who's in the kitchen: judy joszef

For Judy, all chocolate all the time

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I love baking and decorating with chocolate. Many years ago before I started catering, I began a chocolate business, not quite knowing much about chocolate but learning along the way. After ordering pretzels coated in chocolate, I decided I could easily make them and mastered that task.

I loved the idea of pouring tempered chocolate into plastic molds and was able to make just about anything out of chocolate.

Each year on Purim, I had a different theme. One year it was a breakfast made of sunny side up eggs, toast with melted butter and coffee, all served on what looked like China — but it was all made of chocolate. The following year it was an all-chocolate chicken dinner, complete with French fries, vegetables and rolls. The year after, a 100 percent chocolate banana split with three scoops of ice cream, bananas, whipped cream, syrup, and sprinkles — again all made of chocolate.

You would think we were really popular back then because I made 100 shalach manot packages each year and still didn’t have enough for everyone who came to the door as the kids got word that everything was made of chocolate. Somewhere in my basement there are about 500 chocolate malts in any possible shape you can think of.

One of my favorite things to make with chocolate is ganache. It comes from the French word for jowl.

Ganache is normally made by heating cream, then pouring it over chopped chocolate of any kind. The mixture is stirred or blended until smooth, sometimes with extracts or liquids added.

Depending on the kind of chocolate used, for what purpose the ganache is intended and the temperature at which it will be served, the ratio of chocolate to cream is varied to obtain the desired consistency. Typically, two parts chocolate to one part cream are used for filling cakes or as a base for making chocolate truffles, while one to one is commonly used as a glaze. Cooled ganache can be whipped to increase volume and spread to cover a cake.

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