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You are here: Home / All blog posts / Latest chocolate update…
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November 26, 2005 by Tien Chiu

Latest chocolate update…

…I tried the apricot vanilla caramels yesterday and it didn’t work out quite right–didn’t get hard enough and the caramel was burning–so I may try it again next year with a bit of pectin to harden the caramels. (In other words, treat it as a fruit paste rather than a caramel.) I’ve never tried a fruit paste before, but no doubt I can find a recipe somewhere…

I tasted some of the molded chocolates this morning, and am only moderately impressed. The flavorings aren’t strong enough–next year I will try it again with much stronger flavorings. I had forgotten that molded chocolates have a lot more solid chocolate in them than truffles…oh well, food for thought next time.

I have now made another batch of my vanilla-jasmine tea-orange blossom honey caramels, and am about to embark on chai, green tea, and jasmine tea truffles. (This really *is* the year of tea truffles!) After that it will be a batch of liquor truffles–the two sherries, the port, and a Merlot. And then, dip the caramels, make some cherry-almond clusters, and I’m done for the year! After that it will just be a bunch of packing-up and clearing up and getting 17 boxes of chocolate ready for shipment. (I might make another batch of English toffee, though, just on general principles.)

I love making chocolate…I am serious about it as I am about very few things. Wouldn’t want to do it for a living, but I wouldn’t mind spending three weeks doing nothing but experimenting with chocolate…

Oh, and it looks like I’ll have enough chocolate to finish out this season. I might even have five or six pounds left!

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Previous post: Just got back from the wine shop…
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