20°N & 20°S

Surprises by William Curley

 

 

My yearly delivery of William Curley has arrived thanks to my mate Angelo, and this time I called ahead to see if Mr. Curley could put something together that I have never had before. Outside of having their fine pastries in their shop, I have had a good round of delicious treats from them over the years. This time he sent over some new treats.

On top of 3 boxes of truffles plus some other gems, there were two unlabeled boxes. I opened them to find candy bars! 3 treats from his Nostalgia line. A version of a Mounds Bar, A Snickers Bar, and a Jaffa Cake. Excited be thy name. All awesome and all things I like!

 

Nostaligia Coconut Bar: White chocolate and toasted coconut ganache coated in Toscano 70% dark chocolate.

A sophisticated version of a Mounds Bar. Amedei Toscano 70% dark chocolate shell with white chocolate and coconut center.

I am in love with coconut. I grew up on Mounds and Almond Joy's. They are still a favorite. But this was super rich and decadent with real dark chocolate. All coconut center. Meaning it does have white chocolate in it, but it's good and meaty with the coconut too. An Almond Joy is for a Halloween basket, this Nostalgia Bar is for a coconut lover you truly care about. It's ridiculously good. It defines rich from the dark chocolate and the insanely good coconut center.

 

Nostalgia Jaffa Cakes: Our version of a Jaffa Cake. Genoise sponge topped with homemade seville orange marmalade and chocolate ganache, coated in Toscano 70% dark chocolate.

Now, I never grew up with Jaffa Cakes. We had similar things in the US in terms of jelly rolls and things like that. But I like all the things in it. Sponge cake with jam dipped in Amedei chocolate. I am totally down with this. Also, this just looks 1000x better than the store bought ones.

Tangy and bright marmalade, bitter and perfect with the Amedei Toscano 70% shell. Soft spongy cake. It's a good balance of a lot of elements here. The tangy oranges, the bitter chocolate, sweet sugars in the marmalade and cake. I liked it.

 

 

Nostalgia Peanut Nougat Bar: Peanut and chocolate nougat topped with a salted peanut caramel and coated in Toscano 70% dark chocolate.

This would be a supped up version of a Snickers bar. Even better with it being dipped again in Amedei Tsocano 70% and with a salted caramel inside. Snickers is one of my all time favorite candy bars. It's right up there with Kit Kat bars. Previously I have tried Liddabit's version of a snickers. Handmade candy bars from Brooklyn. They set a very high bar, but didn't load it up with enough peanuts. This bar has plenty of peanuts.

It's a little sugary, but the nougat was soft and packed with lots of peanuts. The salty caramel gets a bit lost, but it is in there and there is a slight peak of it when you bite down into the bar. You get more of the buttery flavor than the salt. Again it is very sweet but I'd take this any day over a snickers.

 

Why do you do this to me William Curley?!?!?!?! Why do you make everything so awesome?

The New Summer Picnic

 

 

A few years ago while working at Formaggio Kitchen, Robert Aguilera and I came up with a ridiculous plan to make a beer and a cheese that don't normally work together, work. We forged an unholy union between classic brie and Allagash Brewing Company's Curieux. A fatty buttery cheese with a soft edged barrel aged tripel. Normally you would rely on alpha acids in the hops or carbonation in the beer to work on a fatty cheese. But since this beer had the soft edges from the barrel aging, they become ill-matched.

We forged this union by adding, sliced bresola (salty Italian cured meat), fresh strawberries (acidic and tangy), fruits of the forest jam (sweet and tangy), a fresh baguette, and of course the cheese and the beer. It was incredible! It was a complete meal. My husband and I dined on it all summer long.

We even upped the ante with the second picnic. This time we took Allagash's Odyssey. A very raisin-y dark Belgian-style wheat beer also oak-aged. Huge 10%, sticky beer with bold dark fruits and funky, spicy wheat aromas. We paired this beer with a fresh baguette, sliced speck (smoky Italian cured meat), Monte Enebro (a very briney and salty Spanish goat cheese), prune preserve, and dried Mojave Desert raisins. My eyes pretty much just rolled in the back of my head just remember how good this pairing was.

By now you should know, that Robert is a master at these combinations. I bring him the beer, and he gives me the world. This was just for shits and giggles too. These pairings weren't featured in any class I ever taught Formaggio Kitchen, or in any dinner I ever hosted. Rob Tod wanted to post it on Allagash's website. I forgot to give him the details. I think my subconscious wanted to selfishly keep it to myself.

So, following this vein, I had ordered Foietella from Xocolatl de David. Literally it is foie gras and chocolate blended together in a spread. Yes, that feeling is your arteries slowing down just for reading those words. Cream, foie, and chocolate. Done. Flat line......

I wasn't sure what to put with the Foietella. David Briggs, the creator suggested rhubarb jam. I understand that now after tasting it. It needs an acidic or tart balance to all that fat! I decided to put together a little platter, this time paired with an Italian Barbera, of cheese, foietella, fresh strawberries, baguette, pecans, fruits of the forrest jam, and some left over scraps of Xocolatl de David's Country Ham bar (chocolate bar with Benton's ham), and the Iberico bar which is basically a chocolate bar with lardo (pork fat) blended in. Yes, that was your heart now in full A-fib.

This post is pretty much an excuse to brag and post glorious pics of this summer picnic. A couple of high resolution images and some iPhone pics. I had to take those so I could quickly put them up on Twitter and show off.