I love food nerds. We're an odd group, nomads mostly, traveling from city to city, restaurant to restaurant, cameras in hand, scrawling notes and demanding answers from an already flustered wait staff. Always hungry, always searching, never satisfied. So when you bump into another one, there's a moment of recognition, like ex pats meeting in a foreign country, "You speak my language" our smiles seem to say. This moment occurred when I walked into Intemperantia in the Pacific Palisades. I had come to check out the vegan truffles and French hot cocoa, because though I'm not a vegan (bacon! cheese! sushi! not together, but individually they get in the way of any possibility of veganism) I truly appreciate food that's good not in spite of its challenges, but because of them. In LA, there's no excuse for crappy vegan food. Our produce, resources, and creativity should be more than enough to get past the "no animal product" caveat, and the results can be as good or sometimes better than their derivative. End rant, back to the chocolate. I bumped into the Heidi, the owner, who was in the middle of heating up their vegan hot cocoa. She explained that their vegan chocolates utilize the cocoa butter, the vegetable fat extracted from the cocoa beans and what makes white chocolate "chocolate," for that smooth ganache texture that cream usually provides. The result is pure chocolate flavor, with a clean richness from the cocoa butter. When I approached the French hot cocoa and Heidi spooned a thick, sonorous ladleful into my cup, she told me about the origins of her recipe. Pulled from a French cookbook published in 1820, her hot cocoa emulates the thick, rich cups served in shops before coffee and cafes replaced them in the 19th century. Brillat Savarin, the ultimate food nerd, explains it best:
"Chocolate crossed the mountains with Anne of Austria, the daughter of Philip II., and wife of Louis XIII. The Spanish monks also made it known, by presents to their brethren in France. The Spanish ambassadors also made it popular, and during the regency it was more universally used than coffee, because it was taken as an agreeable food, while coffee was esteemed a luxury...Thus to make chocolate, that is to say, to make it fit for immediate use, about an ounce and a half should be taken for each cup, which should be slowly dissolved in water while it is heated, and stirred from time to time with a spatula of wood. It should be boiled a quarter of an hour, in order to give it consistency, and served up hot. "Monsieur," said madame d'Arestrel, fifty years ago, to me at Belley, "when you wish good chocolate make it the evening before in a tin pot. The rest of the night gives it a velvet-like flavor that makes it far better. God will not be offended at this little refinement, for in himself is all excellence."
Instead of blending my hot cocoa mix with water like they did at Versaille, I chose almond milk for a fuller flavor. The results were pure old world Europe. Simple and decadent, with little getting between you and the chocolate. For vegans and the rest of us alike, these truffles and hot cocoa are a unique treat. Enjoy!
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I had the misfortune of getting a box of organic, vegan, raw truffles as part of a Christmas gift exchange. The gifter sells them locally for a great deal of money and was very, very proud of them. I tried to keep an open mind but they just didn't pass the taste test. In fact, they tasted a great deal like the grainy experimental globs of sugar and cocoa I made in back elementary school when my mom wouldn't let me use the stove. Certainly don't waste any of your discretionary calories on this junk. There is nothing like the real thing. Go for the sublime blend of butter, cream, sugar and fine chocolate. A little bit goes a lovely long ways and I doubt any cow really cares.
It's certainly true that for the best hot chocolate (I drink it every day of the year) you should make it the night before, let it rest in the fridge and reheat it next day = deep more intense flavors.
I'd love to know what kind of cocoa Heidi used and was there bar chocolate as well in the mix?
Valrhona can not be topped for cocoa IMHO and there should be some (grated or just a chunk) of a good dark chocolate bar.
Back in the day of that recipe they probably used a chocolatière, so lots of stirring going on from the top down...YUM
Lovely post! More chocolate please...
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I am a normal north American consumer. Why are my plain boiled potatoes as SWEET as candy? Am I am the only one?
The almond milk hot chocolate sounds fantastic. I just bought some cheesecloth so I can make my own almond milk, too.
I'll take the chocolates made with cream, thank you very much. I do have to watch the sugar, however, for health reasons.
Aint nothing like the good, old fashioned, mexican "Chocolate Ibarra," where it all began. Consisting of the old Aztec basic, cacao, and natural sugar (piloncillo), with the added right mixture of almond and cinnamon. Nothing fancy, no HFCS, or artificial flavors and colors.
Small aside: do you know that the 1800s are not in the 18th C?
Thanks for the tip! I've been trying to get the change made since I noticed the typo a few days ago. If it's any consolation, hot cocoa houses started popping up in the 1600s, though the recipe I'm referring to is from 1820.
Let Them Eat...Gril
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yes, there can't be an article without cheese.
How is chocolate vegan? I admire the movement, but when confectionarys can carry Chronic Waisting Disease Prions, its not vegan.
Don't confuse milk chocolate with what you get from the cacao plant. It's all from a plant and vegan so long as you don't add animal products to it.
What on earth are you talking about? Chocolate is from a plant. Unless you ADD milk, there is not milk in it.
U want chocolate to die for? Get gourmet chocolates, like but not limited to Godiva.
Been there, done that, it'll make your dime store chocolates taste like flavored wax!!!
So basically you're just eating a reformed cocoa bean--weighted in different parts.
The higher the quality of the chocolate, the shorter the ingredient list. :)
Yup.
Oh noes, no milk or milk powder, cows will be on strike, the ASPCA will be handing out brochures and isn't sugar made from some plant or something? (sugar cane, sugar beets, etc)
What are you talking about? Cows actually don't support the dairy industry. At all. Nor should the ASPCA.
Yes, sugar is a plant. So is chocolate.
We made a film about chocolate, called In Search of the Heart of Chocolate, its all about chocolate and the many people historically and now who love it. Please check it out: www.chocum
kaka
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Life is too short to worry if there's any dairy in my chocolate.
Personally, I prefer Mounds bars.
I do love a good mounds bar from time to time...hav
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Oooh, that sounds pretty good!
Life is certainly too short for the animals that produce that dairy for you, anyway.
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How does a cow giving milk shorten its life?
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