End of summer
Is it really the end of summer already? We are enjoying hot days here in the Washington DC area, luckily humidity is not too high and there aren’t many clouds in the sky.
The Holiday season is slowly coming up - our customers have certainly gotten into the mood already - we were surprised by many orders from you all last week and had to work some late hours already. To get into the exciting spirit we introduced our Tupelo Honey Sunflower confections in our newsletter:
Valrhona’s 64% Manjari, known for its bright and slightly tart red fruit flavors, is the base for this silky rich dark chocolate ganache subtly flavored with the rare and distinctive floral and spicy qualities of tupelo honey. Finished in dark chocolate, each confection is topped with a handcrafted marzipan sunflower artistically decorated with dark chocolate and roasted cacao nibs.
We had fun tasting all kinds of different honeys for this ganache and finally settled on Tupelo honey. If you have never heard of Tupelo Honey, this is what Wikipedia says:
“Tupelos are valued honey plants in southeastern and Gulf Coast of the United States, producing a very light, mild-tasting honey. In northern Florida, beekeepers keep beehives along the river swamps on platforms or floats during tupelo bloom to produce certified tupelo honey, which commands a high price on the market because of its flavor”
During our tastings, it actually had a very distinct flavor and was able to stand up well against the intense flavor of Valrhona Manjari. In the end it went really well together.
Atop the honey ganache we placed a cut and hand-formed marzipan flower. The marzipan is colored with saffron - although a very strong spice the flavor is not detectable - and filled with a drop of dark chocolate and cocoa nibs.
The confection is very labor intensive and this is the reason for it being a limited edition. We may however create a confection with just the honey ganache … let’s see what you think!