Ghirardelli Festival & Chocolate Pots de Crème

The 19th Annual Ghirardelli Festival in San Francisco drew big crowds.  Demos were free and tasting tickets were available for purchase.

First demo of the day opened with Stephen Durfee, former French Laundry pastry chef.  He won the James Beard Outstanding Pastry Chef award in 1998—a big deal in the culinary world.  Chocolate Pots de Crème was the feature of the day and we received pre-prepared samples.

Stephen highlighted the importance of textural variety with his dessert demo. He topped the custard with broken up cocoa nib-brownies, a crunchy chocolate disk, and some blackberries.  Instead of tempering chocolate to make the disks, he mixed in cornflakes with melted chocolate—a simpler solution that tasted nothing like cornflakes!

Rolling out the chocolate-cornflake mixture.

Hardened chocolate-cornflake sheet for the discs.

Using an immersion blender to blend the custard base with the melted chocolate is much simpler than using a blender.  Stephen said you can even whip cream with an immersion blender! 

Stephen's Chocolate Pots de Crème

Printable Recipe

The recipes I viewed online use way more cream and eggs for the same number of servings.  Stephen's custard was on-point for taste and texture, proving that more of a good thing, like cream, isn't necessarily better.

Custard

7 oz (1 bar) Ghirardelli 72% chocolate

3 T sugar

4 egg yolks

1 c milk

3/4 c cream

2 T rum*

2 T espresso**

*can substitute equal amounts of another liqueur, fruit purée, or black tea for the espresso &/or rum

**To make espresso, microwave 2 T of water until bubbling, then add 1/2 tsp espresso powder to dissolve.

1. Chop chocolate, transfer to a 4 c measuring cup or microwavable bowl, and microwave in 20 second increments, stirring every time.  It's important not to over-cook the chocolate because it can seize and burn.

2. Beat the egg yolks with the sugar until pale yellow.

3. Combine milk and cream in a saucepan and bring to a simmer. Temper the eggs by adding a small amount of the hot liquid, stirring, then pouring the egg mixture into the pan.

4. Over medium-low heat, gently stir the custard until slightly thickened.  When it coats the back of a spoon and you can drag your finger across, leaving a mark, it's ready.  Immediately take off heat because custards curdle easily.

5. Pour over chocolate and use an immersion blender to emulsify.  Gradually blend in the espresso and rum.  Pour custard into ramekins and chill until set. Makes 8 portions.

Top with brownie bits, berries, and a chocolate disk.

Topping: Nibby Brownies

Ghirardelli 60% Baking Bar 

*60% is recommended because it has more sugar, therefore creating a softer brownie

6 T butter

2 eggs

1 c brown sugar

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 c flour

1/4 c cocoa nibs

Melt chocolate and butter in the microwave.  Beat eggs with sugar, vanilla, and salt until thick and mixture holds a ribbon.  Fold eggs into melted chocolate. Blend in flour.Spread into a 9x13" pan lined with parchment paper.  Scatter with cocoa nibs. Bake at 325º for 25 minutes. Let cool before cutting into small pieces.

Topping: Crunchy Chocolate Discs

Though the discs taste nothing like cornflakes, incorporating the flakes, instead of just using plain chocolate, allows you to skip tempering the chocolate.

3.5 oz (half bar) Ghirardelli 72% chocolate

1/2 c cornflakes

Melt chocolate and stir in cornflakes.  Using a rolling pin, press out mixture between 2 sheets of parchment or wax paper.  Roll very thin.  Chill briefly to set.  Use a small cookie cutter to cut out discs. Refrigerate until needed.  

Steve Genzoli is the VP of Ghirardelli's Quality Assurance, Research, and Development and is a Cal Poly SLO alum! He gave a great lecture on how chocolate is made and I talked with him afterwards about Ghirardelli's efforts to make sustainable chocolate.

To-scale model of a cacao pod with cocoa beans.  

Naturally occurring yeast settles on the cocoa pods, causing fermentation which produces acids that soak into the beans, developing flavor precursors. Fermentation takes about 1 week.  The beans, now brown and wet, are removed from the pods, and dry on the ground for a week.

Cocoa beans that have been fermented and dried.

Since Ghirardelli only uses the best beans in their chocolate products, they reject about 30% of the beans that come to them after checking for insects, mold, proper color, and taste.

Cocoa bean shells.

Dried cocoa beans get blasted with water and infrared heat, causing a build-up of steam to create intense pressure that causes the shells to pop off the beans.  A spinning table separates the shells from the nibs, because the shells weigh less than the inside.

FUN FACT: People who grow mushrooms use the shells for mulch.  Shells are also used as a source of fiber in the diet of dairy cows.

Cocoa nibs.

Roasting the nibs starts chemical reactions that allow the flavor precursors to develop chocolate flavor.  Length of roasting varies upon the desired product.  For instance, nibs for bittersweet chocolate are roasted long and high.  

The nibs get ground up, like peanuts for peanut butter, creating chocolate liquor (cocoa butter + cocoa solids).  Sugar is then added and the mixture is conched.  Conching involves friction, heat, and allows flavors to further develop.  Dark chocolate is conched for a long time to drive off acid and bitter flavors.

After adding any additional ingredients, such as lecithin, the chocolate is tempered, deposited into molds, vibrated, blasted with cold air, and then released and packaged.  

Quite the  journey from bean to bar!

Instead of buying into the fair trade label, Ghirardelli, a division of Lindt & Sprungli, pays above the asking price for their cocoa beans. This extra money is used by a non-profit organization called Source Trust, which spearheads infrastructure projects.  Steve mentioned that resource centers with computers have been constructed for the locals, allowing the children a safe place to study after school and an opportunity for the cocoa farmers to learn more about their trade.

Numi, a brand that uses NO artificial flavors, just came out with 4 new chocolate teas made with REAL cacao.  Their chocolate pu-erh featured in 2013 is excellent and I'm sure these are, too. 

New Releases, all with REAL cacao, not artificial chocolate flavor

 Chocolate Mint, Chocolate Spice, Chocolate Earl Grey, Chocolate Rooibos

 Adult Ice Cream Eating Contest!

The contestants had to work their way through the Earthquake Sundae which comes with 8 scoops of ice cream, 8 dollops of whipped cream, and an entire banana.