Beginners Bakes with Chris Payne – Saturday 10 May

Blue Silver – Fleur de sel & Caramel

A sweet and intense dark caramel ganache composed smoothly with a fleur de sel, harvested by hand in Aigues-Mortes in the Camargue. Finished in a single origin milk chocolate shell from Ghana, this couverture reveals red fruit and chestnut flavours enclosed in powerful natural cocoa and biscuity notes that work exceptionally well with caramel.

Speckled Orange – Orange & Grand Marnier

Using all the fresh orange to extract as much natural flavour and perfume as possible, this rich ganache is complimented at the end with the addition of Grand Marnier to keep true to the iconic blend of fine cognac and bitter orange liqueur. A dark single plantation couverture from the heart of a Peruvian nature park, the Alto El Sol plantation is used for the shell. The dominant sourness and red fruits give to this dark couverture a long-lasting taste and mouthfeel.

Bronze Gold – Espresso Caramel & Tia Maria

This double layered chocolate has an intense espresso caramel using Robusta and Arabica beans from Brazil and central America. The second layer uses this explosive coffee combination to create a rich ganache finished with the rum-based Arabica liqueur, Tia Maria. We have married a milk couverture from Nacional beans grown in the Arriba region, yielding an exceptionally intense cocoa taste with complex aromas of caramel and hints of fruit.

Dappled Caramel – Tonka Bean

Tonka bean has complex flavours of vanilla, black cherry, almond, coffee and tobacco and is harvested from the Cumaru tree. We infuse the beans before we make chocolate ganache to let the flavour mature and develop. The shell is made from a crafted caramelised chocolate that has rich notes of toffee, butter, cream and a dash of salt.

Green Gold – Pistachio

We use a pure and natural lightly roasted pistachio paste with a white chocolate couverture to create this Gianduja style ganache, with no additional essences so that the full flavour, aroma and colour of the pistachio immediately comes through and lasts on the palette. We have an inhouse blended milk chocolate couverture that delivers a highly intense chocolate hit with creamy notes.

Brushed Yellow – Passion Fruit

Passion fruit will be released from the very start of the tasting experience of this bonbon with its exceptional intensity from a double layer of pate de fruit and ganache. We have matched this with a white chocolate to balance the acidity of the fruit as the creamy white chocolate offers a wonderful sweetness and delicious notes of caramel and vanilla.