Yesterday was incredibly cool – as I got to make chocolates with my friends at Winter Park’s Peterbrooke Chocolatier yet again (here’s a video of when we made Year of the Dragon spicy chocolates last time). The day before, while lamenting that a certain local health food store has NOT restocked their pink peppercorn and guarana dark chocolate bar, I had a sudden moment of inspiration. What about… BLACK pepper? I ate a little bit of dark chocolate at home with some black pepper (you know… for ummm research purposes… yeah.. that’s it!) and it was great. Then I looked around the cabinet and saw hmmm goji berries, pecans… and then realized it needed one more element to balance it out – something bright tasting… only the in-house dried orange peel from Spice and Tea Exchange would do. After contacting the spice and chocolate stores, it was time to get it done. Read the WHOLE story!
Peterbrooke had a LOT of 72% cacao dark chocolate perfectly melted and ready for tempering, and I showed up with the flavoring elements.
BLACK PEPPER?!?! They were a little bewildered when I showed up with a backpack full of flavor goodies… and even more surprised when they found out that hey… this pepper chocolate is pretty darn good. The key is to crunch the pepper bits when you’re eating the chocolate, the combination becomes this whole new complex and delicious thing… so of course we had to add more more more… heehee. The fresh ground black tellicherry pepper was added to a small container of chocolate – close to the amount needed to fill the bar molds. I chopped up the goji berries, orange peel, and pecans into small pieces, so that nearly every bite would contain all of the flavor elements. We then sprinkled them into the chocolate bar molds:
The chocolate was the tempered using 2 putty-knife-looking spatulas on a cool marble table top by trained professionals as I watched and tried NOT to be hypnotized by the swirling dark chocolate goodness. The molds were careful filled, and shaken slightly on the table so that the crunchy flavor elements were all well fixed into each bar.
Oh NOOO.. you mean we have to mix up MORE?!? 🙂
And here they are after cooling, ready to be packaged and shared… current clients get first dibs. I’ve eaten one and can say they are FANTASTIC!!!! Going to see about making up some other unusual flavor combinations for future exploration. If you go to Peterbrooke, be sure not to miss their combos – pistacio and ancho chili is another favorite not to be missed.
Need a workout to work off all those delicious anti-oxidant containing calories? I now have OVER 60 workouts right here 24/7 on GiryaGirl.com OR check out these incredibly cool new books from Dragon Door – I own them all and they are absolutely awesome. If you apply these programs they WORK.
- The RKC Book of Strength and Conditioning
- Hardstyle Abs eBook and DVD (Yes, you can have visible abs and eat reasonable amounts of dark chocolate, I am proof.)
- Al Kavadlo’s Raising the Bar
- Convict Conditioning Vol 1, and Vol 2
- All the Newest Books and DVDs in one place (bookmark it!)
Speaking of CC volume 2… content with my ability to hold a clutch flag for long periods of time at nearly any time, I’ve started working on the very beginning step of the oh-so-illusive PRESS FLAG.. yes… the HUMAN FLAG! (no demeaning outfits or high heels necessary for THIS pole-based lateral-chain shredding strength move). Check it out!
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