Tag Archives: ganache

Mountain Nugget Chocolate Company

I’m always looking for chocolate, and I’m continually surprised and delighted by teeny tiny chocolatiers in the most unlikeliest of places. For example, my recent trip to Salt Spring Island find of Chocolate Beach. Or, more recently, on my fabulous weekend in the mountains of Rossland, B.C., visiting the Mountain Nugget Chocolate Company.

Mountain Nugget Chocolate Company

I think the universe conspired to put this little shop on my radar. I found them through Twitter, and then my friends G & M, who live in Rossland, mentioned this great little chocolate shop that had just opened in their town. With G & M’s recent nuptials in Rossland, it seemed that it was time for us to meet face-to-face.

Trish Dyer, the chocolatier, is delightful with just a hint of sass. If I had had more time in Rossland I would have taken her out for a beer so we could revel in our mutual sassiness.

As fate would have it, I had to settle for a mere box of chocolates. There’s a nice selection of traditional flavours, updated by using local or regional ingredients, and some decided wackiness.

Mountain Nugget Chocolate Company: Wasabi!

The wasabi confection is adventurous and ambitious. I popped it in my mouth and experienced a tongue-whooping blast of wasabi. My nasal cavities braced themselves for the pain that usually accompanies that kind of wasabi power, but it never came. Instead, the wasabi mellowed into chocolate ganache with serious brownie notes. I can’t say that I love it, but the play on senses is definitely intriguing.

There’s the requisite sea salt caramel: perhaps a bit heavy-handed with the salt but the caramel is thoughtfully chewy without being sticky. Standouts include Noir, a classic French truffle, delightfully dark, perfectly smooth and rolled in cocoa powder. The filling in the truffle is a bit softer than the other Mountain Nugget confections, and I like it.

The peanut butter barrel is essentially two peanut butter cups stacked on top of each other to look like a barrel. I preferred to eat it as two peanut butter cups—one treat spread over two tasting sessions. Peanut butter and chocolate are a natural combination, but the peanut butter here really sings. It’s a rich, deep nut butter that tastes like the peanuts roasted in the oven for a minute more than they were supposed to—not because anyone forgot about them, but because they wanted to hang out a bit longer, dammit. This peanut butter is badass.

Mountain Nugget Chocolate Company - assortment of chocolates

The star of the show has to be the coconut log. A grown-up version of Bounty bar, this is a white chocolate ganache with toasted coconut, maybe a hint of honey, and just a touch of saltiness to cut through the richness. Choose from dark or milk chocolate on the outside, and get two because you won’t want to share with anyone.

There’s also a nice selection of bars with inclusions (that is, chocolate bars with stuff in them) like almonds, dried fruit and nuts.

Mountain Nugget Chocolate Company
2076 Columbia Avenue
Rossland, BC
250.362.3338

Like Picasso at IKEA

I wandered into a chocolate shop the other day, just to have a look around. I really didn’t plan on buying or eating anything.

What’s that phrase about the best-laid plans?

One VISA swipe later, I sat down with a cup of coffee and two square-ish nubs of chocolate: one that was raspberry flavoured, and one that purported to contain bacon.

Yum, bacon.

The problem is, I’ve become kind of cantankerous and picky when it comes to chocolate. I can’t just eat it. I have to dissect it. So, I couldn’t ignore the fact that square chocolates should be, well, square. They should also be even and flat, and not sort of sideways and woozy-looking. And you know, as pretty as that cocoa butter design was on top, it was too bad that the corners of the chocolate were all cracked. And when I turned the chocolates over, it was really too bad that the bottom was cracked along every edge.

This told me a few things.

1. Quality control wasn’t there. I know there are some places that think that mistakes make things look handmade and rustic, but it actually just makes things look messy. If you’re going to do the handmade thing, then really give ‘er and make them look cozy and handmade. But trying to sell me a sad-looking piece of chocolate just makes me sad.

2. Someone mistreated these chocolates. Trade secret: most chocolate shops work weeks in advance, and then refrigerate or freeze the confections until they’re needed. The trick is to acclimatize the chocolates very slowly as they cool, and even more slowly as they warm up. This is because the inside of a confection is made of ganache. A mixture of chocolate and cream, ganache expands and contracts at a different rate than plain chocolate.

If you’re patient and let the confections cool down and warm up slowly, then they’ll look fine. However, if you’re impatient, then the ganache inside will expand faster than the chocolate outside, resulting in sad, cracked edges.

And really, if you’re impatient, you shouldn’t be working with chocolate. What’s the point?

In this case, not only did the chocolatier fail to make sure that every chocolate was perfect, but whoever handled them afterwards couldn’t be bothered to treat them properly. It’s like putting a tacky copy of a Picasso in one of those do-it-yourself cheapie IKEA picture frames.

Boo.

(Oh, and the bacon chocolate? Not nearly as delicious as I thought it would be. Neither the chocolate nor the bacon tasted very good, and the two flavours together just seemed like an afterthought. Double boo.)

Seth Ellis Chocolatier dark chocolate truffles

seth-ellis-dark-chocolate

Photo credit: Rick Levine

When I learned how to make molded chocolates (as in, the ones that come in pretty shapes), I had several things beaten into me (nearly literally). The shells need to be completely uniform, and as thin as possible while still holding all its goodies inside.

Well, here’s the thing. Seth Ellis Chocolatier dances that line between artisan chocolate shop and manufacturing facility. Spend five minutes with Rick Levine and hear him talk about how he’s constantly perfecting recipes and trying to get things just right, and there’s no doubt that he’s creating an artisan product. But at the same time, he has to balance the books and produce a certain amount of chocolate in order to balance said books. And so, he has a few machines that help him along the way – as does any chocolatier who turns a profit. Let’s be perfectly clear: the concept of a truly “handmade” chocolate is fine if you’re dicking around in your kitchen at Christmas, but I’ve yet to meet a profitable chocolatier who doesn’t have a few machines up his or her proverbial sleeve.

It’s a tension, but a good kind of tension. I’m still thinking about how I feel about it. I’ll let you know when I’ve come to a decision.

But back to the chocolate shells. Seth Ellis Chocolatier’s dark chocolate truffles taste lovely. It’s a perfectly smooth centre with dark cocoa flavour, and just a hint of nuttiness. But what’s that I spy? It’s a shell that’s thicker on one side than the other, and one that has a bit more chocolate than I’d like in the corners. Picky, I know. But I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention it.

In the end, it doesn’t make a difference to you or to me, because I’ll still eat these with glee. But it has me thinking about how these particular chocolates are made, and wondering if Rick will figure out a way to perfect the shell so that I can’t tell it was made by a machine. If anyone can figure it out, he can.

Seth Ellis chocolates are available at select locations in the Denver/Boulder area, and that page will soon be updated to reflect the five NYC Whole Foods that now carries them. You can also buy them online through It’s Only Natural Gifts or through Foodzie.

ChocolaTas, and method to my madness

You’ve probably never heard of ChocolaTas before. The Abbotsford company has been around for a while and does a bustling business providing wholesale chocolates to local restaurants and hotels. ChocolaTas used to have an occasional table at Granville Island Public Market, and made some buzz last year when it partnered with Emily Carr. Students were asked to supply custom designs for a winter line of chocolates. The winning designs were translated into coloured cocoa butter, applied to the tops of handmade chocolates, and sold as part of a limited edition collection.

Anyway, fast forward to today when ChocolaTas has a spiffy new booth at Granville Island Public Market. There’s an impressive selection of flavours ranging from the expected (80% dark chocolate ganache) to the unexpected (wasabi and lemon-thyme, among others).

I chose an assortment of chocolates to try. It has taken me a while to figure out how best to approach a tasting menu of chocolates, because I tend towards the exotic or unusual flavours. The problem with this is that if an unusual chocolate isn’t good, it’s not clear whether it’s the chocolatier or the flavour. I’m more disciplined these days, and try to get a mixture of classic and crazy. I’ll usually get a few classic flavours (caramel, hazelnut, vanilla or coffee) and then a few wacky ones to round things out.

ChocolaTas
151 – 1669 Johnston St.,
Vancouver, BC
V6H 3R9
604-488-1226

Ganache Patisserie: Marron et chocolat

marron et chocolat

Marron et chocolat: mocha brownie biscuit, praline crunch, chestnut-whisky mousseline, chestnut cake, dark chocolate ganache, chocolate velvet aspect, icing sugar dust.

The foundation of mocha brownie biscuit is delightfully dense, slightly chewy and oh-so-chocolatey. The thinnest possible layer of hazelnut praline crunch lies between the brownie and a layer of chestnut-whisky mousseline that’s so light it tastes like chestnut air.

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