Served at Sooke Harbour house Wednesday May 12 2004.

Served at Sooke Harbour house Tuesday June 22 2004.

Served at Sooke Harbour house Wednesday April 21 2004.

Is there anything more fun than making chocolates?  This book is an absolute gem – I have tried so many of these recipes, with consistently wonderful results.

Roger Geerts uses a lot of butter, glucose, and fondant in his fillings, which means these recipes are quite sweet and have a high fat content.  It is worth it, though – the flavors are incredible.  His recipes ALWAYS work, and he covers a very wide range with detailed precision.  After explaining basic recipes and techniques, Roger takes us through a wide range of dipped chocolates, truffles, moulded chocolates, fruit candies, liqueurs and confectionaries, as well as great information about caramelizing and candying – and more – jellies and ganaches and marzipans – Yum!

It is not just the information that is stellar – it is the presentation.  Here is a page from the book, for simple and tasty milk chocolates:

Notice how detailed it is – you get a complete list of ingredients and tools, precise instructions and illustrations for each step, and important comments giving you a ‘heads-up’ about possible pitfalls in making these tasty treats.

l just love this book – it has taught me to do things that I would definitely not have learned elsewhere, is creative, useful, and bursting with information.  5 stars out of 5 for certain!

Served at Sooke Harbour house Thursday September 25 2003.

The French like to give away Chocolate Truffles during Christmas – what a sweet tradition!  Often served with coffee, truffles are simply balls of chocolate (melted with varying amounts of egg, butter, cream or sugar) that are coated with chocolate or rolled in cocoa powder.  This base mixture can be used for many different flavor possibilities – brandy, rum, cinnamon, vanilla, coffee, whiskey, ginger, marshmallow, lavender, even paprika – almost endless combinations and varieties!  The flavoring process can be as simple as just adding the flavor (such as rum), or very complicated, combining multiple ingredients in a delicate sequence.

Muscadines are long truffles dipped in chocolate, and sprinkled with icing sugar, while Chamberry truffles (truffettes) add praline and fondant icing to create a delightful taste and texture.

I love making chocolate truffles, and have been learning different ideas and techniques since before I went to cooking school (a happy slave to my sweet tooth!). I have never used eggs in my truffle recipes – I prefer chocolate and cream as the base, and have had great results. Traditionally  made with dark chocolate (my personal preference),  some people prefer the less-bitter milk chocolate. I advertised truffles as wedding favors on my first website, and still happily fill custom orders…

The most popular flavors I sell are Brandy, Cinnamon, Espresso, Ginger, Mint, Orange and Tea; of course I can do custom flavors as well.   If you are interested in having chocolate truffles for your wedding or any other occasion, just let me know!

Served at Sooke Harbour house Tuesday September 30 2003.

One of the top restaurants in the world, the Sooke Harbour House is noted for its  unique menu written every single day that uses only the freshest of local ingredients.   The cooks, including the pastry chef, daily create their dishes from the Sooke Harbour House ‘edible landscape’,  using the over 200 edible herbs, greens, edible flowers and vegetables grown on location. (Watch a Youtube video about the edible gardens here).

Needless to say, this is a fantastic daily challenge for a chef – using only the best ingredients from the Southwestern Coast of Vancouver Island to create desserts that meet or surpass the expectations of the discriminating diners coming to one of the best restaurants in the world.

Here are some of the 2007 Awards the Sooke Harbour House has received:

• Wine Spectator Grand Award 2007, one of the Top 75 Wine Lists in the World
• Best Vancouver Island Restaurant, Vancouver Magazine
• #2 Best Hotel in North America 2007 Reader’s Poll, Travel & Leisure Magazine
• #8, World’s Best Service 2007 Reader’s Poll,  Travel & Leisure Magazine
• #8 Best Small Hotel in the World 2007 Reader’s Poll, Travel & Leisure Magazine
• Gold Star, Conde Naste
• 5 Stars, Canada Select

Creating unique, flavorful delicious desserts from fresh local ingredients demanded constant communication with local suppliers and the house gardeners, and an exquisite awareness of seasonal freshness and properties of herbs, edible flowers and plants, fruits and vegetables.  Sorbets, reductions, ice creams, pastries and confections all had to be daily made from scratch, not just to serve the diners but to surprise and delight them!

Over the summer I will be matching some of Thea’s photos with Sooke Harbor House menus, and posting pictures and descriptions on the blog.  Enjoy!!!

Thea working at Sooke Harbour House - the dessert she is building was listed on the menu on Saturday August 16, 2003, as "California bay leaf crème caramel, with lemon thyme poached pears, a pear and anise sorbet, calendula petal cream, and fennel syrup"; also seen is "flourless chocolate cake" and a "selection of garden inspired sorbets: golden plum with fruit sage, Nectarine with mint, and Apricot with Lemon verbena".