Thursday, April 15, 2010

Going Green-All Natural Green Food Coloring


Today I had a major breakthrough with my hard candy line. Natural flavors and colors are usually less forgiving than their artificial counterparts. When making hard candy with natural ingredients, it often requires patience and skill. This is especially true of colors. If color is added at the wrong time or temperature, it can burn off or turn color. In addition, too much stirring to incorporate into a batch can cause crystallization –a fudge like consistency as opposed to that of clear glass. Artificial colors and flavors are far more heat resistant and require less work when folding into a batch.
I have found that green is especially tough to work into hard candy. The colors we experimented with tended to burn off or turn to a strange looking teal or a murky sea-blue. Although, many natural flavors are heat resistant, they do not work well at a heat in excess of 200 degrees. I was able to overcome this obstacle by creating a method of bringing down the temperature while still incorporating the color. The result was a consistent, pretty green piece that retained its clarity. The first green batch I made into sour apple, which I consider to be my second best flavor to date (second to cinnamon-ancho). Tomorrow, I will test a kiwi with a pretty lime green color. Wish me luck!
There are a lot of great flavors that can be used in a green lollipop, make sure to comment if you have any ideas.

Friday, April 2, 2010

Decadent & Affordable Chocolate Martinis


Just read this article on the joys of chocolate liqours on Fox News. I am a big fan of chocolate drinks and chocolate martinis are loved by the loyal 3rd Thursday artwalk fans of Peterbrooke Chocolatier Atlantic Beach. I Thought I would make sure my followers know that good old fashioned Creme De Cocoa will work great in any chocolate drink at a better price. Make sure to invest in really good chocolate to rim the glass.

Perfect Chocolate Martini Recipe
Mix together and pour over ice
2 parts cold vodka
1 part dark Creme De Cacoa
squirt chocolate syurp


Dip martini glass in chocolate syurp and then in dark chocolate shavings
shake liqour mixture and strain into glass.

Thanks John Wilson for the tweet helping me find the article and thanks to Brooke and Seth in Atlantic Beach for all the help testing Chocolate Martinis