A while ago, my friend asked me to develop a recipe that would be suitable for her vegan friends and would include her favourite biscuits – Oreos. We’ve made a batch of these vegan oreo biscuits truffles and took them to the birthday party her friend was having that week. The oreo truffles were a great hit with everyone, and we’ve continued to make them ever since!

This week we've decided to challenge ourself to a chocolate bar knowledge quiz. We didn't score badly at all, but the problem is that when you spend your days educating people in eating good quality chocolate, you really don't eat that many mainstream chocolate bars. So, we thought we should really find out more about traditional chocolate bars. Whilst I still prefer my own handmade chocolate bars on most days, there is a time and place when only Twix will do! Each week, we are challenging ourself to find out more about popular chocolate bars, bring you their rich history and describe the taste too. 

We'll update this blog post with more information, photos and history from the wonderful chocolate world!

Magdalena & Nick

This chocolate sorbet recipe is perfect as a delicious dessert, but also suitable for dairy free diets. Because it's made without cream or milk, this sorbet is very light and taste amazingly well.

Whist the preparation time is very short, you need to leave the sorbet to freeze for quite some time, so make sure you start your sorbet making the day before you want to serve it.

The title of this blog post might sound a bit strange. I mean how complicated or difficult could it be to taste chocolate? You just munch on it, and that it! About 25 years ago I would have thought the same, but after working with chocolate for the last two decades, I will let you on a secret! Chocolate has so many subtle flavours, and the taste develops as you taste it, and it certainly matters how you ‘chomp’ on it! So, let me share with you how to taste chocolate like an expert.

This is a question I often get asked by my students at my Chocolate Courses. It’s a fair question. Tempering chocolate is quite complicated process, and it can be very frustrating if you think you’ve tempered your chocolate enough and you end up with a bloomed chocolate bars. Don’t worry; I’ve been there too!

So, why melting your chocolate is simply not enough?

If you just melt your chocolate without tempering it properly, you’ll end up with a chocolate that will bloom (you’ll get white streaks and lines running across your chocolate, when it finally sets). It will also take a long time to set and it will melt very quickly when you touch it. It’s not going to make a ‘snap’ when you break your chocolate bar and it will even taste slightly grainy. Saying that it’s perfectly safe to eat chocolate that hasn’t been tempered properly, but the look is not great, and the texture won’t be probably as smooth as if you temper your chocolate well.

When I run my chocolate making courses, I get often asked questions about chocolate truffles and working with ganache. So in this chocolate blog post I wanted to look at commonly asked questions and give you the answers with simple solutions.

But first of all, if you don't know how to make delicious chocolate truffles at home you can check out this recipe. Now that you have made your first batch of homemade chocolate truffles we can start with the questions!

Chocolate truffle making tips

How do you keep truffles from melting?

The best way to prevent your chocolate truffles from melting when you are working with them is to wear catering gloves and form your chocolate truffles first with your fingertips and then roll them gently in your palms to finish shaping them into a smooth ball. It’s also useful to chill your chocolate truffle mixture before you work with it (1-2 hrs is fine or overnight if you have the time).

When you finish making your chocolate truffles, chill them for a few hours and then store them in a room temperature (anything around 18 C is ideal).