Wednesday, February 14th, 2007
A Sweet Heart for My Sweetheart
Our menu for tonight will be a remake of our Valentine dinner a few years ago. That was the first Valentine’s day we decided to cook our own dinner. Actually, he cooked. I just made the dessert. I think this is a fun way to get his participation (again) in the kitchen as he and I will be cooking together this time. We’re making a simple salad topped with pork tenderloin rubbed in exotic spices that complements this moist layer cake filled with cinnamon-infused chocolate mousse covered with black tea (lapsang souchong) infused bittersweet chocolate ganache. Of course, I used organic chocolate and organic black tea leaves. Both recipes can be found at Epicurious. The heart layer cake was a recipe by Elizabeth Falkner of Citizen Cake in San Francisco.
I’ve learned that (and from now on) tasting chocolate that I plan on using for my cakes or desserts is an ideal practice. Tasting and detecting the nuance of a chocolate helps me adjust some of the ingredients called for in a recipe. If a recipe requires semisweet chocolate, but I only have bittersweet on hand, I would use less amount of the bittersweet or add more sugar. Somehow, re-measuring some ingredients balances the taste. Like Dagoba Conacado 73% (organic chocolate), its taste was more on the semisweet side instead of bittersweet, which I think was interesting considering that it has 73% cacao. A little bit acidic but does not linger in the mouth; a slight hint of fruit fragrance. Although rustic looking and the packaging has that organic appeal, it didn’t satisfy my expectation for it to have that bittersweet taste one would expect in a bar that contains 73% cacao.
Exotic and spicy, this is my sweet seduction entry for this month’s SHF (#28) hosted by Jasmine. Happy Valentine’s!
on Saturday, February 24th, 2007 at 2:53 pm:
That cake sure has got a lot going for it, the cinnamon mousse, the tea infuse ganache, the chocolate! Sounds great!