Coco Diablo chocolate truffles are individually hand made
the old fashioned way from only fresh ingredients and liqueurs.
Using fresh cream our truffles have no additional additives, colouring and preservatives these truffles are made to be eaten immediately.
Our chocolate truffles are made from an old family recipe and were originally made just for family and friends, they are now a popular choice at farmers markets in the Kent area.
Steve & Janet Timms - Coco Diablo
From the "Kent Messenger" November 2006....
Already smelling the sweet success of the truffle company they set up, Dover couple Steve and Jan Timms dream in chocolate. Having become familiar faces at farmers’ markets across the county, they keep their family recipe as traditional as they do secret. Kirsty Parkin met them in their cosy chocolate-scented kitchen to find out their plans for the future and to taste the truffles for herself.
Perhaps when your entire home smells of molten chocolate and your kitchen is practically coated in the stuff, you don’t feel the need to overindulge. Well that is the theory
In a normal terrace house in a normal side street in a normal town, the sweet smell of cocoa bursts out of kitchen windows, sometimes close to midnight, as pots and pans bubble over with the milkiest milk, the darkest of dark and the purist of white chocolate.
Truffles
Steve and Janet Timmns set up Coco Diablo less than a year ago. Now the couple make up to 500 truffles a day from their home in Dover. Coating, decorating and packaging them in their cosy kitchen to sell at the next day’s farmers’ market.
And these are not just truffles... they are homemade truffles with a story
“It all started by chance,” said Jan, 55. “We were having people over for a meal and I was going to do a chocolate mouse but I didn’t want to use the eggs because they weren’t up to scratch.
“I was flicking through a collection of my family’s recipes which we’ve given each other over the years and found an old truffle recipe so tried that.”
This was the start of a risky adventure as the couple, who have been married for 18 years, put everything they had into producing the chocolates they stumbled upon by accident.
Steve gave up his job in the film industry working with stars such as Julia Roberts, Robin Williams, as Ewan McGregor’s personal driver for four years and on the Green Wing, to spend his days up to his arms in chocolate or trailing the farmers’ markets.
Jan, who ran her own successful embroidery company working on costumes for screen and stage as well as Elton John’s elaborate 50th birthday outfit, also turned her time to truffles.
“My family are really involved in food in some way even if it’s just eating or talking about it,” she said.
“My sister and I have lengthy phone calls talking food and my father and uncle were both bakers.
Master baker
“My Austrian grandfather was a master baker who wrote a Vienna Bread recipe for the baking trade which is still used today and he was responsible for bringing soya flour into the country and into bread production as it boosted the protein content during the war.”
The couple form a two-person chocolate-making machine, turning out the most tempting, traditionally-made truffles.
“The secret is small portions,” said Jan, whose favorite is the raspberry and cream truffle. “We’re not doing buckets full so you have better control over the quality. The very first one we did was a plain truffle, then Amaretto, then lemon and it developed from there.”
They now produce 10 Flavours including peppermint liqueur, lime and lemon mousse. Flavours in the making include ingredients such as lavender, curry powder, nutmeg and pepper.
“We’ve got lots of other flavours but we haven’t got the time or work force,” said Jan. “Mango works really well - you have to cook it right down to a paste and it has a honey taste to it.
“Coffee is the most difficult to do as real coffee splits the chocolate. It works with instant but we don’t like to put anything artificial in our chocolates so at the moment we use coffee liquor and are working on it.”
‘Big ugglies’
Fudge is their latest work in progress as well as churning out their trademark ‘big ugglies’ — great slabs of chocolate with chunks of crystallised ginger, almonds or nuts.
“The most popular truffles are the ginger ones and lemon ones but it all depends on who walks up to the stall,” said Steve, 53. “There is something magical about this recipe.”
There is also something secret about the recipe which the couple won’t share as easily as they share their finished product. But there are some reasons why they think the chocolates are going down so well.
“Everything in our chocolates is fresh and we do it all by hand,” said Steve.
“We use real raspberries and proper vanilla pods —that’s why you can still see black specks of the vanilla in our vanilla cream truffle”
The truffle center is a mixture of scalded fresh cream, melted chocolate and alcohol or fruit and all the work is done in a traditional way on a marble slab.
“You have to temper chocolate to get it to do what you want it to do”, said Jan.
“It’s the difference between ice, snow and slush – if you don’t heat and cool it properly it remains mushy like slush and it will have a dull look to it but if you heat it too much it’s a disaster.
“It can be tricky if you’re ‘truffling up’ at midnight trying to make chocolates for next day’s market of if your fudge has lumps in it. But we love it and cant believe how it’s taken off.”