Quotessence
Home / Books / Vianne

Vianne

Book by Joanne Harris · 4 quotes · Chocolate, Confections, Chocolates

Filter quotes by topic

AllChocolateConfectionsChocolatesFrench FoodVianne RocherBitterBook TitleCookingDark ChocolateEarthySpicesVianneWaterAll NaturalAnouk RocherApricotsAromaticsBittersweetBouillabaisseCacao

Vianne Quotes

“It is the simplest of recipes, after pralines and chocolate ganache. He calls them mendiants, those chocolate discs studded with raisins, and almonds and candied lemon peel. He tells me they're named after the mendicant orders of monks, who used to sell them door-to-door during the Middle Ages. It's a word I have heard before, though never in this context; instead, I remember it flung like stones in our wake as we passed through some long-ago village. It's a surprise to find this word-- this slur-- thus sweetened by circumstance, harmlessly translated into the language of chocolate. First, melt the chocolate in a bain-marie. Strange, how the Virgin seems to bless even this most secular of baptisms. Then, on greaseproof paper, place tablespoons of the chocolate to make round discs, the size of the Host. On this still-cooling chocolate, add the traditional dried fruits and nuts that symbolize the Orders. Fat raisins; yellow sultanas; cherries; toasted almonds; pistachios and hazelnuts, like jewels on a medallion.”

ChocolateNutsMonksConfectionsDried FruitsMendicant
Book:Vianne
Create image

“The inside of the van was warm, and I could smell the heat of it, mingled with that sweetness I could not quite identify; a sweetness like a childhood I only ever knew from books, a scent of vanilla and spices and cream, of bedclothes dried in the sunshine. And beneath it, a more complex scent of autumn leaves and petrichor, of forests that never see daylight, of sunken ships and pirate gold and fireworks and woodsmoke. 'What is that?' I said, looking back at the pile of boxes at the back of the van. Guy smiled. 'What do you think?' 'I can't quite place what it is,' I said. 'But it smells almost familiar. Is it some kind of spice?' 'Not quite.' He paused, almost reverently. 'These are roasted Porcelana beans, from Peru; a sub variant of the Criollo bean, maybe the best-- and the rarest-- cacao beans in existence.' 'Cacao,' I said. 'You mean---?' 'Chocolate.”

ChocolateCacaoIntroduced
Book:Vianne
Create image