Turning Scraps into Treasures

There is waste and then there is waste.  Perhaps you can relate based on your own kitchen experience.  Scraps of pie dough in the oven with butter and sugar?  Discovery of sauteed beet root greens? In the Vosges Haut-Chocolat kitchen things melt, break, and get trimmed.  Yummy things that create yummy waste.

One of our most popular comfort foods, the Caramel Marshmallows were born out of desire to make a use for a yummy by-product.  We make our crunchy Caramel Toffee in sheets and then coat is with milk chocolate and then sprinkle on walnuts and pecans.  In order to sell bite-sized portions, we then break the toffee into chunks. When breaking this coated toffee, a small rain shower of crumbled nuts touched with chocolate that haven’t fully secured to the toffee.  At first, we all took turns bringing home bags of toffee crumble, as we called it, to sprinkle over ice cream.  But, as production grew, we had more crumble than we could use.

A brainstorm session led to the idea of marshmallows, then we considered caramel and then of course… I had to coat it all in chocolate.  Perched proudly on top, crowning our new Caramel Marshmallow creations, the leftover toffee crumble found its day in the sun.

The top photograph showing snacks of buttery, soft fresh caramel  is a common one in our kitchen when we make our Exotic Caramels and Wink of the Rabbit Caramels.  Batches are made in our old copper kettle (never more than 120 pounds at a time.)

We then pour the caramel on trays to cool.  After it is room temperature, we measure the caramels and cut them by hand, one-by-one into a perfect bite-sized morsel.  The by-product of our equally sized cut caramels is a pile of edges.  Our tray of caramels is brought to the enrober where the bites go under a chocolate waterfall, coating them in either milk or dark chocolate.  While the chocolate is still wet, we sprinkle freshly ground spices or organic nuts on top.

So, we find our way to my conundrum.  These piles of caramel scraps call to me.  Some are eaten of course.  But do they have a path to better ending?  Might they be as lucky as the toffee crumble and find their day in the sun?  What would YOU do with these caramel scraps?

Anxiously awaiting your ideas,

Katrina

Stout & Root Beer Float with Wattleseed Ice Cream

The first ice cream floats were served at soda fountains inside pharmacies as far back as the 1920s. It is no surprise that ice cream and penny candy were peddled in a place that also doled out tonics, salves, prescriptions and elixirs to improve wellbeing. The soda fountain treats in their tall, solid glasses must have given the takers, perched atop their stools, some cheer when the rising foam and bubbles from a tasty ice cream submerged in soda burst lightly in their mouths. Could they dare consider this medicine?

This summer, I have been experimenting with our Exotic Ice Cream parfums and their perfect liquid mates. One of the best is this Stout & Root Beer float. Stouts often have chocolate notes, which match well with the hazelnut and coffee flavors of the Aboriginal wattleseed. After some sipping, I found an extra splash of root beer was needed to add a touch of sweet against the stout’s bitterness.

 A little tip… if you like an extra foamy float, put the ice cream in your glass first and pour the liquid over top. If not, drop the ice cream in at the end. Try both ways… you will see a big difference!

I like these floats in mini glasses served alongside dessert or as a surprise on a sweets buffet with long silver spoons for guests to sip and roam at a standing party.

Root Beer & Stout Float with Wattleseed Ice Cream

Stout ( I like Guinness)
Root Beer (I like Virgil’s)
Wattleseed Ice Cream

Fill the glass 1/3 of the way with ice cream, 1/3 with root beer and 1/2 with beer.

Never too Much of a Good Thing

Even the most dreamy tasks can be daunting at times. When I occasionally have to leave the Vosges kitchen on a spice hunt or a visit to our New York or Las Vegas boutiques, my awesome team must execute my recipes in my absence. Upon my return, I am faced with a sea of truffles to taste. I ensure that each and every batch meets our strict standards before chocolates are placed in purple boxes or go into your lovely mouths.

Because we use all natural products and because much of our process is done by hand, there will always be natural variance. I taste to be sure the chipotle is smoky enough, the Maldon salt crystals are big enough and the Hungarian paprika is ground fine enough.

After my most recent excursion, I came home to find about 35 truffles awaiting inspection. I like to taste them first thing in the morning when my palate is most fresh, working my way from white to milk to dark chocolate. I start by cutting each truffle in half and looking for smooth texture and a maximum shell thickness of 2 millimeters. Consistency in chocolate deposit temperature is crucial to a nice, thin shell.

Although I don’t look forward to problem batches and errors, they do not anger me. Each misstep is an opportunity for improvement or a honing of our process. After all some of the best inventions are born out of mistakes, tarte tartin for example.

One of the most frequent comments I hear from people is, “If you need someone to help taste chocolate, I would be happy to volunteer.” Well, there is no denying that there is a lot of it to be done in my line of work. Although facing dozens of truffles at a time can be daunting, I  prescribe to the saying there is no such thing as too much of a good thing.