Bacon Bourbon Pecan Bar

Disclaimer:  I am not a big fan of eating chocolate.  I love making it, but eating it, well I am ambivalant.  When I'm developing a new filling or bar,  I taste to make sure the flavor is what I am going for.  When I hit that spot, I record the recipe, and that's it.  I am not sneaking samples.  I mean, there are only so many calories in a day, right? 

But this bar - well I eat this bar.  And when I make it I package it up right away and hope that it sells out so I can't be tempted.

The Bacon Bourbon Pecan Bar started out as a search for flavors that would not just work well together, but really sing.  This bar delivers on that goal and more, a harmony of flavors that reveal themselves layer by layer to make a savory bar meant to be, well, savored.

Organic cacao nibs from Ecuador were soaked in bacon flavored bourbon for days, as were organic pecans.  Then the nibs were slow roasted for hours and ground into a dark chocolate.  The pecans were likewise roasted in butter and maple syrup.  And the leftover soaking bourbon?  That got used to make a maple syrup brittle that was added back into the ground chocolate.  Put some of the pecans on the back of the bar, and this bar was so many things:  savory, sweet, salty, smoky, and layers and layers of depth in flavor.

Our first small batch sold out in 8 hours.  So thank you for eliminating my temptation!  We will make it again.

The story of Rose Gold

Maybe you'd guess it, but maybe you wouldn't -  a lot of thought goes into making up these little chocolates, and the story behind the Rose Gold that is a limited edition debuting on Valentine's is one of those little love stories with a big back story.

Those of you who have been over to Sin Confections have seen the gardens in the front, and maybe seen the roses in bloom.  Sin is housed in a Carriage House, it was built in 1903 before there were cars and the Carriage House was built to hold the carriage.  The horses were in the yard, or stabled nearby.  In keeping with the theme of staying historic, we decided to plant roses in the front of the house that were around in 1903.

Antique Roses may not be as big or as showy as modern roses, but they sure smell great, and I got to thinking that it might be interesting to see how roses could be used in a confection.  Most folks just candy the rose petals, which I've done, but I wanted to take it a step further.  I made a couverture out of rose petals which tastes mighty amazing.

Dr. Jaman is the name of the antique rose that was harvested for the couverture.  This rose has a very heady scent, a beautiful color and thankfully was a prolific bloomer.  Sin grows organically.  We compost with yard waste and fertilize with worm castings from our worm composter.  We don't spray, period.  I say this because most roses are sprayed or have systemic pesticides and artificial fertilizer used in their growth, which makes for beautiful roses but not so nice for being edible... So, it not for the worms, we wouldn't have these special roses to make into couverture.

Petals are collected in the morning hours when they have the most flavor and scent, frozen, dried and powdered.  An entire season of petals yielded less than 5 ounces of powder.  This is the key ingredient for the couverture that makes up the outside of the rose gold bon-bon.  There are no artificial flavors or colors.  What you see and taste is Dr. Jaman.  It didn't make much.

The gold on the outside of the confection is 23K gold leaf that was left over from when we did the restoration of the interior of the house.  We have compo molding running around the bottom of our tin ceilings and when we stripped the paint and restored,  the craftsman who had worked in the national cathedral and palace in Mexico City was very excited to gild the molding as he had done years ago in La Cuidad.  I got to watch him do the painstaking work of gilding the molding, and learned a bit on how to work with the gold leaf.

Finally, the terrific shine on the chocolate to complement the gold was a technique I learned just a few weeks ago at a class in Las Vegas.  Take a good look at the top photo, and you can see my reflection in it when I was taking the shot.  By mixing cocoa butter with the couverture and spraying the mold under the right conditions, the beauty of the rose petal color has a shine that compliments and competes with the gold leaf.  It is a wonderful confluence of nature and beauty that makes up this special couverture for Valentine's Day.

Pumpkin Patch

The  Pumpkin Patch

 Fall Holidays always feature pumpkins, so why not go all the way out with a chocolate pumpkin that is filled with seasonal candied fruit?  That was the thought behind the small pumpkin patch that we created this year.  

The pumpkin mold was first painted, then filled with chocolate to make a shell:

and finally stuffed with fruit dipped in chocolate:  candied orange slice, candied ginger, candied grapefruit rinds, cranberries, apricots and stroopwafels. 

After the two sides of the pumpkin were gently melted and glued together with the treats inside, they were decorated with a marzipan leaf, glued on with chocolate.  The mold for the leaves was one of the antique marzipan molds that came out of a warehouse in Belgium that was found when it was cleaned out.  

Not all pumpkins are created equal.  Diversity comes in all colors!

Handpainted Transfer Sheets

Port Ganache Praline with hand painted transfer sheet design

For those of you not familiar with the term "transfer sheet", it's nothing more than a piece of acetate that has pigmented cocoa butter covering one side of it.  I say "nothing more" but the transfer sheets one can buy vary in quality and colors and there are a multitude of designs for almost any idea, holiday or whim.  Check out Chef Rubber and Chocotransfersheets for two sources of beautiful sheets.  Basically, they make their sheets with a specialized silk screen process that uses pigmented cocoa butter as the "ink".

Custom Painted Transfer Sheet designed for Valentines Day

Some times I want a specific design that I can't get from either place, and I only want one or two sheets.  Since I'm a long way from being a big production house pumping out zillions of chocolates, I make my own.  I find painting a transfer sheet can be very meditative.  I guess we all have our thing.  Some days painting transfer sheets is mine.

These lemon-mint pralines used the transfer sheet shown in the  next two photos below.

Anyway.  Just how does a transfer sheet work, you ask?  Well, you place the acetate sheet paint side down on liquid chocolate.  And the heat of the liquid chocolate acts like a sort of solvent that melts the cocoa butter.  As the chocolate and the cocoa butter cool, they become one (see, that zen thing going on here?).  Once the chocolate has set, the acetate sheet is peeled off of the chocolate, and the cocoa butter design that was once on the acetate has now magically transferred to the chocolate.

Mold seen from Back with transfer sheet and magnets

There are some special mold that have a removable bottom into which one places the transfer sheet, and then places the bottom back into the mold.

Mold seen from Front with Cavities

The mold and the bottom have magnets that hold them fast together, and keep the transfer sheet in place.  If the sheet moved, then the transfer would get all muddy looking and of course you would have to feed all those chocolates to your partner and kids...

Filled Mold (can't see transfer sheet)

That's only one way to use transfer sheets.  You can also just cut pieces of the sheet and place it on top of liquid chocolate, and make sure it doesn't move.  That's the process used here.  I made some wasabi-lime truffles, and made up a transfer sheet in greens.  I wanted to give the impression of sushi.

It's also a great way for people to decorate their own chocolates.  My friend Judi, a beautiful fine arts painter, came over the other day and we played around in the studio.  She painted up her own transfer sheet, then we made up a box of chocolates with them for her to take home.  Edible art!

Playing with Tape

Instagram is great.  So much inspiration and great energy from people we might never get to know otherwise.  I discovered Hiba Chocolates  and in this post she really got me thinking about what I wanted to accomplish with my chocolates this year.  I've decided it was the year to experiment and perfect my craft.  So with a big thanks to Hiba, I've started working away at it.  My friends are thankful to her as well, they get to eat all the rejects as I experiment.

I started with something simple, playing with tape.  I used both vinyl and paper, and have had much cleaner edges with vinyl tape.  Some of the tape is very thin, about 1mm.  Here's the output from playing with tape a bit.

Tape down the middle, and a toothpick to scrape away the paint for X&O

Criss Cross Tape, two different widths, and three dots using different width "dotters".

Criss-Cross tape, same width.

Thank you Hiba!

Enter the Dragon

The largest mold I have is a dragon, that was made in Italy specifically for the Chinese Year of the Dragon.  But why use it for just that?  Dragons are too much fun to just take off the shelf every 12 years.  This dragon weighs in at 4+ ounces, and easily makes an entire meal  can be shared between 6 people.  While it takes a long time to paint these by hand and airbrush, they sure are a lot of fun to do.  Lately I've been filling them with a ganache that has PopRocks© in it.  Dragons are supposed to sizzle, after all.

I am Thankful for: Chocolate Covered Flaming Hot Cheetos

Each year my friend Christie hosts an amazing foodie party where the guests bring a food dish based on a specific theme.   Competition is fierce.

Christie's husband always has some killer submissions.  And I've learned that he has a secret ingredient that makes it's way into all of his creations: flaming hot Cheetos.

Now the first year when I was invited the food theme was grilled cheese.  I ate his grilled cheese creation with more than a bit of trepidation.  It had Velveeta, spam, and flaming hot Cheetos in it.  To be honest, I thought I was going to be sick, but since he was the host, I had to try it.  I went back for thirds...

This year we were lucky to share Thanksgiving with Christie and her extended family.  I got off easy, I just had to bring chocolates.  But not just any chocolates would do for her husband.  Yup, that's right:  Chocolate Covered Flaming Hot Cheetos.  I'm pretty sure that's going to be a new Thanksgiving food tradition at their house.  That is, if her husband shared with anyone else.

Chocolate & Cheer

Sometimes you need a jump start on the holidays, and this year was no exception.  I'm not talking about shopping, but the gathering of good friends and good food part.  Just before Thanksgiving we hosted a large party for about 70 guests.  We served Cocktails and Chocolate.  Guests who hadn't been to one of  our tastings before were surprised to see that all the chocolates were handmade.

All in all, there were about thirty different chocolates for folks to sample.  Along with associated spirit pairing.  We had lots of shot glasses for folks to use.  Thank goodness folks helped wash up!

We recovered from the excesses of chocolate just in time for the onslaught of Thanksgiving.  Hoping your holiday table was filled with good food and surrounded by good friends and family.