Tuesday, August 21, 2007

Making Chocolate Gelato



Inspired by an article I pulled out of Traditional Home called “Sassy Sorbet”, I decided to make some cocoa infused frozen desserts. My first attempt at a tasty frozen treat was to use my remaining white chocolate square with berries from Dylan’s Candy Bar. I grab my Trader Joe’s Organic Cocoa Powder made with criollo and trinitario cacao beans from Peru from the pantry along with the white chocolate, caster sugar and salt. Ohhh! This should be good!

I was off to the race. I used a recipe from the internet as a guide, but I added my own spin to the recipe. So, here is what I came up with…Chocolate Surprise Sorbet by Cocoa Connoisseur:

Ingredients:
1 ¼ c Caster Sugar (fine sugar)
3 1/3 c Water, Room Temperature
¼ c White Chocolate with Berries (from Dylan’s Candy Bar or something similar)
1 c Cocoa Powder
2 tsp Vanilla
Pinch Salt

Preparation:
Whisk together the Caster Sugar and Water in a bowl until sugar is dissolved. Add the Cocoa Powder, Vanilla and Salt to the sugar/water mixture until smooth.

Chop the White Chocolate with Berries into small pieces. Add the chopped White Chocolate chunks. Blend completely.

Pour the mixture into your ice cream maker’s freezer bowl. Follow your machine’s instruction book to start and operate the unit.


Personally, this stuff was delicious! My husband loved it so much he kept eating it. Then, the next day I come home from work and the sorbet is all gone!! What in the world…the man was claiming I was making him “fat” with these desserts.

If you ask me, that is a personal problem and he must have lost his mind throwing out a good batch of chocolate sorbet (I didn’t event get a picture of it yet). But in actuality, he was addicted and kept eating it. They say, “the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach”. Well, I definitely won that battle!

Oh, back to the cacao beans. Both criollo and trinitario beans are grown in tropical regions within the latitudes of 20° South and 20° North of the equator. The temperature must consistently be between 70° to 77° F for the beans to flourish. Only about 1% of criollo and 14% of the trinitario are used to make chocolate. Both beans are quite flavorful, but unfortunately, they are not used in most of the chocolate we eat today (especially here in the USA). As for criollo beans, most of the beans produced are a criollo/trinitario hybrid with 2% to 5% cacao producing trees available. So, if you’re a label readier, look for criollo and trinitario for the best beans!

Sunday, August 5, 2007

White Hot Chocolate?

After an early morning trip to the Houston Galleria, I stopped by one of my favorite stores...Dylan's Candy Bar. Instantly, I turn into a kid again. It was all about Fun Dip, Everlasting Gobstoppers and any other candy made by Willy Wonka. But of course, I don't stray too far from finding goodies to make hot chocolate.

I came across some squares of white chocolate mixed with dried fruit. I am not a fan of white chocolate because it really isn't chocolate. White chocolate is made with sugar, cocoa butter and milk. There isn't an ounce of chocolate liquor or cocoa solids/mass in it. So, why they call it "chocolate" is beyond me?

Nonetheless, when I got home I set up the double boiler and started up chopping up one square of the white chocolate. I added one cup of milk to the double boiler. Since I can't stand skin forming on my milk and I make sure I keep the temperature at Medium/Low. Once the milk was heated, I added the white chocolate w/berry pieces to the milk. After stirring frequently and watching the berries come away from the chocolate, I placed a strainer over my mug. I poured the yellowish colored mixture into the mug/strainer, leaving the berries behind.

Ahhhh! Finally, I sat down to enjoy my quick creation. Ohhhh! Too sugary for me? However, you can takes the essence of the berries. Cranberries were definitely was included in the mix. Oh well, I will save the other square for another adventure.