Almond Chocolate Truffles- SUCCESS!

Dear chocolate-loving world,

Today was a beautiful gray-cloudy day, a miracle for Arizona, where I've been for the last few weeks. Yesterday I made truffles and they came out DE-licious. Wish you were here to try them ;)

But anywho, then I got artistic and took some photos of these lovely little guys to motivate your own truffle-making adventures or at least a trip to your local chocolate shop :P

chocolate truffles + arizona dirt. Seemed fitting because of the truffle's namesake, a black mushroom found covered in dirt in the ground.

  

P.S. I am currently OBSESSED with the band Passenger. Talk about inspired lyrics, I could listen to them all day....oh wait, I have been listening to them all day...marry me, Mike Rosenberg?


Anyways, eat chocolate and be happy!!

-Sondra

We should run through the forest
We should swim in the streams
We should laugh, we should cry,
We should love, we should dream
We should stare at the stars and not just the screens
You should hear what I'm saying and know what it means 
-Passenger, "Scare Away The Dark"

How To Truly Savor Chocolate Mousse

More than a chocolatier, I am a writer.  

Life and all its pleasures interests me.

                    I love tastes like deep dark chocolate, smells like luxury perfume, and skies full of               night stars. I love art, music, literature. I love all things beautiful and all things that                       excite the senses.

But I understand as well that true pleasure comes from true abstinence. Pleasure is only truly known by the ascetic who learns to delay it.

That is the premise of this poem. Enjoy the poem. Enjoy the mousse. 

FAST

Hold back from your stomach until it is a hollow canoo.

It will echo and crave-

starve it still.

Deprive it until taste buds want

and body weakens.

Then make a chocolate mousse.

Add butter,

eggs,

chocolate,

cream.

Then find one ray

just as the sun is taking all its rays back to the belly of the earth-

find one ray and sit in it.

There you must eat this wonder,

bite by bite,

and marvel at the glory of food,

the glory of your mouth

and tongue

and the glory of that single ray of sun. 

Basic Chocolate Mousse

Serves 8

Ingredients: 1 cup chopped bittersweet chocolate
1 stick unsalted butter
4 egg yolks
5 egg whites
3 tablespoons granulated sugar
1/2 cup chilled heavy cream
Chopped nuts, to serve
Fresh berries, to serve
Freshly whipped cream, to serve

Directions: 1. Melt chocolate and butter in a double boiler over low heat, stirring until no lumps remain. Remove from heat, transfer to a large bowl and allow to cool slightly. Whisk in egg yolks one at a time until well combined. Set aside.

2. In a second large bowl, beat egg whites until soft peaks form. Slowly beat in the sugar and continue to beat until stiff peaks form. Fold the egg whites into the chocolate mixture and set aside to further cool.

3. In a medium bowl, whip cream until soft peaks form. Once chocolate mixture is cool, fold in whipped cream until no white streaks remain. Spoon mousse into serving bowls and chill. Serve with a garnish of chopped nuts, fresh berries or a dollop of whipped cream.

Good & Delish dark and twisted lemon and black pepper chocolate

Hey world!!!

Okay, first of all, let me explain my almost 2 year hiatus:

I was in Argentina, serving a mission for my church. As missionaries we didn't have access to technology so keeping a blog was impossible...and even more tragically, I almost had just as little access to good chocolate!

Well that year and a half was quite the life-changing experience and too much to outline here, so let's skip the travelogue and get straight to the homecoming chocolate!

Thanks be to God, I have a wonderful mother who knows (and shares) my love for dark chocolate. I was lucky enough to find quite the assortment when I got home and the subject of this review was one of those blessed selections :) :)

As soon as I tried it, it became one of my favorites, and it took me WEEKS to finish. (I have a strange habit of zealously guarding my best chocolate and savoring it slowly over the course of days and in extreme cases weeks, afraid of its imminent departure).

So this bar was savored every morning before my daily writing time. It always started out my day with a melt, crackle, and zing. 

Picture this:

freshly upturned soil. an earthy chocolate backdrop.

(mmm 57% dark chocolate)

the zing of crunchy lemon

the sting of cracked pepper (burns the throat)

mellows, leaving behind a smooth lemon landscape (like sun on the dirt)

just as you start settling in the flavor-

wait! the pepper strikes back!

a sharp kick to the throat.

a violent end to a sweet beginning.

complex, intriguing, EXCITING as an exotic boyfriend.

I <3 it.

Miss it already...:(

Buy it. Eat it.

Savor it.

"You've got one tiny moment in time to shine to shine to burn away the darkness."
-Matisyahu