Craft Shows

I am just back from my third holiday show in 10 days. It was fun and I enjoy meeting the other vendors and finding out what people are doing to be creative and give a piece of themselves to the world. The world of craft shows is for those of us who create and for the world around us that wants to be a part of this and support our talent. This is a beautiful thing to watch. This is why I go to the Farmer's Market regularly and why I buy from other local vendors. Without sounding preachy, I will say that it feels like a win-win situation.

This blog post is dedicated to Jessica, who I met today. She reminded me of why I like to/need to blog. Sometimes I think that no one reads this, but she set me straight today. Thank you!

Yours in chocolate!

The Truffle Lady
Emily

Food Passion

After a full and amazing summer, I'm now getting back into the kitchen. Being at "my kitchen", the commercial kitchen that I rent, has a very comforting feeling for me. As I make a batch of ganache and smell the melted chocolate, I am instantly reminded of why I do this. I love good chocolate and I want to share my creations with the world!

Seeing Julie and Julia was a great time for me. I thought that I would just relate to the Julia character in some way, but I found myself relating to Julie, too! I guess it is the blogger in me.

Cheers to all the foodies out there that have a passion for food and want to share it with the world.

Yours in chocolate,

Emily
The Truffle Lady

Learning the Art of Truffle Making

On Monday, April 20, 2009, I will be demonstrating and teaching the art of making Raspberry Truffles. Everyone participating will have a hands on experience in making ganache, rolling truffle balls, dipping into melted chocolate and decorating the truffles to give them your our unique style.

I will also be teaching how to make hand dipped cookies. All participants will leave with a box of truffles and an assortment of hand dipped cookies.

This workshop will be held at the Westwood Breezeway, 13554 Triadelphia Road in Ellicott City, MD, 21042. 7-9 pm. Total cost is $45 which includes all material fees.

Please, contact Emily for more details: Emily@TrufflesbyEmily.com

Yours in Chocolate,

Emily
The Truffle Lady

Playing with Chocolate

Last week I had the opportunity to play with chocolate with a new friend, Shari. I am working on a new flavor, lavender, and Shari had some ideas for me. To make my lavender truffle, I have infused the dried lavender flowers into the cream. This is done by steeping the cream with the flowers and letting it sit for about 10 minutes. The flowers are then strained out and the cream is added to the chocolate. The whole beautiful combination is stirred until all of the chocolate is melted. Then a bit of butter is added to enhance the smoothness of the truffle. Shari thought that this would be a good time to add lavender essence to boost the flavor. It was a strong addition.

It made me think about my taste palette. I have always worked at making my truffles delicious, but I have steered away from flavors that will be so strong that the chocolate gets lost in the flavor. My chocolate philosophy is to enhance the flavor of the chocolate and not overpower it. Sometimes, it's a very subtle difference.

While we were playing with flavor combinations, we also tried adding blood orange essense to bittersweet chocolate. This was a great combination. The orange could be tasted and smelled, but it didn't overpower.

I am thinking about creating a dairy free truffle and we played with different ways of substituting for both the cream and the butter. We used a nut based product called Mimiccream and coconut oil to replace the butter. I was curious about adding saffron to the dark chocolate. This was a very complex truffle flavor combination. Our flavors weren't quite right, but we felt like we were on to something and I will definately be playing with those flavors more.

What a wonderful time. Thanks, Shari!

Yours in chocolate,

Emily
The Truffle Lady