The Chocolate Academy - Chicago

There I was, in November, sitting at my desk at my office job, bored, surfing the net and lo and behold there it was, EXACTLY what I have been looking for...an Artistic Showpiece Course in chocolate in Chicago.  I have wanted to learn how to make a showpiece out of chocolate for years, now was my chance.  A few financial calculations, some surfing for hotels, clear off the credit card, book the flight on Porter Airlines and I was going to Chicago in February!  

Speed ahead 3 months and I'm sitting in the lounge in the Island Airport, shitting bricks wondering what the hell I was doing going to a prestigious chocolate academy in Chicago.  A course taught by the head technical advisor of Barry Callebaut (world chocolate supplier)...my stomach turning, and not from the turbulence of the flight to Chicago.

We checked into our hotel around dinner time Sunday night and headed out to find some grub.  Chicago is a wonderful city as far as cities go and the choice of restaurants is amazing!

Monday morning came way too fast.  Paul walked me to school and there it was...The Academy on the 8th floor, my name on the wall welcoming me and 6 other students to the Artistic Showpiece class with Chef Jerome.  After putting on my chef uniform I sat in the kitchen tightly holding my morning coffee, scarfing down a croissant and hearing how the others were shitting bricks too!

The first day was all about introductions, the equipment in the lab we would be using and engineering a showpiece so it wouldn't fall over and keeping your work station and your nice, new white apron gleaming white for the next four days...

5 minutes into pouring chocolate into a mold, my apron came undone and the ends, well they were in the mold that I had just filled with dark chocolate...so much for my gleaming white apron...

The first day was spent making support structures, talking about techniques and building the body of a crane that would tower up to 4 feet high when completed.

Day 2 was spent finishing the structure of the crane's body, making the base for the showpiece and adding the wings and feathers - all chocolate!

Day 3, we built the base up to place a large chocolate sphere in the middle where the crane was going to stand.  A hole had to be melted into the top of the sphere, a cylinder of chocolate 'glued' into the sphere then the bird body balanced on top.  One of the students, while sweating profusely  and said "Day 3 - spinchter factor was at an all time high".  Chef Jerome helped me 'glue' my crane onto the sphere but said it need some support as a lot of  the weight was on one front support - I quickly went to work.

Day 4 - the crane was still standing the next morning.  I went to work, we had 2 hours to finish the crane's feathers, head and beak!  I was putting on the top combing of the crane, up on a ladder, ready to put on my piece of chocolate, cold spray it into place and then there was no artistic showpiece left - it had crumbled to the floor beneath me.  Note to self: read some engineering/gravity books...  yes, it was in pieces on the floor - 30 hours of work back in the melter...

All was not lost, one of the students was ill so I was able to use his partially finished piece.  I still had only 1 hour to finish the head, beak and feathers, I missed coffee break that morning.  The rest of that day was spent making flowers, making beautiful long tendrils of chocolate that snaked around the piece.  Then we went to work spraying the bird with chocolate, added the beautiful flower. 

Chef Jerome finished his bird by spraying the flower with coloured cocoa butter and highlighting parts of the crane with some beautiful oranges and dark blue cocoa butter.  We had a plane to catch and were already into the champagne so I didn't have time to finish with the colouring...but I did get my certificate and the t-shirt.

Chef Jerome's finished piece!

Me and Chef Jerome!  YEAH!  (Yes I have chef hat head...after 40 hours...)

I had a few embarrassing moments like a piping bag full of chocolate exploding on my nice white apron and the cup off the air brush, that was filled with cocoa butter and dark chocolate, spill down into the sleeve of my chef jacket - but all in all I learned an amazing amount and had an amazing time.  I can hardly wait to go back to The Chocolate Academy and do it all over again!

For the Love of Cake - Part 2

Cake, cake, CAKE, CaKe, C.A.K.E., cake....cake.  I'm trying to figure out an interesting recipe to post that's not too hard, not too easy, doesn't give away any of my secret recipes and something I have a picture of...ahhhh - did I say CAKE.

Chocolate cake.  The recipes are many.  You can use melted chocolate in your chocolate cake or cocoa powder.  Coffee, nutmeg, cloves, cinnamon all go amazing with chocolate.  Why am I focusing on chocolate cake?  Well, I am a chocolatier and I have a lot of chocolate cake recipes and not many people hate chocolate.  My first day in chocolate school we made chocolate cake covered in chocolate ganache - I'm in heaven.  

I was at George Brown College, a decent 20 minute walk from school to the GO Train at 10:30 at night in downtown Toronto.  There I was, in my droopy chef pants, steel toed butcher boots, chocolate covered chef jacket, chef hat head, large red down-filled winter coat, huge bag full of knives, spoons and stuff, my purse and one box with an 8" ganache covered chocolate cake to carry to the GO Train.  I got 2 offers on my way to the train but I politely declined, after all, it's chocolate and I can be selfish.  Made it to the train station without a mishap, waited for my train without a mishap, up the stairs, got on the train, sat down - no mishaps.  This could work out I sheepishly said to myself, knowing Paul would be waiting for me at Mimico station to pick me up and drive me home.

Made it to my stop, made it out the door, down the stairs, under the tracks, back up to the parking lot, in the car, steel toed boots, droopy drawers, big red scary coat, bag of knives, purse, cake and all!  I'm sooo great I thought, I'm a freakin' genius!  Paul helped me out of the car, I egotistically carried my masterpiece up the front steps through the door, being held open by my oh-so-lucky husband.  Proceeded to then drop my bag of knives and purse on the floor, and put the cake on the kitchen table, I shamelessly will never forget watching (what seemed like slo-mo) that pretty boxed, chocolate ganache covered, perfect chocolate  cake (which snagged me an A+) slide across the table, and teeter on the edge, for what seemed like an hour, only to have it tip off and land upside down...yes, my ego trip was over.  I stood there like a dejected puppy looking for a new home.

As I scooped ganache and cake off the floor and tried to smush it back into something that looked like cake the cat decided it was a good time to help wash the floor...sigh.

After all that, I have to say the cake recipe was not only awesome but lower in fat then a lot of cake recipes, although high in the sugar department, but, half the sugar can be substituted with Splenda.  Here's that ill fated recipe that I still use to this day!

CHOCOLATE SLIDE OFF THE TABLE CAKE

100g   flour
50g     cocoa
225g   sugar
1 tsp   baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
pinch of salt
1 egg
120 ml milk mixed with 1/2 tsp vinegar
60 ml oil
120 ml hot, freshly brewed strong coffee
1 / 2 teaspoon vanilla

METHOD:

Preheat the oven to 350 F.
Mix the milk with vinegar and allow to curdle.  Line an 8" spring form pan with parchment and spray with oil or grease with butter.  In a bowl sift flour and cocoa, add baking soda, salt, baking powder and sugar and mix well. Mix the egg with a fork, add oil, milk and vanilla. Pour wet ingredients to dry and mix.  Add hot coffee and stir until combined.
Pour into prepared cake form and bake until ready, about 25-30 minutes. 

We Should All Eat Cake - Part 1

I love cake, and not just a vanilla cake with chocolate icing or a chocolate cake with fudge icing, all kinds of cake.  The majority of North Americans have no idea what is out there!  Beyond our coasts, all the way across the pond in Europe.  The art of the Viennese treat is still alive and well in Europe.  There are so many days I wish to sneak away from my desk at work, order a double espresso and a nice opera cake.  But alas, what do we have to choose from, cupcakes with shortening icing (no butter), biscotti full of preservatives wrapped in noisy plastic, cookies with no butter and poor quality chocolate....sigh.

So what do the Europeans know that we don't?  Surely they can't make much money using real butter, fresh ingredients, employing pastry chefs with knowledge and skills.  In fact, a pastry with your espresso in the afternoon will run you the cost of lunch at McDonald's here at home.  Or you can get a nice coffee or Latte with a cute little French Macaron or two (about half the cost of a McDonald's lunch).  The thing is, you aren't eating that little pastry or drinking that espresso because you are hungry.  You need a break, need to slow down, do some people watching.  So maybe that little cuppa Joe and pastry will take you 30 to 45 minutes to enjoy.  Bet you your 1/4 pounder and fries are scarfed down in 10 minutes...

European style pastries are my favourite.  The Jaconde, Japonaise, Opera Cake, Bombe, torte, tarte, macaron, Berlin Air cake, Tiramisu, Biscotti, Gianduja, terrines, verrines, etc., etc.  The Jaconde is a vanilla sponge made with nuts, pistachio, walnut, hazelnut etc, the Japonaise, a meringue made with nuts, a Bombe is a heap of mousse, the Berlin Air cake is a light sponge with layers of cream and fresh fruit and it goes on.  We miss out on so much here in North America with the typical birthday cake, the humdrum wedding cake flavours the McCain cakes of the world.

I hope you can all think about what kind of cake you want next time you go looking to buy one.  Think outside the big box store, look in your neighbourhood for a little mom and pop bakery (or call me...hehe).  So instead of a recipe today - here are bunch of pictures to drool over and think of me when you need a cake for a special occasion and I promise they aren't the same price as gold they are affordable little goodies!  Part 2 - there will be a recipe so you don't have to call me!

White Chocolate Cherry Cake

White Chocolate Chestnut Mousse Cake

Almond, Chocolate Caramel Dobro

Peanut Butter Chocolate Tarte

 Pistachio 6 Layer Cake

Chocolate - Part 2

Qualities of chocolate.  It's a lot like fine wine or the subtleties of coffee and tea.  Each plantation has a different characteristic, each species of tree has a different flavour.  Each manufacturer conches a different way, has different milk product sources, uses different sugars.  They all make a difference.  How would one choose a superior chocolate just by looking at the package ingredients?  Let's start with that.

The amount of Cocoa Liquor and Cocoa butter make a difference, they should be the first on the ingredient list.  Also the better chocolate contains no artificial flavourings or fillers such as palm or coconut oil.  It's the same old story, you get what you pay for.  The process to get the cocoa pod into a chocolate bar is expensive and the more filler, the less chocolate used, the cheaper the product.  Also there's what's called "mouth feel".  If you take a bar of Hershey's chocolate or Cadbury and then have a bar from Lindt, you will notice the cheaper chocolates are gritty and the Lindt is like silk.  Why?  The time the raw chocolate spends in the conch, the longer the chocolate spends in the conch the smoother it will become, however this also costs more in equipment and labour to product the silky smoothness.

So one day, when you have nothing to do, go buy a bar of Hershey's, Cadburys and Lindt and have a taste test and you will notice a difference in quality.

What is the big deal between the percentages of chocolate on the label.  The higher percentage the more chocolate and less sugar.  Lindt even makes a 95% chocolate that is very nutty, a tad bitter, and has the mouth feel of peanut butter.  The average is abut 53% and each 'grade' percentage tastes different.

However, where the chocolate originates makes a big difference.  Chocolate trees grow in amongst other crops, in Madagascar the vanilla orchid grows on the trees, the chocolate from Madagascar has a beautiful hint of vanilla.  Chocolate grown in amongst coffee plants in Cuba - well has a very smooth hint of coffee.  I like to research where the chocolate I eat and use come from and match the characteristics of that chocolate with the food I'm eating or the application I'm using it in.

White, Milk, Dark.  A lot of chocolate snobs say that white or milk chocolates don't count.  I disagree.  

Although white chocolate doesn't contain any chocolate solids (Liquor) it does contain cocoa butter.  A good white chocolate contains no preservatives or fillers, it will have a lot of sugar but will have a high quality vanilla and lots of milk solids.  I like white chocolate.

Milk Chocolate is a North American favourite - I love it.  However, the brand does make a difference and I do have a preference, you should try different Milk Chocolates, read the ingredients, the first ingredient should be chocolate solids, not sugar.  If sugar is the first ingredient, put it down and slowly back away!

Dark Chocolate is self explanatory and the qualities are referenced above and is a personal preference.

This is only a small history and discussion about chocolate.  So try different kinds, don't worry about the price!  It's a gift from the Gods.  Now, since it's -20 outside, here's one of my favourite chocolate recipes:

HOT CHOCOLATE

You can either use steamed milk or heat on the stove top.

Stove Top:  Place milk in sauce pan with a handful of your choice of chocolate.  Stir with a whisk until milk is warm (not boiling) over medium heat and all chocolate has melted and enjoy.

With steam:  Get your milk steamer up to pressure.  Put your milk in lettiere with your desired chocolate, about a handful.  Steam away until all chocolate has melted, stir and pour into your favourite mug. 

Wrap your hands around that hot cup of chocolate, put your feet up and relish the food of the Gods!

Chocolate - Part 1

From the NY Times, January 11, 2011 - By FLORENCE FABRICANT, Rare Cacao Bean Discovered:

DAN PEARSON was working in northern Peru two years ago with his stepson Brian Horsely, supplying gear and food to mining companies, when something caught his eye.

“We were in a hidden mountain valley of the Marañón River and saw some strange trees with football-size pods growing right out of their trunks,” Mr. Pearson said by telephone last week. “I knew nothing about cacao, but I learned that’s what it was.”

For some of us chocolate is an everyday food, relied on much like that morning coffee.  It's a very interesting fruit, grown only in a small area around the equator, discovered by the Aztecs and not until the invention of milk powder in the mid 1800s by Nestle, did we eat chocolate.

Chocolate is Native to Honduras.  Chemically Theobromine is unique to chocolate and the Koala Nut. In modern medicine, theobromine is used as a blood vessel widener, a diuretic and a heart stimulant.  Possible future uses could be in the fields of cancer prevention (from Wikipedia).

The Aztec leader, Montezuma drank his 'Xocolatl' as an aphrodisiac.  Don Cortez introduced this aphrodisiac to the Spanish Monarchy in the 1520s.  Not until a royal wedding in Spain of a French Princess to a Spanish Prince was Xocolatl (as a drink still) introduced to the rest of Europe.  The beans were ground up, steeped in water with sugar.  The drink had some of the telltale 'chocolate flavour' we know today but it was sugary and gritty.

The technology to grind chocolate to a finer paste was developed in France in 1732 and not until 1828 was the cocoa press invented by a man named VanHouten.

This process allowed half the fat to be removed from the paste so the drink wasn't fatty and slimy. The Dutch then treated this new cocoa powder with alkali liquid.  This gives cocoa powder it's colour, good quality cocoa powder is very dark and reddish.

Frys of England made the first eating chocolate in 1847.  They created this new chocolate bar from the by-product of the cocoa powder process developed by VanHouten.  It was still gritty and not like the smooth fatty chocolate bars we enjoy today.

In 1875 Daniel Peter of Switzerland was the first to add condensed milk, creating the very first milk chocolate bar.  When Nestle invented milk powder in 1879 (aka milk solids), the first mass produced chocolate bar was introduced, milk powder was cheap and a good filler to cut down on the amount of chocolate used.

Lindt then invented the conching method in 1879.  

It's a strange looking machine, it grinds the chocolate, sometimes for 24-48 hours with sugar, sometimes with milk solids.  This grinding creates heat and thus the chocolate changes on a molecular level and the sugar and milk solids caramalize.  This conching method finally gave chocolate that melt in your mouth quality!

By 1900, Hershey was producing the first mass, cheap, chocolate bars.  Through industrilization, affordability of sugar and milk powder and the use of fillers to cut down on the amount of chocolate used in each bar, everyone could now afford a little piece of Montezuma's aphrodisiac.  

From that point on, the boxed chocolate was developed in Paris by Jean Neuhaus, the filled chocolate "Praline" (pronounced Praline-a) was developed in 1913.  The New York Chocolate Exchange was organized in 1925 and chocolate was sold as a commodity.

During World War 1, most chocolate went to the troops and chocolate was rationed until 1953.

Next blog - Part 2: Where it grows, varieties, how it goes from fruit to factory and qualities of chocolate!  Stay tuned.

Tools for Life

I have become a bit of a mini-activist.  I'm not sure where it started, or how.  I've been searching for a charity that I really wanted to donate to for years, not really finding what I was looking for - not sure what I was looking for.  I think I saw a show on the Documentary Channel about the Sea Shepherd and their struggles in Taiji, Japan.  I'm not going to go into details, it's ugly and you should decide for yourself if you want to see what happens in our world.  I have my own personal email campaign.  The Sea Shepherd also practices passive aggression - I like that, they are an ever presence in Taiji, Japan but they never cross "the line".  You might have heard of the television series "Whale Wars" - that's The Sea Shepherd.  The head honcho is Paul Watson and he's a Canadian!

Recently one of the girls who has spent the past couple of month in Taiji, Japan documenting the tragedy that goes on there posted a picture on her blog.  Taiji is beautiful - breathtakingly beautiful.  Her picture was of a flat calm sea, with little ripples of wind sweeping across the water.  Normally I love weather like that, with flat water, a hint of a breeze that would make me smile, make me dream of those perfect sailing days.  Quietly ghosting along at 3-4 knots, just the sound of the boat pushing the water out of her way.  The sun shimmering off the occasional wave, the peace.  However, in this photo are 5 fishing boats, driving a large pod of striped dolphins into the Killing Cove.

Next time I'm on the water, when the water is flat, the light breeze blowing across my skin, the sun keeping me warm, giving our planet the tools for life, I will also remember the ugliness of that picture sent from Taiji and what that perfect day can turn into.  How we struggle to feed too many people with not enough to go around.

I wouldn't normally post this type of blog but I feel, as humans, we need to be aware of what we take from our planet, how poorly we treat the earth.

In 2001 Paul and I visited my dad and stepmom, Sue in Trinidad, they had spent a year sailing from Ontario to Port-of-Spain and were waiting out the hurricane season.  On our last day in Trinidad, we cleaned up the boat, Lady Simcoe, cast off the mooring ball and set sail to a little deserted island called Chacachacare, which is part of the Boca Islands in Trinidad and Tobago.  That is another story, very intriguing, very interesting.

On our trip back - it was one of those cloudless days, hot, no wind with the ocean like a mirror the never ending swell and the sounds of the infinite waves lapping up the island cliffs, broken only by the far off sound of a fishing boat's motor - we stumbled upon a large pod of dolphins.  I don't know how many there were but I do remember seeing them playing off in the distance.  We motored over and played with them for about an hour.  It was amazing to see them swim sideways along side the bow of Lady Simcoe.  They would look up you with knowledge, curiosity and playfulness. They knew what we were, they knew we were playing, knew we were laughing with them, having as much fun as they were.  It was probably one of the most enlightening experiences of my life

Maybe that's why I believe in what the Sea Shepherd and Captain Paul Watson stand for.  Without our oceans we are nothing.  Dead oceans will equal the demise of all life, after all, if you are a fan of Darwin, life evolved from the oceans.  Even if you don't believe in Darwinism, all life depends on the oceans.  

Currently, the oceans and ocean life are on a steep decline.  I hope one day to sail off somewhere on the ocean and I hope that there are dolphins and whales and dorados and flying fish and jelly fish to see in the wild, as they are meant to be, not in a zoo or an aquarium or at a place like Marineland.  I hope one day, my love of sailing and the water and open spaces and my zest for living that my dad instilled in me allows me to travel the planet to see the real world and the wild world.  I hope some day that my love of the natural world and the respect for life and our enviornment that my mom instilled in me will allow me to give back to the earth and help preserve it for everyone and everything that relies on our planet for life.

Please keep giving to your charity of choice but please don't forget to take care of the world we live in.

 

The Art of Being Creative

We're all good at something.  I think we are born with the skills and talent to do something and if some of us are lucky, we hit the nail on the head, either through development in school, after school activities or just from reading about something and having enough interest to give it a try.  I was lucky, I got the creativity gene.

I remember one Christmas singing along with my new Sharon, Lois & Bram album (must have been REALLY young) and my mom and dad were astounded that I was singing right along.  I then begged for a flute one year, begged and begged and BEGGED - I got a guitar from Santa that year.  However, it turned out I was good at it.  Coincidence, maybe, I'll never know.  However, I ended up studying the guitar and music in College and then onto University.  Mistake, no.  I will never regret getting a University degree, however, being creative in North America is thankless and for most creative minds, one cannot make a living doing it and if they do it's just barely a living.  I eked out a living playing guitar for about 10 years before moving on.  However, having spent so much time with creative minds and having one myself, it's hard to let it go, I would say impossible.  I was sustained a serious injury from playing the guitar so there really is no way to go back playing anymore (although I wish I could).  I searched for a long time to do something creative where my injury would not come back to haunt me.  

Hmmm, clarinet, flute, oboe, violin...nope. So for a long time I wallowed like a Sea Lion on my couch watching television with the world going by, my mind in a constant state of beige.  One day, I just quit my day job, tired of the abuse, the yelling, the pressure.  Yup, just left.  I spent the summer sailing, reading, painting the eavestroughs until one day I was walking around my neighbourhood and stumbled upon a cooking school.  COOL.  I cleaned out Paul's savings account and enrolled.  I was hooked from day one.  I was able to get a job working as butcher and for the next year I went to school 5 days a week and worked 5 days a week - talk about one tired individual.  However I  no longer wallowed like a Sea Lion on my couch watching television with the world going by, my mind in a constant state of beige.  I was creating and being creative.  I also realized the importance of the trades and how underpaid and under appreciated the trades are.

Unfortunately the daily toil of the butcher shop wore me out physically and I was no longer able the do the job and I couldn't find a job as a chef making more than minimum wage so I went back to the beige office job I had before.  However, one difference, I could work for myself running my own pastry business part time and have the money to expand my pastry and catering skills.

Unfortunately, thanks to trash television with shows like Cake Boss and celebrity chefs like Duff Goldman, everyone thinks they can decorate a cake.  I'm not pooh-poohing anyone else's creativity or skill, lord knows there are a lot more creative and skilled cake decorators out there than me.  I do know that a lot of those 'companies' don't bake or make their products from raw ingredients.  I even know a few cake decorating companies who use boxed cake mixes.  I find the art starts from the raw ingredients.  The flour, eggs, butter etc.  It actually takes me more time to do the baking etc. then the decorating.  It takes artistry to create your signature cake or icing recipe, it takes a keen eye to choose the right ingredients and complimentary flavours.

Most people choose to buy their sweets, cakes etc. at places like Costco because it's "cheaper".  But where's the artistry in getting something cheaper...Then there's the question of what is the real meaning of cheaper.  You get what you pay for.  Those big box store 'bakers' just do what they are told, they aren't artists, anyone can write Happy Birthday on a cake, it's easy to follow a set formula for decorating a cake in the same old colours, the same design ad nauseum day in and day out without thinking.  So what does "getting something cheaper" mean to you?  To me, it means sacrificing our homegrown artists to the likes of the mass produced, fake products anyone can get or make.

I think when one finds one's talent in life we are blessed.  Even though I work really hard, long hours I am able to work part time being creative in an industry where creativity is embraced and welcomed.  Alas, once again a creative field that is not very profitable unless you are a rock star or a true celebrity chef (because we all know people who aren't on tv don't really count). 

Next time you go for something "cheaper" ask yourself if you are supporting ugly corporate America or fresh, creative ideas that people who care about their art come up with, not just to fill their bank accounts.

NOW LET THEM EAT CAKE!  Here's my favourite cheesecake recipe, right down to the caramel, bananas and RUM:

750 g     Cream Cheese
175 g     White Sugar
30 g        Flour
3            Eggs
2            Very Ripe Bananas
2 tbsp.   Dark Rum
320 ml   Heavy Cream
3 ml       Vanilla


Combine cream cheese and flour, mix until fluffy.  Add eggs 1 at a time until absorbed.

Heat sugar in a sauce pan until it just begins to caramalize.  Add banana chunks and continue to caramalize sugar.  Add rum and flame.

Slowly pur rum banana/caramel mixture into cheese mixture while mixer is on low speed, mix well.

Pour into 8" spring form pan.
Bake approximately 30-40 minutes.