Rosemary Olive Oil truffle - the flavor of the month

This month’s special flavor is the Rosemary Olive Oil truffle in a dark chocolate ganache made from our French dark chocolate. I’ve enjoyed the reactions that people have had as I told them I’m working on this recipe. There’s a mixture of confusion, distrust but mostly pure excitement at trying something so out-of-the-ordinary.

And in my eyes, this is such a natural flavor combination. The savory oil adds a wonderful balance to the slightly fruit-forward French dark chocolate that I use in most of my confections. To match the sensory expectation when someone hears of oil, I tried out a new (and somewhat old) technique called slab ganache. It’s very similar to my piped ganache recipes, however, because you are not agitating the ganache constantly with your hands as you work, the fat emulsion is allowed to form very long chains. This gives a longer, silkier mouthfeel to the recipe.

The oil that I use is from Calivirgin which exclusively uses olives grown on their own land in Lodi, California. The rosemary is added during the pressing of the olives for oil with bright and consistent rosemary flavor throughout. 

This flavor, like all of our monthly special flavors of chocolates, is only available during the calendar month of August 2016. You can ask for it specifically in any box size, just leave a note for us on the order screen. And of course, you can come by and try it out. It will change how you think about chocolates!

Oh and here's a bonus inspiration photo which was of a wonderful organic vanilla soft serve ice cream with olive oil and large flaked sea salt that I had from Old Town Tap in Truckee, California after a long hike about a month ago.