Have you ever had an experience in your life that caused you to redirect your goals, change your life style, or reassess your aspirations?

If so, I would like to”compare notes” with you.

Recently, I had just such an experience, and because of it,  this blog is in the process of being revamped.

Most of my life I was called the “the sweet tooth one”.  It was true then and it is still true today.

I love anything sweet that melt in my mouth, satisfy my cravings and creates that warm and fuzzy feeling with every bite (BTW it does not have to be pink).

Along with my “sweet tooth one” nickname, I am also known among friends as the “best baker.” I am the one whose refrigerator hides many “goodies,” or the one who can whip-up great desserts in minutes without a recipe.  So if people had a craving for sweets they would say to each other: “let’s see how Georgette is doing?”

So if people would be craving for sweets they would say to each other: “lets see how Georgette is doing?”

Unfortunately that behavior will need to be altered.  I am afraid, those days must change to weekend desserts only, and even then, the ingredients in those desserts will be selected very carefully and at times it may look a bit “strange” to some of us.

I guess by now I elicited your curiosity to an extent that you are ready to murder me if I do not reveal what is happening.  So let me end the suspense and disclose the event that is responsible for changing the theme of this blog.

While traveling from the West to the East, somewhere along the challenging roads, I found myself being driven by an ambulance to the nearest emergency room (ER) with what it appeared to be, a heart attack. In addition to being scared about what was  happening to me, I was also concerned about the place this event manifested itself.

It was a small town, where the ER is manned by a DO, the nurses had to complete five electrocardiograms (ECGs) in order to get at least one of them right, and the doctor was so elated when the nitroglycerin helped in alleviating my symptoms that he yelled across the hallway to his assistants: “80% percent better! Which, at the time, seemed to say it all.

The drive to the hospital was a whole other experience. The road to the hospital must have been some dirt road, because the stretcher that I was lying on was shaking really bad; I actually told the nurse that “I feel as if I will roll off this bed any minute.” She assured me that I was strapped in (as if that was supposed to make me feel better?)

While the ambulance was shaking, and I was thrown up and down on the stretcher (even with the limit of the belt) believe it or not, the nurse was trying to establish an open vein for the eventuality of the need for intravenous therapy upon our arrival to the ER.

Picture this: the car was shaking with me and the nurse’s hand is shaking with the car while she is trying to open a vein. OUCH!! I believe I screamed louder than the last push in giving birth.

I guess by now you would rather read about what is happening to he desserts you have come to like while visiting here and will there be recipes for re-creating?

So, because of the health related issue that landed me in the hospital that day, this is going to be the first day in the life of this blog. I will start to rebuild it by giving more selective thought to the ingredients.

Up to now, I just continued my childhood lifestyle; treating myself with “indulgences” and hoping that you like the same.

From this day on, however, we have become “grownups” hat understand that our health and life span, depends on two things: our genes and what we put into our body. As of today, we cannot change our genes, but we can certainly decide what goes into our mouth.

We will continue to make pies, tarts, pavlovas, and angel cakes, but may change the ice cream to ice milk or frozen yogurt, and our refrigerator will be filled with unsweetened fruit juices and Agave nectar.

I also love to make homemade applesauce, especially since my grandson is asking for it every time he sees me. In fact, I used to take apple-picking trips in the fall, just for that reason.  So, applesauce will become our saving grace to substituting ingredients, like butter, in many of our recipes.

Please do not get me wrong; there is nothing wrong with treating yourself with foods/ingredients you love, but the key word is: periodically. We will use ingredients that are on the “restricted” list, based on their glycemic index, less frequently, and will consume smaller portions of them.

If it still sounds as if we are going to deprive ourselves from foods we like and force ourselves to eat “stuff” we do not care for – it cannot be further from the truth.

Our secret weapon in this is going to be using more “functional” foods. If you are unsure about what functional foods are, some of the foods that belong to this group are berries, bananas, cherries, pomegranate, citrus, dark chocolate, nuts, etc.

Almost everyone can appreciate a blueberry orcherry pie, and what is wrong with a banana split with frozen yogurt substituting the ice cream or raspberry muffins where applesauce is used in place of butter? These functional foods will be my desirable ingredients and I will strive to seek out new functional foods as they are identified and/or created.

These will be my desirable ingredients and I will strive to seek out new functional foods as they will be identified, created or elevated.

What is functional food?

Functional foods are foods that may create positive effects on our health, beyond being nutritional. Of course, you could make a statement that “all foods” are functional, since they all produce some kind of health benefit and energy for growth.  However, functional foods offer additional benefits, such as reducing the development of diseases, or assisting in the cure of a disease.

I must add here that the reason(s) I do not need to change the name of this blog is because both chocolate (dark) and figs ar belonging to the functional foods group.

I will not need to give up my favorite desserts that use chocolate as the principal ingredient.  Dark chocolate was reported in multiple studies to reduce the risk of the development cardiovascular disease and stroke.  It is high in antioxidants therefore, you can consider it as a food that helps in the management of high blood pressure, cardiovascular and inflammatory diseases and even certain cancers.

What about figs? Figs contain one of the highest concentrations of polyphenols among the commonly consumed foods and beverages. Polyphenols are also antioxidants that protect us from various chronic diseases, such as Alzheimer’s, cancer and more. Figs are a great source of fiber and we will use them as “fat-and sugar substitutes in many of our dessert recipes.

Figs also contain high concentrations of phytosterols, which inhibit the absorption of dietary cholesterol, thus decreasing the total levels of cholesterol in our blood.

So both, chocolate and figs are here to stay.

There are a lot of talk and discussions in the media about sugar addiction. I am not sure if it has any relations to one’s genes, because this issue is still under debate, or is it an acquired phenomenon due to environment of our upbringing?

In any case, my situation could definitely support the effects of the environment, including my upbringing.  Looking back at my life story, what I remember the most is how happy we were (my sister and I) when my father came home with a tray of the best small cakes from one of the top cafe houses in Budapest.

The best part of a meal in my home was the “finale”.  My mother was a great baker and always managed to surprise us even if she created something that we ate 200 times because she would ad some new twist to it.  So my sugar addiction comes from the food habits that I exhibited as a child that I just never really grew out of.

Does my story sound at all familiar to yours? I would love to hear about your relationship with sugar? Are you trying to get cured from it? Do you think we will be able to help each other overcome this addiction?

I will be working hard to continue to create desserts that we all love, (and the reason you kept coming back to us); but from time-to-time I will surprise you with the ingredients I will use to create them.

As always, I will make sure that you understand and learn everything about the ingredients that maybe unknown to you; or maybe the way we will use an “old standby” that may raise questions in your mind.

I am delighted to be back among old friends.

I couldn’t get myself into a celebratory mood ON Mother’s Day, until late in the evening. Ever since my Mother is no longer with us, I get a very “heavy” feeling this day.

It does not happen every year, so I think there maybe other issues beyond the sadness I feel for losing my Mother.

One of the things that affected me badly is the fact that I was not there when she died, despite the fact that I could have been.  It is true, she was far away (she retired to Israel) but we were meeting nearly annually, either by us traveling to Israel or she visiting the states.

I think this is a heavy burden that will stay with me for life (I assume), even dough I did not know the extent of her sickness, because every time we talked on the phone she was always assuring me that she is fine. It was too late when I learned that for whatever reason(s) she did not tell me the truth.

There are additional issues, like the behavior of my siblings toward me, that contributing to my situation, but this is not the time, nor the place to discuss them.

I am trying to keep myself busy, particularly, on days like Mother’s Days, birthdays, memorial days, etc., but it does not seem to work every year. I found two things that appear to do the tricks:  1. Talk about the great times we had together with people that knew her, or create one of her favorite cakes. I guess my love for baking was inherited from her.

I cannot compare myself to her expertise; she was creating desserts, cakes, sweets and other similar stuff from memories.

You would never see her reviewing a cookbook. I always watched her with amazement how she created the best yeast dough, puff pastries, cookie dough, pastry dough – all from her memory. Not only that, but she also knew by feeling and/or touching the dough if it was correct or needed some adjustments. And you guessed it – the correction was also done by the same method. She knew when she needed to add a little more sour cream, or cake flour, or the dough just needed some rest. Amazing.

That is another thing I feel bad about; how come I never learned her techniques.

Anyway, by the evening I started to feel better and remembered how much she liked to eat and bake with berries, any berries; so I ran down the supermarket and bought a big package of strawberries and decided to create”imitation” strawberry shortcake.

Why “imitation” you may ask; I guess I did not feel to bake a ‘biscuit-type” of dough.

I must confess, however, that my first attempt was a disaster (I guess the effect of my emotions) and on any other day I would probably photograph the disaster so that you can also learn from it, but this was not the right time for education.

So, I just threw out my entire work and started the process all over. Although, this one came out much better, I would not send it to a competition. I am not even sure if I should’ve upload it here, but I decided to get over the idea that it is not perfect and just show you how it is possible to overcome adversities. Not to mention, it did help me to feel better emotionally; so if for nothing else it was a good idea for getting me out of the gloominess.

Another reason I decided to upload the photograph of the cake is because the taste of the cake is delightful (what can be wrong with an almond sponge cake, layered with raspberry jam, white chocolate butter cream and fresh strawberries, marinated in cognac for 10 minutes?); so I want to share the recipe with you.  I have a feeling you’ll create a better-looking cake and perhaps even better tasting?

It is also quite easy to prepare; the only negative thing associated with this cake is that you need to finish to enjoy it within 2, maximum three days. Even in a closed container, the refrigerator draws out all the moistness and you are left with dried out cake pieces with over-moist strawberries.

INGREDIENTS

Cake

• 2 large eggs, room temperature
• 1/3 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar
• 1/2 cup ground almond
• 1/2 cup unbleached all purpose flour
• 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 4 large egg whites, room temperature
• 2 teaspoons vanilla
• Lemon zest from 1 lemon

Buttercream

• 6 large egg yolks (room temperature)
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 2 tablespoons unbleached all purpose flour
• 1 cup half and half
• ½ cup heavy cream
• 8 ounces top quality white chocolate, chopped
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract

• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 5 tablespoons fraise or framboise eau-de-vie (clear strawberry or raspberry brandies) or other brandy
• Or
• Use the same quantity balsamic vinegar

• 9 tablespoons strawberry jam
• 4 1-pint baskets strawberries, stemmed

PREPARATION

Cake:

Position the rack in center of oven and preheat it to 350°F. Butter 9-inch square pan (or a regular round cake pan) with 2-inch-high sides. Line the bottom with parchment paper. Butter and flour the parchment.

Using electric mixer beat the eggs and 1/3 cup sugar on high speed in large bowl until a nice ribbon forms when the beaters are lifted, about 4 minutes.

Mix the nuts, flour and baking powder in another medium bowl. Fold the nut mixture into egg mixture.

Using clean beaters beat the egg whites in medium bowl until soft peaks form. Gradually add the remaining 2 tablespoons sugar and beat until stiff peaks form. Fold whites into the batter in 2 additions. Transfer batter to prepared pan. Bake until a tester inserted in the center comes out clean, about 20 minutes. Cool the cake in the pan on rack for 5 minutes. Turn the cake out onto rack. Peel off parchment; cool cake completely.

Buttercream:

Whisk the yolks, sugar and flour in medium bowl until well blended. Bring half and half and heavy cream to simmer in a medium saucepan.

Slowly pour the hot cream mixture into the egg mixture, whisking constantly.  Return the egg mixture to the same saucepan and cook until the mixture becomes very thick, whisking constantly.

Transfer the mixture to a medium bowl.

Add 8 ounces of chopped white chocolate and vanilla extract and stir until the chocolate melts completely and the mixture are smooth. Press a plastic wrap on the surface of the pastry cream to prevent skin from forming and cool. (Can be prepared 1 day ahead. Refrigerate. Bring to room temperature before continuing.)

Using electric mixer, beat 1 cup unsalted butter and 1 tablespoon brandy in a large bowl until fluffy. Add the pastry cream slowly (1/4 cup at a time), beating after each addition until just blended.

Melt the jam in heavy small saucepan over medium heat. Stir the remaining 4 tablespoons brandy into jam.

Cut the cake horizontally, into 3 even layers.

Place 1 layer on an 8-inch cardboard square (or just place it on the plate you want to serve it). Brush 1/3 of the jam over the first layer.

Spread 1/3 of the butter cream over the jam. Cover the buttercream layer completely with freshly cut strawberries.

Take the next cut cake layer and place it on the strawberries.

Spread the next 1/3 jam over the cake.

Cover the jam with the next 1/3 (or now ½ of the remained buttercream) over the jam, and then cover the cream completely with the freshly cut strawberries.

Place the last cut cake piece on the strawberries (make sure to leave the nice side toward the outside.

You can either spread the butter cream on top of the cake layer then cover it with the cut strawberries, or place only the fresh strawberries on the top of the cake and melt the remaining jam with 2 tablespoons of brandy and brush the berries with this mixture to make them shiny.

Also this will help for the strawberries to remain on the cake layer. It will also preserve the berries they will remain good looking longer. Refrigerate the cake until the butter cream is firm. (Can be prepared 1 day ahead).

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If  not, please do not despair, other giveaways are lurking in the neighborhood already!

HERE ARE THE LUCKY WINNERS FROM THE MOTHER’S DAY GIVEAWAYS

Pamper Mom $300 Cash Giveaway-  Cassie B 
Warner Bros. New Years Eve DVD winner- Linda
$50 Eden Fantasys Gift Card- Sarah W
Care4Hire Gift Card – Roxanne D
Gutzy Gear- Stephanie H 

We have a Mother’s Day Special for our loyal readers! Chocolates and Figs has teamed up again with other bloggers to offer a $300 GIVEAWAY to one of our followers.
The cash giveaway is open to all worldwide, where permitted by law.  Payment will be processed through Paypal.
  

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Be in it to win it

There are only a few food bloggers that I have opted-in for their update; none as informative and thought-provoking as Dianne Jacob’s blog, “Will Write for Food.”

If you do not know Dianne (I would be surprised, dough) she is an award-winning author, coach and highly sought after speaker. I learned about her expertise by reading her book: “Will Write for Food.” I found the book exceedingly informative and easy read – so much so – that I left my inhibition in the kitchen and contacted her from my bedroom. I was hoping that she would react positively to my seeking to hire her as my coach.

I got lucked out – she was available and I was on my way to make myself as “sticky” as possible. I felt confident that something would rub on me, purely by association.

I definitely felt the improvement in my work after our brief encounter, but I still have a long way to go to meet my goal, so as you can imagine I continue to dream about repeating the experience.

But this is not what I wanted to write about in this post. I got carried away, but rumors tell me that it happens to many people when talking about Dianne.

I never miss her posts because I am receiving it in my inbox and her message will be the first thing I read when I see it.  Her most recent post, titled “Trouble for Two Recipe Adapters” brought to our attention a very important issue in recipe writing: “Whose recipe is it?”

The story is about a TV chef whose show was cancelled abruptly and accused of plagiarizing her recipes, including a chocolate frosting and a lemon bar. WOW! Can you imagine how many cookbook authors, TV chefs, food bloggers, and other food writers should be banned from publishing recipes or having a food show if we would check their chocolate frosting or lemon bar recipes?

In addition, the post also reports about a food blogger who was harassed by a cookbook author for using his recipe, protected by the copyright law, on her blog and refusing to remove it.  Well, actually he is wrong, but I’ll go over this a bit later.

Many of the people that commented on Dianne’s blog (which swelled to over 100 by now) questioned the real motives behind the accusers in both cases and rightfully so. Most likely the recipes in question can be found by the hundreds online, or even in cookbooks. Moreover, most cookbook authors are flattered by spreading the word about their recipes.

This topic intrigued me so much that I decided to look into these issues a bit deeper and create a post from it.   My first question about the ownership of a recipe has to do with how loosely we use the words “adapted”, “tweaked”, “adjusted”  “altered” and “changed.”   Adapted, defined by a FREE Dictionary as “make suitable to or fit for a specific use or situation.”  Ha?!  So, I can adapt a recipe to make it suitable for my blog, right? Or, I can adapt a recipe because it fits into my story.

Webster is adding a definition that I actually like: adapting is “changing to suit a new purpose.” I can change the recipe for my purpose, which is making money with it. I love it.

Tweaking is even better. There are classes of “Tweaking 101”, and there are food bloggers and even chefs that call themselves the “Tweaking Experts”.  BTW the definition of tweaking is “making small adjustments or modifications to improve a system or in this case the recipe.” This makes sense in practice, because most of the times we are seeking to improve a recipe that we think is lacking a pizzazz.

We all know by now, that most recipes are copyright free; meaning you may copy the list of ingredients and even the directions of a single recipe in any media you want. It’s the recipe name and the “method” of preparations that are subject to the copyright law.

What you can deduct from this is that if you are creative in naming a recipe and innovative in crafting a method you can protect your “tweaked”, “altered”, “adapted” work, if you so wish. However, it is still a professional (and common) courtesy to give credit to the originator (which may not be an easy task) and to the site of the original source.

What I see so far the problem with the protection of original recipes is the ambiguous language of the device we use to safeguard our proprietary work; all it does is opens our understanding to a myriad of interpretations. We could drop, or at least cut the number of lawsuits by coordinating and simplifying the rules. Just as we are discussing the benefits of simplifying the tax codes, we could do the same to the copyright laws.

As I was surfing and seeking to find more answers it suddenly dawned on me:  how come nobody mentioned other intellectual property rights like patenting a recipe?

Prior to getting myself deeply involved in mixing chocolates with heavy cream and butter, or whipping lots of egg whites with vinegar, I was mixing powdered hormones into medicinal grade ointment to create personalized suppositories for ovulation, or worked hard to dissolve unruly ingredients in alcohol to prepare rubs. We were approached by lawyers specializing in intellectual property rights to submit a patent application (which we never did because of its complexity and cost)

Here are my questions: what is the difference between mixing food ingredients or medicinal products?  What about genetically modified vegetables, or metabolically engineered fish, or fruit trees that yield years earlier and so on…

Surely enough, I was coming across a myriad of products that use patents to protect their inventions.  Why? Because it is patents that protects creations (i.e. recipes) or discoveries – copyrights protects creative expression (i.e. the creative text in describing the methods of preparation in a recipe)

However, these were all single products, not compositions that combine individual items via a certain method to create a new product. So, I continued my search for patented recipes.   Interestingly, I found an answer to Joanne Gruskin’s comment (or rather question) in Diane’s blog:  “isn’t a banana sometimes just a banana?” Not really Joanne. I found bananas that produce human vaccines against infectious diseases, such as Hepatitis B. Would you think about the use of banana for medicinal purpose?

According to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, food recipe patents fall under Patent Class 426 – Food Or Edible Material “intended to be consumed by human beings or lower animals in whole or part via the oral cavity.”  In order to gain patent protection, the recipe must be useful, novel and non-obvious. Here we go again: how you prove that the composition I just created is not obvious to others, except to me?

So, What Can Be Patented

Let’s say you have created a new recipe for hot cocoa.   If some of the ingredients have never been combined/mixed together, or the order of combining them is new, and don’t forget the not obvious part you can get you hot cocoa patented as “a composition of matter.”

Many processes might make your recipe patentable (i.e. heating, frying, sautéing, poaching, baking, bottling, canning, aging, blanching, grinding, whipping, mixing, freezing, melting, dehydrating, layering, stamping, molding, smoking and grilling, all patentable)

I do not want to extend this article to its most boring stage  (although, I am not sure if storing peanut butter and jelly in the same container is patentable, can be called boring; more like ridiculous) so I will be concluding my ranting; but still do not see a conclusion, or a deduction. I got the idea that these issues are complex and not solvable in a one-minute post on a blog – but still, where I am going from here?

The absurdity of what is patentable, or protected by copyright is obvious. If sponge cake that can rise when microwaved (6,410,074), single-dough cookies that store well [(4,344,969) (increase shelf-life)], ingredient that can replace fat (5,466,479) sugarless bakery goods (5,804,242), controlling cookie geometry [(5,374,440) (the shaping of the cookie)] and confections that swim in a carbonated beverage (6,319,535) can be patented than I guess anything goes.

An important thing to consider in patenting your recipe is the writing of it  – if you write the recipe too broad it will be thrown out (not accepted by the agency), but if you write it too narrow than potential competitors will learn your method through the patent, go around your claim with a minor variation and wallah they have a patented product competing against yours.

So, if you are not yet confused enough, I will help you to get confuse even further. This is one of the reasons that some companies prefer to keep their recipe “trade secret.” One of the most famous examples of a trade secret is the formula of Coca-Cola that is kept in a vault of a bank in Atlanta, Georgia. The people who know the secret formula have signed non-disclosure agreements, and it is rumored that they are not allowed to travel together.

One of the advantages of trade secret, aside from protecting the recipe from the competition is that it is open-ended. As long as the secret does not become known in public it is protected; could mean 100ds of years. Copyrights are issued for 100 years and patents are issued for 20 years only.

If you are thinking to patent your grandma’s recipe that you found in the attic, think again. Patent can only be issued to the inventor, your grandma. Also, you can assume that a recipe that old must have been disclosed somewhere, sometimes.

This leads me to another interesting issue with this topic. Lets assume that you created an innovative recipe for making quince muffins and you decided to test market it by taking to a function. That’s it. These muffins can no longer be patented, or declared to be protected by “trade secret” – even if you did not divulge the recipe to anyone. Serving the muffins in public considered public disclosure.

You could copyright it within a cookbook.  If a group of non-copyrightable recipes is collected (“compiled”) into a book, then the compilation is protected, except the single recipe (the quince muffin) that is contained in a compilation (it would be too easy).   However, if the quince muffin recipe is accompanied by a substantial literary expression (i.e. the method of preparation or the direction for combining the ingredients is written like a poem, or like an 18th Century mystery) there may be a basis for copyright protection.

For example, read the following interesting story and use it in your future endeavors:  The following paragraph was taken from a book, titled: The Great American Barbecue & Grilling Manual; specifically, it is the direction for turning a steak on a grill:  “Allow the meat to heat up.  When the grill is right, wipe the steaks dry and place the steaks carefully and firmly upon the grill.  Then leave them alone!  Do not touch them, talk to them or worry them in any way!  Steaks know when they need to be turned and will show you — if you let them.  When a ready steak meets the heated grill, they seize each other with the intensity of newlyweds. At the proper time, they will turn loose.  Flip them over with a spatula, not a fork.  They will grab each other again.  When they turn loose the second time, the honeymoon is over and it’s time to get on with business.”

A perfect example of a copyrightable recipe.  Now I am really going complete this story using Donata Thomas’ comment on Diane’s post:  “I could really care less if Ina or Martha or Julia or whoever has used the recipe before, and quite frankly, have never watched or read anything completely original from any of the fore-mentioned, what I’m looking for is someone who sparks my curiosity, or maybe someone who is a great story teller, or someone who sparks my creativity, or shares a similar world view, or is just so different enough from my self that I want to learn more about their ways.”

Well-said Donata. I hope you will not sue me for using your comment. Actually you can add your comment with a minor tweak as part of the quince muffin recipe and we got a patented product that is also protected by copyright.

Anyone that read this post up to here deserves an Oscar.

We at Chocolates & Figs are thankful for your support by visiting our site, by telling your  friends about us, by updating us about the important events in your life on Facebook (Chocolates & Figs) and for exchanging ideas on Twitter. Thank you guys.

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HAPPY VALENTINE’S DAY

ISN’T  THIS PAGE LOOKS WONDERFUL?

DO YOU THINK  THESE ARE THE RESULTS OF HARD LABOR?

YOU COULD NOT BE FURTHER FROM THE TRUTH

Color Shell-molded Chocolates

When you look at these chocolates you immediately thinking about the hard work the producer had to go through to create these beauties.

I have no other response, except repeating the previous sentence:

YOU COULD NOT BE FURTHER FROM THE TRUTH

Here is what you need:

1. A professional chocolate mold with heart-shape design
2. Good quality chocolates: Dark, milk and white
3. For the filling, whatever you like to flavor the basic ganache with (i.e. fruit purees, various nuts, liquors, coconuts, coffee, etc.)
4. Food Coloring (preferably powder forms)
5. Cocoa butter
6. Transfer Sheets
7. Chocolate Spatulas

Preparation

If you want to be real fancy, you could purchase an airbrush machine. You have more option with the machine because you can control the spraying.

Anyway, most of the chocolates that you see here are finger-painted. What that means?

You can either use just cocoa butter that you warm up and mix with the food colors to obtain the desired colors.

I used white chocolate mixed with the food colors.

Once I obtained the desired color, I took a clean mold, dipped my finger (please use disposable gloves on your hand) into the chocolate and started creating designs with my fingers that contained the colorful chocolate inside the cavities of the mold.

I let the chocolate settle at room temperature for a few hours; if refrigerated 30 minutes is sufficient.

Then I took  the desired chocolate (dark, milk, or white) that is tempered and proceeded to create molded chocolates.

First I poured the melted, tempered chocolate into the mold and filled all the cavities to the top. Then turned the mold upside down to pour out the excess chocolate (you can tap on the side of the mold to make sure to get rid of all the excess) and let the mold rest on a wire, face down, so that excess chocolate continues to drip out of the cavities and also to cover the walls of the cavities with the chocolate to the rim.

After about 2 hours at room temperature, I turned the molds back up (cavities facing me) and piped in the desired ganache filling that I prepared while the molds were resting. You should leave, about 1/8 inch from the top free from the filling to leave space for the closure.

Now you let the chocolate in the mold rest for 12 hours.

After 12 hours, you pour the melted, tempered chocolate over the filling, remove the excess with the chocolate spatula and let the chocolate settle for about 1 hour in the refrigerator.

After 1 hour, take the mold out of the refrigerator, turn it upside down, tap the mold on its side a bit and Walla! The bonbons will fall out of the mold.

You should have beautiful, shiny, bonbons on the tabletop, or wherever you have unmolded the bonbons.

Purchase a professional grade mold, buy top quality chocolate, including lots of white chocolate, food colorings (I like either powder form or color emulsion), cocoa butter – this is what we call finger painting

MORE LATER…

By sharing your experience in dining-out on Valentine’s Day and as a result help others to enjoy a great evening, on February 14, 2012, Chocolates & Figs will enter you to our raffle to win $100.00 for your romantic evening.  (Two people will win $100.00 each).

Did you realize that Valentine’s Day is knocking on your door? Are you wondering if Cupid has his bow and arrow ready for February 14?

I guess it is time to plan for how you wish to celebrate this beautiful Holiday. I am positive that restaurants are also scrambling to get ready for the biggest “dining-out” night of the year. People are truly treating this day as a special occasion, even if the economy is still on shaky ground.

So, how do people pick an appropriate venue? Most of us like to spend the evening in a restaurant that offers a romantic ambiance and serves food that gets our sexual energy flowing.

Others enjoy the same thing in the privacy of their home where they can add their own loving touches to the meal. And lets not forget the breakfast in bed.  It is the easiest meal that one can prepare with flowers, champagne, chocolate-dipped strawberries and Love of course, serve at the right place.

But that is not what this post is about. If you want to continue to read about aphrodisiacal foods, romantic meals and how they lead to sexual arousal, please read our posts published in February 2011; I promise you, they are good read.

What we would like to do today is help our readers to select that special restaurant as an informed diner. I am sure we all experienced a situation, where we walked into the restaurant of our choice just to realize that it is the wrong place. Unfortunately, that is too late to do anything about it.

We decided to ask your help.  We would very much appreciate it if you could share with us your experiences in eating out. If you will send us a brief review about the restaurant you enjoyed your romantic evening the most, we may help you with the bill this February 14, by placing you into our raffle to win $100.00. Wouldn’t that be great?

Please include the name and location of the restaurant, how did you select the place? (By what criteria?), the dish you enjoyed the most and why, and any other morsels you think our readers may enjoy to learn about.

It is also a great opportunity for getting additional exposure for your website/blog while networking with other food enthusiasts. Not to mention, you may also generate bonus traffic to your website by providing back-links in your blog.

Because it’s a new raffle by a single blog you will have a significantly greater chance of winning as compared to a huge group of blogs.

We also will appreciate it if you will spread word via Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Google plus and other social networking sites.

 Additional conditions of entry:

1)            You must be the author of the review.

2)            You must have visited the location.

3)            All entries must be about your experience in a restaurant.

4)           Entries must be received by midnight, Eastern Time, February 12, 2012

5) International visitors are welcome to participate

6) If you win the prize of $100.00, Chocolates & Figs will deposit the $100.00 into your PayPal account.  We will contact the winner by email.

7) If the winner will not respond within 48 hours, an alternate winner will be selected.

8) The contest commences immediately (January 29, 2012) and the prize will be awarded on February 13, 2012

9) Become a subscriber and we will notify you about up coming events (most are discounted to members), interesting news, recipes that are only available to our subscribers and more.  Furthermore, by subscribing to our newsletter, you will have a double chance to win.

10) If you submit your review with a photograph, you will receive extra credit for your entry (surprise gift)

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Good looking, healthy, home-made gift

We have spoiled our kids and grandchildren with all the indulging goodies during the holiday season; and they loved it. Now, we feel guilty to cut them out from their lunch box completely; however, logic tells us that we cannot and should not continue to pamper them with high-sugar content snacks for the rest of the year (although, I am sure they will not object to it).

After a long day of thinking about how to select a middle road, I came up with a genius idea.  Most kids love that simplest of treats, the peanut butter and jelly sandwich.  According to the National Peanut Board, the average kid eats 1500 peanut butter and jelly sandwiches before graduating high school.

I decided to channel the essence of the peanut butter and jelly (PB&J) into an even more delicious peanut butter and jelly cookie. This combines a healthy snack that is packed with many of the important B-complex vitamins and antioxidants, with the need to satisfy the cravings for sweets.

What goes better with peanut butter than chocolate? We all know by now the many health benefits of dark chocolate. There is a growing credible scientific evidence that dark chocolate has a host of heart-healthy and mood-enhancing chemicals, with benefits to both the body and mind. Chocolate cookies would be my sandwich bread.

I thought it would be easy, but I should have known better:  just because something is simple it does not necessarily mean easy.

Interestingly, the “PB&J” got its first start not as a treat but as a desperation meal.

In the Depression, meat was hard to come by.  Peanut butter had been a delicacy served in high-end restaurants until the 1920’s, when mass production brought down the price.  Also invented in the 1920’s—pre-sliced white bread.  Presto—when times were tough, peanut butter sandwiches proved the perfect protein solution.   Peanut butters of this time were even stickier than today, so jams or  jelly made it easier to eat, as well as offering what every child wants, sweet.

But the peanut butter and jelly sandwich only really made it when it received the blessing of the U.S. military.  In World War II, the military used peanut butter as a cheap protein alternative, which when combined with wheat bread, makes a complete protein.  Jelly was added to make it easier to eat.  Meanwhile, back home, peanut butter was one of the few protein sources that weren’t subject to rationing.  What started, as a necessity became habit and then affection.  In the postwar years, the PB&J became the cultural icon it remains today.

For my first attempt at PB&J cookies, the cookies spread too much (apparently too much sugar) and lacked flavor. The peanut butter took control over the taste and texture. (I was so disappointed that I forgot to photograph the “ill” cookies). Nevertheless, I was ready for the improved batch.

Of course, I was going over the recipe and the method of preparation to find the source of the problem. The first thing I came up with (aside from the too much sugar)  is the store-bought peanut butter (I used Jiffy). I also have to tell you that somehow during my traveling around I lost my scale and I did not have a chance to replace it yet.

I decided to buy a more expensive “au natural” organic peanut butter for my next batch. This one had the oil separated from the mixture, kind of floating on the top. I knew that I can mix it and most likely it will be creamy and taste “peanut buttery” with a touch of creamy milk chocolate.

Two things happened: first, I had a hard time to mix the oil and the peanut butter and most likely I did not mix the two well. Second, the baked cookies’ texture was too hard almost immediately after cooling. The next day, I needed a good set of teeth to be able to take a bite. I did not think that it is for children (especially young ones) with their primary teeth.

There could be a number of reasons for cookies to become tough (and that could be discussed in a separate report), but Good Housekeeping advocates placing a slice of bread into the jar where you keep the cookies to soften them. I question this method because I am not sure what else the bread will do to the cookies.

Although they did not look over baked, I cannot thing that anything else could have caused the over hardening. I also should have remember that in convection oven, what I used this time, you need to cut the  baking time.

This time, however,  I photographed some of the cookies, because they looked so nice and I worked hard to create a design on half of the cookies, so that when I made them into a sandwich, the design would add another attractive touch for the kids.

You can see that they are a bit darker than the next batch that came out fine. These were filled with peanut butter butter cream swirled with cherry jam.

In the next batch I did not change any of the ingredients; I used the home-made peanut butter butter cream for filling (see recipe at the end of the post)  and watched the baking time very carefully.

When I took out the first batch from the oven, I looked at he cookies, then I looked up and whispered: Thank you…

These cookies not only looked attractive but tasted delicious with the roasted peanuts giving them a bit of a spicy touch. I went on to create as many varieties as I had strength to do (after the long hours I worked the entire day) by playing with the fillings.

Here are some of my creative productions:

• Some had a layer of raspberry jam on top of the homemade peanut butter butter cream for fillings between two cookies (first photograph below);
• Some cookies had a layer of homemade peanut butter butter cream as a filling between two cookies topped with a layer of raspberry  jam sandwiched with a third cookie (second photograph below);
• Other variation included a sandwich cookie with peanut butter butter cream swirled with jam.
• A unique presentation included a “real” triple-decker cookie that contained 6 cookies: first cookie was spread with the pure peanut butter butter cream topped with a cookie that was spread with pure strawberry jelly and sandwiched with another cookie that had peanut butter butter cream swirled strawberry jelly sandwiched with another cookie. I forgot to mention that all cookies were dusted with powdered sugar for attractive presentation (third photograph below).

I like this stack

Finally I went with chocolate butter cookies for the “bread.”  I used non-dutch-processed cocoa powder for the chocolate flavor, but this time I added roughly ground roasted peanuts to the dough, to give it a little crunch and more peanut flavor without affecting the color.

To make things a little more interesting, I used a boat-shaped tartlet pan as a cookie cutter. This also gave it a little more of a loaf-like appearance.  In addition, I successfully used roasted peanuts to make my own peanut butter butter cream. (recipe below).  I roasted the peanuts myself and used the coffee grinder for grinding the peanuts. Finally, I topped the cookies with a touch of coarse sea salt before baking.

The result, I think, was a PB&J extravaganza fit for a young prince or princess.  The soft, melting texture of the cookie is reminiscent of Wonderbread, albeit denser and far more flavorful.   The smooth succulent combination of homemade peanut butter and unsalted butter mixed with sugar is irresistible.  And the salty top accentuates the salty-sweet combination that defines the peanut butter sandwich.  Yummy!

1. Butter Cookies with Ground Roasted Salted Peanuts, Sandwiched with Peanut Butter Cream, and Raspberry Jam

INGREDIENTS

• 8 Tablespoons (4 oz.)  softened, sweet butter
• 1/2 cup (3.5 oz.) granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup (3.0 oz.)  light brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 egg
• 1 cup (all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 cup shelled salted, roasted peanuts, roughly ground

Creamy Peanut Butter

PREPARATION

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F.
2. Butter a parchment paper and line the baking sheet with it with the buttered side up.
3. In a bowl, cream the butter and sugars with an electric mixer until the mixture is light in color and fluffy in texture.
4. Add the vanilla extract and egg. Beat well.
5. Sift the flour and baking powder into the mixture and fold it with a wooden spoon
6. Lastly add the ground peanuts and blend well.
7. Drop rounded tablespoons of the batter about 2 inches apart, onto the buttered parchment paper (or use Silpat). Flatten the dough with the back of a tablespoon and make a small hole in the middle with the tip of a knife (only half of the cookies).
8. Bake the cookies for about 10-12 minutes, or until they are light brown and cool them on a rack.
9. Spread one cookie with store-bought, smooth peanut butter and top the peanut butter with another cookie that has a hole.
10. Sift powdered sugar on the sandwiched cookie for presentation.

2. Chocolate Butter Cookie Sandwich with Roasted Peanuts and Homemade Peanut Butter Butter Cream

Ingredients

• 8 ounce (2 sticks) sweet, unsalted butter, softened
• ½ cup (1.5 oz) non-dutch-processed cocoa powder
• 1 cup (7 oz.) Bakers sugar (granulated is fine too)
• 2 large eggs and 1 egg yolk
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract (no imitation)
• 1 teaspoon almond extract (optional)
• 2 ¼ cup (11.25 oz.) all-purpose flour, sift it after measuring
• Zest of 1 orange (use your finest zester)
• 1-2 tablespoons fresh orange juice
• 1-cup (6 oz.) raw peanuts roast them for 10 minutes in a 350F oven; once cooled, grind them roughly.

Preparation

1. Place the oven rack to the middle position;
2. Heat oven to 375 degrees.
3. Melt 4 tablespoons butter in a saucepan over medium heat.
4. Add the cocoa powder and stir until mixture forms smooth paste. Set aside.
5. Mix the remaining (12 tablespoons) butter, sugar, salt, and cooled cocoa mixture with either a standing or a hand-held mixer until well combined and fluffy (it may take 2-3 minutes).
6. Add the eggs and the egg yolk and mix to incorporate the eggs well
7. Add the vanilla and almond (optional) extracts, orange juice and orange zest and mix on medium speed until thoroughly combined (about 1 minute)
8. Add flour in three additions, waiting until each addition is incorporated before adding the next.
9. Lastly fold the roughly ground peanuts into the dough.
10. Continue to mix until the dough forms a cohesive ball.
11. Turn dough onto a lightly dusted counter, (do not worry if you will lose some peanuts during this process) divide into two and form it into a disk shape.
12. Wrap each disk in plastic wrap and a foil wrap.
13. Refrigerate until dough is firm yet malleable (about 1 hour)
14. Alternatively, you can shape the dough into a log (2 inches in diameter and about 12 inches long) use parchment paper or plastic wrap to roll into a neat cylinder. (Chill until very firm and cold, at least 1 hour.)
15. Roll out one dough disk between 2 large sheets of parchment paper to even thickness of 3/16 inch. (If the dough becomes too soft and sticky, slide rolled dough on parchment onto baking sheet and re-chill until firm (about 15 minutes.)
16. Peel the parchment from one side of dough and cut into desired shapes using cookie cutters (I used a boat-shaped tartlet pan for interesting presentation for the kids)
17. Place the cut cookies on a parchment-lined baking sheet (I used Silpat; I love to work with them. Easy to use, easy to clean) spacing them about 1 inch apart.
18. Gather the dough scraps and chill, and then continue to use it as above (For the cylinder-shaped dough, simply slice the cookies 1/4 inch thick and place them on parchment-lined baking sheets.)
19. Sprinkle a touch of sea salt on the top of cookies, before baking
20. Bake until the cookies show slight resistance to touch (about 10 to 12 minutes), rotating the baking sheet halfway through baking time; always err on under baking vs. over baking. NOTE: if the cookies become too dark on edges, they have been over baked.
21. Cool for 5 minutes, then transfer the cookies to a wire rack and cool completely.
22. Repeat steps 3 and 4 with the remaining dough disks and scraps, re-rolling scraps just once (NOTE: do not re-roll more than one more time; the cookies will become too hard if worked-on too many times).
23. Decorate as desired.

Ingredients for Peanut Butter Butter Cream

• 1 cup roasted peanuts (about 6 oz.)
• 2 tablespoons peanut oil (you can use other nut oil, like walnut, or almond); do not use olive oil.
• ½ teaspoon sea salt
• 2 tablespoons (1 oz.) salted butter
• ½ cup (3.5 oz.) granulated sugar

Method of Preparation

1. Grind the roasted peanuts finely (it should start to be a paste); you can either use a food processor, or a coffee grinder. If your Food Processor is a powerful one, it should do a good job. My processor was not good enough, so I used the coffee grinder.
2. Add the 1-tablespoon oil and mix it well. If it is still too stiff, add another tablespoon of oil and mix it well.
3. Add the sugar and continue to mix it well in the food processor. You do not want to feel the sugar pieces in it.
4. Lastly add the softened butter and mix it well. Keep it refrigerated.

Assemble the Sandwich Cookies

1. Take one cookie and spread the peanut butter butter cream on its underside to the thickness of your desire; place another cookie with the underside touching the butter cream.
2. Decorate he top as you wish. I just used the peanut butter butter cream brush stroke.
3. Let me know if you decided to bake both, or one of the recipes of the cookies. I’d love to learn how they came out? How you and the kids liked them? Would you make them again?

We will have a cookie contest again later this year. You may want to experiment with various recipes until then.