ahomechocolatier

As its the time of the year (March) in England we see the first supplies of Rhubarb to come into the shops, i decided to make some chocolates using this fine ingredient. The best young Rhubarb in this country comes from Yorkshire and is of the forced type and its very tender. My idea was to form a puree from the Rhubarb in a little sugar syrup, reducing it down, blending until smooth adding double (heavy) cream and finely chopped stem ginger. I would then pour the puree over some organic white chocolate to form the ganache. I made some square tempered dark chocolate cases and added the ganache, finally capping off the cases with more tempered dark chocolate. The result was a very smooth ganache with a delicate background Rhubarb taste with a foreground taste of stem ginger. I will be adding a recipe to my blog soon at www.ahomechocolatier.com

This year I wanted to make a special chocolate for Valentines Day and a Passion Fruit Ganache seemed appropriate. I looked at different ways of making the ganache using passion fruit puree and white chocolate. The method I chose was to use a ready made passion fruit coulis I stumbled upon in Marks & Spencer’s grocery store as it contained around 71% mixture of fruit /fruit concentrate. The coulis had a little natural sugar but would work well with the ganache. It was also very cost effective (£2.00) to use a bought coulis rather than make the coulis from scratch. If I were to make this with ripe fruit it would be extremely expensive at £2.50 for 2 passion fruits and I would need around 12 passion fruits. I used dark tempered chocolate (70%) and heart shaped moulds for these chocolates. Making 21 plain cases and 9 decorated with edible metallic gold and silver powder as an experiment. I was concerned that the passion fruit taste might be overwhelmed with the white chocolate but I should not have worried as the result was superb. A well tempered dark chocolate case leading into a rich passion fruit taste…. as the Italians say…. That’s Amore! To see more please visit my Blog at http://www.ahomechocolatier.com/passion-fruit-ganache/

Hi Jim, I am located NW of London. The forum looks to be a good reference source. I stumbled upon it when I was looking for pear ganache ideas. I have been looking at lots of flavours as fillings for chocolates. Recently made Rose Truffles with tempered chocolate outer layer. Making the ganache for these beauties involved making a rose petal infused sugar syrup which was a great success. I am presently working on a Passion Fruit/ white chocolate soft ganache filling for 70% dark chocolate heart moulded shell cases, for valentines day. Should be all ok for completing them next saturday! I will share my experiences in the forum soon.

Hi everyone, I am a home chocolatier (aka Rob Pratt). I recently started making chocolates at home and I also started a blog to share my experiences (www.ahomechocolatier.com). Theres so much to learn, but I have been having fun in the kitchen. Over the years I have become quite a good cook but making chocolates has opened a new world. I look forward to sharing ideas, my successes and a few failures …. but always having fun along the way. regards Rob Pratt (a home chocolatier)