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at Tue, 30 Dec 2003 21:23:53 GMT in
>,
(La Vida Xena) wrote :

>On Mon, 29 Dec 2003 20:38:38 -0800 (PST), (Patrick
>Porter) wrote:
>
>>Yes I think this new ratio will work well---my old method involved
>>dissolving sugar and butter, from an old yellowed family cookbook, I
>>have now thrown out.
>>
>>The reason I used the Dove was because the other chocolates are not
>>available to me in my remote rural area: Dove was a better compomise
>>and worked well, and it was available at a Safeway in the next town.
>>If I'm down in the City sometime I'll look for some Caillebaut etc.
>>
>>Thanks for everyone's help---
>>
>>phbp
>
>I know what you mean. I am in a rural area, too. With a 2-3 hour round
>trip I could find almost everything, but sometimes you just want to shop
>close to home.
>
>If you're in the USA and have access to a big grocery store like
>Albertson's Thriftway, or Safeway, look for Ghirardelli double chocolate
>chocolate chips.

As I posted earlier, do *NOT* use chocolate chips for truffles or ganache.
Chocolate chips are deliberately made with a low cocoa butter content, so
as not to melt so readily in the oven. But meanwhile, ganache is designed
for a chocolate with high cocoa butter content (couverture), therefore
chocolate chips don't work well for ganache. The result tends to be grainy
and separated. Ghirardelli's double chocolate chips are certainly an
excellent product - as chocolate chips and used as such. In fact, as
chocolate chips, they're the best there are. But for ganache, they're
useless. Instead, use Ghirardelli's "Bittersweet Chocolate for Baking and
Eating", generally available everywhere the chips are, wrapped in 4 oz bars
with brown sides on the wrapper and a gold band down the middle. This
chocolate is excellent for truffles and has a considerably higher cocoa
butter content. Ghirardelli is pretty widespread, so even in a rural
community, it should be possible to track some down. In fact, this is
probably the best chocolate you can find in rural U.S. communities.

--
Alex Rast

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