People ask me this question frequently. Here is the answer.

I believe my chocolates make people happy!

I have come to this belief in the last few months. It was not this way in the beginning. Lately, I have watched people’s faces turn to pure joy as they tasted my chocolates. Along with the “joyous faces”, i’ve heard “OMG!”, “WOW!” and one woman just started to cry. A Father shared a sample of my chocolates with his 7 year old daughter. She threw her arms around his neck, kissed him and said , ” I love you!”. He turned to me and said, “I’ll take 2 boxes”.

All of this makes me happy and that’s what gets me into the kitchen day after day!

So, here is my list of changes.  I had planned to change the order of my static pages on the site and update the content.  That plan went “out the window” and I changed everything (pretty much). The pictures are gone but will come back in a new form. The layout and color has changed.  The menus are easier to see and use.  It’s just a quieter more direct page.

One thing is the same.  Scratch that, 2 things are the same; the chocolates and my passion for making them (by hand start to finish).

The price is new. Took a dollar off the price and added flat rate shipping so you can see where your money is going.

Hope you like it.  Help me spread happiness.  Send a friend some chocolates!

Don’t be surprised if you look away and something on my page has changed. I will list all the changes in the next post. For now, you will notice that the online store is closed but will be open with changes tomorrow (Tuesday 1/3/12).

Click on “Dark Nougat” below to watch the YouTube video about, you guessed it, Dark Nougat!
As you are watching the video you might want to ask yourself, “What makes dark nougat, well, dark”? Which begs the question, “What is light nougat”? And as a special homework assignment, ” Who was Xavier Nougat”? Enough sillyness!
Dark Nougat

This is the recipe I demonstrated during the Lavender Fair at Sunshine Herb and Lavender.

Overview
The demonstration was 2 recipes combined to make one desert. The first was lavender infused ganache and the second was almond crunch. I use ganache for icing on cakes and as the centers of my chocolate truffles. The almond crunch is a topping I use on ice cream or yogurt with fruit. When I make these traditional truffles, I roll the somewhat hardened ganache in the almond crunch and refrigerate until serving.
Both parts, the ganache and the almond crunch, can be made days ahead of time and kept in sealed containers in the refrigerator. The ganache will typically keep, sealed in the refrigerator, for a week but it usually doesn’t. The almond crunch for much longer. This recipe makes 70, slightly smaller than a ping pong ball, sized truffles. Or one the size of a child’s bowling ball.

Lavender Ganache

1 cup Lavender buds. I use Royal Velvet lanvender.
1 cup heavy cream. Heavy cream looks and tastes nothing like Half and Half!
1 lb really good bitter sweet chocolate, no flavors. I use Callebaut semi-sweet.

Rough up the lavender in a food processor for 30 seconds to help release the flavor.This is one of two times you are allowed to use a machine.Put the cream and the lavender in a sauce pan and slowly heat until tiny bubbles appear around the perimeter of the pan. Stir frequently to get, a “real” chef would say “infuse”, the flavor from the lavender into the cream.
Break the chocolate into chunks and put them in a mixing bowl.
Strain out the lavender and toss. Pour the hot, lavender infused cream onto the chocolate then continue to fold the chocolate cream mixture until no chunks remain. Notice I didn’t say mix or blend. The less you mess with ganache, the better. Just gently stir with a whisk or a fork. I use a fork.
The mixture should have a satin smooth appearance and be a deep rich chocolate color. Taste it. If this ganache doesn’t “knock your socks off”, you did something wrong.
Refrigerate for several hours. It should be the consistency of modeling clay but taste much better. Do not eat modeling clay!

Almond Crunch

1 cup whole roasted (salted) almonds. No flavors.
1 cup sugar.

Put almonds and sugar in a heavy flat bottomed pan over medium to light heat. Let it sit until the sugar starts to melt. You can tell by tipping the pan and watching the sugar “slide”. Don’t let it slide out of the pan. Sugar gets very hot! It’s a good idea to have a large bowl of ice water to put your hands in should you get some “sugar splatter”. Keep children and your face and your cats face away from cooking sugar. Be careful with hot sugar.
Continue to “fold” the almonds and the sugar until they are deep reddish brown.
Carefully pour the caramelized sugar and almonds onto a parchment paper lined cooking sheet or shallow pan to cool for an hour.
After it has cooled and is brittle, break it into 1 to 2 inch pieces. Put the pieces into your food processor and cut it into very small pieces, a little bit bigger than dust.

Last Step. Several hours later.
Spoon some ganache into a ball. Doesn’t have to be perfect. Roll or press the ganache in the almond crunch. A lot! As a variable, you could then roll the almond crunch ganache ball in coco powder.
Refrigerate then serve.

Have fun and remember, eat chocolate responsibly.

Grabber sentence!
I infuse the buds of the lavender plant into the cream for my caramel’s and truffles and then dip it all in pure Belgian chocolate.  Oh, my!  The aroma in my kitchen will just “send you”! The lavender caramel that seems to be most popular is sprinkled with sea salt.

Body paragraphs.
When you come to Sequim for all the Lavender doings this week you will have plenty to do. You can find me on Cedar St. for the Sequim Open Aire Market on Saturday and Sunday. On your way into town from the Seattle side, stop at Espresso Garden Coffee right by Wild Birds Unlimited on Hwy 101.  Order up a couple of lavender mochas and 2 chocolate lavender truffles, stroll around Wild Birds. The grounds and the view are something to see! Say hi to my pal Luther who is usually lying on the counter by the cash register.  You also can stop in and get my lavender chocolates at Sunshine Herb and Lavender.  That’s where I get my lavender. Carmen has a great gift shop with “everything lavender”! Everything! I’ll be doing a chocolate lavender truffle demonstration there on Saturday at 11:30. Come by, say hi. After, I will post the recipe here and on my Face Book Page, Chocolate Serenade.

While you’re in town, you have to visit the Garden Bistro, great place to eat outside. It’s on the corner of Washington and Sequim Ave. If you plan to “cook in”, you can get “everything local” at The Red Rooster Grocery, like Clark’s grass fed beef. If you are visiting friends, stop by Damianna’s Best Cellars, just across the street, and get them a great bottle of wine. After all that shopping, go out west of town on Cays road and lounge for awhile in a pastoral setting at Fat Cat Garden and Gift. Say hi to Jee, Jee will say hi to you!

The close.
If you forget any of this, stop by my chocolate booth on Cedar St. Saturday or Sunday and I’ll tell you where to go! I love talking to most of you, and remember to eat chocolate responsibly! JQ

I am looking for testimonials about my chocolates. I am looking for testimonials that will help sales.  Every good website has ‘em. Something like, “After eating a box of truffles from Chocolate Serenade, all my hair grew back, on both heads”!

The rules are:

• The testimonial must be true or at least believable. I don’t want to hear, “I fed them to my chicken and she proposed”!
• No cruelty to animals or people. No stories about the CIA approving “chocolate boarding” detainee’s. Not a bad idea but not believable.

Since sales of my chocolates on the web have been moving at such a “blistering pace”, you know i am likely to know who you are, so “watch it”! This means you Mom!

Here’s the important part. THERE IS NO PRIZE!

Thanks for coming to my page and remember, eat chocolates responsibly!

Sunday, May 1st is cut-off day for orders that need to be shipped and arrive on time for Mother’s Day . That gives me time to make, dip and ship by Wednesday the 4th.

For those of you who are going to be in Sequim for the beginning of the Irrigation Festival on May 7th, I will be on the corner of Sequim Ave. and Washington with several other vendors from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. . You can buy gift boxes of chocolates from me there or just look, sample and chat. I like talking to most of you. See you there!