Saturday, April 24, 2010

Vendor Feature: Farmhouse Truffles

Last Sunday, I took some time to drive down to Bristol, Vermont to meet with Erle LaBounty, creator of Farmhouse Truffles.

Erle, a Randolph, Vermont native, started creating truffles at his family farm more than ten years ago. He graduated from the New England Culinary Institute in 2001, embarking on a culinary journey that took him to Sagamore Resort in Bolton Landing, New York, Pikes Landing in Alaska, and Pane e Salute in Woodstock, Vermont. His truffle creations have been featured in Vermont Vows, and received rave reviews from The Boston Globe and Seven Days. One particularly tempting quote from Seven Days:

"Farmhouse's Truffles are rolled rather than poured, and they whisper their flavor..."

After meeting Erle at a VAWP seminar a few weeks ago I convinced him to let me document the truffle making process, and even managed to score a few to take home for myself.

The first step – vigorous handwashing, of course.



Erle makes his ganache in large batches - ganache is the creamy, delicious center that makes truffles so irresistible. He has a handful of signature flavors including chili and nutmeg, espresso and lavender. Since the ganache was already made, he moved on to the next step - rounding them into bite-sized balls and tossing them in cocoa powder.





He also showed off a few of his other E.R. LaBounty Confections, including these adorable white chocolate hearts:




Next, Erle melted tempered chocolate to roll the truffles in. Tempered chocolate has a smooth and glossy finish, and hardens to create a chocolate shell that doesn't go all gooey in your hands. It's a painstaking process that involves melting the chocolate and then getting it to just the right temperature for dipping.






Next he created a nifty little icing piper out of brown parchment paper, rewarmed his chocolate to the right temperature, and filled up the icing bag for his final step - the unique decorations that distinguish each signature flavor from the next.







Finishing touches:





Farmhouse Truffles are available in a variety of box colors to match your wedding theme, or the classic black box with red ribbon.





Some of you may know I have a weakness for dogs. Erle had literally just picked up Camille, an adorable 12-week Belgian shepherd-lab mix, the day before our shoot.



An afternoon full of good company, chocolate and puppies. What more could one ask for? Check out Erle's site for info on how to pick up some truffles for yourself, and happy eating!

Wednesday, April 21, 2010

Groom a la chef

I was excited to stumble across a Seven Days mention of one of our grooms, Michael Clauss, who also happens to be the Daily Planet's head chef. We're shooting Michael and Alexa's wedding on June 12 at a private residence in Burlington.

Coming up May 14-20 is Vermont Restaurant Week – tons of local restaurants will be serving up prix fixe menus with mouth-watering dishes at unbelievable prices. Be sure to check out Michael's specially created menu for the Daily Planet that week - the options include spring vegetable torte with ramps and yellow fig and vanilla custard.

One of my favorite tidbits from a Seven Days article on Michael earlier this year is the mention of how he "moved to Vermont from New York for the 'love of [his] life,' fiancée Alexa." Adorable! We can't wait to shoot their wedding in just a few weeks.

Monday, April 19, 2010

Sunday is Fun Day

This winter, Judd grew a particularly hefty beard. On Sunday, while doing nothing in general, he decided it was time to trim it down for wedding season - and I couldn't resist documenting it. He misses his beard, but agrees it was SO worth the pictures!

NOTE: I know this isn't specifically related to weddings... but... we think that our blog should, in addition to helping promote and brand our business, give our readers insight into our personalities and hopefully entertain a few folks here and there. Therefore, we feel fully justified in presenting you with the occasional diversion. Cheers!


Thursday, April 15, 2010

Spring has Sprung!

Apologies for the long absence, it has been a busy booking season and I know this page has been sorely neglected. I recently got a blogging kickstart at the Vermont Association of Wedding Professionals social media seminar yesterday at Sugarbush. I thought I knew enough about blogging, twittering and Facebook but left there with dizzying amounts of information, thanks to Carey Earle of Green Apple Marketing.

Eve now has a presence on Twitter! Updates are posted on the right sidebar of this page or you can check out our Twitter page here.