Nipples of Venus, take #1

For my latest act of culinary craziness, ladies and gentlemen, I decided to delve into something a bit over my head. But how could anyone refuse the allure of Nipples Of Venus? By the title alone we’re all salaciously salivating to savor the silky smooth sweetness, I’m sure. I first heard of these in the movie Amadeus, but didn’t get to actually taste one until years later, when traipsing with friends in Eugene to Sweet Life Patisserie, and what I found was, although different than what I had expected, still was powerful enough to produce a 3-day coma of pleasure. What was described in the movie was all chestnutty with a white body and a dark nipple on top, but what I found was chocolate goodness through and through. This is what prompted me to delve into making chocolates for the first time, and, well, here’s what happened:

First, the recipe. The basic idea is to encapsulate chocolate ganache in a chocolate shell, and then nipplize it with a little dab of white chocolate on top. Simple enough! Making a chocolate ganache is simple enough- I heated 1lb of dark chocolate over a double boiler, and when it was all melted, I added 2cps of lukewarm soy milk and a bit of vanilla. I heated slowly for a little while longer and cooled. Not thick enough. Reheat, recool, still not thick enough. I eventually got things reduced to the consistency that I wanted, but I think doing this in multiple reheats damaged the chocolate a bit, as the oils started to separate on the last step. Upon reflection, I think since I am using soy milk instead of heavy cream, I would start with the soy milk in the double boiler, reduce that and then add the vanilla and chocolate, and heat it until it is the right consistency, which is actually quite firm when still hot. Anyway, I eventually cooled it off enough to put in a pastry bag to pipe out onto a cookie sheet. This made nice little lumps of tastiness, which I put in the fridge to cool.

Second was the coating. For this I took some more straight-up chocolate and heated it in the trusty double boiler. When totally liquid I removed it from the heat and put the stainless steel bowl on a heating pad on the counter, to keep things warm. Now, I took out the lumps in the fridge, and due to the way they settled they made dark little hemispheres of chocolate. So, I stuck two back-to-back to make a full sphere, rolled it in my hands a bit to make it smooth, and popped them back in the fridge to keep them cool while I worked on the rest. Eventually I had 20 or so chilled balls of ganache, and I still had a cool-but-liquid bowl of chocolate on the heating pad. I then pulled balls out of the fridge one by one, tossed them in the liquid chocolate, and then placed them back on the cookie sheet, and back in the fridge.

The final touch was the nipple on top, which was as simple as heating some white chocolate in the double boiler again, and then using a small (#3) tip in the pastry bag to dab on top. DONE. Consume at a rapid pace.

So, this having been my first attempt, there are a few things that I would do differently next time:

• Ganache- start with the soy milk, reduce that a bit before adding the chocolate and make sure you reduce it enough before pulling it off the heat.
• Coating- I need to figure out how to do this better. First off, they aren’t smooth. Second, the coating isn’t thick enough. Thirdly, they melt in your hand. I need to do some web research to figure out if there is something you put in the chocolate to make it set up firmer, and maybe play with some other techniques to get it to set up more smoothly.

And honestly, that’s about it. They taste wonderful. Of course, I have consumed enough chocolate this afternoon just in the process of making these bad boys (girls?) to get me worrying about theobromine again, so it will be a while before I get these all finished off and my craving for chocolates humming again. In the meantime, I have a kitchen to clean. I swear I got chocolate on every single piece of kitchen gear I own (how did my garlic press get chocolate in it?), plus the walls, fridge, cabinets, floor, and even Ethan.

Over and out.

-c