This is my special column where I post the latest news from A & J and answer your personal questions. Do you have a question that you would like answered? If so, send me an email at ajcake@aol.com, and I will do my best to help you out!
Sweetly yours, Linda
Sunday, December 8, 2002
Can you believe it? It IS that time of the year! Have you got all your shopping done yet? No - good because I have just barely started. And why is that - you ask. Because I have been busy making sure that all of you are going to have the sweetest Christmas ever. The A&J elfs have been real busy making sure that we are fully stocked at the store so that you have all the goodies you need. Hope that you have taken advantage of some of the ideas that we have on our seasonal page. Snowglobe cookies are so much fun to make and taste really yummy! Have you tried caramel wrapped pretzels dipped in chocolate and decorated for the season - so easy and very very tasty! You can completely wrap the upper half of the pretzel rod with caramel and dip in chocolate or for a really classy look try the following:
Melted chocolate - you might use white for this - I really like the super white color that we now stock
8" pretzel rod
red and green non-pariels (tiny "seed" like decorations)
caramel - the Nestles brand that we stock works great for all of this!
Cut a 3 or 4 inch by 1/3 inch piece of caramel and roll between your hands until you have a rope of caramel about four inches in length - it should be about the width of pencil.
Place the rope at the top of pretzel (work it into the top and smooth it onto the pretzel)
Gently twist the rope about 2/3 of the way down the pretzel and secure it to the pretzel at the end by smoothing it down.
Dip into white chocolate - shake off excess chocolate - and lay on waxed paper.
Sprinkle the red and green non-pariels on the wet chocolate and let dry.
You now not only have a very tasty treat but very pretty too!
Package in a cello bag that is made to accomdate the length of the pretzel and be ready to accept all the oohs and ahhs!
While I am talking about chocolate - lets talk a little bit about proper melting procedures. The type of chocolate that we sell at A&J is melting chocolate. Sometimes known as compound chocolate, or summer coating or a whole bunch of other names. Why? Because this type of chocolate does not, I repeat, does not need to be tempered. You just simple melt the chocolate. But be careful, there are all types of melting chocolate out there - some excellent - some not so excellent and some just down right disgusting! Like anything else - make sure that you are using an excellent product. As an aside, we sell the Merckens brand at our store and I think that it is the best of the best for melting chocolate!
So just how do you melt this chocolate? I think the very best way of melting chocolate is on a warming tray - not a griddle - a warming tray. These trays were designed to keep food warm on a buffet table. Now here in California it is a little difficult to find these trays - but not to worry - we stock them at A&J and our customers really like them once they use them. These trays have a control knob of them for temperature control and you will not be setting it much higher that about 1 1/2. It takes very little heat to properly melt chocolate, in fact, only about 95 degrees will do. Set some flat bottomed dishes on your tray and about 20 minutes later you will have melted chocolate. If you do not have a warming tray - try a double boiler - but be careful. Do not use boiling water or put over an open flame. Use the hottest water from your tap, assemble your double boiler and put it on your counter. Forget that you have a stove - just put it on the counter. 20 minutes - melted chocolate. If your chocolate starts to thicken after you have melted it because the water has gotten cold - replace with hot tap water and you are ready to go again!
Now that your chocolate is melted DIP DIP and DIP some more! Dip anything that you want - from Oreo cookies to marshmellows to nuts and beyond! Anything is better dipped in chocolate! After dipping place on waxed paper and allow to dry at room temp, package in a festive manner and what a great gift you have!
Well - I am going to back to the test kitchens of A&J and start thinking about hearts and flowers - what?
That's right I am going to put my chocolate dipped brain in gear and start thinking about Valentine's Day! So I want to wish all a very very Merry Christmas and a safe and peaceful New Years. Talk to you in January!
Posted by Linda @ 08:13 PM PST [Link] [No Comments]
