food of the gods
If you've been my friend long enough, you know that I make it a point to attend the San Francisco Chocolate Festival at Ghirardelli Square every year. And then I post about it because that's just how I do.
In the supposed words of Liz Lemon: Chocolate chocolate chocolate, ack!
A quick summary of the festival and how it works: There are booths of samples set up by local eateries and dessert purveyors both in the square and the street before the square. You buy a ticket ($10 for 6 samples or $20 for $15 samples) and you go to the booths and ask for samples, and each sample is marked on your ticket. So basically, the day is dedicated to eating lots of chocolate for a good cause, as the proceeds go to Project Open Hand, a San Francisco-based non-profit organization that provides meals for people living with HIV/AIDS and others who are critically ill and are unable to provide meals for themselves.
This year my friend Michelle alerted me of a deal from Living Social where you could buy a $20 pass for $10, AND score a free ticket just by using your Visa card. I jumped on this so hard (having mad tuition fees and loans to pay off make me crazy excited about deals and sales) so I snagged $40 worth of samples for me and my friends for a fourth of the normal price. Score! And this is how I celebrated:
Butterscotch creme brulee. This was so delightful because it was rich and creamy, and cold! The day was a lot warmer than I had expected it to be, so anything cold was greatly appreciated.
Cute jewelry with little dessert charms.
Sweet and salty toffee.
This sign was besides the toffee booth. I thought it was awesome.
Chocolate vegan cupcakes. These were... disappointing, to say the least. They looked better than they tasted. It's not a good sign when three pâtisserie and baking students can't identify what flavor the frosting is supposed to be.
Chocolate vodka. I didn't try this because I don't care for alcohol in the least, but my friends Rachael and Jerricka did. They reported back that it was very strong and that it burned all of the way down. The faces they made attested to that. Too bad I didn't snap that.
Double chocolate cranberry cookies and brown butter blondies (say that three times fast!)
Milk chocolate macadamia lacey.
Chocolate stuffed marshmallow from GÜDFÜD. The packaging was cute, but these sucked, to be quite honest. There were tons of people walking around with boxes of these things, and I think the GÜDFÜD people just gave them empty boxes to make it look as though they were good enough to buy a $10 box worth of their marshmallows.
The line for samples from Kara's Cupcakes was way too long to justify queuing for it, so we went to the actual shop and paid (!) for normal-sized cupcakes instead. Jerricka and I shared a java cupcake. I had a sample of this a few years ago, and it was just as good now as it was then.
Marble cheesecake bite.
Chocolate square sample from one of the many Ghirardelli shops around the square. It tasted like pumpkin, spices, and caramel, so it lived up to its name.
Blood orange sorbet bars from Ciao Bella. So light and refreshing after consuming so much chocolate.
Flourless chocolate truffle cakes from McCormick & Kuleto's. This was the third year in a row that these were at the festival. Never leave, delightful little cakes, please!
Spiced almond caramel popcorn. I loved the presentation, how the popcorn was served in paper cones. It really gave it a cool street food vibe.
Chocolate mochi with walnuts. At least that's what the brochure said, because I suspected that they were just brownies.
Okay, so these dudes didn't look all that pleased to be posing for pictures while dressed as ice cream sundaes, but what can you do? I got my photo, and a coupon for $1 off of a Ghirardelli sundae, so I was a happy camper nevertheless.
elapses! I promised to share with you the brioche recipe I used in class, but I didn't come through when I said I would because I sometimes suck like that. Well, what really happened was that I let a classmate borrow my notebook, then got it back... and then proceeded to completely forget that I was supposed to give you the recipe. Well, amends!
I myself haven't witnessed how well this recipe works at home because I've only ever tried it at school, but it's a recipe that Chef Mike has in his book, which he wrote for people wanting to learn how to bake bread in their own homes.
Chef Mike's Brioche
Makes about 10 brioche
9 oz. water
1 1/2 oz. fresh yeast
12 oz. bread flour (this will be referred to as Flour I)
11 oz. eggs (or 6 eggs)
3 oz. sugar
1 lb., 8 oz. bread flour (Flour II)
7/8 oz. salt
12 oz. butter (at room temperature)
1. Combine the water (which should be at 90°), yeast, and flour I in a big bowl and mix together until all of the flour is thoroughly combined. The result is what is called a sponge. Let your sponge ferment for 45 minutes in an environment that's at 80°.
2. After the 45 minutes are up, whisk the eggs a little bit and then add the sugar and continue to whisk until the sugar is dissolved. Add this mixture to your sponge and squish it with your fingers until it's combined.
3. Mix your salt and flour II together (ideally on your table), and then add it to your sponge. Combine until all of the flour is wet (this is what is called "take up"). Feel free to use a spray bottle of water to wet any dry spots you might have. Scrape the bowl and put your dough on your work table.
4. Add the butter and knead the dough at medium speed on your table for 4 minutes. Don't be afraid to smear it across the table; it's inevitable, what with all of the butter in the dough, but don't be too tough so that the gluten in the dough tears with every pass.
5. Put more bread flour in a bowl to use to dust the table and the dough (we call this "bench flour"). Bring the dough together into a mass lump and clean off your hands (put your hands in the bench flour and then rub them together to get as much of the dough off of your hands as possible) and work surface. Then, lightly flour the table and dough, and knead gently for 4 more minutes. The idea is to make the dough into a rounded mass.
6. Spray a sheet pan with Pam spray and place your dough on top. Wrap it in plastic wrap and place in the refrigerator for 8-16 hours.
7. When the dough is ready, divide it into 10 pieces at 1 1/2 oz. and 10 pieces at 4 oz. (Make sure that your flour your work surface because the dough will be sticky.) Round the 4 oz pieces into balls. Round the smaller pieces into balls as well, but then roll out one end so that they have little tails. (They kind of look like sperm. It's not a pretty picture, but that's the best way I can describe it.) Stick your thumb into the 4 oz. balls to make holes, and then stick the tails of smaller pieces through them, making sure that the tail can be tucked underneath the ball. If you don't, the little "heads" on top of the brioche will not be centered but will lean to the side.
8. Spray your brioche tins with Pam spray and place a brioche in each tin. Let them sit somewhere that's at 80° for around 40-45 minutes. We use what's called a proof box, but Chef Mike's said that he's proofed before at his mom's house by using a dishwashing machine with some cups of hot water sitting at the bottom :D
9. Glaze the brioche with a glaze mixture made of equal parts egg and milk. Make sure that the glaze doesn't drip down the inner walls of the brioche tins. It will bake to the tin if you do and it will be a pain to clean.
10. Bake at 360° for 12-15 minutes, or until the brioche are golden in color.
I hope that those directions are relatively clear. I was going off of my notes, which are jumbled and shorthanded, so there is a possibility that they don't make sense... If you have any questions or need me to clarify anything, feel free to holler!
In the supposed words of Liz Lemon: Chocolate chocolate chocolate, ack!
A quick summary of the festival and how it works: There are booths of samples set up by local eateries and dessert purveyors both in the square and the street before the square. You buy a ticket ($10 for 6 samples or $20 for $15 samples) and you go to the booths and ask for samples, and each sample is marked on your ticket. So basically, the day is dedicated to eating lots of chocolate for a good cause, as the proceeds go to Project Open Hand, a San Francisco-based non-profit organization that provides meals for people living with HIV/AIDS and others who are critically ill and are unable to provide meals for themselves.
This year my friend Michelle alerted me of a deal from Living Social where you could buy a $20 pass for $10, AND score a free ticket just by using your Visa card. I jumped on this so hard (having mad tuition fees and loans to pay off make me crazy excited about deals and sales) so I snagged $40 worth of samples for me and my friends for a fourth of the normal price. Score! And this is how I celebrated:
Butterscotch creme brulee. This was so delightful because it was rich and creamy, and cold! The day was a lot warmer than I had expected it to be, so anything cold was greatly appreciated.
Cute jewelry with little dessert charms.
Sweet and salty toffee.
This sign was besides the toffee booth. I thought it was awesome.
Chocolate vegan cupcakes. These were... disappointing, to say the least. They looked better than they tasted. It's not a good sign when three pâtisserie and baking students can't identify what flavor the frosting is supposed to be.
Chocolate vodka. I didn't try this because I don't care for alcohol in the least, but my friends Rachael and Jerricka did. They reported back that it was very strong and that it burned all of the way down. The faces they made attested to that. Too bad I didn't snap that.
Double chocolate cranberry cookies and brown butter blondies (say that three times fast!)
Milk chocolate macadamia lacey.
Chocolate stuffed marshmallow from GÜDFÜD. The packaging was cute, but these sucked, to be quite honest. There were tons of people walking around with boxes of these things, and I think the GÜDFÜD people just gave them empty boxes to make it look as though they were good enough to buy a $10 box worth of their marshmallows.
The line for samples from Kara's Cupcakes was way too long to justify queuing for it, so we went to the actual shop and paid (!) for normal-sized cupcakes instead. Jerricka and I shared a java cupcake. I had a sample of this a few years ago, and it was just as good now as it was then.
Marble cheesecake bite.
Chocolate square sample from one of the many Ghirardelli shops around the square. It tasted like pumpkin, spices, and caramel, so it lived up to its name.
Blood orange sorbet bars from Ciao Bella. So light and refreshing after consuming so much chocolate.
Flourless chocolate truffle cakes from McCormick & Kuleto's. This was the third year in a row that these were at the festival. Never leave, delightful little cakes, please!
Spiced almond caramel popcorn. I loved the presentation, how the popcorn was served in paper cones. It really gave it a cool street food vibe.
Chocolate mochi with walnuts. At least that's what the brochure said, because I suspected that they were just brownies.
Okay, so these dudes didn't look all that pleased to be posing for pictures while dressed as ice cream sundaes, but what can you do? I got my photo, and a coupon for $1 off of a Ghirardelli sundae, so I was a happy camper nevertheless.
elapses! I promised to share with you the brioche recipe I used in class, but I didn't come through when I said I would because I sometimes suck like that. Well, what really happened was that I let a classmate borrow my notebook, then got it back... and then proceeded to completely forget that I was supposed to give you the recipe. Well, amends!
I myself haven't witnessed how well this recipe works at home because I've only ever tried it at school, but it's a recipe that Chef Mike has in his book, which he wrote for people wanting to learn how to bake bread in their own homes.
Chef Mike's Brioche
Makes about 10 brioche
9 oz. water
1 1/2 oz. fresh yeast
12 oz. bread flour (this will be referred to as Flour I)
11 oz. eggs (or 6 eggs)
3 oz. sugar
1 lb., 8 oz. bread flour (Flour II)
7/8 oz. salt
12 oz. butter (at room temperature)
1. Combine the water (which should be at 90°), yeast, and flour I in a big bowl and mix together until all of the flour is thoroughly combined. The result is what is called a sponge. Let your sponge ferment for 45 minutes in an environment that's at 80°.
2. After the 45 minutes are up, whisk the eggs a little bit and then add the sugar and continue to whisk until the sugar is dissolved. Add this mixture to your sponge and squish it with your fingers until it's combined.
3. Mix your salt and flour II together (ideally on your table), and then add it to your sponge. Combine until all of the flour is wet (this is what is called "take up"). Feel free to use a spray bottle of water to wet any dry spots you might have. Scrape the bowl and put your dough on your work table.
4. Add the butter and knead the dough at medium speed on your table for 4 minutes. Don't be afraid to smear it across the table; it's inevitable, what with all of the butter in the dough, but don't be too tough so that the gluten in the dough tears with every pass.
5. Put more bread flour in a bowl to use to dust the table and the dough (we call this "bench flour"). Bring the dough together into a mass lump and clean off your hands (put your hands in the bench flour and then rub them together to get as much of the dough off of your hands as possible) and work surface. Then, lightly flour the table and dough, and knead gently for 4 more minutes. The idea is to make the dough into a rounded mass.
6. Spray a sheet pan with Pam spray and place your dough on top. Wrap it in plastic wrap and place in the refrigerator for 8-16 hours.
7. When the dough is ready, divide it into 10 pieces at 1 1/2 oz. and 10 pieces at 4 oz. (Make sure that your flour your work surface because the dough will be sticky.) Round the 4 oz pieces into balls. Round the smaller pieces into balls as well, but then roll out one end so that they have little tails. (They kind of look like sperm. It's not a pretty picture, but that's the best way I can describe it.) Stick your thumb into the 4 oz. balls to make holes, and then stick the tails of smaller pieces through them, making sure that the tail can be tucked underneath the ball. If you don't, the little "heads" on top of the brioche will not be centered but will lean to the side.
8. Spray your brioche tins with Pam spray and place a brioche in each tin. Let them sit somewhere that's at 80° for around 40-45 minutes. We use what's called a proof box, but Chef Mike's said that he's proofed before at his mom's house by using a dishwashing machine with some cups of hot water sitting at the bottom :D
9. Glaze the brioche with a glaze mixture made of equal parts egg and milk. Make sure that the glaze doesn't drip down the inner walls of the brioche tins. It will bake to the tin if you do and it will be a pain to clean.
10. Bake at 360° for 12-15 minutes, or until the brioche are golden in color.
I hope that those directions are relatively clear. I was going off of my notes, which are jumbled and shorthanded, so there is a possibility that they don't make sense... If you have any questions or need me to clarify anything, feel free to holler!