Chocopalooza begins today!
I plan to start with a whole lot of chocolate-dipping. I have the following centers more or less ready to go:
- candied yuzu, bergamot, grapefruit, and Meyer lemon peels
- hazelnut gianduja with raspberry-orange fruit pate
- peanut gianduja with Concord grape fruit pate
- Coconut almond fudge
- ginger-lime-chile caramels (to be dipped in chocolate and topped with chopped peanuts)
- Dried apricots
Collectively these are occupying four of my seven sheet pans. Since that means I have only three sheet pans on which to deposit finished items, I need to finish these items before I can make any more centers. Fine by me!
This also means that I need to prep transfer sheets with colored cocoa butter this morning. I’ve decided to add a colored background to all of the chocolate designs, as I think they add cheer. So I’ll have to paint on the cocoa butter this morning, and there is quite a lot to paint! Fortunately I have two hours before Mike gets up, so I can use that time to do the painting.
Once Mike is up, I plan to finish the maple-fudge-with-pecan-gianduja centers and maybe make a batch of chai-honey caramels. Neither of those occupy sheet pans, and they both need time to set, so best to get them done early. At 10:30 my friend Susan arrives and we’ll start dipping chocolates.
Off to paint designs with cocoa butter! This should be lots of fun.
Photos later, I promise!
