Chocolate Hor d’Oeuvres at NY Chocolate Show
I had a great time attending the 2012 New York Chocolate Show last Friday. My favorite part of the event was the cooking demonstrations, especially the chocolate hor d’oeuvres demo. Kathie Rosenhouse presented four easy to prepare appetizers that featured chocolate. My critique/opinions of the dishes along with photos are featured below and the recipes are available on Katie Rosenhouse’s blog.
Fall Palmiers with Guanaja & Kale
The fall palmiers looked really fancy but they turned out to be quite easy to make. These were basically kale, pumpkin seeds, and cranberries wrapped and rolled up in puffed pastry. Just about any filling you could think of would probably work as long as its not very runny. The palmiers can be eaten straight up or with sauce drizzled over the top. There was a bit of chocolate drizzled over the tops of the ones that were passed around. I thought the chocolate somewhat over-powered the other ingredients but its possible that I was just a bit tired of chocolate by this point in the day.
Chicken Satay with Peanut Jivara Sauce
The chicken was simple and fairly straightforward, a great option for dinner or a dinner party. There was nothing wrong with the peanut jivara dipping sauce but I preferred the chicken on its own. I’m just not a big fan of peanuts outside of occasional peanut butter sandwiches or peanut butter cups. I actually think many people would like the dipping sauce because the peanut butter flavor was fairly mild and paired well with the flavor of the chocolate.
Mini Caramel Apples with Bacon & Cocoa Nibs
The mini caramel apples were the midway between gourmet candy apples and regular ol’ childhood candy apples. They tasted good and were pretty without being pretentious. The apples were cute little dainty things that weren’t too tart or too sweet and went well with the candy coatings. The layer of caramel wasn’t stick to your teeth chewy like some other caramels but had just the right amount of sweetness. The chocolate and cocoa nibs had the strong flavor of high cocoa content chocolate but wasn’t overpowering because only a small amount was used.
Ivoire Goat Cheese Tartlets with Figs & Black Olives
These were my absolute favorite thing of the entire show. I am an ardent lover of cheese and definitely plan to try this recipe. I love goat cheese but some brands / types can be way too salty, the brand that was used for this recipe was just right. The white chocolate wasn’t too sweet and its mild flavor combined well with the goat cheese, olives, and figs for the perfect blend of sweet and savory. The assembled tarlets were absolutely adorable and more importantly tasted amazing.
Tags: bakery, chocolate, desserts, food event, pastries