Dark & Stormies

....or "Stark & Dormies" if you end up eating too many of these babies!

The flavor profile of these little rectangles is dark chocolate, white chocolate, and Bermudan rum! I tasted the centers alone and didn't like them (thought the rum was too strong), but when coated in the dark chocolate, they are absolutely delicious!

These chocolates were made using the "slabbed ganache" technique. My partner and I had to temper our white chocolate and then combine it with the liquid flavoring. That same day, we had learned techniques to use when ganache separates, or "breaks". Ours broke, and I gently heated it and agitated it (aka stirred it) for awhile and it magically came back together! Wow! Chef G said that emulsions are like a metaphor for life: sometimes things get really ugly before they get good. So true!

Once our ganache had come together, we poured it into a frame (zinc coated bars) on top of a piece of plexiglass. It was left alone over night so that the cocoa butter in the chocolate could crystallize/set. We used this cool device called a guitar to cut out perfect shapes. It has sharp wires that can cut chocolates, ganache, candies, fruit jellies, etc. We used one at a bakery I worked at to cut soft cheeses into cubes for our bread, so I was familiar with this machinery. It is a GREAT tool - quick and easy and all uniformly-sized pieces. For our Dark & Stormies, we cut them into rectangles.

Then they were dipped in some tempered dark chocolate, left alone to set a little bit, and then we made the wave patterns on top with a dipping fork. Yum!