It's not cheddar cheese because if we want to just do cheddar cheese with chocolate, it will be a pairing.” Some folks have said it's too subtle but Markoff explained, “Well, not supposed to taste like a slice of cheddar cheese because it's just a layer of it's a component of it. It's pretty delicate.” You have to wait for it, she noted. Eventually, they settled on berries inside the white chocolate with the Fromage Blanc sprinkled on top.Īs for the taste of these bars, Markoff said, “ just comes towards the end.

Another attempt put dehydrated Cowgirl Creamery's Fromage Blanc in the bar but it ended up being too crumbly, Markoff explained. Shelf storage was a critical component truffles are meant to be eaten quickly but chocolate bars need to have a longer shelf life. Markoff mentioned making a bar with Whole Foods with cheese from Cowgirl Creamery but the water content was too high. It’s less of a concern with truffles like the Taleggio. Dried cheeses seemed to work better for the bars. “It's hard to compete with delicate cheeses.”Īnother challenge Markoff faced was water content. They worked with milk chocolate, dark chocolate, and white chocolate but the dark was the hardest one to work with, said Markoff, because of its strong flavor profile.

It’s a pairing of 24-month aged Parmigiano Reggiano with figs, Tellicherry pepper, walnuts, and 67 percent dark chocolate. She also made a Parmesan Walnut and Fig Bar with Cathy Strange, Vice President of Specialty and Global Cheese Expert, at Whole Foods. A year later, she made several more bars including the Cheddar and Apple bar with 12-month aged Vermont Cheddar, cinnamon, apples, and 45% milk chocolate. Like anything, you just iterate, iterate, iterate.” She started with 12-month D.O.P Manchego paired with Montmorency cherries and 67% cacao. “How do you dry the cheese? How does the cheese work in a solid format?” She asked herself, “What if we grated raw milk cheddar cheese or around Manchego? just started playing with it. They’ve also done a few special edition truffles like a triple creme from France and another with bleu cheese that Markoff said was very strong.Ī few years later, Markoff wanted to experiment further. According to the Vosges website, the Taleggio is made by Emilio Mauri, “a cave-aged cow's milk cheese from Pasturo in the Lombardi region of Italy.” Markoff calls it a “cult classic” and says it has been and remains one of her favorites. Her first creation became the Taleggio Truffle, called the Rooster, which has Taleggio cheese, walnut, Madagascar Vanilla, and 66 percent dark chocolate. “Those acidity and dairy notes can work with the chocolate in the ganache,” she said. She thought it was interesting that the courses came in succession but “never on the same plate.” Markoff started off making pairings of the two but then decided to try and put cheese in the chocolate itself. Markoff had been interested in a chocolate and cheese pairing because of her culinary training in Europe, especially in France, where the cheese plate follows the dessert.

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