Miscellaneous Food: Chocolate Figs and Cocoa Nibs

Guess what I did this weekend? Okay, no prizes. I was very fortunate to have two gifts, one of some chocolate ganache and the other, the company of my friend C. for a day of baking. When I reflect on the activities that I've had around blogging and food, one of the most rewarding must definitely be the friends that I've made in the process, people who not just share similar interests but who have brought so much laughter and friendship into my life.


When I say a day of baking, I really mean that it was mammoth. Ambition, much like smoking and obesity, must be catching, for we encouraged and encouraged each other over the week to make not one, but three desserts.


To keep things simple, we made only chocolate shells because I had been generously gifted some chocolate ganache from E. my always-effeversent chocolatier friend. He runs what is in my opinion, the best and most stylish chocolate store in Singapore, so I am really grateful for some of his produce to improve my macarons.


I also wanted to use up two products that I had bought in my travels (I am always doing this, accumulating a pantry full of weird and wondrous ingredients that I afterward struggle to use up).


These were cocoa nibs and chocolate covered dried figs from Australia, which we sliced up and buried in the ganache. I still have some other interesting ingredients up my sleeve, ie. in my pantry, like chocolate covered coffee beans.


The macarons were the easiest part of what we made this weekend and were piped and dried rather quickly. We moved on to making something really exciting, a delicious chocolate and chestnut mont blanc, which I'll show you next.


But first, more gratituous pictures of the products. Gotta love these Wilton trays, they look so professional and stack neatly into one another, so they are a cinch to store in bulk as well. A friend asked me what the allure of macarons is and for me, it's consistency, a drive to produce blindingly exact rounds, each more similar in that marvellous light, airy texture, dense flavourful filling and perfect compact shape than the next.


I was really pleased with how these turned out, high feet, rich ganache and a little surprise in the middle. Next, I'm thinking of sanwiching the ganache with a square of fluffy, home-made vanilla bean marshmellow or perhaps a strawberry marshmellow. I wish I wasn't so busy with work, I dream about making up a roster of flavours and selling these online!


This is a picture of what I did with them afterward. Made up gift boxes that I packed with the intense passionfruit cupcakes, mont blancs and a tube-sleeve of chocolate macarons.