chocolate

Blackberry and Orange Thyme Bombe

Your eyes start in the middle and follow the dark purple ribbon in a circle. Suddenly it ends and your eyes search for a new beginning, a new ribbon to trace on this frosty dome. Inside it's robed in creamy whites and browns, but the blackberry lanterns persist, you can't escape.

The July 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Sunita of Sunita’s world – life and food. Sunita challenged everyone to make an ice-cream filled Swiss roll that’s then used to make a bombe with hot fudge. Her recipe is based on an ice cream cake recipe from Taste of Home.

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Not Rocky Road

Oddly enough, ice creams were not covered as part of the curriculum in the pastry school I attended, and I always believed this to be a heinous oversight. Ice cream and all of its international variations – gelato, kaching, kulfi – is a standard refresher in all warm weather locales, and had much more relevance than, say, langue du chat or any other fine hotel pastry.

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Chocolate Pavlovas with Mascarpone Mousse

The June 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Dawn of Doable and Delicious. Dawn challenged the Daring Bakers’ to make Chocolate Pavlovas and Chocolate Mascarpone Mousse. The challenge recipe is based on a recipe from the book Chocolate Epiphany by Francois Payard.

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Chocolate Covered Cacao Beans

Several years ago when I was visiting Austin, I happened upon their newly-minted farmers market. It had everything I expected - chiles, salsa, tamales - and one thing I did not: triple chocolate covered cacao beans. Imagine a coffee bean on steroids, twice or three times its normal size. That's what a cacao bean is, and it's what gives life to chocolate in all of its glorious splendor. I had to try them for myself.

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