Alex Rast wrote:


I have a 1 1/4 lb box of 64% dark Guittard chocolates...

See my recent repost, " rich, moist chocolate cake" of the recipe
originally posted under "Cake Recipe - Chocolate Death", for the


cake part

of Chocolate Death. ...
I assume you have "L'Harmonie"? IMHO this is very good, so the cake


recipe


will work well with it.





Yes, it is Harmony, but it comes packaged differently, in little
1.75 oz
boxes with five little foil wrapped chocolate bars in each tiny box.
Or, perhaps it came the same way before and I forgot.



That's the "retail package". I think it's awkward and a bit silly - they
should sell as one 50g bar rather than 5 smaller mini-samplers (which are
pretty useless for sampling, anyway). Still, the chocolate is good. It's
better to buy it in the 275 g baking bar or the 1 kg bloc.


Peeling off the foil can drive one crazy, especially if one has
arthritic fingers.


I got them at the Chocolate Show in November. The chocolate does not
seem to be as flavorful as it was before.


How have you stored it? I can't imagine chocolate would deteriorate
appreciably that fast unless your storage method were very inadequate.


The chocolate tasted fresh, just sweeter than I remembered. I have
really never noticed that the taste of chocolate deteriorates in the
time I keep it. The "cheap" chocolates don't taste good to start with
and are probably made with preservatives and the "good" ones never last
very long in my home. BTW, I had occasion to use Hershey's Special in my
holiday baking and the stuff turned out amazingly good. I just made a
simple chocolate cake and added a jar of sour cherries, drained, no
sugar and canned in water, into the dough.


Thank you for the recipe for the Death By Chocolate Cake.



Technical nomenclature note - the particular cake recipe I posted is
called
"Chocolate Death", not "Death by Chocolate", which is a different
group of
(rather unrelated) chocolate cakes. AFAIK the "Chocolate Death" name
applies only to the cake I describe. In any case, you're welcome.


I never made your cake. I never got around to it or to the chocolate
mousse. I made a chocolate pate from the rfc cook book and it was very
good. I still have a lot of the chocolate left over and I may make the
chocolate mousse at some later date. Or your cake. Or, someone will
come and carry off the rest of the chocolate.


IMHO L'Harmonie isn't really the best fit for mousse - it's a bit too
sweet, and has nutty components that, again, disappear in mousse.
Chocolate
mousse suggests an aggressively fruity chocolate - some Valrhona
chocolates
are good for it, as well as most of the Bonnat line.


That's what I said. It is too sweet. On the other hand, I tasted some
Michel Cluizel 99% and it was so bitter, it tasted like unsweetened
chocolate to me. A couple of years ago, when I first tasted it, I
thought it was the most wonderful taste. I suppose that tastes change.


With its nutty flavour, L'Harmonie is great in tortes, or in cookies. The
key point is to minimise mixing with dairy, especially cream which will
flatten out the nutty flavours completely.


The chocolate pate is made with butter and whipping cream. It was
really good, in spite of it.

Thank you for your help.

-- Alex Rast


Margaret