The Start of Something New

">Ever since I finished the favours for Katie and Ash’s wedding, I’ve had an urge to start creating my own chocolates and confections. Believe me it was a lot of hard work to create but was well worth seeing the finished product with the different flavours in their different coloured foils, the favour boxes with their gold inscription, the little inlay cards describing what was in each of the coloured shiny wrappings.

There were four different flavours - raspberry, mango, nut and mukhwas. The raspberry and mango flavours were fruit puree based ganaches – the raspberry with plain chocolate and the mango with white chocolate. The nut based centre was based on a recipe from the American chocolatier, Andrew Garrison Schotts from his book “Making Fine Chocolates” which included a home-made praline.

I can hear you saying – “Ok, Ok but what was that last one?” The last one was a cream based ganache which was infused with a couple of teaspoons of Mukhwas. If you’ve ever been into a good authentic Indian restaurant you might have seen small dishes of seeds on the counter which people eat after the meal to aid digestion and to freshen the breath. You can get Mukhwas on the internet or they also sell it in Tesco in the world food section – if your local Tesco has one.

Even better, if you’re lucky enough to live near or to visit Tooting in South London, there’s a shop that sells a whole range of Mukhwas which you can try before you buy. This chocolate was a unique flavour but one that went down well for those who tasted it.