Port & Chocolate - LIberty Wine Merchants

Do you love Chocolate? Do you love Port? Then this post is made for you! I was invited to attend an event hosted by Liberty Wine Merchants. Called the Port & Chocolate event, it's one in a series of their "Tastings in the Park" events with proceeds going to benefit Amateur Sports. 
First table I arrived at was the on from Vintage Corks. They were pouring the Niepoort from Portugal. On the far left is the Ruby, is aged in large wood vats and has a strong cherry note. The Tawny ages in smaller old oak casks and seemed a bit just a bit smoother. They also had their LBV, which stands for Late Bottled Vintage, from 2005. Instead of younger ports which are aged 2-3 years and older ports aged 15-20 years, this bridges the gap after being aged for 4-6 years. This was really good and paired best with the chocolates we had.

Ah, yes, the chocolate. I arrived at the Valrhona Chocolate (France) table practically drooling! They were serving up a Manjari Orange bar from Madasgascar, as well as the Abinao from African cocoa beans. Both were very rich but the better of the two was the Abinao in my books, with 85% cocoa. Also at the table was Dolfin (Belgium) whose chocolate can keep up to a year with any preserving agents! The one we tried was a milk chocolate with Masala Spice, very different! We also sampled items from Bonnat Chocolatier (France), who brought their Bonnat Asfarth, a 65% Dark Milk Chocolate. At the far end was samples from Francois Pralus (France), with what I think was the Fortissima and the Le 100%, yes, 100% cocoa. 

And here we have the offerings from Hagensborg Chocolates, based in Burnaby, BC. Perhaps better know for their Truffle Pigs line, they brought their bars for us to try. 

I started off with the lightest cocoa percentage, at just 39% a milk chocolate from Ecuador. This was creamy but very mild in chocolate flavour and didn't quite hold up against the ports I was drinking.  
An improvement was the 64% bar from Madagascar. This had a richer flavour and was very smooth as well.
As a fan of Dark Chocolate, I was delighted by the 70% offering from Santa Domingo. This was intense chocolate, rich with cocoa and definitely my favourite.

This had me doing a double take! From Vino Cacao, we have the Noir. It's a marriage made in heaven, a Bordeaux red wine blended with dark chocolate, it's sheer genius! And a great way to end any meal! You can taste the fruitiness of the wine, but the chocolate flavours follow quickly after!

And as the evening went on, I found myself irresistibly drawn to the Chocolate Fountain! They had an assortment of dippers, but for me, the vanilla wafers were the best! And yes, it can get a little messy! (Last photo is courtesy of Brian K. Smith) 

Handmade Chocolates at Cocoa Nymph

On Monday night, I attended a chocolate workshop at the new location of Cocoa Nymph on the East side. Located at West 7th just by Main, they have a large enough facility to teach chocolate aficionados how to make hand-dipped truffles. Prior to this, my only chocolate experience was at Edible Canada for Cocolico & Van Houtte's Coffee and Chocolate tasting.  Would you believe this is how much chocolate they have in the back? And this isn't even all of it! Lots of chocolate here, each box is 10kg of Belgian chocolate and all are a minimum of 64% chocolate. It smells heavenly here!  xIn addition to making some delicious chocolates, we were also invited to taste some of the goodness that Cocoa Nymph has to offer. First up, drinking chocolate. We got to sample both their dark and milk chocolates and both were amazing. I love dark chocolate, so I was drawn to the darker one first. However, the milk chocolate had a great texture too. Drinking chocolate is different from "hot chocolate" because it's not made from cocoa powder (what's left after the removal of the cocoa butter), instead, it's made with real chocolate and made with chocolate shavings or little nib-like sprinkles. Because the cocoa butter is still a part of the mixture, drinking chocolates are much richer than regular instant chocolate.   At their new location, Cocoa Nymph also serves up some savoury sandwiches in addition to their sweet treats! First up is the Veggie Sandwich, served in a farmer's loaf and loaded with an olive hummus, some avocado, a bit of goat cheese with some red onions, sundried tomatoes and a bit of romaine to line the whole thing. This was grilled and the goat cheese melted perfectly to warm up the rest of the ingredients. I am not usually a fan of veggie sammies, but I think I could make an exception for this one. The also have another sandwich, made with elk, some juniper salami, buffalo mozzarella and a bit of greens. There is also a smear of grainy mustard, maple butter and  on a hummingbird whole grain loaf. See the seedy goodness there? But enough with the savoury dishes...let's get onto the sweet stuff!  Here is the owner, Rachel, giving us a brief history of how Cocoa Nymph came to be. In our annotated class, the ganache was already made in advance and kept cold so that we could work with this. This amount is enough for about 12 people, we each got a section to work with.  Ganache is simple cream poured over chocolate and then stirred until melted into a creamy smooth mixture. It is then cooled so that we can work with it. After cutting it into rectangles for us to play with, Rachel showed us how to use cookie cutters to create various shapes for our chocolates. We then get to enrobe them in chocolate and then decorate them!  First of the decorations...these are made of cocoa butter, and will melt at room temperature, so be quick if you are going to use these! More decorations...chocolate curls, chocolate sprinkles and cocoa nibs. If you want a perfectly round truffle, the secret is to drop the truffle into the toppings, roll it around and leave it. That way, the bottom gets coated too! Across from me at the decoration table was Rick Chung...check out his technique! Roll and then dip!  Here is Bennett Chin making some fancy truffles...is that a flower I see? This is the melted chocolate that you're supposed to dip everything into. Stir it well and then just drop your ganache into the vat of chocolate to begin the enrobing process.  So this is the Enrobing process, take the ganache, dip it into the chocolate and then lift and place back onto the parchment. Those little forks, scoops and other utensils help you rescue your little truffles out. Once they are all done, they put it into the fridge while everything sets. This is my box of truffles, I used lollipop sticks and sprinkled lots of the shaved chocolate on everything. I love the decorative box that they gave us to put our "homework" in.  So here is another and hopefully better view of this...and I think this is it. See how I used the sprinkles and cocoa nibs? Fortunately, Rachel makes much more attractive truffles and sweets than I do. The ones you see above are their home-made marshmallows...lots of flavours such as vanilla, raspberry and orange. I am betting these would make amazing smores! One of my favourite flavour combination is salty and sweet. Look at this...honey and sea salt? Defintely a winner in my book! And if you're nuts for nuts like my om, then these citrus flavoured pecans are the treat for you. I regret not getting a box of these while I was there, but as a lover of tart flavours and dark chocolate, I could probably eat all four of these! At first, I thought these were chocolate covered cashews, but no...it's stout filled chocolate! And finally, we have the Chariot, a dark chocolate ganache with chilies.  This could be the death of me, but what a way to go!
If you are interested in learning how to make your own chocolate truffles, be sure to check out CocoaNymph East and have Rachel show you the ropes!
Take Note:

• Sandwiches are good - especially the elk one
• Chocolate classes are limited in size so you get the attention you need when creating your truffles
• Wear gloves, wash your hands and tie your hair back!

Chocolate and Coffee Tasting at Edible Canada - A Decadent Affair

Last week, I was invited to an amazing event at Edible Canada hosted by Wendy Boys of Cocolico, a local chocolatier and pastry chef, along with the Canadian Master Coffee Roaster representative, Marie-Claude Dessurealt of Van Houtte coffee. We would get to find out to our own Coffee Profile as well as getting to savour a delectable assortment of great desserts. 

I was a little late in arriving, but when I sat down, in front of me were 6 different kinds of chocolate, to pair with 6 different types of coffee profiles. I learnt that I am a Velvety and Woodsy. You arrive at this after a short 6-question survey. 

Here is Marie-Claude of Van Houtte, teaching us about our palate and tastes in order to discover which of the six coffee profiles we were.

After the quick sampling, our group moved over to the kitchen where we got a first hand look at how Wendy Boys makes her scrumptious Classic Eclairs! First she shows us how to make the Choux Paste, a blend of water, milk, butter, eggs and flour.  

Heat up the mixture of water, milk butter and sugar. Then dump in all the flour in all at once, and stir...aggressively!

Off to make the dough in the mixer, slowly add the eggs in and mix until everything comes together.

Once  the eggs have been incorporated, Wendy put the dough into a piping bag and off we go to the next step. The dough has great gluten texture. Want to know an easy way to check? Put some between your index and thumb...if it sticks when you try to separate...then it's good!

Pipe the dough onto a parchment lined pastry sheet, into 2 inch pieces. Then off to the oven they go for about 12-16 minutes. 
While we are waiting for the pastries to cook, off we go to make the vanilla cream. This is a tricky process, you have a mixture of sugar, yolks with flour and cornstarch, but you have to ensure that when you add the liquid (hot milk with vanilla bean), you are tempering it so you don't end up with scrambled eggs. After it is incorporated, you put the whole thing back onto the stove and add gelatin. Let it cool to room temperature and then add in whipping cream. 

Once the pastries are out of the oven, poke two holes in each and pipe in the vanilla cream. Gosh, seeing this again is making me want more eclairs! 

To finish the dessert, Wendy also made a chocolate glaze. Every eclair got to take a dip in the heavenly sauce. But it's not over yet, they also get a dusting of chocolate.
See below for the delicious result.

All in all, the process didn't take more than an hour, but it is a lot of effort. To be honest, a freshly made eclair is a decadent treat, and I could have eaten a dozen of them! 
To match other coffee profiles, Wendy also prepared a whole host of other desserts. One of my favourites, these lemon and white chocolate macaroons. I don't mind telling you, I scored 4 of these "to-go"! This was meant for the Mellow and Fruity profile, with Costa Rica Light Roast.
Wendy also made us some yummy Pot de Creme with milk chocolate. I do love how the pinch of Maldon Salt adds a new level of flavours to a dessert dish. This one was designed for the Mellow and Woodsy flavour profile and was served with a Mocha Java Light Roast.
Ah...anything tastes better on a stick, right? And this was no exception...a Raspberry Chocolate Lollipop...so rich and dense that a pop is all you need. For this very rich dessert, the best coffee to pair it with is the Sumatra Dark Roast, which matches a Bold and Woodsy profile.
One new thing for me was the Banofffee Pie. It's a tasty concoction of Caramel cream with banana slices, and toffee bits. This was amazing and a treat that might just make me a banana lover again! And if you are have a Bold and Fruity profile, enjoy this with a nice Kenya Dark Roast. 
The other dessert that Wendy created in front of us was the Cocoa Nib Pannacotta. She made the pannacotta ahead of time, but showed us how to make the topping. It's a simple salad of clementines, mint and lime. She infused the mint into the simple syrup and used it to dress the clementines. Then she grated 99% cocoa on top of it all. Yes, 99%...that's not a typo! This refereshing dessert pairs well with the Africana Fair Trade Organic Medium Roast, a match made in heaven for the Velvety and Fruity profile.

Be sure to check out Van Houtte's website to Discover Your Coffee Profile. We all have wines varietals that we like better than others, it's time you find out your coffee preference too!  

It was a great event and one that gives me a whole new respect for the delicateness of these dessert we so often take for granted. Thanks for the very detailed tutorial, and now, armed with the recipes, I just might take a stab at making one this weekend!
Note: Photos courtesy of Hill + Knowlton Strategies.