** Sorry for posting another figgy one so soon, I had planned to share a main dish with you today, but crazy snow has kept me away from the Pike Place Market and my ingredients. I hope you enjoy the substitution!**
There are those in this world who would walk into a burning building for a piece of chocolate, I am not one of those people. That is of course unless we are talking about chocolate ganache. In my world ganache is not sweet, but so unbelievably creamy and decadent that I want to wrap myself in it and take an extremely luxurious nap. No fudge has done anything more to me than facilitate a tooth ache.
Dried fruit really comes out in force this time of year and as many of you may have noticed, I have sort of zeroed in on figs as of late. So when I was leafing through a Williams-Sonoma catalog a few weeks ago and saw the ganache stuffed figs for sale, I knew I had to make them. So I did! The flavor and mouthfeel is luxurious and velvety. The figs make an elegant addition to the mix adding a lush fruity richness of their own. On top of the flavor, they are as cute as the dickens.
I hope you enjoyed today’s installment of The Endive Chronicles 2008 Holiday Bonanza. Check back in a couple of days for more!
Chocolate Ganache
6 TBS Unsalted Butter
8 TBS Cream
6 oz Dark Chocolate, chopped fine (I used Theo Chocolate’s Origin blend)
1/8 tsp or so Sel de Mer or other sea salt
Place the butter and cream in a bain marie over low to medium low heat. Do not allow the bowl to touch the water. When the butter is melted, add the chocolate and stir. When the chocolate is a little more than half way melted, remove from heat and continue to stir until completely melted. Allow to cool at room temperature before putting in the refrigerator.
Ganache Stuffed Figs
Dried Mission Figs or what ever you have available
1 recipe Chocolate Ganache
1 1/2-2 cups Dark Chocolate, chopped fine (I used Theo Chocolate’s Origin Blend)
Take a thin slice off the bottom of each fig, reserving for another use. Using a small knife or a tiny melon baller, scoop out the bottom of each reserving for another use, creating room for a small amount of chocolate ganache. Stuff a bit of ganache inside of the fig and place on a baking sheet lined with parchment. Freeze for a few hours or overnight.
Using a bain marie, melt the Dark chocolate over low heat. Carefully pour the melted chocolate into a small, high sided container (such as a mug or cup measure), deep enough to dunk a fig. Quickly dunk each fig into the chocolate about 3/4 of the way up. Place each enrobed fig on a piece of parchment to harden. Cover and refrigerate after the chocolate has hardened.
*Puree the fig trimmings and blend the together with any left over ganache. Form into small spheres, freeze and dip into melted chocolate for a figgy truffle. This will make sure those trimmings don’t go to waste. Add in a little ground fennel seed or ground anise seed for a yummy twist.
Looks like I’m going to have to clear some room in my freezer! And the more figgy puddings the better… tis the season, after all.
I considered doing these too when I got the W-S catalogue. …but I thought I’d do my diet a favor and not. ;>
I was going to rehydrate them in a light sugar syrup or some fruit juice or a floral tea before attempting to pipe in the ganache. I’d be really interesting if you thought that step is necessary or could be skipped. My theory is that gettting the fruit to a more supple state would allow them to expand around the ganache and also be more yielding to the bite.
I’d also like your opinion on whether minced nuts or candied orange folded into the ganache would work or spoil the simplicity.
Rainey, I would think that making them soft would make them much more difficult to work with. The dried figs are quite tender already and I personally wouldn’t want them any softer. As far as the sugar syrup goes, I think it would take away from the quality of the ganache and make it much too sweet. But if you like things on the sweeter side, this may be your bag. Also, you would probably have trouble when it came time to dip the figs, as the liquid tends to seep out and challenge the structure of the shell, unless you allow them to dry.
The nuts and orange would be tasty, but there is such a small space to work with, the flavors may all drown one another out. But, it could work. I like the simplicity of the straight figs with the ganache, it is a really elegant flavor and texture.
You SO know I am throwing myself in front of the monitor every time I have this page up on the desktop, right? Brian catches wind of it and I am SO hosed… it’ll be chocolate and figs all over the place for weeks!
I need to write up my fig chutney recipe sometime soon… great inspiration, Erin!
Jen, aww, come on Brian sounds like a man of taste who deserves a batch of these.
Definitely post that recipe. . . mmm, figgy chutney.
Just show to go ya what I know about dried figs! =o
I went to an annual to-the-public sale at a gourmet importer yesterday. They had “dried” Calimyrna figs but it must have been a 5-pound bag! They were the kind of supple I was thinking of trying to achieve. So I passed on them.
They also had porccini dust — also in a huge bag so I had to let it go. The aroma of the air when I squeezed the bag was pure bliss. I could have been adding the essence of porccini to simply everything and been taking baths in it.
…come to think of it smelling like a mushroom might be an improvement some hot SoCal days. =o
Can do. Nuthin to do but watch it snow anyway!!
Erin,
As requested… Hope you like it! Brian sure gobbled it up.
http://dishingitout.wordpress.com/food-porn/potato-latkes-with-fig-chutney/
Happy Holidays!
-Jen
Rainey, what a fabulous sale! I would have gone absolutely nuts. I love the rich scent of porcini.
Jen, Thanks for the link! Good luck in the snow. I can’t believe how nutty it is, the whole city has gone mad because of it.
Your food pictures look amazing! I’d love to know how your setup is when picturing your food.
Charles
http://pampanguenacafe.wordpress.com
Charles,
I have a very limited set up. I am using a Nikon D60 and a light box I made from a box that you holds paper files. I also have a table top tripod which is soon to be upgraded to a real tripod (than you Erin!!!)
For the light box, I lined the box with aluminum foil, cut a hole in the bottom and shoved a light socket through (it sounds unsafe but . . . it is) and cut the center out of the top. I then used white tissue paper as a filter. I am using a compact florescent bulb (don’t know the wattage).
Other than that I just shoot what is on the table with no special background. I did make a photo box which i used to shoot the gin and tonic photos. That was just a box I cut two sides out, lined the box with white paper and shoot through the side, with the light box sitting on top.
I shoot the photos in RAW and adjust then adjust the white balance and sharpness.