Friday, November 29, 2002


holiday chocolate. . .

of course the first day after thanksgiving is traditionally the day people begin thinking about and shopping for holiday presents. it's sobering: the amount of time, money, and effort this consumes. just thinking about it is waay stressful. instead, take my advice: win the love of friends and family, bask in their unending admiration, do almost no work, have fun, and save a lot of money.

how? make your own truffles to give away as gifts. (use cocoa and splenda for those on your list who object to real chocolate for whatever reason.) for example, nothing could be simpler than alton's brown's coconut truffles. and for simplicity and great taste, richard donnelly really does offer you step-by-step ease to master incredible results.

plan now, order a kilo or two of high-quality couverature, stock up on good cocoa, and go hunting for attractive gift tins. melt the chocolate in the microwave, cool it to the correct temperature in an ice-bath, and start dipping at leisure. suddenly you're done! miraculous! make 'em whenever and chill 'em until it's time to give 'em.

his simple recipe alone makes more than 12 dozen truffles! so choose a saturday afternoon, make a batch. choose another saturday, make another. that's it -- you have about 25 dozen truffles, more than enough for everyone, friends, family, work, church, yoga class, whatever. if you use an acceptable chocolate, say a kilo of callebaut or something, you can do all this for about $35 in ingredient costs, and another $35 in gift tins and wrapping. total.

what's great about the next week or two is that we have more holidays to celebrate. we here at bccy love everyone's holidays, not only because we are devoted to world peace and increased human understanding, but also because they are all excellent reasons to eat more chocolate. please, if i ever miss a holiday that involves chocolate, email me. i do try to celebrate every possible holiday i can, preferably with a nice bar of valrhona manjari! please help me help others do the same.

in this spirit, i would like to note the upcoming holidays of hanukah and the feast of eid. of course, hanukah is traditionally celebrated by playing with a dreidel for chocolate coins. how to find quality chocolate coins is the problem. in the distant past, i have used droste pastilles. but i'm still in search of the premium-chocolate coin wrapped in gold foil. perhaps next year i will use richard donnelly's gold-foil-wrapped chocolate-smothered apricots. . .

as to ramadan & the feast marking its end, eid -- it seems as if dates stuffed with rosewater-flavored marzipan, with an edge dipped in chocolate, are catching on in places like brunei and dubai. honestly, i have no idea where to acquire this exotic treat. i must check out brooklyn's own atlantic avenue. . .

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