So, imagine my surprise while I'm in the kitchen, prepping to make a batch of blondies, annoyed that I am out of chocolate chips that are over 70% and have to settle for 55% because I don't feel like hand chopping the 80% chocolate blocks, and I see this topic pop up in my notifications (initially, I wondered if it was spam...)
Since I'm waiting for my browned butter to cool before I make the blondies, I thought I would pop upstairs and form one of my sort-of-coherent posts.
So, we want to talk about chocolate, eh? Just the general percent stuff and not the disgusting mass-produced stuff, right? (Although, I will admit, the only mass-produced chocolate I like is Lindt because they somehow kept their flavor, texture, and quality after being merged with Ghirardelli and the trash that is Russell Stovers)
Let's get something straight (and I say this in the most friendly and not food snobby way possible), @GazzaGarratt and @Spacedeck... White chocolate is not chocolate. It is the absence of chocolate. It is sugar, cocoa butter (which is a by-product from making all sort of other chocolate and cocoa things), milk stuff, and vanilla flavoring. You're basically saying you like vanilla lol. Which is something entirely different. And, if I were to make a vanilla ganache or vanilla anything else that involves something creamy, I would be reaching for "white chocolate".
Percent-wise, I prefer anything between 70% and 85%. Below that is too sweet to just snack on. 55% is probably the lowest I would go and that would be used in different applications that require the sweetness to balance out whatever else I just put it in.
Over 85% gets a bit too bitter and probably should be diluted in something/mixed into something else. For example, hot chocolate where you can add sugar accordingly.
Chocolate, itself, has an interesting history in that the way that we generally know it now as a sweet... was not always the case. It was a spice. And various cultures use it as such like Mexico in their mole sauce.
Chocolate being sweet was a result of Europeans taking the cacao back home and going "let's add some milk and sugar to it".. then chocolate as we know it was born. It's why Swiss and German chocolates are a thing, yet they don't have the climates to grow cacao.
Now, if we want to get into the food snobberiness that I come very very close to, there's even single origin chocolates. And, I can tell you now that I love chocolate too much to actually write down which single-origin chocolates I like over the others. They all have different flavor notes. Some more fruity. Some more bitter. Some that have a tannin-like feel in the mouth. It really just depends on what I have bought and have on hand at the moment to enjoy, that I enjoy.
As for what chocolate you will see me buying... it's going to be from an eco-friendly, fair trade company. Right now, I mostly buy Endangered Species chocolates because of what they do with their profits. I recognize that my love for chocolate and coffee can have a negative effect on the environment, and it fuels my anger towards the big producers, like Hershey's and Mars, because they produce shitty tasting chocolate and are destroying the world as they do it.
Bottom-line. I like dark. And, I like it over 70% lol. And, it better be actually good quality. 😄
@Diddums - I see you have a sous vide! We have the same one too. Love it, but haven't used it in quite some time.
Can you tried to make brisket in it? It's just... amazing. Sous vide the brisket with the seasonings, then finish in the oven for the typical crust. And, now I want brisket.
When the seasons start to change, I obviously start to crave different flavors.
However, eating raw fruits and raw veggies isn't actually something my body allows. I think I ate my lifetime allotment of cherries and nectarines as I used to eat crates of them.
So, what's a girl to do when she wants cherries? Make a cake, obviously. The simplest, easiest cake possible... only complicated by certain steps because I know better.
They call these "spoon cakes". I guess it's sort of a riff on a cobbler? Just with more... cobbler in the ration instead of fruit? Lol. I don't know. I just make and eat things.
It's not exactly photogenic. It's ugly but so yum.
Also, @GazzaGarratt said "pics or didn't happen" haha.
Lastly, this really only takes 15 minutes to put together... any where from 25 - 40 minutes baking.
I only spent like 3 hours dawdling around after I initially logged off because I "bake at my own speed". Which means, I also do other things (play with my dog, play some games of Sudoku, browse the internet, think about what my next actual meal is). I also wanted to brown the butter. I could have toasted the flour too, but the last time I did that, @TurboR56Mini said it smelled like burned bodies or whatever. This would have been better if I toasted the flour lol.
Here's tonight's "Chocolate Cherry Almond Browned Butter Spoonable Cake with Pie Crust Ice Cream". (If you wonder why I work out so much and so hard.. this is partially why)
Tea in leaves in a pot, with a tea strainer, is the best tea. Tea bags have come a long way though so I'm not fussy. English breakfast, the blended variety, be it PG Tips, Yorkshire etc etc only. Earl Grey is poison.
I worked in am RAF canteen on Saturdays when is was 14 and I'll never forget the smell of rancid coffee cups waiting to be washed. Tea don't stink at any stage...unless you are a ponce who likes to drink perfume.
And back with coffee, if I wanted that kind of buzz, I'd just do a line of speed🤗
My issue with tea bags is 1) paper taste. I can't stand it. 2) it's actually woven with some plastic as well. No thank you. 3) tea leaves don't expand as well in a bag.
Also, has anyone here tried tea from TWG Tea? I have an assortment, and I'm enjoying them. They have so many different blends for Earl Grey too. I question whether all you Earl Grey haters just haven't had a properly brewed cup with a touch of milk!
As for the rancid coffee cups, hahaha.. I'm going to guess a majority of those cups were filled with milk and coffee.. not just straight, black coffee!
1 hour ago, TurboR56Mini said:
Tea is the Cigarette to the Cigar of coffee...less flavor and not quite as manly....
And.. hush you. Tea has infinitely more flavors and notes available than coffee ever will. There's only so many times you can use "chocolate" as a note in a beverage! Sometimes, I like my drink a bit fruity or having notes of rice krispies or some vanilla or orange...
All notes that you have to really strive to taste in coffee.
I also love that from a country that started a global empire over tea, who make fun of countries who "make houses out of wood", can't muster up enough effort to source, grind and brew good coffee. Hi pot, my name is kettle...
The fact that a country that started a global empire over tea... can't seem to actually brew a proper pot of tea without using a horrendous tea bag... is in itself also hilarious.
@GazzaGarratt - We're half tempted to include tea and coffee in a shipment to you... How can you hate Earl Grey? What about a vanilla laced Earl Grey? It's also one of those teas that need a little milk.
Which one is better, FG decides! Tea or Coffee? I've also added Water and Alcohol for the drinkers that don't have warm drinks, you heathen lot.
Tea all the way for me. Coffee stinks. It's just like drinking a cigarette for me. Or black tar. Whichever makes you feel better.
Not too fussy about teabags either, apart from flavoured tea and Earl Grey which is basically drinking perfume. Yuk.
Hahaha... I feel like we need to introduce you to better coffee..
and to better Earl Grey.
So, for me:
water
coffee
tea (close second.. just easier for us to get great coffee than it is to get great tea)... and we do loose leaf tea with our own strainers... get that paper taste out of my tea!
For those not on Discord... and for those who have or have not been keeping up with the constant discussion of my "meat consumption" ( @Kemp210 and @Ajay and the rest of our raid team)... I give you photos of our dinner... after Carl told me to go to the store by myself to buy some steak... again. AND, he chose to have me cook both of them. Not one. BOTH OF THEM.
(Oh, I typically buy it with the bone, but I didn't want our puppy to think she was getting a bone this time around)
Well after a failed night of shooting, (new cards and stupid wrong setting) the only shots are from our food. YES, YES WE ARE HAVING PIZZIA AGAIN. I don't want to hear shit from anyone. We have some of the best pizza in the world here and damn it, fat kid gonna fat kid. We also had some stuff artichokes as an app. best part is, I get to eat the other half for lunch tomorrow!!
So how's the bean velocity on the grinder? The recoil? ADS on the espresso scoop thingy?
Meanwhile I'm still drinking the nerfed coffee. Have been drinking some of that Azera stuff lately which is powered coffee. It's remarkably better than the usual dirt mud freeze dried lumps of cat poo I usually drink.
Do you prefer instant coffee? There's a lot of really great instant coffees out there now... and they don't suck!
Ofc I went and got Hayley a pod one! We ain't that sophisticated!! 🤣
From Santa, Hayley got the following Nespresso Essenza Mini one:
She especially wanted one with the milk frother (i'm not saying the fancy word for it either) and she seems to like it so far.
As, I guess, a coffee snob, this makes me sad. As someone who knows the research that went into Nespresso machines (I worked at a fancy kitchen retail store for a bit), I'm glad you at least chose well!
Don't be stuck with just nespresso pods. There are ones that you can fill and refill yourself. So, if you have a local roaster, you can use their beans and proper grind and still have all the convenience at a lower cost!
@Middle Class Cavemanhas advised me to post this here and its a bloody good idea too!
Here is our new coffee machine and Im not going to lie I bloody love it! I am still learning how to use it properly but getting there for sure!
Any other coffee heads out there? Hints, tips and stories welcome 🙂
It's a fantastic machine.
I had to do a double take on the brand, then looked it up that Sage is the same as Breville here in the US.
We have the same machine but an older model. I think it's about 10 years old now, come to think of it! Looks like they improved the grinder too on your model. Enjoy it! Don't be afraid of it. I sure was initially lol. But, it's so awesome to be able to have properly brewed espresso at home. I haven't gotten the milk foaming and steaming down perfectly, but just because I can't draw a swan in my drink, doesn't mean it isn't good!
Posted
So, imagine my surprise while I'm in the kitchen, prepping to make a batch of blondies, annoyed that I am out of chocolate chips that are over 70% and have to settle for 55% because I don't feel like hand chopping the 80% chocolate blocks, and I see this topic pop up in my notifications (initially, I wondered if it was spam...)
Since I'm waiting for my browned butter to cool before I make the blondies, I thought I would pop upstairs and form one of my sort-of-coherent posts.
So, we want to talk about chocolate, eh? Just the general percent stuff and not the disgusting mass-produced stuff, right? (Although, I will admit, the only mass-produced chocolate I like is Lindt because they somehow kept their flavor, texture, and quality after being merged with Ghirardelli and the trash that is Russell Stovers)
Let's get something straight (and I say this in the most friendly and not food snobby way possible), @GazzaGarratt and @Spacedeck ... White chocolate is not chocolate. It is the absence of chocolate. It is sugar, cocoa butter (which is a by-product from making all sort of other chocolate and cocoa things), milk stuff, and vanilla flavoring. You're basically saying you like vanilla lol. Which is something entirely different. And, if I were to make a vanilla ganache or vanilla anything else that involves something creamy, I would be reaching for "white chocolate".
Percent-wise, I prefer anything between 70% and 85%. Below that is too sweet to just snack on. 55% is probably the lowest I would go and that would be used in different applications that require the sweetness to balance out whatever else I just put it in.
Over 85% gets a bit too bitter and probably should be diluted in something/mixed into something else. For example, hot chocolate where you can add sugar accordingly.
Chocolate, itself, has an interesting history in that the way that we generally know it now as a sweet... was not always the case. It was a spice. And various cultures use it as such like Mexico in their mole sauce.
Chocolate being sweet was a result of Europeans taking the cacao back home and going "let's add some milk and sugar to it".. then chocolate as we know it was born. It's why Swiss and German chocolates are a thing, yet they don't have the climates to grow cacao.
Now, if we want to get into the food snobberiness that I come very very close to, there's even single origin chocolates. And, I can tell you now that I love chocolate too much to actually write down which single-origin chocolates I like over the others. They all have different flavor notes. Some more fruity. Some more bitter. Some that have a tannin-like feel in the mouth. It really just depends on what I have bought and have on hand at the moment to enjoy, that I enjoy.
As for what chocolate you will see me buying... it's going to be from an eco-friendly, fair trade company. Right now, I mostly buy Endangered Species chocolates because of what they do with their profits. I recognize that my love for chocolate and coffee can have a negative effect on the environment, and it fuels my anger towards the big producers, like Hershey's and Mars, because they produce shitty tasting chocolate and are destroying the world as they do it.
Bottom-line. I like dark. And, I like it over 70% lol. And, it better be actually good quality. 😄
Link to post
Share on other sites