The box sits there. Unopened. I haven’t even looked at the bars inside because if I did it might all be over. They need to be pristine.
Michelle comes home tomorrow and there are two critically acclaimed bars of Potomac Chocolate sitting inside their Priority mailer, having come from near where we grew up; Richard ordered them for me with Mother’s Day as an excuse after the fact and they arrived a few days ago.
Isn’t it everybody’s dream to set up a tiny chocolate factory in their basement? Buy directly from the farmers, claim the quality because you made it come to be and you did it right? Paying for the best cocoa beans, then grinding them down, tempering, a little sugar going in. Nothing more. Picking up where Scharffenberger sold out and left off. Getting growing praise for a great product.
One. More. Day.
Meantime, I baked a second chocolate hazelnut torte tonight, substituting coconut oil for the butter so Michelle could eat it. It’s only fair; she’s the one that got me hooked on working with hazelnuts. I went researching a bit, and oil swaps out for butter best where there are a lot of nut oils present.
Hey.
Looks perfect. And now it has to refrigerate overnight before unmolding and slicing.
One. More. Day.