Valentine Ideas: Chocolate Figs

A couple of days ago, I posted about some Valentine basics for the guys out there and was reminded that I should probably elaborate a bit, so here's my first...

On the topic of chocolates, I mentioned good chocolates and here's a suggestion ... Chocolate Figs from John & Kira's.  These cool nuggets of rich Spanish Calabacita figs aren't just chocolate covered but chocolate filled with an incredible whiskey-infused Valrhona dark chocolate ganache.

Jen and I had a taste of these from a Gilt Taste special in the summer but fortunately you can get 12 of these spectacular treats boxed and delivered so you don't even have to go outside and hunt any down.

Images from John & Kira's

Pain Perdu Dessert

I made this for dessert last week. It came to me after watching too many episodes of "Chopped" on Food Network.

"Pain perdu" is the French term for French toast (literally, "lost bread"). It is a staple for all culinary students (myself included) and has started to show up more and more as a dessert base.  Here I used a whole wheat challah, which has a nice, fluffy texture and slight sweetness.  The egg wash had a splash of almond milk and vanilla.

To dress is up, we used ripe black Mission figs drizzled with a melted 85% dark chocolate and then garnished with 2 slices of dark chocolate bacon strips. Yes, bacon. So basically, it's a grown-up take on breakfast as a dessert. Lots of textures, and wide flavor profile. Yum!

Ingredients:
2 challah buns (Zomick brand in this case)
2 medium eggs
1/2 C almond milk
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
8 figs
2oz dark chocolate (70%)
1 tsp butter
1 Tb almond milk (additional)

Mix the eggs, milk and vanilla well in a shallow bowl. Slice the challah top to bottom - each bun should yield 3 slices. soak in egg mix for about 30 seconds per side. Heat 1 Tb oil in a skillet over medium-low heat. Gently place the bread into the pan and cook until just browning, then turn and repeat.

Meanwhile, heat the chocolate, butter and milk in a glass measuring cup or bowl in the microwave on high for 12 seconds. Remove and use a spoon to mix and melt the chocolate. If not quite hot enough, run for an additional 10 seconds only and try again.  Too much microwave will burn the chocolate quickly.

Serve with cut figs, drizzled with chocolate and a side of bacon - it's breakfast updated for dessert!

Image by MadeForJen

Dark Chocolate Bacon Strips

A lot of chocolate this week. After the salted chocolate, the next phase was marrying the dark chocolate to my favorite bacon. Here it's a quick snack served with ripe black Mission figs.

The idea for it started as a garnish for a dessert (coming up) but after I made them, they were so good I ended up just eating them as is. And I wish I could say there is some incredibly complex preparation for this but in fact it was so simple!

Ingredients:
3oz good dark chocolate (70% minimum - for this I used 85% Green & Black)
6 strips thinly sliced smoked bacon (tastes better smoked)

Microwave the bacon in paper towels until all the fat has come out and the bacon is pretty crisp all through, then cool in fridge. Meanwhile, melt good dark chocolate (preferably in a double boiler, but if not, melt it in a bowl in the microwave in 20 second shots until just starting to melt, then stir until complete). Carefully break the bacon strips in half. Use chopsticks or a fork to dip the strips into the chocolate, place on some parchment, and cool in fridge.

Image by MadeForJen

Gilt Taste

The other day, I showed Jen this rather amazing site, Gilt Taste, and she nearly bowled over when she saw these amazing chocolate figs.

For those who have never seen Gilt Taste, it's a site that features mostly artisanal and hard-to-find culinary treats at cheaper-than-retail but the items are generally available only for a limited time.  I leave the sweet stuff to Jen, while I prefer to hang out in the meats and pantry sections.  My personal favorite was the (now sold-out) bacon jelly (yes, bacon jelly), but now I have my eye on a set of Artisan Bacons (see a recurring theme starting here?) to use as a base for some homemade bacon-flavored chocolates (sshh, don't tell Jen).

One more thing - as a software guy, I have to say that the site is so well done - clean and simple to use and with amazing attention to detail from the animated page headers (check out the flaming barbeque in the meats) to the super easy checkout.  Great job, Gilt!

What do you think you'd buy at Gilt?