Home

A day off

2012-05-26T00:41:59Z

That's what I took today, that much coveted and yet somehow sacrilegious treasure to an owner of a very young and very small company. Well, it wasn't entirely a day off, but a few admin tasks and some organisation of the chocolate workshop is as little work as I have done in a day for at least 6 weeks, since we started selling Choco Q truffles at the Usaquen market.

It's a humble beginning for my beloved chocolate business, but one that has me busily making chocolates, sourcing packaging, printing stickers, sorting the logistics of transportation, and attempting a little marketing on the side. Please don't misunderstand me, I'm not complaining. Every day spent making chocolates is a day spent in my kitchen doing something amazing. Even the worst days chocolate making are better than the best days I ever spent in an office. Still, it was lovely to not do any of that today. Instead, I went for a run in the park (a rare treat as the park is in no way close to our apartment), indulged in a long and large breakfast, read my book, and got a $5 walk-in-manicure for my poorly treated hands. As I made no chocolates today, I have no recent photos to show you, so here's something I prepared earlier:

Baking in Bogotá, the sequel

2012-04-13T15:47:17Z

Guau!

That's how you say "wow" in Spanish.

I've had several "guau" moments in the last few weeks, like seeing Totó La Momposina perform in front of a full big band in La Plaza de Bolívar, or watching the aerial spectacle of Voalá from the national bullring during the Festival Iberoamericano de Teatro here in Bogotá. And, now that winter is back (winter being the rain that falls for 11 months of the year in Bogotá), I have almost daily "guau" moments in our apartment watching the mist wander across the mountains, or seeing a freshly cleaned Bogotá sparkle under a rare glimpse of blue sky.

Perhaps the most exciting "guau" moment was the discovery of a new bread baking method. Fighting, as I have been, with a temperamental oven that rarely affords me the luxury of two functioning elements (I'm usually given the top or the bottom, but rarely both at the same time) my friend Lindsay, a sage of baking wisdom, suggested I try baking bread in a cast iron pot. What a revelation! My humble pot produces results I thought impossible without a professional baker's oven. Every time I take the lid off my pot I have another "guau" moment. Just look at this gorgeous bread:

I hear Stevie Wonder singing "Isn't she lovely..."

To make this lovely loaf, I have, as you would expect loyal reader, taken snippets of various recipes and instructions according to my needs. My method is largely a combination of Peter Reinhart's multigrain sandwhich loaf, and Chocolate & Zucchini's Natural Starter Bread. It seems quite involved but really, once you have a routine down, you can easily make this bread without much investment of time. I make about two loaves a week which is enough for Latino Man and I, with about half an hour of actual work. Of course, it helps that I'm working from home these days, so I'm around for the required feedings and stretch-and-folds.

You will need a natural starter for this bread. If you haven't discovered the joys of wild yeast, I suggest following these simple instructions, or, if you live in Bogotá, come on over and I will give you some of Simon.

Here's how I turn Simon into that delicious, tart, sour dough loaf:

Day 1 - Morning
I feed Simon 35 grams of flour and 35 grams of water. I leave him on the bench to have a think at room temperature.

Day 1: Evening
Before I go to bed I make a levain by combining 70 grams of Simon (which leaves about a tablespoon for the next loaf), 70 grams of flour (I usually use wholemeal at this stage) and 70 grams of water. I put Simon back in the fridge and leave the levain in a covered container on the bench overnight.

If I'm planning on making a multi-grain loaf, I also make a soaker with...
60 grams wholemeal flour
170 grams of grains and nuts (for this loaf I combined cooked quinoa, almonds and linseeds, but you can use whatever you like)
170 grams of natural or greek yoghurt
5 grams salt
I mix these together, cover the bowl, and leave it on the bench to keep the levain company.
Day 2: Baking
First thing in the morning, I combine:
All of the levain
All of the soaker
400 grams water
600 grams flour (this loaf was 200g rye, 200g wholemeal and 200g quinoa flour)
10 grams of salt
1 tbs gluten flour (optional - I use this because I can't find "bread" or "strong" flour in Bogotá)
1 tbs honey (optional - the sugar in the bread makes it brown nicely, if you plan on using it for toast)
1 tbs olive oil (also optional - if making a grain-free loaf I suggest omitting the honey and oil for a more french-style bread)

Once thoroughly combined, I leave this mix to autolyse for 30 minutes. By doing basically nothing to it for half an hour, I'm giving the flour time to fully hydrate and giving the gluten a chance to realise what's going on, and start working. After this break, I knead the dough in a mixer with a dough hook for 7 minutes. If you don't have a mixer, you can knead by hand for 10 minutes instead.

Having autolysed and kneaded, it's time to begin a stretch and fold routine. This process not only strengthens the dough, it helps create those lovely big holes you want to see when you cut into the loaf. Peter Reinhart gives a great lesson in this technique. For this recipe, you want to do 4 stretch-and-folds in 30 minutes. So after you first, set a timer for 10 minutes, then do another. Repeat 2 more times. After the final stretch-and-fold I cut the dough into two, and put each half in a separate oiled bowl. One of these goes into the fridge to be baked another day (it will last four days in the fridge), the other I leave on the bench. Depending on where you live, you might need to leave the dough for 12 hours to prove. In Bogotá, where the air pressure is almost non-existent, I only need to leave the dough for 6. Basically when it has almost doubled in size, it's ready to bake.

The rest is simple. I shape the loaf into a boule (once again, Peter Reinhart shows us how), and score in any pretty pattern that takes my fancy. I then put the dough into a cast iron pot and cover with the lid. I have a small Staub cocotte which is the perfect size for half of this bread recipe. If you only have a big cast iron pot, I recommend baking the entire batch at once, otherwise your bread will spread out instead of up.

Shaped, scored, and ready to bake

This cast iron pot goes into a cold oven (yes, cold), then I turn the thermostat up to 180 degrees celcius. (In a normal oven you might like to go as high as 220, but as my oven is tiny, my pot is always very close to an element. After much trial and error I've discovered that if my oven is any hotter than this, the bread will burn and break my heart.) I set the timer for 1 hour and when it buzzes, I take my cocotte out of the oven, remove the lid and say...

guau!

Diet bad, muffins good

2012-04-04T23:23:42Z

The problem with trying to be healthy, and therefore denying yourself cake, is that you can only hold out for so long. Then, at ten-o-clock at night when you absolutely must must must have cake, you make a batch of banana chocolate chip muffins. Then two of you eat the entire batch in a matter of days... or hours.

I'm not on a diet, as I generally think they're stupid, and clearly I'm not very good at them. I'm just hoping to shave a little off here and there before the long-awaited CupcakeQ/Latino Man wedding in July. Obviously I can't cut out chocolate, so I've been trying to avoid refined grains, non-chocolate-related-sugar, and junk food in general, with moderate success. My one concession to my not-diet when making these muffins was to use wholemeal flour instead of white. Given that I'm allowed to eat all the chocolate I like, and banana is a fruit, and therefore doesn't count in any consideration of daily allowances, these muffins are practically ok. I just need to adjust the recipe so I only make two of them.

Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins

2 cups wholemeal flour
1 tsp baking powder (or 1/4 tsp if you live at 2640m above sea level)
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup butter
2 eggs
Enough milk
1 banana, mashed
1/2 cup of chocolate chips (or chop up the Amedei and Domori chocolate bars that now taste like lavendar because you accidently left them in a cupboard with a bottle of lavendar essential oil)
1 tsp of vanilla essence or vanilla powder

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees celcius. Cream the butter and sugar until fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time whilst mixing, then the vanilla powder and mashed banana. Mix in the flour and baking powder and add just enough milk to make a thick batter. Stir until just combined. Fill the muffin tray about 3/4 of the way, and bake for 12 - 15 minutes, or until the tops are nicely browned. Makes about 18 cupcakes which is 16 too many for a single evening.

Anniversary

2012-03-17T16:47:53Z

This month a date quietly passed by, which, to be honest, I didn't really want to recognise:
It's been one year since I graduated, along with 25 food-obsessed, passionate, fascinating and clever people, the kind who would be on the top of any pot-luck invitation list, with a Master in Food Culture and Communications from the University of Gastronomic Sciences.
One year! It's really too much to bear, or attempt to write about. Luckily my classmate Shauna wrote a blog post that said everything I would like to say, only better.

Shauna and I in Friuli, Italy. Photo by Yui Akiyama.

#lindseatsrichmond

2012-03-11T16:44:21Z

My incredibly talented, smart, gorgeous and wonderful friend Lindsay is applying for what might be the best job in the world. You can help her land this plum position. Here's how:

1. Follow her on twitter (@lindsay_lauren) and tweet your support with the hashtag #lindseatsrichmond.

2. Take a picture of yourself with a sign that reads #lindseatsrichmond, post it on every social networking site you're on with the hashtag #lindseatsrichmond, and send a copy to lindsaylaurenanderson@gmail.com.

I don't know anyone on the planet who deserves this position more, or could do a better job than Lindsay. Your support would be enormously appreciated by both of us.

Mean Streets Granola

2012-02-15T20:36:51Z

There are many places in Bogotá that I can't go, and I find this enormously frustrating. Of course every city has it's bad neighbourhoods, but rarely are these neighbourhoods the only places to find nuts and dried fruit at affordable prices.

For some reason, these two foods are crazily expensive here in Colombia. Everywhere that is, except the San Andresito market. This huge maze of shops and stalls covering several blocks in Bogotá's centre is divided into dozens of areas, each containing thousands of stores all selling exactly the same products. There's the liquor and wine hall, the paper and plastic bags plaza, the car stereo sector and the crappy clothing quarter. And, of course, there's the nuts and dried fruit district, a happy happy place with giant containers of macadamia nuts, hazlenuts, peanuts and pine nuts, to name but a few.

Fortunately, whilst San Andresito is a place I can't go to alone, it's not completely out-of-bounds. I simply need a companion, one who doesn't carry a giant neon sign on their head that screams "gringa".

Enter La Mamita de Latino Man. With her five-foot-nothing stature, smart slacks, Chanel-style jacket and stylishly coordinated scarf, her every step says "I know this city and how it works. Don't bother trying to mess with me because you will fail." As my guide to San Andresito, she managed not only to find the fruit and nuts I was searching for, and help me buy them at local prices, she also found some potential wholesale dairy and packaging suppliers for Choco Q.

This loot was intended for future experiments in chocolate bars, but delays in equipment delivery left them sitting in the chocolate workshop, uneaten and lonely. This is too sad a fate for affordable nuts and dried fruit, so I broke open a few packets and made some granola.

I wasn't a granola-eater until a bit over a year ago, when my Parma-housemate Emily made some after a class on health and diet, that heavily emphasised the benefits of whole grains. Emily's granola, loaded with said health-giving whole grains, was absolutely heavenly: crunchy, nutty, toasty and just ever so slightly sweet. Those breakfasts were some of the tastiest meals I ate that year in Italy, that's how good Emily's granola was. Now, realising how delicious whole grains can be, I put my faith in them to stave off a long list of diet-related diseases. That makes a bowl of granola for breakfast like going for a run first thing in the morning: you've done your day's worth of good deeds for your health before 9am!

There are thousands of recipes for granola, and I've posted mine below, but you can just as easily make your own with whatever appeals most to you. Granola is basically a bunch of whole grain flakes, be they oat, quinoa or wheat, plus nuts and/or seeds. This is mixed with some honey and vegetable oil before being baked. Emily's special method was to then leave the granola uncovered for several hours, drying it out even further, before adding some dried fruit and other extras and putting the whole thing in a container. This way the oven doesn't have to do all the work, and you won't risk overcooking the mix!

Mean Streets Granola

2 cups of whole rolled oats
2 cups of quinoa flakes
1/2 cup sesame seeds
1/2 cup sunflower seeds
1/2 cup linseeds
1/2 cup hazlenuts
1/2 cup macadamia nuts
1/2 cup peanuts
1/3 cup of honey
1/4 cup of sunflower oil

Preheat the oven to 150 degrees celcius. Combine all the dry ingredients in a bowl. Warm the honey slightly to make it more viscous, mix in the oil and toss through the dry mix. Spread the mixture on two trays and bake for 45 minutes, turning regularly to prevent it from burning.

When this mixture has cooled, add the following:
1 cup of dried cranberries
1 cup popped barley
1 cup popped amaranth
1 cup of popped rice

Store in an airtight container.

Eat this with a big dollop of yoghurt and some fresh fruit, and feel self-righteous for the rest of the day!

San Valentín

2012-02-15T02:13:50Z

Happy Valentine's Day, Latino Man.

The launch of Choco Q

2012-01-19T15:05:02Z

I was born a planner. I don’t mean the advertising kind, although I was that for a few years too, I mean the general life kind. I organise. It’s not something I like to do so much as something I have to do — I can't function without a plan. The very atoms of my being must have a plan.

At night before I go to bed I plot out my following day, down to the half hour. Upon waking, I check-in with said plan and only then can I get out of bed. I use iCal on my MacBook which syncs with my iPhone so I have a calendar of events wherever I go, and the very handy teuxdeux.com plots my actionable items by day, week and even “Someday”. These digital plans are supplemented with hand-written shopping lists, city maps, and addresses just to keep my day, and therefore my sanity, on track.

My two greatest fears are being cold and being hungry, and my third by a narrow margin is existing without a plan. My whole body trembles imagining the horror of lost productivity, missed deadlines, chaos, mayhem and an all-encompassing black void, where instead there could be the immense satisfaction of crossing something off a to-do list!

I hear you loyal reader, you’re asking, “Q, if you absolutely must organise your life this way, why-oh-why did you move to Colombia?”

Yes, well, that wasn’t part of the plan. And for deviating from the plan I am being punished, harshly. So far from the plan is this outcome, that I find my worst fears have been realised: I am incapable of planning!

Despite rigorous organisation and to-do-list-ing, I'm unable to schedule even a coffee date in Bogotá. Not only does this city simply refuse to be planned, it actively thwarts all attempts at organisation. “Think you’re getting to the hardware store AND the market today?” it jeers. "Think again." Then it throws a lake of rain on the city just as I’m trying to find a cab. “You dare imagine you will get your delivery of couverture on time?” it bellows. Then it seizes the city in gridlock so tight, my chocolate delivery guy moves a mere three metres in three days.

Bogotanos know this of course, which is why they never plan anything. They decide at any given moment, based on traffic conditions, weather, road closures, their location, the location of the friend/colleague/office/restaurant/store/government department, the "minutes" left on their pre-paid mobile SIM and the probability of getting a taxi, whether or not to celebrate a birthday, arrange a business meeting, catch up for drinks or go into labour. Elaborate parties come together in mere moments, complete with band, caterers, wait staff and decorators, who are all available at a minute’s notice, because nobody else dared to book them any earlier.

Businesses, I discovered, emerge under the same principles. In late November I was a student of Ecole Chocolat, about to graduate from their Professional Chocolatier course. By December 9, the day before Latino Man and I left for Australia, I was the owner of a chocolate business, complete with logo, website, packaging and delivered Christmas orders. Amidst the December rain, holiday craziness, collapsing roads and Latino Man’s ridiculous workload, Bogotá let me start Choco Q.

Now, if I could just figure out a way to schedule those last-minutes…

Chocolate = Happiness

2012-01-16T01:54:34Z

Making chocolates makes me happy.

Sharing those chocolates makes other people happy.

I was priveliged to add a dash of this happiness at the happiest of events, the wedding of my little brother and his awesome fellow-foodie bride.

Thanks Ben & Bek. It was an honour to be part of your happy day.

Almond & Milk Chocolate Gianduja Truffles

Going Pro

2011-11-21T02:17:59Z

Without consulting a dictionary, I can think of two definitions of the word "Professional". The first would be someone who has skills above and beyond the level of amateur. The other is a person who gets paid for what they do. I'm choosing to adopt the latter when I say I'm a professional chocolatier! It sounds even better in Spanish: Soy Chocolatera!

Whilst my chocolate creations may not meet the visual standards of professionalism, they were tasty enough to earn some money! Yep, I've been paid to make chocolates. Even better than that, my first paying customer submitted a Christmas order! I don't have a logo, or even a company name as yet, but these are minor details, because soy Chocolatera!

Gracias Clau. Tu apoyo significa todo!

Popped Amaranth Truffles, hand-rolled in 65% single-region dark chocolate from Tumaco, Colombia

Granadilla, house-made fruit jelly layered with milk chocolate ganache