Because I can imagine few things more miserable than stepping foot in any retail store on the busiest shopping day of the year… a new tradition: Baking Friday. Yes, even after all of those pies.
Continue Reading...This week’s artisan story in the Los Angeles Times is all about a French pastry chef — *the* L.A. French pastry chef — who makes simple chocolate truffles. No fancy cocoa butter designs or geometric shapes, and even after nearly twenty years in the business, Yvan Valentin (a handy last name to have this time of year) still only makes a half dozen varieties of classic French truffles. Even that’s arguably a stretch, as several are thinly disguised variations on his favorite, a dark chocolate ganache dipped in dark chocolate — he spiked the ganache in one with a little tangy yuzu citrus fruit; another gets the classic dark chocolate filling but is rolled in matcha tea. Beautifully simple. Deceptively clever.
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