great variety of methods available for tempering chocolate. Some utilise professional tempering machines or artisanal tools like marble or granite slabs, whilst other methods require little expert equipment and can easily be practiced in one’s home kitchen. The seeding method, to be discussed herein, is by far the most popular technique for tempering chocolate as it is fairly simple to learn, requires little expert equipment and lends itself to producing a finished chocolate with really beautiful sheen and snap.
To summarise briefly, the seeding method involves the following steps: i) heating the chocolate to melt out the existing cocoa butter crystals; ii) adding pieces of seeding chocolate to lower the temperature and provide the seed that will introduce Form V cocoa butter crystals; and iii) gently heating the chocolate to remove any of the undesired forms of cocoa butter crystals that may have potentially developed during the process, leaving only the Form V remaining. The temperature ranges that correspond to the above steps are as follows: i) 40-45°C for heating the chocolate; ii) 27°C for cooling and inducing precrystallisation; iii) 30-32°C for melting out unwanted cocoa butter crystals. As mentioned previously each step will require not only the appropriate temperatures, but also agitation and time in order for the process to work effectively.

Once you begin to develop a familiarity for managing the triad of temperature, agitation and time, you may want to also keep an eye out for how other variables could potentially affect the precrystallisation process. Factors such as humidity, the ambient room temperature, as well as inherent properties of the chocolate you’ve have chosen to work with, such as its viscosity versus its liquidity could all potentially play a role in the outcome of the chocolate tempering process.

III. The Technique

You will need: a microwave oven, a candy thermometer (preferably a digital thermometer), kitchen scale, one large glass bowl, two large plastic bowls, a silicone spatula, possibly an immersion hand blender, and about 800 grams of chocolate (700 grams in chunks and 100 grams finely chopped).

Step I: Melting the chocolate

In this initial step we start off by melting our chocolate of choice in a glass bowl in the microwave. I don’t recommend using a bain-marie over the hob, as chocolate does not react well with water. By using a microwave you decrease the chance of water (moisture, steam and what have you) getting into your chocolate as well as keeping the overall humidity in the kitchen lower by not introducing any steam into the air. After you melt the chocolate and bring it to the correct temperature remember that it will take some time for all the cocoa butter crystals to actually melt out. This is why I recommend that you keep the chocolate at the melting temp for 5-10 minutes (see below). This is a very important step, and it is the “residence time” I mentioned above.

1. Take approximately 700 grams of chocolate that has been broken into chunks and place in a glass bowl in the microwave. Heat continuously for about 6 minutes at 50% power, then stir gently. Continue to heat the chocolate at 1-minute intervals at 50% power. As the chocolate begins to melt stir more thoroughly between each interval.
2. Allow the chocolate to rise to the temperature, which ensures the cocoa butter crystals will have been melted out, usually between 40-45°C. This temperature can sometimes vary whether you are working with white, milk, or dark chocolate. If you’ve purchased couveture grade chocolate it will usually provide you with the appropriate temperature ranges to work within.
3. Now allow the chocolate to stay at this 40-45°C range for 5-10 minutes. This step gives the chocolate the necessary time for the cocoa butter crystals to actually melt out.
4. Once the chocolate is completely melted transfer to a plastic bowl. The glass bowl acts as a retainer for heat and should not be used for the remainder of the process.
5. Set the chocolate aside for 10 minutes so that it can begin to reduce its temperature so that when the seed chocolate is added the Form V cocoa butter crystals will not be instantly melted out.

Step II: Adding the seed chocolate

In this step we introduce the seed and thereby add stable Form V cocoa butter crystals back into the chocolate. The seed chocolate also further reduces the temperature of our melted chocolate thereby helping to create the correct temperature condition for precrystallisation to take place. Use 10-15% weight of seed chocolate to the initial weight you started with.

1. Add the finely chopped seed chocolate in tablespoon quantities and stir thoroughly between each addition.
2. Continue to stir for some time in order to fully incorporate the seed into the melted chocolate. If you find that not all the seed chocolate has melted you may want to use an immersion hand blender to remove any lumps. If you include this step it should be done fairly quickly as the friction of the immersion blender will very quickly increase the temperature of entire bowl of chocolate.

Step III: Encouraging precrystallisation (this is the important bit!!)

After adding the seed you will probably find the temperature of your chocolate is somewhere around 35°C. This is nearly 10°C degrees above the temperature that is most conducive for the formation of Form V crystals, which is about 27°C. Getting the chocolate to decrease by almost 10°C degrees is usually the most challenging aspect of tempering because it is at this time the chocolate will become more viscous, which can make it quite difficult to work with.

Guidelines on tempering will often not give a lot of guidance at this stage, leaving people to try out techniques that often do anything but increase their chance of a successful temper. There are two very common suggestions that I have come across thus far for dealing with this issue and neither has worked for me.

The first is to continuously add seed chocolate until the temperature approaches 27°C. The problem here is that as the temperature drops it becomes increasingly difficult for the seed chocolate to melt. This leaves clumps of chocolate in the bowl that then need to be incorporated via the immersion blender. The use of which often increases the temperature of your chocolate so that you’re back in the place you started with chocolate that needs to significantly drop in temperature in order to arrive at about 27°C.

Note: Increasing the amount of seed chocolate beyond 15% in order to decrease the temperature of your chocolate will often lead to very viscous chocolate that needs to be heated in order to incorporate the additional seed.

The other familiar suggestion is to cool the chocolate, usually by placing it inside another container that holds cold water. I don’t recommend this either, as the end result is that the chocolate will be in a rather non-uniform state, with Form V crystals predominantly located on the edges of the bowl (often completely solidified as well), yet not in the bulk of the chocolate. When I’ve tried this technique the resulting chocolate solidified so quickly I was not able to work with it for long at all- very disappointing.

Note: Placing your chocolate in a bath of cold water will lead to a non-uniform precrystallisation wherein only the chocolate on the sides of the bowl will be in temper.

Having tried these various tricks and experienced their dismal results; it occurred to me that any solution for cooling the chocolate to 27°C would have to be done quickly and with optimal agitation. Speed would keep the chocolate from becoming too viscous and adequate agitation would lead to an even distribution of cocoa butter crystals.

The solution I came up with for both increasing the surface area and providing even agitation simply involved the use of another plastic bowl! By repeatedly pouring the chocolate from a height of about two feet between the two plastic bowls, the surface area of the chocolate was quickly increased and the temperature of the chocolate dropped in no time at all. As the chocolate flowed beautifully between the two bowls it provided even agitation so that the cocoa butter crystals were evenly distributed throughout. The tempered chocolate that resulted was not overly viscous; rather it was a real pleasure to work with and produced a great finish on my chocolates.

Note: Cooling the chocolate by increasing its surface area is also done in the artisanal technique called tabling, which utilises a large marble slab for the purpose. Using a set of plastic bowls for the purpose of cooling the chocolate whilst also providing optimal agitation is a lot less expensive, more hygienic, and well easier than working with a big, expensive marble slab!

So here are the steps:

1. Place the second plastic bowl on the counter top and pour the chocolate from a height of approximately 2 feet. Try to increase the surface area as much as possible.
2. Repeat this process 10 times, this will usually decrease the temperature by 5-7°C within say 5 to 10 minutes.
3. Using the silicon spatula, give the chocolate a good stir, whipping it from the sides and bringing it together in the centre of the bowl. Check the temperature. If you are not around 27°C yet. Repeat another 5 times- that’s usually enough.

Note: Pour the chocolate from one bowl to another in order to drop the temperature quickly. This provides continuous agitation, which leads to Form V crystals being evenly distributed throughout the chocolate. The chocolate that results from this technique will not be too viscous to work with!

The last step simply involves heating the chocolate just slightly to melt out any coco butter crystals that are unstable, primarily the Form III, and IV type crystals. By raising the temperature by just a few degrees we will leave only the Form V crystals remaining.

1. Place the bowl in the microwave and heat for 3 seconds. Check the temperature. If it has not risen to between 30-32°C apply heat in 2 second intervals.
2. Test that the chocolate is in temper by putting a small amount on the back of a teaspoon and see if it dries quickly either at room temp or in the fridge.

Further Tips

Once your chocolate is in temper you’ll find there is a window of opportunity to work with the tempered chocolate when it is in its most optimal state. After some time the tempered chocolate will develop more Form V crystals and will therefore before increasingly more viscous and quite difficult to work with. Ideally we want to increase our time in that optimal state and luckily there are few tricks you can apply to increase the amount of working time you have available. Both the following techniques will increase the liquidity of the tempered chocolate and can be used on their own or alongside one another:

• Add 100 grams melted untempered chocolate that is around 30-34°C for every 100 grams removed, or

• After sometime you can reheat the chocolate a bit. By bringing the temperature up to 33-34°C you will still keep your temper, whilst increasing the liquidity of the chocolate.

Intro

The initial post on chocolate truffles outlined the basics of truffle making, from choosing ingredients to trying out a truffle making technique. This post gives another technique for making truffles, one that highlights the versatility of the chocolate truffle. The chocolate truffle can incorporate a great variety of ingredients from fresh fruit purees to liqueurs, whilst still remaining stable enough to handle during the final finishing steps when the truffles are either enrobed in tempered chocolate or coated in a topping such as cocoa powder, nuts, or cookie crumbs.

Ingredients for Liqueur and Fruit Flavoured Chocolate Truffles

When it comes to choosing ingredients for flavouring truffles the choices are quite endless so I won’t offer a myriad of suggestions. Instead I’ll just make a quick mention concerning the quality of potential ingredients. The main choice for fruit purees is between fresh fruit versus store bought purees, whilst for liqueurs we can choose either name brand or more generic versions. My own experience with fresh fruit purees is that they’re not necessarily better than a good quality store bought one when the fruit you’re using is really out of season. If you’re intent on using fresh fruit you’re best option may be to go with what’s in season or perhaps add a little natural flavouring to a puree that turns out to be a bit weak on the palate.

With liqueurs there’s clearly a diverse range in quality between brands. If you’re a big fan of a certain liqueur you might want to indulge yourself. If not there’s generally a good range in quality so you won’t be stuck having to make the choice between an extremely pricey versus a poor quality liqueur.

Basic Cream Ganache II

Cream 60g
Liquid Flavouring 20-30g (Liqueur or fruit puree)
Chocolate 200g Dark Choc or 230g Milk or White Choc
Butter 10g
Liquid Sweetener 25g optional (Glucose, honey, etc)

Technique

1. Finely chop the chocolate and place it in a bowl.
2. Bring the cream and liquid sweetener to a boil and pour onto chopped chocolate (I prefer to heat the liquid mixture in a ramekin in the microwave).
3. Allow the hot cream to melt the chocolate for about a minute and then gently begin to stir from the middle of the bowl out towards the sides, gradually incorporating more chocolate into the ganache.
4. If the chocolate is not fully incorporated heat in the microwave for 3-second intervals, stirring well in between.
5. Gently incorporate the liquid flavouring, which should be at about 20 °C.
6. Add softened butter and incorporate into ganache thoroughly.
7. If you want to include a further natural flavouring such as a few drops of rose water, peppermint extract or spices such as cinnamon or chilli, add now.
8. Once the ganache is homogenous, pour it out onto a diner plate and place a layer of cling film on top. This is the important step, which allows the ganache to begin to crystallise and become firm quite quickly. Note: although some recipes will recommend firming the ganache in the fridge, if you do so it is likely that your ganache will not be able to hold its shape at room temperature (see more info below).
9. When the ganache is firm enough to be piped (could vary as much as between 30 mins- to 2hrs), use a pastry bag or plastic food bag and pipe the ganache into small balls on a greaseproof paper.
10. Allow the piped ganache to dry overnight or until it is firm enough to be handled without sticking to your hands.
11. Roll the ganache balls in your hands to create an even surface and either dip them in a coating such as cocoa powder or enrobe them in tempered chocolate.

Tips Summary

You may have noticed a few extra steps in the technique section. Notably I don’t recommend chilling chocolate ganache in the fridge, as the resulting ganache will have unstable fat crystals that will inhibit the ganache from having a proper firmness when at room temperature. Proper consistency of ganache is a better indicator of its workability than is its temperature or the firmness you can temporarily induce upon refrigeration. Ganache that has been chilled will also be too sticky to work with, which makes finishing your truffles in a presentable fashion quite a challenge.

By spreading the ganache out on a flat surface such as a plate you give it a chance to form stable fat crystals, which will also give it a malleable consistency. This step along with drying the resulting piped ganache overnight will increase your chance of success, making all the effort more than worth it.

These extra steps are particularly important when additional liquid flavouring is added to the recipe as we are increasing the water content and thereby altering the texture and often the density of the resulting ganache. If you are finding the ganache too soft even after drying overnight you may want to try either adding less liquid flavouring or in the case of fruit purees reducing them further to remove some water.

Further Tips & Tricks

If you don’t plan on enrobing your truffles in tempered chocolate and are finding the addition of liquid flavouring, such as liquors, are making your truffles too soft you can add some biscuit crumbs to help absorb the extra fluid. Here’s a recipe to try:

Amaretto Liquor Truffles

Chocolate 230g
Cream 60g
Amaretto Liquor 20-30g
Ground amaretti biscuits 50-70g, plus 100g ground biscuits for coating
Butter 10g
Liquid Sweetener 25g

Technique

The directions are slightly different here as the addition of cookies means the truffle mixture will be very easy to handle.

1. Finely chop the chocolate and place it in a bowl.
2. Bring the cream and liquid sweetener to a boil and pour onto chopped chocolate (I prefer to heat the liquid mixture in a ramekin in the microwave).
3. Allow the hot cream to melt the chocolate for about a minute and then gently begin to stir from the middle of the bowl out towards the sides, gradually incorporating more chocolate into the ganache.
4. If the chocolate is not fully incorporated heat in the microwave for 3 second intervals, stirring well in between.
5. Add liquor, butter and amaretti biscuit crumbs individually and stirring in between the addition of each ingredient.
6. Allow mixture to firm up, then roll in into balls and coat in remaining amaretti crumbs.

If you’re looking to start developing your chocolate making skills then truffles are a great place to start. Chocolate truffles require just a few basic techniques, are fairly easy to make and can incorporate a wide variety of additional ingredients from herbs and spices, to natural flavourings like vanilla or even tangy fruit purees. Their ease of preparation and their ability to take on a great range of diverse flavours easily makes the chocolate truffle a favourite for the a beginner and seasoned chocolatier alike.

Chocolate Truffles

The centre of a chocolate truffle can range in consistency from firm to quite soft and gooey, depending on the amount of cream added when making the truffle’s ganache centre. Generally speaking though, truffles have quite a high chocolate to cream ratio, which allows them to hold their shape if the chocolate enrobing step is skipped altogether and the truffles are merely rolled in a coating such as cocoa powder, roasted nuts, or confectioner’s sugar.

If you want to take a crack at enrobing your truffles in tempered chocolate it will certainly allow you to expand your truffle repertoire by offering opportunities for more diverse ganache formulations. By enrobing truffles a crisp and protective chocolate coating is provided that can better accommodate further additions to the ganache such as liqueurs or fruit purees, which have a tendency to slightly soften the truffle’s ganache centre.

Choosing Ingredients

Chocolate, fresh cream and butter are the essential ingredients for creating chocolate truffles. As chocolate is the primary ingredient in truffle ganache, I recommend choosing it as you would a gourmet chocolate bar, giving attention to the chocolate’s unique flavour profile- perhaps even its potential compatibility with any flavouring(s) you may have in mind as final additions to the chocolate ganache. Fresh herbs, such as lemon verbena or mint are a great accompaniment, as are homemade fruit purees, spices such as cinnamon or nutmeg, and natural flavourings like vanilla or rose water.

Along side cream and butter, liquid sweeteners also have their particular role to play in creating a balanced chocolate ganache. Generally liquid sweeteners are added in order to improve the texture of the ganache and to stabilise it as well. Although they are not often added for their taste alone, you may want to try a distinctly flavoured sweetener such as chestnut honey, pomegranate molasses, or maple syrup in order to enhance the flavour profile of your chocolate truffle. Glucose syrup or agave nectar can also be added if you don’t want the truffle’s flavour altered by the addition of a sweetener.

Basic Chocolate Truffle Recipe

Cream 90g
Chocolate 200g of Dark Choc or 230g of Milk or White Choc
Butter 10g
Liquid Sweetener 25g (Optional)

Technique

1. Finely chop the chocolate and place it in a bowl.
2. Bring the cream and liquid sweetener to a boil and pour onto chopped chocolate (I prefer to heat the mixture in a ramekin in the microwave).
3. Allow the hot cream to melt the chocolate for about a minute and then gently begin to stir from the middle of the bowl out towards the sides, gradually incorporating more chocolate into the ganache.
4. If the chocolate is not fully incorporated heat in the microwave for 3 second intervals, stirring well in between.
5. Add softened butter and incorporate into ganache thoroughly.
6. If you want to include a natural flavouring such as a few drops of rose water, peppermint extract or a spice such as cinnamon or chilli, add now.
7. Once the ganache is homogenous, pour it out onto a diner plate and place a layer of cling film on top. This is the important step, which allows the ganache to begin to crystallise and become firm quite quickly. Note: although some recipes will recommend firming the ganache in the fridge, if you do so it is likely that your ganache will not be able to hold its shape at room temperature (see more info below).
8. When the ganache is firm enough to be piped (could vary as much as between 30 mins- to 2hrs), spoon it into a pastry bag or plastic food bag and then pipe the ganache into small balls on a greaseproof paper.
9. Allow the piped ganache to dry overnight or until it is firm enough to be handled without sticking to your hands.
10. Roll the ganache balls in your hands to create an even surface and either dip them in a coating such as cocoa powder or enrobe them in tempered chocolate.

Tips Summary

Often recipes will recommend chilling chocolate ganache in the fridge in order to bring the ganache to a firm state as quick as possible. Although this will allow you to work with the ganache soon after having made it- keep in mind that the resulting ganache will tend not to be firm at room temperature. Ganache that has been chilled in the fridge will generally be too sticky to work with, which makes finishing your truffles in a presentable fashion quite a challenge.

By spreading the ganache out on a flat surface such as a plate you give it a chance to form stable fat crystals, which will also give it a malleable consistency. This step along with drying the resulting piped ganache either overnight or for a few hours will increase your chance of success, making all the effort more than worth it.

Reference: Peter P Greweling, Chocolates & Confections.

When the Spanish explorer Cortéz and his army met the Aztec Emperor Montezuma in 1519 they were greeted with the drink of ‘chocolatl,’ the Aztec term for their bitter tasting, but highly prized cocoa beverage. The chronicler Bernal Díaz who traveled with Cortéz, recorded that Montezuma “was served, in cup-shaped vessels of pure gold, a certain drink made from cacao” and that his company were also served “over two thousands jugs of cacao all frothed up…” Cortéz instantly recognized the high value the Aztec’s attributed to cocoa, which was considered by the Aztecs to be a gift from the God Quetzalcóatl. His chronicler, Díaz, made a detailed record of the extent to which cocoa was integrated into Aztec society, where it was uses ranged from the culinary arts to a popular form of currency. Nonetheless upon the Spanish army’s conquest of the Aztecs, Cortéz was indeed quite astonished to find Montezuma’s royal coffers filled with cocoa beans rather than gold or silver.

Upon his return to Spain in 1526 Cortéz brought back with him several of the Aztec’s prized cocoa beans, but it wasn’t until 1585 that the first commercial shipment of cocoa made its way for Spain. When the cocoa beans arrived in Spain already fermented and dried, they awaited the next step in their processing wherein they were ground down into a cocoa paste- a secret that was well guarded by the Spanish for nearly 100 years. However, by the 17th century new ‘chocolate houses’ (much like today’s cafés) were opening up all over England and Europe, serving up the new chocolate beverage alongside other novelties such as tea and coffee. By this time the only major alterations this ancient drink had undergone were the addition of milk, sugar, and eggs as well as spices and flavorings such as vanilla, cinnamon, anise, rosewater, and groundnuts, but that was all soon to change.

The industrial revolution increased the ease with which cocoa could be ground down by replacing time consuming hand labour with steam engine based equipment. This allowed for cocoa production to be realised on an industrial scale; yet the end result was still very much akin to the oily cocoa paste made by the Aztecs, which remained quite difficult to incorporate into liquids, such as milk or water. It is the invention of the cocoa press that not only facilitated the making of drinking chocolate, but also led the way for the development of solid eating chocolate. In 1828 the Dutch chemist Conrad Van Houten patented a means to separate cocoa butter from cocoa solids. The cocoa solids formed a powder that was not only much easier to ship and store, but easily combined with liquid since the majority of the oil had been removed, making drinking chocolate much more easy make. Meanwhile in England, Joseph Fry used the new cocoa solids in combination with a small portion of cocoa butter and sugar in order to create the very first solid chocolate bar for eating. In 1847 he launched his new invention under the title of Joseph Fry & Son, which soon became the largest producer of eating chocolate throughout the world.

The cocoa plant or Theobroma cacao, meaning ‘food of the gods’, is found in tropical climates throughout the world, but it was in South America that the cocoa plant first made the transition from wild, rain forest tree to cultivated crop. The ancient tribes of Mesoamerica are generally thought to have been the first cultures to utilise the cocoa pod, which was seen as a sacred gift from the God known as Ykchaua to the Mayans or Quetzalcóatl according to Aztec mythology. The traditional Mesoamerican methods of cocoa preparation, which are both documented by archaeological evidence and still in use today, involved separating out the various components of the cocoa pod in order to two make two very distinct types of beverage.

The Olmecs are believed to have been the first people in Mesoamerica to use the cocoa plant as a food source. By fermenting the sugary pith found in cocoa pods they created an alcoholic drink; the residues of which have been detected in Olmec drinking vessels dating all the way back to 1400 B.C.E. It is the Mayans however, that are credited with fully integrating cocoa into their culture where it had an honoured place in religion, mythology, as well as the culinary arts. Their practice of grinding cocoa beans into a paste that was then combined with vanilla, spices, chillies, and a bit of honey to make a frothy, bitter tasting beverage spread throughout South America and remained the preferred manner of consuming cocoa throughout the Mayan (300-900 C.E) Toltec (900-1200 C.E.) and Aztec periods (1300-1600 C.E.).

To be followed by:
Part VII. Cocoa Comes to Europe

The subtle nuances of flavour and aroma that are brought out through cultivation and processing set chocolate and tea on par, and easily make them prised objects of the connoisseur. Yet, despite the many parallels that can easily be drawn between tea and chocolate, their stories are indeed quite different. What really sets the story of chocolate apart is the extent to which chocolate’s evolution has taken place outside of the cocoa plant’s native land of South America.

Chocolate, in its solid form is an entirely modern adaptation to cocoa processing that was made available only in dependence upon machinery developed, principally in England and Europe, during the industrial revolution. In the 19th century when cocoa was just taking its first steps to becoming solid chocolate, tea had already reached the refinement in its production, and it had done so by the 13th century without the help of heavy machinery. Chocolate on the other hand has relied on advances in technology in order to take each step forward.

Beverages such as tea and also wine, which preceded the development of chocolate have notably helped guide it towards its currant gourmet status by setting a president regarding classification. The emphasis on how origin, climate, and methods of processing lead to distinct varieties of flavour and aroma is seen as taking its cue from both the tea and wine traditions. In the case of chocolate the adoption of this familiar trend in categorisation has only just gained popularity during this century. Although tea may clearly be a trendsetter when it comes to the appreciation of the subtle nuances of flavour and aroma, chocolate or rather cocoa has an equally honoured and ancient history in its homeland where it too has been the subject of many myths and legends.

To be followed by:
Part VI. The Ancient Mesoamericans and the Food of the Gods
Part VII. Cocoa Comes to Europe

By at least the 3rd century C.E. tea culture began taking root beyond China’s borders, first in Mongolia and Tibet, then centuries later expanding throughout all of Asia, much of Africa and the West. When brick tea found its way to the snow covered, mountainous lands of its Mongolian and Tibetan neighbours it quickly became a welcomed addition to the nomadic herders’ diet, where it often served as the only form of vegetal sustenance. The emphasis on tea’s medicinal and nutritive qualities that was present during the beginning phases of Chinese tea culture seemed in tune with the needs of it is first importers. Yet, by the time tea was introduced to Japan during the 6th century C.E. it had been through several permutations that yielded a much more varied and complex tea culture, which was enthusiastically adopted by the Japanese. Brick tea and also a form of powdered tea now familiarly known as ‘matcha’ were introduced along with other aspects of Chinese tea culture, ranging from tea making paraphernalia to specific codes of behaviour for tea drinking that culminated in the art of tea ceremony.

During the Song Dynasty (10th-13th C.E.) the export of tea from China expanded along the famous Southern Silk Road, or Ancient Tea Route to the rest of Asia, reaching westwards all the way to Africa. The smooth running of trade and bartering methods allowed the Ancient Tea Route to continue to operate even as empires changed hands; yet this was all to change during the 16th century. The Ottoman Empire’s control over much of Asia and the Silk Road, led to a European dependence upon maritime trade that spawned the European “Age of Exploration”. European and English monarchies began to compete for the fastest route to China and for dominance over the burgeoning trade of tea. Unfortunately these new explorers came with guns and missionaries rather than money purses and often preferred plundering to trade. The relationship between China and the West did not get off to a particularly good start, nor after centuries did the situation improve to any significant extent. Nonetheless trade continued as both parties agreed that there was much to be gained economically.

Not surprisingly entrepreneurs from the Western maritime powers- Spain, Portugal, Holland, and England- were determined to learn the secrets of tea cultivation so that greater control could be gained over the tea trade. Yet, learning the secrets of tea proved a challenging enterprise, as China did not permit its people to share information on tea. Eventually though reconnaissance missions sent to China were able to gather a sufficient amount of information and a few tea seeds so that the first tea plantations could be attempted. By the 19th century plantations across a host of counties, notably India and Sri Lanka were producing tea of acceptable quality. Soon after tea culture became accessible to people of all social backgrounds and tea went onto become the national drink in England and many European countries alike.

To be followed by:
Part V. Chocolate’s Evolution from Bean to Bar
Part VI. The Ancient Mesoamericans and the Food of the Gods
Part VII. Cocoa Comes to Europe

This Saturday I had the pleasure of attending an all day course with tea specialists Jane Pettigrew and Tim Clifton at the Chesterfield Mayfair Hotel, London. They refer to the course as a Tea Masterclass, and it’s a day packed full of tea tasting and learning all about tea, not to mention a lovely lunch and cream tea arranged by the Chesterfied.

The Day

A cup of a seven-year aged puerh tea and a welcoming introduction to Jane, Tim, and the rest of the course attendants served as the start for the days Masterclass, which only proceeded to get better from there on in. The atmosphere was just right. The day was relaxed, informal and full of question-answer dialogue. Yet, also very well coordinated, which saw us moving effortlessly from a series of presentations on tea, to tea tastings and back again.

The opening talk given by Jane charted the history of tea from its founding father and China’s first herbalist- Shen Nong, to tea’s journey around the globe, which has seen tea enthusiastically adopted throughout the world. Jane covered many topics from brewing tea to its health benefits, with a good amount of emphasis on tea processing. The role of oxidation in the development of all the different tea types, from white and green tea to black, oolong and puerh tea was well presented and very informative.

Tim Clifton, tea taster and consultant, told us all about the manufacture of black tea from plucking the leaves to their processing at the factory, which culminates at the auction house, where tea is sold. Tim spent five or so years training as a tea taster in Sri Lanka and his talks were packed full of anecdotes and behind the scenes stories from the world of tea.

Interspersed throughout the informal presentations was tea of course! We started out with a variety of black teas: a Darjeeling, Assam, Assam CTC, Ceylon Uva, Kenya, and a Chinese Yunnan. Then onto white and green teas: a Silver Needle, Dragon Well, Sencha, followed by a yellow tea, simply called Yellow Buds. Last were oolongs and another puerh tea. The oolongs were probably the highlight of the tasting sessions for me. We had a Taiwanese oolong that was just so full of floral notes and honeyed undertones, it was heaven!

The Highlights

What came through from Jane and Tim was their passion for tea. They’ve both been on quite a few adventures, which has seen them literally out in the middle of nowhere in pursuit of learning more about tea and the people who make it. They had loads of photos from their travels and it was just amazing to see the range of conditions that tea is made in- from large plantations and factories, to home kitchens! One really got a sense of the extent to which tea is integrated into the lives of the people who have been cultivating it for centuries and seeing this was by far the highlight for me.

All in all it was a great day. A lot of the information that Jane and Tim covered can be found in Jane’s book “Tea Classified”, which is given out at the end of the course. So I was able to just sit back, relax and enjoy the stories from their travels, their enthusiasm for tea culture, as well as the very well selected teas.

Tea plants originated across Asia in northeastern India, southern China, northern Laos, Myanmar, and Thailand, but it was in China that tea culture was initially developed, popularised, and later exported throughout the world. In China the beginnings of tea were medicinal and its initial cultivators were Taoist monks who created the first prototype of the tea plantation on the grounds of their monastic complexes. Tea for the Taoist monks was an alchemical agent to be used in their spiritual quest for immortality as well as a medicine to be distributed to the local communities surrounding their monasteries. In the famous classical Taoist text, the Tao-te ching, the Chinese philosopher Lao-Tzu (ca. 6th B.C.E.) famously credits tea as the “froth of the liquid jade” an “elixir of life”, which came to epitomise the Taoist sentiment towards tea.

During the Common Era tea begins its transformation in earnest from medicinal usage to prised beverage. By the end of the 3rd century C.E. tea had already become China’s staple beverage and the author Zhang Li had composed the very first treaties on the manufacture of tea. It was during the T’ang Dynasty (618-907 C.E.), however that tea culture reached its peak. The classic quote, “I care not a jot for immortal life, but only for the taste of tea,” from Lu T’ung, tea’s greatest poet, epitomises the change that took place regarding tea’s prominence in Chinese culture during this time. It is also during the later end of the T’ang period (8th C.E.) that the author Lu Yü composed a comprehensive treatise on tea, entitled Cha Chang (The Book of Tea), which gave detailed attention to tea’s origins, processing, and varieties.

By the 8th C.E. tea had completed one length of its journey within China starting from its humble beginnings as a medicinal, wild herb and arriving at its honoured place as China’s prized and staple beverage. This transition from medicine to beverage naturally ran parallel with a series of changes in its production seen by way of the increasing care and attention that was given to leaf preparation. Simple brick tea comprised of steamed and compressed tealeaves, which was the preferred form of tea all the way up to the 10th century C.E., eventually gave way to a new tradition of tea processing which yielded a loose-leaf tea more able to preserve the delicate flavours and aromas of the tea plant. By the 13th century C.E. the transformation from brick to a loose leaf form, had at last brought tea production to the level of technique that is still in use today.

To be followed by:
Part IV. Tea Culture Beyond China’s Borders
Part V. Chocolate’s Evolution from Bean to Bar
Part VI. The Ancient Mesoamericans and the Food of the Gods
Part VII. Cocoa Comes to Europe

Deities, Emperors, revered Buddhist monks, and wise men in search of the Tao, have all in their turn, taken centre stage in the colourful legends surrounding the first cup of tea. The significance of tea within Asian cultures is clearly indicated by both the number of legends surrounding its inception as well as the prominence of the characters found within. In perhaps the most well known tale, the Chinese emperor, naturalist and scholar Shen Nong is said to have initiated the tea tradition after a few leaves from a nearby tea bush accidentally blew into his drinking water. Shen Nong, found the new drink’s bitter yet soothing taste so irresistible that he instructed all of his people to drink in the wonders of the beverage.

The year is said to be 2732 B.C.E in this legend and although the date is curiously marked with precision the exact time at which usage of the tea plant is thought to have begun cannot be claimed with such certainty. Accepted estimates set the usage of tea at about the 11th century B.C.E. with it making the transition from wild herb to a cultivated agricultural crop in the late 3rd century B.C.E.

Although the tea plant had been cultivated for centuries its initial usage was not as we know it today. The first cultivated plants were mostly likely used either medicinally or as food, when pickled with oil and salt, only later after many transformations in its processing did it become the beverage we know today as tea.

To be followed by:
Part III. Tea’s Transformation from ‘Elixir of life’ to Asia’s Staple Beverage
Part IV. Tea Culture Beyond China’s Borders
Part V. Chocolate’s Evolution from Bean to Bar
Part VI. The Ancient Mesoamericans and the Food of the Gods
Part VII. Cocoa Comes to Europe

Introduction

When I started working with tea and chocolate their sheer breadth and diversity of flavour was most definitely my first love. The enticing descriptions used to explain their taste and aroma often intimated far off, exotic places where jasmine flowers would be harvested an masse in the night to perfume freshly harvested tea leaves.

I wanted to share this by putting together a series of posts that would show how amazing the history and traditions surrounding tea and chocolate are. I hope it will give you some ideas to do something new in the kitchen too.
~Katie

Legends, History and the Making of Tea and Chocolate

Tea and chocolate are increasingly drawing attention for their diversity of flavour and aroma. The care and attention that is given to the cultivation and processing of tealeaf and cocoa bean serves as the defining characteristic that sets tea and chocolate on par. It lends them their diverse flavour profiles and is the likely reason for the recognition of their complementariness. Though tea and chocolate are just in the infancy of their happy association, their individual stories since ancient times have in fact run parallel in many ways. Thus the world of flavour and aroma that tea and chocolate evoke only begins to point towards their many similarities.

Over the course of centuries tea and cocoa have played a wide variety of roles within the cultures that have taken up their production, which has seen them used in religious ceremonies, as forms of medicine, prized beverages for the elite and even as forms of currency. Not only do tea and cocoa share similar accounts regarding their ancient histories, the same can be said of their initial, turbulent meeting with the West and their later rise to mass production and consumption. Perhaps not surprisingly, today we see many of the same ethical issues surrounding the production of both tea and chocolate.

Despite the many connections that can be drawn regarding their ancient and modern history and how they are today prized for the diversity and subtlety of their flavours; tea and cocoa clearly originate from two very different plants that have their own unique story to tell- one that can perhaps help us to appreciate their more recent and fortuitous association.

To be followed by:
Part II. Tea and its Myths and Legends
Part III. Tea’s Transformation from ‘Elixir of life’ to Asia’s Staple Beverage
Part IV. Tea Culture Beyond China’s Borders
Part V. Chocolate’s Evolution from Bean to Bar
Part VI. The Ancient Mesoamericans and the Food of the Gods
Part VII. Cocoa Comes to Europe

The precise origin where cocoa plants are grown has of late attracted a great deal of attention for the role it plays in determining a chocolate’s flavour and aroma. The popularity in the association between single origin and flavour profile seems to be on the increase; yet it is still widely held that a chocolate’s flavour is best determined by the care and attention given to the methods of processing undergone by a crop of cocoa beans rather than the precise local in which they are grown.

The bean to bar process consists of many steps in which the simple, inedible cocoa bean is transformed into a chocolate bar of full flavour and smooth, silky texture. Though the cocoa bean clearly undergoes many alterations to its form, there are several points along the journey from bean to bar that stand out for the crucial role they play in determining a chocolates final flavour and aroma. These key steps, which are considered the art of chocolate making, are: fermentation, drying, and roasting.

Fermentation

Fermentation initiates a series of chemical changes within the cocoa beans, which sets the stage for the development of chocolates’ many flavour nuances. Upon harvesting the cocoa pods, both the cocoa beans and the sugary pith that surrounds them are removed and are either placed into shallow wooden bins or on top of banana leaves on the forest ground to create fermentation heaps. The cocoa pod’s sugary pith then begins to ferment as bacteria break down the sugars into alcohol and then acetic acid. The creation of acetic acid ruptures the cell walls of the cocoa bean, which kills the cocoa bean and allows for the mixing of previously separated enzymes. The chemical reactions created by the fermentation process create a range of flavours from classic nutty and chocolate flavours to subtle nuances of fruit, herbs, and the like.

Drying

The formation of flavours that were initiated during fermentation is furthered during the drying process. In ideal conditions the fermented cocoa beans are laid out on wooden decks to dry naturally in the sun. Though, alternatively they are often placed in artificial cocoa dryers powered by gas or wood fires. During the drying process, which takes several days, water evaporates as well as the bulk of the acetic acid that formed during fermentation, which reduces the acidic taste of the cocoa bean. Once the drying process is completed the beans are then ready to be sorted, graded, and sent out to chocolate manufacturers throughout the world.

Roasting

The roasting of the cocoa bean is the first, crucial step in flavour development to occur at the factory. During the roasting process changes continue to occur in the cocoa bean’s chemical profile, which will alter the flavours found in the resulting chocolate. Specific styles of roasting have been adopted by chocolate manufactures in order to draw out the distinct effects that roasting has on flavour. Generally a longer roasting period at low temperatures is associated with enhancing fruity, floral and herbaceous flavours, whilst a short roasting time at high temperatures produces a stronger chocolate flavour that is less likely to be accompanied by as many varied flavour nuances.

The Final Steps

After roasting the cocoa beans go through a series of steps wherein they are ground down into cocoa liquor (a suspension of cocoa solids in cocoa butter) that when combined with varying amounts of cocoa butter creates the three different types of chocolate:

• Dark chocolate: sugar, cocoa butter, cocoa liquor, and occasionally vanilla;
• Milk chocolate: sugar, cocoa butter, cocoa liquor, milk or milk powder, and vanilla;
• White chocolate: sugar, cocoa butter, milk or milk powder, and vanilla.

After the addition of the above ingredients, which determine a chocolates type it is further refined and smoothed in a processed called conching, which also removes remaining acidity from the chocolate and thus further develops the chocolate’s flavour. In the final steps chocolate is tempered, a process whereby the cocoa butter crystals obtain a desired and uniform state, that upon moulding gives the finished chocolate its desired crisp bite, beautiful sheen and gloss.

This past week the web’s been awash with reviews on Nestle’s latest green tea sweetie- The Sakura Matcha Kit Kat. And though I wouldn’t say I’m much of a fan of candy bars- all the buzz around green tea Kit Kats has got me a bit curious… Turns out there are plenty of people crazy for these goofy Kit Kats- the proof being the shear number of blogs I was able to find that are dedicated entirely to these peculiar Nestle delights.

Anyhow, Jen Ken’s Kit Kat Blog, created by an American teaching English in Japan, says of the Sakura Matcha Kit Kat: “The chocolate itself is green tea flavored and is very similar if not the same as the special edition from Kyoto… What makes this one different is the addition of the sakura flavor in the creme. It is very definitely a fake cherry [flavour and] it reminded me of the berries in Cap’n Crunch.” Yum?

So for those who long for a Sakura Matcha Kit Kat, or perhaps to honour the passing of another wonderous bloom of cherry blossoms in Japan, I made a Sakura Matcha Verinne – a cherry puree with layers of cherry yogurt mousse and matcha mousse.

Sakura Matcha Verinnes: Recipe

Cherry Puree

1 tsp powdered gelatin
1 tbsp cold water
100 g cherries or cherry compote (I used Bonne Maman Cherry compote)
2 tbsp sugar

Puree the cherries or cherry compote in a blender or food processor. Sprinkle gelatin over cold water and set aside. Combine cherry puree and sugar and heat gently on the hob. Add gelatin mixture and dissolve. Divide cherry puree across dessert dishes. Allow to cool. Once the cherry compote is cool and has begun to set you can start making the cherry mousse.

Cherry Yogurt Mousse

150g Cherry Yogurt
150g Whipping Cream
3g Gelatin
2 tbsp water

Dissolve the gelatin in the water and set aside for 5 minutes. Microwave the gelatin together with water for about 10 seconds. Pour the melted gelatin onto the yogurt mixture and combine.

Gently whip cream into very soft peaks and then fold into cherry yogurt mixture. Place a layer on top of cherry compote once the compote has begun to set.

Matcha Mousse

150g Whipping Cream
70g White Chocolate
1 tsp Matcha or to taste

Gently whip cream into very soft peaks. Melt white chocolate and blend in the matcha. Fold matcha-white-chocolate mixture into the whipped cream and layer onto the cherry mousse. Chill.