ISO help w/wedding favor ganache/jam/sauce?

[wennerc]

Hi there,

My fiancé and I love to cook and we want to make our wedding favors ourselves ahead of time (our wedding is in October). Originally our idea was to give guests a small jar of homemade chocolate ganache and a small jar of chili oil (I love to bake and my fiancé loves spicy food), and then we would include a recipe that "marries" the two (of course, our guests could also use the ganache as an ice cream topping and the chili oil for other purposes, etc).

Problem is, I've noticed from my recipes that chocolate ganache only keeps in the refrigerator for a few days -- and it should be kept chilled at all times. Obviously that's not ideal for a wedding favor. We'd love to still use the chili oil and accompany it with another kind of sauce or topping -- does anyone have any ideas? What can we make even a week in advance that would keep at room temp, complement the chili oil in a recipe, and be useable in some form on its own?

Thank you!

Cheers,

Melinda

 

[Chef Munky]

Congratulations...

Check the General Cooking Questions on this board.Another forum user had asked about infused oils....
Is that what you and your fiance have in mind to do? If it's done correctly it will keep for a week.
Put it in a nice cruet bottle with a tag with a To/From-wedding date..Or have specially made labels with your names and wedding date,that can be placed on the bottles.

Glass Bottles & Jars
Just to give you an idea on bottles.

Good luck

Munky.

 

[LPBeier]

You can make a chocolate sauce with a water (not milk) base which is cooked and it should keep for the day; however, your guests should refrigerate it when they get it home. But anything made with milk and chocolate should always be kept cold.

Cute idea!

 

[snack_pack85]

My husband and I had a fall wedding last year as well. November 1st. We gave away tiny mason jars with layers of cinnamon and sugar. attached was a recipe for harvest pie and the instructions were to top the pie with a nice sprinkling of the cinnamon sugar right before baking. They were very pretty (we attached the recipes with colored ribbon) and easy to make. inexpensive too.

 

[JMediger]

What about small jars of pepper jelly? That is sweet and spicy all in one plus you can make and jar them ahead of time and they will keep indefinately. You could include use ideas such as spread on crackers and cream cheese, top a burger, use as a sandwich condiment ...

Congratulations and best wishes!

 

[lynseysnatural]

I'm not sure what sort of recipe you're using, so this may not be a viable solution, but you could do a jar with all the dry ingredients for the chocolate sauce (cocoa powder, sugar, spices, etc.) and ingredients on how to cook it - then you still get the same idea but definitely don't need to worry about letting it sit out!

 

[letscook]

Not a cooking suggest but i went to a wedding where they gave out seed packs of flower, herbs
The card was as our lives begin to blossom into a life together join us
It was something like that.

 

[archiduc]

Hi there,

My fiancé and I love to cook and we want to make our wedding favors ourselves ahead of time (our wedding is in October). Originally our idea was to give guests a small jar of homemade chocolate ganache and a small jar of chili oil (I love to bake and my fiancé loves spicy food), and then we would include a recipe that "marries" the two (of course, our guests could also use the ganache as an ice cream topping and the chili oil for other purposes, etc).

Problem is, I've noticed from my recipes that chocolate ganache only keeps in the refrigerator for a few days -- and it should be kept chilled at all times. Obviously that's not ideal for a wedding favor. We'd love to still use the chili oil and accompany it with another kind of sauce or topping -- does anyone have any ideas? What can we make even a week in advance that would keep at room temp, complement the chili oil in a recipe, and be useable in some form on its own?

Thank you!

Cheers,

Melinda

Hi Melinda,

In the UK, the Food Standards Agency (FSA) adivses against making and distributing chili/chille/chilie oil because of the risk of botulism. Check out the FSA site.

Re. the ganache, I would never make this and give to others as I don``t know how they would store it whilst transporting it, what temperature range it might go through, how they might use it or not and I don`t like to waste my time. It is wexpensive to make and if not sotred correctly might have to be binned when the quests get home after your wedding. To me the milk fat of the cream and the lactose (milk sugars) would be a perfect breeding ground for bacteria unless well controlled (temperature) and can one expect one`s guests to control culinary items after a wedding? I think not!

Why not give the guests bars of chocolate (the best quality you can afford) and a small book of recipes as to how the guest might use the gift. You have time enough between now and October for testing recipes and could use the computer to "publish" the recipes. This would save any risk of food poisoning. The published recipes could form the wrapping paper for the bars of chocolate.

Hope this helps,
Archiduc