Sharlie’s Treats debuted their “thoughtfully made” treats at the Craft Lake City DIY Festival© in 2017. These treats range from macarons to chocolate ganache are made with all natural ingredients, including natural coloring. Although Sharlie’s Treat just launched last year, it has been a very successful first year. The founder and owner, Sharlie, says for the first six months she participated in as many events and markets as she possibly could. After moving from Hawaii to Salt Lake City with her husband and three sons, Sharlie believed it was finally time to make her passion her profession and start this baking business. Making treats is not longer her hobby, but her job. “It has been a roller coaster,” says Sharlie. With a great first year of business behind her, Sharlie’s Treats plans to open a commercial kitchen and begin to ship treats outside of Utah.
It all started last summer at the DIY Festival. “To this date Craft Lake City is by far my favorite event I have ever done. Since it was my first event ever, it is what put me on the map and on people’s radar. It is THE event that solidified that my business was becoming a reality and not just a far off dream.” Sharlie continues, “We were constantly busy, with just a few breaks here and there. Now that I have done Craft Lake City once, I know how to better prepare, supply my booth, and time things just right for this year!” Sharlie says that she not only received publicity from participating in the DIY Festival, but also feedback from customers on unique flavors, such as her Salmon Skin macaron. In addition to that, Sharlie enjoys watching people enjoy her creations. “My favorite part is hearing and seeing people love what I create. I love seeing people being able to eat a macaron for the first time, especially vegans.” Her all natural ingredients make many of her treats available to all eaters.
Sharlie takes basics recipes for macarons, brownies, marshmallows, and shortbread and improves them. “I Feel that in order to create something, you need to have a good understand of what the basics are and how each ingredient works,” comment Sharlie. “Then from there you can increase, decrease, omit, add, substitute, change shape and manipulate ingredients to get something different.” Sharlie is inspired by the unique and savory flavors in her own cooking. Sharlie loves to add the savory to the sweet. When eating sweets herself, she always finished off with a savory treat. Her flavors are reflective of her Japanese, Korean, and Hawaiian ancestors. As a culinary school graduate, cooking was her first passion. Sharlie worked in many fine dining restaurants in New York and Salt Lake, where she learned to be “true to each ingredient” and bring about a pure product.
Dark Chocolate Ganache Recipe
From Sharlie’s Treats
Ingredients
645g of Chocolate (unsweetened, semi-sweet, dark…depending on how sweet you would like it)
450g (1 pint) Heavy Cream
Raw Honey *optional to add sweetness to unsweetened chocolate
Directions
1. Roughly chop up chocolate into small pieces and place them in a metal bowl.
2. Pour heavy cream into a small saucepan.
3. Heat until the edges of the cream begin to only slightly bubble (if it is rapidly boiling you are burning the cream).
4. Pour the heated heavy cream evenly over the chopped up chocolate.
5. Let it sit for about 3 mins.
6. With a rubber spatula, start gently stirring in a circular motion, and as it thickens in the middle, gradually start stirring outwards.
7. Taste it! If you want it to be sweeter, then gradually add honey to the ganache as you stir.
8. You should end up with a smooth and glossy ganache.
9. Sandwich it between two of your favorite cookies, swirl it on top your favorite cupcake, or refrigerate it for about an hour and use a melon baller to make chocolate truffle (cover with cocoa powder, chopped nuts, or coconut flakes.)
*Tip #1: If your ganache breaks (becomes grainy, or gets clumpy and oily) for some reason (waiting too long to stir, stirring too early, too high of cocoa butter %)…blend it up!
Blend in a Vitamix, small batches at a time. If it still doesn’t get smooth, try drizzling a little bit of honey at a time (while blending) to help the emulsification process.
*Tip #2: If you want your ganache to be thinner, and not so thick…increase the amount of heavy cream!