Past Newsletters - May 2009
Charlie's Chocolates – Indigenous Gourmet Treats!
We at Chocolate of the Month Club love introducing you to excellent chocolatiers from right here in the good ol’ U.S.A. This month we bring you Charlie's Chocolates from Vista, California. Vista, in northern San Diego County, was named as the seventh best place in the United States for family life in 50 Fabulous Places to Raise Your Family by Kathleen Shaputis. Chocolate lovers might want to bump up the ranking, thanks to Charlie's Chocolates, a small California confectioner. They create fresh, handmade chocolates to die for! They’re made by using the world's most popular and most flavorful Belgian Callebaut chocolate, which is then blended to make the unique ganaches used in the variety of centers. These delicious centers are then hand dipped in the same Belgian Callebaut. They’re drenched completely before they are placed to set, allowing them to form small "feet," as they’re known in the business—a naturally occurring skirt-like curve from the chocolate runoff at the base of each. Feet are the ultimate sign of handmade quality chocolates.
In Charlie's Chocolates, you will experience delicious, fresh-cream-infused chocolate ganache centers. Look for the direct flavor of a single note in each piece, which is especially formulated with a slight liqueur-enhanced dark chocolate coating a dark centered truffle. These are meant to soothe the passion of dark-chocolate lovers. You will also savor white chocolate ganaches infused with cream and freshly prepared, intense, tangy fruit puree. The result is the most fragrantly flavorful fruit truffles imaginable with thick coats of milk or dark chocolate. And then there are the multi-layered centers. Complementary ganaches are paired with each other in two-toned harmony. Others are paired with accenting layers of sweet fondant flavored with mint or vanilla-butterscotch. Another truffle has a layer of savory, aromatic caramel and nuts, topped with creamy ganache, finished with a sweet note of thin fondant, all surrounded by a coat of rich Belgian chocolate. For those who love caramel, there's the jumbo caramel turtle, a generous caramel patty with chopped nuts, hand layered underneath and covered with a broad swirl of thick chocolate that runs down the sides from the top with oozing caramel and nuts peeking out. Charlie's finely tuned recipes combined with his top-of-the-line gourmet ingredients and his artistry create handcrafted gourmet chocolates we’re proud to feature.
Here at Chocolate of the Month Club, we have enjoyed getting to know Charlie and discovering how he carefully makes these culinary delicacies. Each of the handmade chocolates is made from finest ingredients to achieve the ultimate in freshness and perfection. As delicious as these goodies are, whenever we talk with Charlie about them, he says they’re still “a work in progress.” He’s always seeking to improve them. He reflects on his recipes: "As time goes on, the recipes for these candies are changed a little (for the sake of better satisfaction). It's usually just a minor change for more flavor impact— like its level of sweetness or the balance of richness and saltiness. Sometimes it’s a minor change in clarity or intensity.” Charlie says that he sometimes makes a minor change to improve the aesthetics so people can take a bit of extra time enjoying the product visually before diving in to consume them. Often, a minor change tweaks the taste of a chocolate—trying to bring out the most desirable taste without going over the top. He explains, “It can be tricky trying to create perfection. I confess I'm always thinking about how to make the best better, even when I'm happy with something."
The selections of chocolates this month may include:
- Dark chocolate coated:
- dark ganache centered truffle
- chocolate mint truffle
- intensely natural lemon juice flavored white chocolate ganache truffle
- jumbo caramel turtle with walnuts
- Milk chocolate coated:
- two-toned milk chocolate truffle
- strawberry truffle
- multi-layer centered chocolate
The dark-chocolate-coated dark ganache centered truffle is slightly enhanced by a blend of fine liqueurs to complement and round out the flavor of the chocolate. The dark-chocolate-coated milk chocolate mint truffle is made with a tall layer of milk chocolate mint ganache, over which a second thin layer of sweet white mint fondant is placed. One of the dark chocolates with white chocolate ganache is flavored with natural lemon juice (no doubt from lemons grown in the Vista area). One of the milk-chocolate-coated two-toned milk chocolate truffle has a center that is made of a half layer of lightly vanilla-butterscotch flavored white chocolate ganache combined with a half layer of milk chocolate ganache.
One of our favorites is the milk chocolate in a strawberry truffle. The center is made up of a fragrant, fresh strawberry puree and cream-infused white chocolate ganache that sits on a thin layer of specially prepared graham cracker crust. Yummy! Other milk chocolates are multi-layer candies with centers built with a layer of savory-sweet vanilla caramel and nuts, which is then layered with one or two kinds of chocolate ganache, and finished with a thin sweet layer of vanilla-butterscotch or maple-walnut fondant. Charlie suggests you take a knife and slice these chocolates in half to see what you are eating. You’ll appreciate the chocolates even more. A tip for clean slicing: put a chocolate on a cutting board and take a chef's knife or a similar strong, sharp knife and slice down from the top.
Truffles
"The first truffles were made from the scraps left over from cutting dipped chocolates into uniform shapes. At the end of the day, all scraps would be combined, placed in a mixer, and beaten. The result was piped out into small irregular balls, chilled, roughly coated with tempered chocolate, and rolled in cocoa, so they resemble Périgord truffles covered with earth—which is how they came to be called “truffles”. (Périgord is a region in France famous for the prized mushrooms harvested by specially trained pigs.) Nowadays, ganache is prepared specially to make truffles. It is allowed to set, then whipped so it lightens. After that, the procedure is the same. The truffle centers are piped out and chilled, then coated with tempered chocolate and cocoa, confectioner's sugar, ground nuts, or pralin powder." (From Chocolate: From Simple Cookies to Extravagant Showstoppers.)
Storage Tips
Like fine wines, chocolates should be stored in a cool, dry, dark area. Chocolate is highly susceptible to absorbing odors, so keep chocolates away from other strongly fragrant foods. Optimally, you should store your chocolates at 59° to 65° F (15° to 18 °C), and under 65% humidity. However, if you keep them in an ambient temperature below 72°F and eat them within three weeks, there is no need to refrigerate your chocolates. And let's face it. How many of us are going to keep these chocolates more than a few days? In fact, unless you live alone, we recommend hiding them somewhere safe so that you get a chance to sample all the flavors!
