DREAMING OF A

Chocolate, the 1st luxury, has so many things wrapped up in it: deliciousness in the moment, childhood memories, & that grin-inducing feeling of getting a reward for being good.  

 

     Back in the 1920s, an accident in the kitchen of a French chef named Georges Auguste Escoffier was responsible for the creation of the truffle. While one of his apprentices was attempting to make pastry cream, he mistakenly poured the hot cream into a bowl of chopped chocolate instead of a bowl of sugar & eggs. Out of frustration, Escoffier yelled “ganache” (meaning fool) as an insult to the apprentice. But as the creamy mixture began to harden, he realized he could work the paste in his hands into a bumpy, walnut-sized ball. He then continued to roll it into cocoa powder which he realized looked remarkably similar to the luxurious truffle mushrooms from the French Perigord region and Piedmont, Italy; hence, the truffle.

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    In the years that followed, the ganache center was rolled in a number of different finishes to create different tasty truffle textures, like confectioners sugar or finely chopped nuts. It has also enjoyed a variety of flavorful mix-ins like champagnes and liqueurs, caramel, nougat, fudge, and more to give each one a unique taste. But the real secret of a great truffle is knowing the right ratios of chocolate to the hot cream and the different styles of ganache they create.

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