What are Chocolatiers Doing with Olive Oil?
The Family Meal, a 2011 cookbook by chef Ferran Adria featured a simple dessert in Catalonia consisting of bread, chocolate, olive oil, and sea salt. Since then, olive oil has been a popular ingredient in chocolate cakes, cookies, and more. Going even one step further, today chocolatiers across the US are using olive oil in confections and chocolate bars. Olive oil adds both texture and flavor to chocolate, but finding the right confection is no simple task and requires experimentation and creativity. Here are 3 confectioners finding success with olive oil and chocolate.
Tempered Fine Chocolate: Rosemary Olive Oil Dark Chocolate Truffle
Rosemary Truffle photo credit Well Tempered Chocolate
Angelica Bockman, chocolatier and co-owner of Nashville-based Tempered Fine Chocolate, has a background in the restaurant scene, working in a variety of jobs from restaurant manager, general manager, bar manager. When she came to the world of chocolate, she found herself preferring savory flavors over sweet. Since chocolate tends to be sweet, Bockman is often asking whether certain ingredients would work in chocolate.
When Bockman was planning out a new truffle menu, she thought they needed to do something herbal, fun, and unique that was a nod to Italian cuisine. She said, “I know a couple of chefs that have played with olive oil [in different dishes] over in Europe.” That gave her the idea of infusing the rosemary into the ganache and then finishing it off with olive oil. The Rosemary Olive Oil Dark Chocolate truffle was born.
The recipe has changed in the past few years, now they are making the truffles fully vegan by taking out the cream. Now they infuse the rosemary directly into the olive oil. For these truffles, they use Felchlin chocolate and Extra Virgin Olive Oil from Sysco Imperial.
It took time trying different chocolates. She knew white chocolate would not work; she tried milk chocolate but she knew it was going to work. It was not until she used 60% dark chocolate that she found the right medium. “It was just better with the rosemary and olive oil. They're just rich and luxurious flavors together. So naturally you go to the rich and luxurious flavor of dark chocolate,” Bockman explained.
The success with the truffle encouraged Bockman to be more creative. She has made a lavender caramel, and played around with sage and chocolate, sourcing ingredients from local farmers.
The rosemary olive oil truffle is popular with a cheese board company; the owner includes the truffle in the boxes for hotels and weddings. Some people think it's weird but when they taste it, they love it. Tempered Fine Chocolate also hosts a Green Hour at Tempered Cafe, a pop up cocktail and absinthe bar on Thursday night through Sunday and discovered that the rosemary truffles go well with the cocktails and absinthe as well.
Katherine Anne Confections: Parmesan Olive Oil Truffle
Parmesan, Olive Oil Truffle photo credit Katherine Anne Confections
Chicago-based Katherine Anne Confections has been dedicating August to making more savory truffles, often pairing cheese and chocolate. Katherne Duncan, owner of Katherine Anne Confections, was brainstorming different ideas including Apple Cheddar and Apricot Feta and Balsamic Vinegar. With balsamic vinegar, the natural question was what about olive oil? So they thought about what cheeses could pair with olive oil and decided to use Parmesan.
Duncan has been making the truffle for about eight years but the truffle has been a little different each year, depending on what ingredients they could find. The olive oil changes up but they do get extra virgin olive oil and balsamic vinegar from Old Town Olive Oil, a local Chicago company. In the past she’s used Barry Callebaut and Valrhona for her chocolate.
Finding good Parmesan cheese can vary widely, explained Duncan. You want something really aged and intense but it may not always be available. For the chocolate, she uses a mixture of milk and bitter semisweet chocolate. It’s on the darker end of the spectrum, which goes well with the parmesan and olive oil.
Duncan admitted that the truffle is not a best-seller since it’s not really a comfort food, which is what people often want in their chocolate. It’s more on the adventures spectrum, she said, but they enjoy it. Read more about Katherine Anne Confections.
Formosa Chocolate: Olive Oil Citrus Bar
Citrus Olive Oil Bar photo credit Formosa
Based in Marin, CA, Kimberly Yang of Formosa Chocolate has taken a different approach by making a chocolate bar instead of a truffle. She’s a huge fan of olive oil, particularly since California has amazing olive oil. “I was just thinking about ways that I could integrate that into chocolate, where you still have the flavor of olive oil without messing up the texture of the chocolate,” she explained.
However, Yang thought that chocolate and olive oil by itself was a bit boring. So she decided to add some citrus to the bar. She did try different proportions of ingredients since she did not want to overly change the texture of the chocolate itself. Right now, she’s using an Arbequina olive oil for her Olive Oil Citrus Bar. The bar has proven to be very popular with consumers at sampling events.
Yang uses Felchin chocolate and so far has only used dark chocolate, and could see trying it with milk chocolate, but explains that would require some changes since the milk chocolate is already softer than dark chocolate so tempering the chocolate would have to be different.