Comments on: Vichyssoise

By: frances

frances — Sun, 06 Feb 2011 02:31:39 +0000

To Anne and others– a Very late reply, however the chocolate seized not only from the heat but the addition of the water to the chocolate (water to fat mix). You can beat it out if you know how to. Generally the two must be lukewarm to meld. Try Baking 911, a good site.

By: Ms. Glaze

Ms. Glaze — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 05:53:17 +0000

Anne! I’m so sorry this happened to you and it is because of the temperature of the coffee you added. Chocolate is so darned sensitive!!! Years ago when I was a novice pastry chef in SF, I had the same thing happen to me – only with pounds of couverature chocolate that could not be saved. You can either NOT melt the chocolate and pour hot coffee over it stirring little by little in circular movements to encorporate or melt the chocolate gently and then add cold to luke warm coffee therefore not effecting the fragile chemistry. That’s why chocolatiers are their own breed of cook because it’s such a scientific passion!

By: Anne

Anne — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 21:24:04 +0000

All’s well, that ends well. Delicious. Cloud light. (left out about a quarter of the chocolate clump, so less chocolaty but still, remarkable…subtle) ate it with organic vanilla ice cream.

By: Anne

Anne — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 20:43:40 +0000

Hi,
Help! This is not about soup. This is about the gateau chocolat! (I can’t use my mac email and there is no other way to contact you.)
I tried to make the gateau and when it came time to pour the coffee (maybe too warm? but not close to boiling) into the melted chocolate, oh so lovingly melted to a dark satiny finish in a double boiler, why, the whole mass clotted almost instantly into a heavy chocolate paste, which I could see would not fold readily into the eggs. It was nearly as dense as playdough. I used my fingers to pick off clumplettes of the mass: bitter cooking chocolate-Ghirardelli’s and organic decaf coffee, and dropped them into the eggs then used a handmixer for 5 minutes easily…then folded in the whip cream and it is cooking now. BUT…what happened? Is that clumping effect normal? I am not an experienced cook. Any advise?
Anne

By: Nora

Nora — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 11:46:00 +0000

This is on my to-do list of historical recipes (from Molly O’Neill’s 2007 anthology, American Food Writing) and I’m so pleased to see this post. When I do get to making it — when the mercury creeps above 45 or my landlord springs for heat — I will compare and contrast your modern interpretation (no cream! no problem!) with the 1965 recipe in the book.
*By the way: longtime reader, first time commenter. Love your wit & charm! And now I get why: you totally remind me of the theater teachers I adored as a teenage drama geek.

By: Sorina

Sorina — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 09:08:41 +0000

I love it, it’s just delicious

By: San Francisco Photos

San Francisco Photos — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 06:25:33 +0000

Looks yummy!

By: Karina

Karina — Tue, 08 Jan 2008 07:08:01 +0000

Yes, please! I love potato soup. And Vichyssoise? The best.

By: one food guy

one food guy — Tue, 08 Jan 2008 04:17:15 +0000

What a great recipe, I never knew that you could leave the cream out of the soup – thanks for the tip!

By: paris breakfasts

paris breakfasts — Mon, 07 Jan 2008 02:17:53 +0000

I have ALWAYS loved Vichyssoise – library paste or not.
I love it for it’s name…
just dreamy
“garnished with crab meat”
A double dream…