Thursday, May 22, 2008

Triple Chocolate Toffee

Back in 2004 when I was a young chocolatier with just a cocoa-nib glint in his eye, I started making truffles. Lots and lots of truffles. I was mostly working with wine bars, and Eclipse was very much a hobby. In my down time, you could easily find me pawning Le Creuset and All-Clad at the Fashion Valley Williams-Sonoma.

My "big break" was my first regular volume account. At the time, the W Hotel was having chocolate shipped out from Chicago and treating their VIP clients to Vosges Chocolate (take a look, beautiful site and Katrina was recently named Entrepreneur Magazine's Woman of the Year 2008!). Well, the W was all too happy to find a local option and my little hobby became a career.

One of the things that they requested was a toffee. My first thought was, "Toffee? Why? I make truffles!". You heard it here first, folks: I've been a bit close-minded and not open to feedback in my past (but I'm working on that, I swear!). So with a little personal persuasion, I set out to make an outstanding toffee. About a week later, Triple Chocolate Toffee was born.

Made from an all-butter toffee, I add a healthy dose of extra-brute cocoa powder to the batch just before pouring it out to set. Each piece is hand broken before being dipped into 60% dark chocolate and topped with cocoa-nibs. The finished toffee is pretty intense, with a great crunchy texture from the nibs.

Dressed for success in our Asian Take-Outs, these babies are $8 each or two for $15 and make great gifts. Enjoy!
-

No comments: