Les trois petits cochons…

My mum and aunt both have this wonderful memory from when they were in college. After they’d finish and when they were in a mood for something special, they’d go to Groppi. Now Groppi back in the day was a fancy tea-house and despite being Italian owned was serving up special teas and french pastries and ice creams.  My mum and aunts’ special order was always Les Trois Petits Cochons! 3 scoops of ice cream served with a special sauce which had pieces of little “gems” of candied fruits…my aunt insists that it was angelica that gave it its special taste! I’ve never been, and unfortunately Groppi is now run down with only a beautiful facade while the delicate and delicious pastries of old have deteriorated as has it service and style 😦

So in honor of my aunts birthday & her lovely memory, I made a different version of their “petits cochons”

3 perfectly crisp choux buns, each with a different filing & topping…

Caramel Delight with salted caramel creme patisserie & a caramel glaze, Chocolate Dream with chocolate mousseline & chocolate ganache And finally, Strawberries and Cream with strawberry jam fruits, whipped chantilly cream & a dusting of icing sugar…

The filling “base” is a creme patisserie, which turned out to be a fancy word for very rich & thick custard!!! I flavor it with chocolate & whipped “chantilly” cream for the chocolate buns (chantilly…yet another fancy word for cream whipped with vanilla & icing sugar 🙂 and caramel sauce for the caramel bun.

The strawberries & cream are filled with strawberry jam pieces from my homemade strawberry jam and some whipped cream.

And this is how the full serving plate looks:

The dessert looks stunning & tastes amazing!!! The recipe links are listed below and you can spread them over 2 days and make the assembly on the 3rd (the day you want to serve it). It’s not difficult, just needs some time & patience and the results are wonderful! I hope you give it a try! Choux Buns Les Trois Petits Cochons Cheers!

Sweet treats and chocolate truffles experiment

Last time I made truffles I used the leftover ganache from my chocolate torte and filled it with left over caramel from the torte filling.

I rolled them in crushed roasted almonds and they were delicious though a little rich.

Today’s chocolate truffles were made differently. I wanted to try a flavored chocolate. I picked up a lindt, orange intense it’s called, and it’s flavored with orange and has small pieces of candied orange  and almond slivers. It tastes divine so I assumed it’d make a divine truffle.
Well I was both right and wrong. …

The finished truffles taste amazing and are lighter than the ones I made before using dark 70% chocolate. The downside? Flavored chocolate has a lot less cocoa solids 😦
Why is that important? It’s the combination of fats in the cream and solids in the cocoa that make the ganache set firm in addition to the chocolate -cream ratio.
The lindt had a minimum of 48%, way below the 70%.
So with so much less cocoa solids, my truffles were too soft.

Ganache was too soft when working with it 😦

They hold their shape and all but when you pick one up you feel it could just melt if you don’t pop it immediately into your mouth! I fixed it by placing them in the fridge and as long as you eat them within 10 to 15min after taking them out they’re amazing!

So the lesson is, add flavorings to a ganache made with chocolate with 70% cocoa solids! And don’t shortcut your way through it!

Or maybe mix in high cocoa content chocolate with the flavored chocolate and play with the cream ratio? That’s my next experiment for the weekend!

And once I get it right you’ll be the first to know!

Cheers!

Mom’s birthday. …The cake, the truffles & the verdict!

It worked! It worked! It worked! The cake came out beautifully. …moist and dark and chocolatey! Tasty! The crumb tight and moist (but I’ll make it a tad moister next time) Can’t tell how much of a relief it was when it was sliced! Stood grand 🙂

The caramel coconut pecan filling worked beautifully with the cake and the ganache. And the ganache itself wasn’t sweetened so balanced everything out!
And my mum loved it and that’s all that matters 🙂

The leftover caramel filling and ganache, I turned them into truffles rolled in crushed roasted almonds.
The almonds gave the crunch and the caramel some sweetness but as the centres were small & the chocolate was very dark, it needed more sweetness so next time I will add a tad of sugar to the chocolate ganache itself. Other than that it was heavenly.

But hey it was a party and it ran late so I want to sleep…

So recipe updates tomorrow 🙂

Cheers!