Laurens and I visited Taste of Milano the day after a massive thunderstorm which cooled all of Milan off quite nicely. The previous days it had been 29-31 degrees celsius. Perugina’s exhibit at Taste of Milano consisted of a demonstration [...]]]> “It wasn’t difficult”, Perugina’s chief chocolatier told me, “it was impossible.”

Perugina chocolatier showing the delicate art of chocolate making

Laurens and I visited Taste of Milano the day after a massive thunderstorm which cooled all of Milan off quite nicely. The previous days it had been 29-31 degrees celsius. Perugina’s exhibit at Taste of Milano consisted of a demonstration in the fine art of chocolate making. This includes tempering, which requires the chocolate to be heated up and then cool down to 27 degrees. “When the outside temperature is over 27 degrees”, the chocolatier explained, while continuously scooping around the chocolate to cool it down efficiently, “you can’t temper chocolate, you have to make something else.”

The weather was 'cool' enough for the chocolate to be tempered

Fortunately the temperature had come down to about 24 degrees when we visited – cool enough to temper the chocolate and show me how to do that. And – more importantly – to let us taste the delicious chocolates he’d just made.

Between tempering and stirring and filling the chocolates, the Perugina chocolatier generously shared his knowledge with me.

The chocolatier was extremely helpful, answering my questions in English and, when a large crowd of Italians showed up, talking slow enough so that I could follow what he was doing.

After cooling part of the chocolate down to 27 degrees, the chocolatier places it back with the warmer part and mixes well so the entire batch reaches the optimum temperature for creating chocolates with a nice gloss and bite.

Perugina’s most famous chocolate, named “baci”, is sold in grocery stores and airports (that’s where I saw them) around Italy (and available around the world). They now come (also part of their exhibition) in white chocolate as well as the dark and milk chocolate versions they already had. Having filled my tummy at the Perugina stand, I can honestly tell you, I have no favorite, I love all their chocolate!

The Perugina chocolatier fills his chocolate mold with the tempered chocolate.

Note: Perugina has no idea who I am, besides possibly the chocolatier remembering that weird English speaking Dutch girl who kept asking questions (and eating his chocolate). This post solely reflects the awesomeness of the chocolatier at their Taste of Milano exhibit.

A little while ago I participated in a gift exchange on a cooking board I frequent. The lovely Jill from jbeancuisine got my name and sent me a lovely package from France. It included fleur de sel (and fleur de sel caramels), some lovely chocolates, a bag of herbes [...]]]>

A little while ago I participated in a gift exchange on a cooking board I frequent. The lovely Jill from jbeancuisine got my name and sent me a lovely package from France. It included fleur de sel (and fleur de sel caramels), some lovely chocolates, a bag of herbes de provence and a can of rillettes au foie gras. Part of the package was wrapped in a lovely cookie tin (with pictures of macarons on there). I was extremely lucky to receive such a very very awesome package (as you can see above).

I have 2 insanely huge tomato plants in my garden. I actually picked 1 large tomato while it was still green, because it had a hole in it (nature, bugs, that sorta stuff). I had Laurens take a picture of it to show how big it was already. As you can see (compared to the 1 euro coin), they are sized nicely already. Just waiting for them to green up.

Now today, while I was weeding and removing some old/dead leaves I suddenly same a glimpse of red. I looked a little better and found 4 ripe tomatoes. Now mind you, our summer has been insanely bad, cold and wet, so everything is very green. Including the massive amounts of tomatoes that are on there. Finding the 4 red tomatoes was a sure treat. I picked them and cleaned them and while I was gardening Laurens took some pictures of the happy red things.

We’re hoping for some nicer weather this coming week, so I’m anticipating more red tomatoes. I’m crossing my fingers, I like tomatoes!

And a last fun thing around this kitchen is quite the surprise! Quotesearcher has been searching for their favorite foodie blogs on the web. They’ve narrowed it down to 32 so far. And guess what?! My little blog is among the nominated. As you can understand, I’m very excited. Not just the fact that I’m nominated, but the other blogs on that list make me all giddy inside. To be on a list with Juls’ Kitchen, Canelle et Vanille, Use real butter and La Tartine Gourmande among others is already an honor to me.

Quotesearcher will poll for the favorite among the nominated until August 22nd. If you visit this blog and like it, please consider voting for me here.

For as long as I can remember I’ve helped my mother bake. I must’ve been 4 or 5 when I first recall standing on a kitchen stool and mixing butter, sugar eggs and flour to make a cake. The best part of “helping” my mom make cakes, [...]]]>

For as long as I can remember I’ve helped my mother bake. I must’ve been 4 or 5 when I first recall standing on a kitchen stool and mixing butter, sugar eggs and flour to make a cake. The best part of “helping” my mom make cakes, was licking the spoon, and the bowl, after the batter was poured into the pan.

I never had the patience to wait for a cake to be completely cooled. And honestly, I liked her cakes better when they were still slightly warm. Even though my mom told me not to cut the cake before it had cooled, I could hardly ever hold myself back.

I’d guess I was about 8 or 9 when I baked my first cake on my own. Using my mother’s trusted recipe for cake (equal parts flour, sugar and butter and a number of eggs and flavoring) I really didn’t need her help anymore.

My mom’s cake recipe was probably the only recipe I used until I moved out. The only other recipes I knew existed, were my friends’ mothers’ cakes that were made from a boxed mix.

In the years since I’ve moved out from my mother’s house, I’ve experimented with many many more recipes. Some have worked, and some have failed. Most of them have been recipes I found online and altered. Some were written down on envelopes, or scraps of paper. I don’t know the origin of most of my cake recipes, but I know exactly which ones I like, and which ones need some improvements.

The second time I met (and went to visit) Laurens’ parents was quite a while ago, but I still recall the cake I brought. Laurens had failed to inform/ask his parents about us visiting, so he called the evening before we planned to go. His mom was happy about having us over, but told him ‘I don’t even have a cake to serve you’. After the phone call I asked what was up (my understanding of Italian back then was worse than the despicable state it’s in now) and he laughed and mentioned the cake.

I went to rummage in our kitchen to see what ingredients I had available. I proceeded to google ‘chocolate hazelnut cake’ and found a plethora of recipes.

The recipe I chose was easy enough to make and seemed tasty. The next morning, before we left for the in-laws, I baked a cake.

The cake turned out to be wonderful. The ground hazelnuts in combination with the almond extract and chocolate gave it something different. The cake in itself was full in taste and moist. My in-laws were at first confused about me bringing a cake – hey, they hadn’t gotten used to my food obsession back then – but very enthusiastic once they tasted it.

Since that date, I’ve brought them more goodies. They don’t look all that surprised anymore when, instead of flowers, I present them with something I’ve prepared myself.

Recently I remembered that cake. I hadn’t made it since that first time, but I had all the ingredients and a free hour on my hands. The cake was still wonderful.

As always – if you’re certain you know who’s/which recipe I wrote down that fateful day, please let me know so I can credit them appropriately!