The Mast Brothers have brought artisan chocolate into even bigger headlines. This time I suspect they’re less pleased about the coverage.

“Why did anyone ever pay $10 for a chocolate bar?”

So asked Dave Bry on the Guardian website.

A. Because they realised that paying $2/bar means that some in the supply chain – most likely the farmers – aren’t being paid enough and they hoped/were led to believe that the higher price meant that the farmers were being paid more. Or they wanted to support a business doing things in an artisan way and employing local people.

B. Because they wanted to be perceived like the people they perceived as buying or advertising the chocolate. The power of branding.

C. Because they believed it tasted different to anything else they were able to buy for less money and liked it enough to pay $10.

All of those are pretty valid reasons. Yes, B or even C might make you a sucker – especially to those who don’t share your tastes. But almost everyone I know – including me – is guilty of “B” at some time or other. The only real concern with this is when people who really can’t afford to and don’t know any better are being encouraged to spend their money on things they don’t need at prices they shouldn’t need to pay, that just ends up lining the pockets of the already wealthy. (I’m not saying this is the case here with Mast Brothers!)

The other issue with B is that part of it is buying into a story. No one likes to find out they’ve been lied to. And what individual has time to investigate every company they’re purchasing from? Especially something that seems as inconsequential as a candy purchase.

I am thrilled for what the Mast brothers have done for drawing people’s attention to artisan chocolate and they should be applauded for that. Also for their brilliant branding, marketing and publicity. And for their values they claim to have.

It seems like they’ve got themselves in an awkward situation of tripping over lies or misquotes. They possibly never meant they were the first bean to bar makers in the US or that they invented the process themselves or even made it all themselves. It might be enthusiastic journalism.  They’re probably not lying when they say they’ve always been making “Bean-to-Bar”. The trouble is suggesting to customers that EVERYTHING is bean to bar. And if you advertise yourself as bean-to-bar the assumption is that everything you sell is, unless explicitly stated where it’s easily visible to the customer, like, on the packaging.  It’s kind of like a local strawberry grower selling artisan jam in pretty jars in delis and farmers’ markets and to cafes and restaurants with an elaborate and attractive story about the strawberries growth and the method of jam-making. But failing to mention that some of the jars are just repackaged jam from another premium manufacturer, or are a mix of homemade and the premium jam and others still are made in-house with strawberries bought frozen from a factory in Poland, not from the farm pictured on the jar. Customers have the right to feel ripped off. The advertising agency wouldn’t stand for it. They made Häagen Dazs remove the map of Denmark from their packaging because it implied to customers there was some link when there wasn’t. It doesn’t mean Häagen Dazs isn’t good, just that they shouldn’t mislead customers. Back to the jam: other jam makers (in this case, chocolate makers) can be expected to feel indignant that they’re struggling to make the quantity to meet demand by keeping their products in integrity with their claims while others are being lauded in the press for what isn’t really what it’s claimed to be.

I don’t think anyone’s judging Mast Brothers for having used couverture in the beginning, just for not being open enough that they did. We do all make mistakes. Especially in our communication. They made a statement on their website to supposedly clarify the claims against them.  But it’s still not quite clear.  It does seem slightly lame to apologise if anyone feels misled, when how could they be anything but misled if they were claiming “Bean to Bar” from the beginning but not making it clear which bars were actually bean to bar?  I have an as-yet-personally-unverified source claiming Valrhona confirmed Mast Brothers were ordering 2.1 metric tonnes a week at one stage.  I realise I might be adding to a rumour mill here but if that’s the case then the claim that it was just being used to seed or clean machines is stretched at best.  There’s a layer of shadow over their current practices still that doesn’t help their case.

I am sure Mast Brothers will continue to sell chocolate successfully, regardless of whether the fine chocolate industry thinks it’s good. If Mast Brothers success encourages more people to try new and different brands than they would have, then net net it is a good thing for the whole industry. But it’s a better industry if everyone plays fair.

To “C”: whether the taste is worth it? That’s entirely subjective. I judge a variety of chocolate awards, including the International Chocolate Awards and the Academy of Chocolate Awards, and I know the results from the collectives there would say it’s not. But I’m sure some of the individuals would – both intentionally engage a wide range of judges. And I have introduced thousands of members of the public to artisan chocolate through Chocolate Ecstasy Tours over the last ten years and the range of taste preferences is huge. I wouldn’t like to judge someone on what they love just because I don’t love it. It’s wonderful introducing people to artisan, craft chocolate, but not everyone is a convert to the taste. Everyone does leave a tour with the consciousness of what cheap chocolate costs to the growers in countries much less wealthy than ours. If you don’t like the sour notes or chalkiness and grittiness found in some artisan bars there are definitely some that you will like. Milk chocolate can be craft and artisan, too. There is a huge range. It’ll definitely cost more. But hopefully this will at least mean everyone in the supply chain is receiving their fair share. That’s the question we should (and hopefully more will) when we pay any price for a bar of chocolate.

The post The Mast Brothers’ Controversy appeared first on World Chocolate Guide.

Then I got invited onto two chocolate workshops within the space of two weeks. Thiscoincided with conversations with a dear friend looking for chocolates for her wedding. I recommended a few chocolatiers but she decided she would buy some love spoon moulds (she was marrying a Welshman) and make them herself. From my wedding last year I know that adding something that mammoth to the To Do list last minute is a guaranteed precursor of stress so in a moment of extreme empathy I volunteered to do them for her. At least I felt I had enough friends in the industry to give me some advice. The workshop invitations could not have come at a better time. I picked up tips to make it so much easier and also had a reason to practice the new skills meaning that hopefully they’re now embedded!

I was really rather proud of how the spoons turned out and received William Curley’s first book from the friend as a thank you. This is a book I have previously looked upon as containing far too many intimidating recipes to justify purchasing for myself, even though I have always recommended it for others. Now? Bring it on.

The two classes I went on were really quite different. Still I would thoroughly recommend them both. Which one depends on your objectives. Allow me to elaborate. If you’re looking for fun with some friends for a few hours and a chance to learn some introductory skills to make homemade truffles for your dinner party then the 2.5 hours at Bake with Maria will be totally enjoyable as well as useful for this.

The class is in a small but pretty industrial unit near Hampstead. After being welcomed with a homebaked treat the education begins with a tasting that’s a useful introduction to the process of chocolate being transformed from bean to bar and also different styles of chocolate including flavoured bars and a truffle or two. Then you’ll watch ganache being made and get your gloves on and transform that ganache into little balls and coat them with cocoa. There’s plenty of time to ask the sweet teacher AnnaMarie for tips. In the short class you’ll also have time to learn the basics of tempering and pour chocolate into lollipop moulds and sprinkle them with nuts and other treats. A perfect thing to learn to make teacher gifts or kids party treats.

If you think you want to go to the next level of expertise, to add to your skills as a baker, to get the edge for a kitchen-related interview or to start a home chocolate-related business then the amount you cover in a day with Cookery School at Little Portland Street is staggering. The room is large and filled with stainless steel and professional kitchen lighting, as well as mirrors and screens to make sure you can see everything (even though the class is capped at 12 so it’s not totally necessary). We also started with a cocoa and chocolate production background and tasting here, this time it was a roundup of premium brands used in professional kitchens in London as well as a few other UK-made artisan bars. My classmates here were all on an intensive eight week cookery course covering every specialism a modern chef should know, which should give you an idea of the calibre of this class.

Roz and the Portland Street Cookery School chocolate workshop

For each chocolate skill we were given the demonstration by Stephen, who is currently a chocolatier for a restaurant group making thousands of filled chocolates a week. School owner Roz gave us a demonstration of honeycomb which is the basics of a caramel with added complications so if you can master this you can master any caramel. The practise and tips in tempering made my days moulding the chocolate love spoons infinitely quicker, easier and less messy. Most exciting for me was learning how to make praline. I *love* praline and the good quality paste is pretty pricey. Now I can do it myself and it stores for ages. Simpler than I’d expected and you don’t even have to make it regularly (assuming you want to eat it regularly and, well, why wouldn’t you?).

Caramelised hazelnuts cooling to be blitzed into praline paste.

Most of what we saw being made at Portland St we then went to create ourselves including the seed tempering, piping ganache and filling and capping moulds. The best thing is that someone always made a mistake (yep, I made plenty) which meant we all learnt how to fix mistakes (or when to give up and start again!). This is invaluable when you’re actually trying to repeat the process at home. It’s no good just seeing how it looks when it all goes smoothly. What happens when you’re at home and the lumps won’t melt? And what made the honeycomb so dense? Not all of us have chocolatiers on speed dial (and because of this experience I didn’t need to hassle any of the ones on mine!).

This day of making was intersected with a most delicious lunch. The advantage of the class appearing as part of an intensive course across all disciplines means you’ll get to sit down to bread baked on site and some more gourmet dishes with top quality ingredients. We had slow cooked quail, Greek salad and spiced pumpkin soup accompanied by organic wine. Divine. Neither class comes especially cheap but they were enjoyable and both taught by chefs with years of experience so if you think you’re going to use the skills again they actually very good value. And you get to take home a whole load of chocolates! Which at the prices charged in most of the London boutiques it practically pays for the class (and makes you realise, if you didn’t already, why these chocolates aren’t – and shouldn’t be – cheaper!). In my next Chocolate Ecstasy newsletter sent out this week I’ll be sharing 10% discount codes for both so if you do want to book it’ll be even better value! To sign up fill in your details on this page: http://chocolateecstasytours.com/news.

The post A tale of two chocolate workshops appeared first on World Chocolate Guide.

Bertil Akesson and his team member, Maria, accepting Gold Academy of Chocolate Awards from host Nigel Barden.

The very first cocoa plantation I went specifically to visit belonged to Bertil Akesson Senior, at one time a Swedish diplomat who had come to base himself in Madagascar. The plantation was on the very Northern tip of the main island of Madagascar.

Along with two fellow cocoa-fiends from Sweden, I flew from the capital, Antanarivo (Tana), in a very small and disturbingly worn-looking plane to Nosy Be, the island just off the tip of the mainland. We checked into a hostel and wandered into the village, stumbling across an-almost empty bar built into the cliffs with views across the sea.  We ordered a drink and, as we chatted, the locals arrived, then the DJ, then the disco lights.  An entertaining evening.  Sore heads were comforted by hearty breakfasts and terrible coffee in the morning; we headed to the port to haggle a ride on a motorboat back to the main island to our accommodation closer to the cocoa plantations.

Several uncomfortable hours later, the boat pulled up at some stone steps falling into the water that led up a slope into trees where we could just see glimpses of the roof of an old, colonial style farmhouse.  We unloaded our packs and our selves, hiked up to the house and settled into the furniture on the wide verandah that encircled the house.  We drank very welcome cold juice. Quickly followed by cold beers and a swim at the private jetty.

Our beds for the night were in individual cabins away from the main house.  After seeing the guards patrolling with guns and being warned to stay alert for snakes and spiders, the Swedish girl and I decided to camp in together.  There was no electricity after 9pm and I still remember how suffocating the heat felt as I lay under the patchy mosquito net of my hard, single bed. Not quite the island paradise I’d imagined.

Daylight came slowly after a fitful sleep that had me jolting at every snap of a twig as the guards made their rounds and each time an insect buzzed too close to my ear.  A cold shower brought my wakefulness to “almost” and we went for breakfast in the main house.

We were picked up by the farm manager in his 4X4 to traverse the local roads to reach the plantations.  Even holding tightly to the inside of the car our heads kept hitting the ceiling with each pothole – and there were many.  We were dressed in long trousers and long-sleeved shirts to discourage the mosquitoes.  The trade off was sweltering in the heavy, thick heat of the forest.  Our guide was South African and knew the plantations inside out.  He shared with us their strategies for getting higher yields from the crop and how a single tree could produce pods of more than one variety.  We saw seedlings being pruned and learnt how it was only at this size that the trees needed shade from the canopy, once the trees were able to produce fruit (from 2-3 years) direct sunlight wasn’t a concern.

Checking out fresh cocoa pods for the first time, in Madagascar, 2010.

The potholed roads, the haggling, the guns, some harassment, the pervasive poverty - especially in the dirt roads that made up most of the capital city – plus the limited electricity all surprised me.  All I’d known of Madagascar previously was stories of beautiful flora and fauna and bright blue skies.  We saw this too, but the state of the country in 2010 made it one of the more unsettling locations I’ve visited.  It was worth it for my first sight of cocoa growing. To taste the sweet sourness of the pulp that clings to the seeds. To spot the vanilla plants wrapped around the trees, their flowers mixing with the cocoa flowers into an intoxicating, heady scent. To meet many smiling locals and watch kids kick a football in the dust and on the grass, the adults gathered around a TV to watch the game played in another country. To see whole communities getting involved in a harvest.  I’d still love to return one day.

The plantations I visited now belong to Bertil Akesson Junior who harvests the cocoa, pepper and vanilla and, with the help of a French chocolate maker, transforms them into award-winning bars.  Last October he opened a small store in Notting Hill, on Blenheim Crescent.  More than 20 varieties of pepper, his full range of bars plus bars made by others from his cocoa beans and a selection of sugars and other cocoa products line the drawers and shelves of beautiful wooden furniture, and sacks of beans lean artfully against the window.  It features on the Notting Hill Coffee & Chocolate Tour and wins over more people to 100% chocolate than any other sugarless bar is capable of doing.  What really impresses guests is the 75% Madagascan bar though.  Proving that the Academy really are recognising and awarding chocolate that most chocolate lovers will appreciate.

The Golden Bean for bean to bar maker is the Academy of Chocolate’s highest honour.  Actually a golden painted wooden cocoa pod, the trophy represents the best in class for artisan chocolate produced anywhere in the world. Akesson’s 75% Criollo Madagascan Chocolate scored more highly than any other dark bean to bar chocolate.  It is sensational.  This year for the first time the Academy required that all chocolate samples were sent in identical 5g moulded bars to ensure true blind sampling with no identifying marks.  No matter how subjective we like to think of ourselves as judges it is impossible to not let our unconscious associations interfere so this is an excellent progression for the awards (though, of course, might limit the entrants willing or able to enter).

There were also two further “Golden Beans” given out: to Chika Watanabe for Best Newcomer and to World Chocolate Guide’s very own Dom Ramsey, who has moved from writing about chocolate to creating it.  He was awarded “One to Watch” after his first two bars won Bronze awards in their category.

Other Gold Award winners included:

Rococo - who took a swathe of awards for their plain dark ganaches and caramels

Ben Le Prevost – Best Filled Chocolate – Fruit category for Raspberry, Lime & Chilli

Berries Luxury Pudding Makers & Confectioners - Raspberry & Rose Jelly Heart; and Blackcurrant Caramel Dome

Demarquette Fine Chocolates - Imperial China chocolate

Chococo - Totally Twisted Nose (gin and watercress)

Hotel Chocolat – Single Malt Cardhu Whisky filled chocolate; Salted Caramel hot chocolate

Benjamin Chocolatier - Palm Blossom Caramel

Chika Watanabe - Tajine Apricot filled chocolate; Yuzu Mint Caramel

Coworth Park Hotel - Muscavodo & Ginger Caramel

Selfridges - Hebridean Honey and Sea Salted Caramel

Winchester Cocoa Company - Ginger and Muscovado Caramel

Yauatcha - Raspberry Rose chocolate

Kokoa Collection – Best Unflavoured Drinking Chocolate – Dark Haiti 75% Hot Chocolate.

Past winners who didn’t submit this year included Amedei, Paul a Young and William Curley, in case you noticed their absence.  Some of them participated in the judging, instead.  There were also other great chocolatiers and chocolate makers who were not judged as part of this competition because submission is via companies who choose to (and pay to) enter.  For further information on the awards go to www.academyofchocolate.org.uk/awards.

Finally, more photos from Madagascar in 2010. It truly is a beautiful country with charming residents.

The post Akesson’s wins the Academy of Chocolate 2015 Golden Bean Award appeared first on World Chocolate Guide.

The bakery was founded in 2010 by father and daughter team Chris and Jo Brennan.  Jo’s just days away from having her own child so hopefully the legacy will get a chance to be carried on!  When they first opened they used Valrhona for their baked goods, but a few years ago Chris decided to buy a grinder and have a go at making his own chocolate. With help from Green & Black’s Head of Taste, Micah Carr-Hill, they quickly became one of the most respected UK chocolate makers, following in the footsteps of Willie Harcourt-Cooze and Duffy Sheardown, with some serious packaging that’s both functional and very cool.

The chocolate, made from the beans sourced directly from Madagascar, Venzuela, Ecuador and Grenada, has already won a host of awards, collecting a few more at the Academy of Chocolate Awards night on Thursday last week. They also have a full time chocolate maker on staff too, who’s manning the pop up this week so can answer any questions you have!  (That’s Rob in the picture below.) If you pop in you’ll be able to try their newest bar, Rye Crumb, Milk and Sea Salt.  It is a unity of deliciousness that is insanely moreish. You’ve been warned.

The temporary shop is at 67 Redchurch St (near to Shoreditch High St and past Mast Brothers).  It is small but a stylist’s dream. White walls, exposed brick, fresh flowers and the bars hung in frames… As well as their full range of bars, each day they’ll be selling the rye and the sourdough loaves that both appear in the chocolate bars and their infamous Eccles Cakes (so full of curranty goodness!), croissants and pains aux chocolat with their own Ecuadorian milk chocolate, plus a rotating pastry. Today it’s raspberry doughnuts. Check out their Instagram feed for daily updates; if you can cope with drooling on your phone.

The post Pump Street Bakery pops up for one week only appeared first on World Chocolate Guide.

Setting up in Shoreditch alongside other edgy brands they’ve filled the window with brimming hessian bags of cocoa beans and a neon strip light sign. Inside the walls are white or exposed brick (very East London) and white cubes run around two edges with more in the middle displaying the chocolate and a small sit-up bar along another edge.  The main serving counter fills up the far side of the shop and coffee machines and chemexes sit behind a glass cabinet of ganaches.  The back wall is glass, behind which you can see the cocoa grinders turning, bearded chocolate makers in their whites and industrial shelves piled high with huge slabs of plastic-wrapped chocolate.

On the opening day they were giving out cocktails and sampling bars and their spread.  The spread is probably the best I’ve ever tasted.  The hot chocolate is rich but served in small takeaway cups for £5 a piece not the cheapest in town.  It is, of course, made with their chocolate which sells at £8 bar.  More alarming was the single chocolates that were priced at £3 each.  No significant discount applied by buying a full box.  I’m hoping they’ll bring across some of the baked goods I tried on my last visit to their Brooklyn HQ in 2012.

It’s brilliant for the chocolate world to have a maker in town.  Most people still are so detached from the process of making chocolate; hopefully Mast Brothers will help to open people’s eyes to why good chocolate shouldn’t be cheap and make chocolate lovers more conscious of the subtlety of flavours between origins.  Good chocolate does not just taste of chocolate.

The post Mast Brothers arrive in London appeared first on World Chocolate Guide.

I’m still in Milan but given that I’m here on behalf of the tourism board promoting Milan Expo 2015 (www.wonderfulexpo2015.info) it seems fitting alongside the Expo’s theme of Food and specifically “Feeding the Planet, Energy for Life” to start this sustainability conversation with chocolate.

Cocoa prices are rising again. In real terms (i.e. accounting for inflation) they’re not the highest they’ve ever been, but they are high. Economics 101 should tell us that prices rise when demand increases or supply decreases. In the case of chocolate (or cocoa, its main, crucial component) we’re seeing both simultaneously.

Countries that have always been big consumers of chocolate are eating more than ever. In the UK we’re now responsible for the largest consumption in Europe. And now the nations that were previously only mildly interested in chocolate are taking to it with the same gusto as the rest of us. Undoubtedly this was instigated by the major confectionery manufacturers and their masterful marketing attempt to extend their reach and boost their revenue. Their success is now our concern.

A lesser contributor to this looming dearth is the “fine chocolate industry” which is gently nudging consumers towards higher percentage cocoa chocolate bars. The more cocoa in the bar the greater the demand amongst the manufacturers for the ingredient, ergo the price goes up. The fine chocolate industry, however, pays cocoa growers between three and ten times the price that they would make by selling their cocoa – via convoluted channels – through the commodities exchange. Not to mention paying them as directly as possible avoids middlemen taking an unnecessary cut.

Most of the world’s cocoa (close to 70%) comes from two main producing countries: Ivory Coast and Ghana. Both have suffered from drought this year and the proximity of Ebola to these and other cocoa producing countries has also caused panic in the markets which always base their price on future expectations of demand and supply rather than the current conditions. Right now there are warehouses of cocoa beans that will last the world a few years still, even at our current rate of consumption. Unfortunately the trend is to a dwindling production which will, quite literally, eat into those reserves.

The main problem is that actually the price of cocoa is NOT high enough. How can we expect farmers to keep growing cocoa when they can replace it with a crop that is easier to grow, more resistant to disease and pays more than double per hectare than they’re making from cocoa. At the recent Academy of Chocolate Conference the topic was “What price cocoa?”. Corn and rubber can yield a farmer a more financially rewarding life, even if in some cases this is short-termist. Farmers who remove their cocoa trees cannot easily change their minds. It takes 3-5 years from planting a seedling to yield fruit to harvest beans to sell. This is why we might see cocoa become as rare and expensive as caviar. We see each year that at least one of the popular chocolate confectionery lines has shrunk or maybe nudged the price up and the online community goes into uproar. How dare inflation touch our precious treat? Most people can’t comprehend the idea of paying £5 for 100g chocolate bar. Which astounds me when I see the same people buying the house wine – which is invariably quite ordinary – for the same price and finishing it in thirty minutes. Never mind the cost of cigarettes or a daily Starbucks habit. A 100g bar of 70% fine quality chocolate is hard to consume in one evening unless you’re chomping it mindlessly, and even then I’d be surprised.

If we’re making an effort to move consumption away from cheap fashion then we should be doing the same for cheap chocolate. The “us and them” mentality needs to stop. Yes, it’s cheaper to live in most cocoa-growing countries, but $1/day per family (and this is what some cocoa farmers earn) is well below the poverty line. We must start paying all cocoa farmers more.

If you want to ensure that there will be cocoa in the future then we all need to accept that it must cost more, but at least choose something that you will get more pleasure from each bite. If you think you don’t like dark chocolate I can almost guarantee you’ve just not tried one of the good ones. I’ve shown thousands of people on chocolate tours in the past ten years and at least a third of them have told me at the beginning they don’t like dark chocolate. By their first taste 99 of every 100 show surprise and have changed their mind. But if you’re the “one” then try some dark milk chocolates, look for percentages between 40 (not strictly dark milk) and 60%. Less sugar and more flavour. The more cocoa in a bar the less your body craves to eat more. And start asking about whether the chocolate manufacturer buys their cocoa direct and what price they pay.

To start you off, here are a list of some brands that I would recommend:
Grenada Chocolate Company (made in country and £1.35 – about 20-30% – of every bar goes to the growers, versus around 2p – about 2-3% – for every bar of Dairy Milk)
Willie’s Cacao (made in Devon and available in Waitrose)
Duffy’s (made in North Lincolnshire)
In fact, any of the bars sold on www.CocoaRunners.com and if you use the code ecstasy1 for a box or ecstasy2 for a subscription you will get a £3 or £5 discount.

May we all continue eating chocolate for many years to come.

The post Impending chocolate shortage? How to avoid the “crisis”. appeared first on World Chocolate Guide.

For the remaining days of the Spirit of Christmas (until this Sunday) there will be chef sessions each day, though sadly no more from Graham or his team.  The workshops on Wednesday were surprisingly quiet and unworthily so.  Unlike food shows where the demonstrations and the workshops are the draw, at the Spirit of Christmas it is all for filling your stockings with artisan gifts that are not common on the high street. It definitely makes unique shopping easier, but the workshops offering such a high calibre of hosts are definitely worth attending too. More so if you get to take home a gift from it!

Hakkasan was founded by Alan Yau who started his career in restaurants with Wagamama in 1992. Long ahead of its time in casual dining it was a catalyst for change in a then-staid restaurant scene and one of the reasons behind Yau receiving an OBE in 2006 for services to the restaurant industry.  Five of the Hakkasan Group’s restaurants have been awarded Michelin-stars: Hakkasan Hanway, Mayfair and New York, HKK and Yauatcha (London). These are all high-end Chinese restaurants, with the latter also offering a beautiful-looking, ever-changing and boundary-pushing selection of patisserie to eat in or take away, as well as their own range of chocolates made in-house.  For the past three and a half years Graham Hornigold has headed the sweet stuff for the group as Executive Pastry Chef.

Hornigold earned his stripes at a variety of Michelin restaurants, most notably within the Mandarin Oriental, Hyde Park, Knightsbridge and then at The Lanesborough Hotel where he won a host of awards. At Hakkasan he works with the restaurants in the UK and abroad on a variety of styles of desserts. For Christmas at Yauatcha they’re offering slices of the delicious chestnut yule log that we finished off in the Home & Garden Workshop at Spirit of Christmas. I loved this buche, testament to this was the fact I polished off several more slices last night despite judging several rounds of the International Chocolate Awards in the afternoon. If I was going to make it myself I’d sub the milk for more alcohol, but if you’re making it for the first time following the recipe below will deliver you a wonderful Christmas dessert and one you can make in advance and freeze leaving just the final decoration for Christmas morning. Chocolate and Chesnut Buche de noel

Graham Hornigold, Executive pastry Chef, Hakkasan Group

Makes one, 5 portions

Chocolate genoise – Makes 1 30cm x 40cm tray

88g egg whites

88g caster sugar

70g egg yolks

70g plain flour

18g cocoa powder

42g vegetable oil

Method

1. Pre heat the oven to 180C
2. Place the egg whites into a machine bowl and whisk on a medium speed adding the caster sugar gradually until a stiff meringue is formed.
3. Fold in the egg yolks and then the vegetable oil.
4. Lastly fold in the flour and the spread out onto a silicon mat.
5. Place into the pre heated oven and cook for 8-9 minutes

Raisin and Chestnut compote

100g raisins

50g dark rum

50g confit chestnut (marron glace)

Method

1. Wash the raisins in warm water at least 3 times or until the water runs clear. Place the water into a pan and bring to the boil. Add in the washed raisins and allow to soak for 20 minutes
2. Strain the excess water and allow the raisins to cool, once cooled add the dark rum and allow to marinate over night
3. Roughly chop the marinated rasins and mix with the chopped confit chestnut

Chestnut and Vanilla cream

90g chestnut paste (sweetened)

90g chestnut puree (unsweetened)

10g rum

15g milk

½ vanilla pod seeds

Method

1. Place the chestnut puree, vanilla seeds and chestnut paste into a mixing bowl and beat until smooth.
2. Gradually mix in the milk and the rum until smooth

Chocolate buttercream

110g egg whites

200g sugar

70g water

220g butter, soft

150g Dark chocolate 80%cocoa solids

Make an Italian meringue with the whites, sugar and water. Whip until cool, mix in the melted chocolate and then slowly add in the softened butter mix well .

Dark chocolate decorations

200g tempered dark chocolate made into 6 x 6 cm squares 1 set chocolate curls

Additional decoration

20g Confit chestnuts Gold leaf

To prepare and assemble

1. Prepare the raisin and chestnut compote,Store in the fridge until required.
2. Temper the chocolate and prepare the chocolate decorations, place into a cool dry area and allow to set for at least 4 hours.
3. Prepare the chocolate genoise, remove from the oven and place onto a wire rack to cool
4. Once the sponge has cooled, cut into a 30 x 20cm rectangle and place onto a sheet of silicone paper, ensuring that the paper is larger than the cut sponge.
5. Finish the raisin and chestnut compote
6. Spread the chestnut and vanilla cream onto the sponge leaving a gap of 2cm at the bottom closest to yourself.
7. Spread the raisin and chestnut compote over the top of the chestnut and vanilla cream.
8. Gently fold over the bottom of the sponge and begin to roll up, finish rolling with the edge underneath the roll.
9. Pipe lines of the chocolate buttercream over the top of the rolled buche, spread evenly with a palette knife or spoon. Make lines in the buttercream with a comb scraper or fork to look like a log.
10. Place into the fridge to set the buttercream, lightly dust with cocoa powder.
11. Place the chocolate squares on each end and then decorate the top with the chocolate curls, gold leaf and confit chestnuts.

A slice of the Yauatcha Chestnut Yule Log

Recipe provided by Graham Hornigold of the Hakkasan Group

DISCLOSURE: I was invited to the Spirit of Christmas by Great British Chefs and Graham Hornigold. I was under no obligation to write about this and retained full editorial control.

The post Chocolate Yule Log Recipe from Hakkasan’s Executive Pastry Chef appeared first on World Chocolate Guide.

I’ve had the book for about two weeks now and I’ve had a chance to make three of the recipes from it. Usually I just look to recipe books for inspiration and then twist the recipe a little. I tried not to do this in the spirit of giving the recipes a representative review, but I still couldn’t resist two small tweaks to two of the recipes. Well, three if you count the fact that I split the brioche recipe for the doughnuts in two and continued with one half exactly as instructed and used the other to make a brioche loaf that had an extended life as French toast and bread and butter pudding.

I digress. What I love most about this book is how beautiful it is. The photography is stunning and every single result looks like something I want to eat. Now. The only drawback to this effect is that there are only one or two recipes in the book that are suitable to relieve that immediate craving. Most of the recipes require some pre-planning (like resting time of some sort) or just some detailed procedures to produce the various components to get the end result. The flipside of a time-consuming recipe means that it should be a small stretch for the home baker. In this book you know you’re not going to get just a rehash of other chocolate books but some truly original recipes.

The first chapter dedicated to filled chocolates is an extensive guide to making your own stunning and interesting chocolate box collection. Cognac, caramel and pear domes, anyone? I think I’m going to wait until Christmas break to tackle chocolates with layers, despite how helpful and specific Will’s guidelines and the accompanying images are. I’m just too intimidated by how perfect the end result is in the book’s images. And I’m wary of not having the time to do it properly and wasting precious chocolate if I – as I undoubtedly will – cover my kitchen in it.

What I did make were the Chocolate sables (I left out the orange zest and covered some in dark instead of milk chocolate, but these were still ridiculously moreish), Chocolate brioche doughnuts and the Salted caramel and rum top hat cake. The cake was much easier than the separated components initially made it seem and the overall result was fantastic to look at and stretched to serve quite a few people (even after I got several generous pieces just for me!). I didn’t have rum so made my ganache with chocolate stout instead. The beer ganache was fabulous but I would recommend sticking to the rum for this cake.

The book includes a great guide to the different methods of tempering, a little background to chocolate, a resource guide for where to find what you need to make everything and helpfully includes metric and American measurements.

Next on my to-make list is the Chocolate & chestnut roulade…

If you’ve got the book and tried any recipes, please share with us in the comments below!

The post Will Torrent’s Chocolate At Home appeared first on World Chocolate Guide.

You can enter by post if you prefer.  Send the responses from the form below to Chocolate Ecstasy Tours, 3rd Floor, 207 Regent Street, London, W1B 3HH, ensuring you include a phone number or email address to contact you.

Why do you want to come?

Well, there will be chocolate! If that’s not reason enough, there will also be Prosecco and cocoa canapés.  You’ll get to taste for yourself (if you haven’t already) that cocoa (or cacao, if you will) can be enjoyed within savoury food as well as desserts, truffles and all that other good sweet stuff.   I have tasted savoury cacao treats at Hotel Chocolat’s parties before and I have loved what I tried so I am sure you’ll be in for a treat at this party as well.  After the success of their St Lucia restaurant (within a year it was the top rated restaurant on Tripadvisor and generously praised by food writers as well), the company’s co-founder, Angus Thirwell, was keen to replicate the delicious food in London.  Angus was adamant that the restaurant should not be some novelty dining room, suitable only for the chocolate-obsessed, but to be a genuine contender for restaurant awards, including the coveted Michelin stars.  Finding the right venue plagued Angus for years, leading to rumours of this impending eaterie hanging as temptation for what felt like years to those of us who had the privilege of sampling some of the savouries already.   When Rabot 1745 finally opened last December I was invited me to take a guest to try it out during its soft launch.  I went for lunch on a cold, dry day between Christmas and New Year and we chose a different dish each for our three courses.  Within the two savoury courses, three of the four dishes were equal to anything I’ve tried in a Michelin starred restaurant.  The rib of beef with white chocolate horseradish mash was a glorious, comforting dish with a perfect hit of flavour, not a skerrick of chocolate could actually be detected in its taste.  My fish with cocoa balsamic was perfectly cooked and superbly seasoned.  Again, not especially chocolatey, just using cocoa as you’d use salt, to bring out other flavours rather than be a too-distinct flavour on its own.  To that end the restaurant also provides a third mill on each table: alongside salt and pepper is a grinder for cocoa nibs – pieces of the cocoa bean – just in case you do want to further chocify your dinner. The menu has completely changed since I went so there’s little point in me describing my dishes in more detail but I am pleased to notice that they have added warm puddings to the menu.  That was my one disappointment, that a chocolate-themed restaurant didn’t have any rich, indulgent hot desserts during the winter. Now I really want to try the sticky toffee and cacao beer pudding with cacao-infused whipped cream.  Or the “chocolate soup, soft meringue floating island, sliced bananas, toasted almonds, caramel drizzle”.  I’ve been meaning to go back since I first went.  They do a great lunch deal, but it seems for now they’ve paused what seemed like a most indulgent breakfast menu that included lobster.

Hotel Chocolat Cocoa Martini 

If you aren’t able to make this party I highly recommend getting yourself to a Cocoa Bar Cafe next time you’re near one.  Don’t miss the delicious in-house hot chocolate made with the chocolate conched onsite. Where can I find a Cocoa Bar Café?

• Kensington - 163 Kensington High Street, London, W8 6SU
• Edinburgh John Lewis – 7a Frederick Street, EH2 2EY
• York John Lewis - Vangarde Way, YO32 9AE
• Edinburgh - 7a Frederick Street, EH2 2EY
• Liverpool - Unit 10, 2-4 St. Peter’s Arcade, Liverpool One, L1 3DE
• Copenhagen - Østergade 13, København K, 1100
• Roast+Conch, Leeds - 55 Boar Lane, LS1 5EL
• Boston, Mass., USA - 141A Newbury Street

Win tickets to the Cocoa Bar Cafe party!

By entering this competition you agree to sign up for our newsletter which is sent 3-5 times a year and includes chocolate news and sometimes competitions, discounts and recipes.  If you don’t like it you can always unsubscribe at any time.

Competition winners will be drawn at midday Wednesday 13th August 2014.  If no response is received by 9am Thursday 14th August winner(s) will be redrawn.  No further redraws will take place.

* indicates required

Email Address *

First Name *

Last Name

Contact Number

Address (to send tickets to, if you win!)

Street Address Address Line 2 City State/Province/Region Postal / Zip Code CountryUSAAaland IslandsAfghanistanAlbaniaAlgeriaAmerican SamoaAndorraAngolaAnguillaAntigua And BarbudaArgentinaArmeniaArubaAustraliaAustriaAzerbaijanBahamasBahrainBangladeshBarbadosBelarusBelgiumBelizeBeninBermudaBhutanBoliviaBosnia and HerzegovinaBotswanaBouvet IslandBrazilBrunei DarussalamBulgariaBurkina FasoBurundiCambodiaCameroonCanadaCape VerdeCayman IslandsCentral African RepublicChadChileChinaChristmas IslandColombiaComorosCongoCook IslandsCosta RicaCote D’IvoireCroatiaCubaCuracaoCyprusCzech RepublicDemocratic Republic of the CongoDenmarkDjiboutiDominicaDominicaDominican RepublicEast TimorEcuadorEgyptEl SalvadorEquatorial GuineaEritreaEstoniaEthiopiaFalkland IslandsFaroe IslandsFijiFinlandFranceFrench GuianaFrench PolynesiaGabonGambiaGeorgiaGermanyGhanaGibraltarGreeceGreenlandGrenadaGuadeloupeGuamGuatemalaGuernseyGuineaGuyanaHaitiHondurasHong KongHungaryIcelandIndiaIndonesiaIranIraqIrelandIsle of ManIsraelItalyJamaicaJapanJersey (Channel Islands)JordanKazakhstanKenyaKiribatiKuwaitKyrgyzstanLao People’s Democratic RepublicLatviaLebanonLesothoLiberiaLibyaLiechtensteinLithuaniaLuxembourgMacauMacedoniaMadagascarMalawiMalaysiaMaldivesMaliMaltaMarshall IslandsMartiniqueMauritaniaMauritiusMayotteMexicoMoldova, Republic ofMonacoMongoliaMontenegroMontserratMoroccoMozambiqueMyanmarNamibiaNepalNetherlandsNetherlands AntillesNew CaledoniaNew ZealandNicaraguaNigerNigeriaNiueNorfolk IslandNorth KoreaNorwayOmanPakistanPalauPalestinePanamaPapua New GuineaParaguayPeruPhilippinesPitcairnPolandPortugalPuerto RicoQatarRepublic of KosovoReunionRomaniaRussiaRwandaSaint Kitts and NevisSaint LuciaSaint Vincent and the GrenadinesSamoa (Independent)San MarinoSao Tome and PrincipeSaudi ArabiaSenegalSerbiaSeychellesSierra LeoneSingaporeSint MaartenSlovakiaSloveniaSolomon IslandsSomaliaSouth AfricaSouth Georgia and the South Sandwich IslandsSouth KoreaSouth SudanSpainSri LankaSudanSurinameSvalbard and Jan Mayen IslandsSwazilandSwedenSwitzerlandSyriaTaiwanTajikistanTanzaniaThailandTogoTongaTrinidad and TobagoTunisiaTurkeyTurks & Caicos IslandsUgandaUkraineUnited Arab EmiratesUnited KingdomUruguayUzbekistanVanuatuVatican City State (Holy See)VenezuelaVietnamVirgin Islands (British)Virgin Islands (U.S.)Western SaharaYemenZambiaZimbabwe

What tour/event would you be most interested in? *

Please tell us what tour or event (existing or not) that we could offer that you would be most interested in purchasing a ticket to.

How did you hear about us / this competition? *

The post Win tickets to Hotel Chocolat’s Cocoa Bar Cafe party! appeared first on World Chocolate Guide.

I remember my shock finding out – some years ago now – that Häagen Dazs was not actually a European company, but an American one, where the founders chose a foreign name to give the impression it had a more authentic history.  At the time I was appalled and I’m sure my estimation of the “realness” of their ice cream went down, but now… well, choosing a name is hard and anything is fair game.  Godiva is hardly a Belgian name so why should I criticise Americans doing the same in reverse?

Cake is my Achilles heel.  Ice cream I can usually pass up.  Unless it is the incredible Gelupo or La Gelatiera.  My mum makes pretty spectacular ice cream too. OK, so I do like good ice cream.  In my snobbery I had assumed that Häagen Dazs was also full of unnecessary fillers like most of the ice cream brands that have been around for more than ten years.  Maybe if ice cream was something I ever bought for myself from a supermarket I might have bothered to find out.  Regardless, I was intrigued about their #realornothing campaign and especially so when I received this invitation to a Häagen Dazs event where they promised to prove how their ice cream was all natural, made only with real ingredients.

The team had rented a beautiful apartment by Waterloo and taken it over – there were empty pints of Häagen Dazs everywhere and fake grass on the terrace which, after being lead up there initially, was hard to be drawn away from into the hot kitchen.  After watching the process of vanilla ice cream being made – in Blue Peter-style stages, of course, where we sampled the ice cream pre-freeze, like a hug of thin, warm custard – we were then guided by one of the company’s product developers through a taste analysis of four ice creams.  They were all vanilla and the last was disgusting.  It was clearly included to show the difference between real ice cream and the watered-down then gummed up and aerated version found in most supermarkets.  Although they wouldn’t reveal to us the brands except which was Häagen Dazs.  The Häagen Dazs Vanilla is a little too strong in vanilla for my personal preference but it’s impressive the recipe hasn’t changed for the last 53 years and as the next stage of our ice cream adventure was to taste through the range of eight ice creams I found plenty to like  Especially the Macadamia Nut Brittle. And the Salted Caramel. And the Mint Leaves and Chocolate.  And the Strawberries and Cream.  OK, I liked them all.  They sent us home with some beautiful Clarence Court Eggs, vanilla pods and caster sugar.  Just need cream and milk and I’m ready to make my own version of Häagen Dazs.  Or I could just go and buy some…

#realornothing is definitely how food should be.  It’s my unofficial rule to (almost!) everything I eat and along with rarely drinking anything other than water and herbal teas I think it’s the biggest factor in me staying pretty much the same dress size for the past nine years of running Chocolate Ecstasy Tours.

If you do want to make ice cream at home, here’s some tips I picked up from our demonstration and the official Häagen Dazs recipe below:

Top Tips

• mix sugar with the eggs at the last possible minute or else it starts to “cure” (cook) the eggs
• stir through the warmed cream and don’t overbeat
• get an LED thermometer – £10 online to keep an eye temperature
• dehydrate the used vanilla pods and place in sugar to make lovely vanilla-scented sugar

Ingredients

600ml double cream

200ml whole milk

2 vanilla pods

6 egg yolks

150g vanilla infused caster sugar

Method

Pour the double cream and milk into a saucepan.

Split the vanilla pods lengthways and scrape the seeds out using the back of your knife and add to the pan with the milk/cream and the scraped pods.

On a medium heat warm until nearly biling point then turn off the heat and allow to infuse for a minimum of 30 minutes.  The longer you leave, the more the vanilla infuses.

When infused, reheat to a simmer.

In a mixing bowl whick the egg yolks and sugar together until light and fluffy.

Slowly whisk the infused cream into the bowl with the eggs and sugar.  You must keep whisking otherwise you may end up with scrambled eggs.

Pour back into the saucepan and cook – stirring constantly – until it reaches 80C then remove from the heat.  Strain the mixture through a fine sieve so it catches the pods/seeds into a new saucepan.

Allow to cool to room temperature.

Once cooled add to your ice cream maker and churn for 35-40 minutes until it reaches ice cream consistency.  Serve straight away.

My suggestions

If you don’t have an ice cream maker you can always freeze it in a container in your freezer and after the first 20 minutes give it a good mix.  Depending on your mix and the freezer you might have to do this once or twice more, but if you haven’t overbeaten the mixture there’s a good chance you won’t get too many ice crystals.

For extra deliciousness warm some more cream, with a dash of milk and some good quality dark chocolate to pour over the top.  Or melt chocolate alone (in the microwave or in a bowl above simmering water) and then it will freeze hard as you pour it over your ice cream.

The post I scream for ice cream. #realornothing Häagen Dazs official vanilla ice cream recipe! appeared first on World Chocolate Guide.