Christmas Chocolates

It is that time of year when my thoughts turn to Christmas truffles.  I have to order chocolate in bulk.  10 kilos each of milk, white and dark.  I have to write my work plan.  I have to comb my recipe database.  I have to inventory and wash my molds, service the guitar cutter and tempering machines.  I have to select new molds, transfer sheets, colored cocoa butter, and other pastry chef supplies and order them.  And the creative process will commence.  I have to come up with a sound packaging concept.  I can use boxes I ordered in bulk and have on hand, or I can comb the packaging company sites for something new and inexpensive.  I just hate it when the package costs more than the gift!  I have to establish my budget.  I will thrash about the kitchen awhile, furiously making lists and badly sketching (I can’t draw) ideas that are meaningful only to me.  I will hit gourmet shops, spice shops, local restaurants, and taste things others would never eat.  I will phone my (chef) brothers and email chefs I know around the world and ask strange questions and await their replies.  And I will emerge a new being.  A Christmas elf with a plan to make over 2,000 truffles, candies, nuts, goodies and delectations for family and friends in just three short days. 

I will shut down my kitchen for at least three days a week or two before Christmas and transform it into a chocolate factory.  I might select an apprentice Oompa Loompa.  They usually get in my way, but I try to love them anyway.  One day I will write about my adventure with apprentice Wendie Webb and the Mother’s Day chocolate extravaganza.  She went so very wrong.  I checked the box “fails to follow instructions”.  I love her anyway.

Unless you are my child or spouse, it is all you will get from me for Christmas.  It comes from a place deep inside.  I MADE it for you.  It is personal.  I created it.  And when I boxed it, I was thinking about you.  If you made my chocolate list, you are in with me for good.  There are a couple people to whom I do not ship them because of expense or extreme conditions, and they know I love them anyway.

I have done studies in nuts, spices, citrus, berries, classic tasting boxes and free-for-alls as I have honed my skills.  Chocolate has graced every holiday, birthday, dessert imaginable.  I have filled notebooks with it.  I have affectionately named my database of chocolate recipes “Oh My Ganache”!  It is not a light thing to be called a Maitre Chocolatier, as it says on my graduation certificate from Ecole du Chocolat.  My too-short apprenticeship at Cocoa West on Bowen Island only taught me the basics.  You must work at it.  A lot. 

Last Christmas, I did a study in spice.  Here is the list:

Christmas 2013 Chocolates – A Study in Spice

Gingembre – French Ginger Ganache

Quatres de Epices (4 spices) – Ecole de Lenotre

Belgian Nutgmeg Truffle from my friend Roger Geert

Spicy Nut Sticks by Ewald Notter

Cinnamon Stacks

Anise Sticks

Exotic Curry Pralines by Ewald Notter

Salted Caramel Pralines with pink Hawaiian Sea Salt

Madras Spice Squares

Gingerbread Squares (butter ganache)

Cinnamon Pralines (almond)

Tahitian Vanilla Swirls (molded)

Pumpkin Spice Truffles

Gingerbread Truffles (hand rolled cream ganache – dark chocolate)

Cinnamon Pecan-duja truffles

Habañero Truffles (made from homemade habañero jelly)

Plum Cake Spice Ganache

Star Anise Truffles

Tangerine Chili Caramels

Apple Cinnamon Caramel Ganache


What shall I do this year?  The search begins.  My thoughts so far:

• "My Favorite Things" -  in a white box with a blue satin bow.  Filled with my actual favorites.
• A taste from around the world.  One thing from Famous places around the world.
• Christmas at Home - the classic Christmas flavors - pumpkin pie, sugar plums, peppermint hot chocolate, plum pudding, and so forth...
• Classic Tasting box - a fruit paste ganache, a sugar boiling, a candied peel, a caramel, a cream ganache, a butter ganache, praline, giandiua, etc.