Sunday, February 24, 2013

Guittard Hot Chocolate

Guittard Bittersweet 72%

Guittard satisfies my quench for perfect hot chocolate.  Its one great cup for your s.


Boil a cup of full fat milk. Place desired amount of cooking chocolate in a bowl. Add 4-5 tbsp of boiling milk to the chocolate and melt it fully to make a ganache. Add 2-3 drops of vanilla essence. Add desired amount of milk and enjoy!

I have tried hot chocolate with a variety of cooking chocolates and cocoa powder and Guittard cooking chocolate is the best so far. Using chocolate over cocoa suits my taste best. A little vanilla adds a sweet note to the intense dark chocolate. Remember, its always high quality ingredients that makes any dish outstanding. Great chocolate is no exception.

Enjoy the last few days of chilly cold weather with Guittard in your pantry.

Monday, February 11, 2013

Balao and the rest of the world

Ritual Balao


My mom is an amazing cook. Any ingredient she touches turns to gold. Her chocolate burfi (chocolate fudge) is one of those 24K gold. Chocolate burfi were my birthday sweets, Diwali sweets and new year sweets. She knows that I will be upset when the fudge jar is empty. She takes a few and secretly hides it. The day after the jar is empty, she brings the secret jar to me with a big smile and twinkling eyes. The pleasant surprise was delicious, her joy of delivering the surprise was even more so. Ritual Balao  I think will be a close second to my mom's fudge. Its rich and has a sweet liqueur flavor. 

Tastes like Chocolate liqueur and honey

Balao is a small place in Ecuador. They grow bananas and coffee too. I am sure that the coffee and banana flavors have gotten in to the cocoa beans. Its absolutely delicious. 

I have been frequenting the Chocolate Garage and tasting some 100% chocolates. I am planning to get some good quality 100% chocolate next week and try either a lava cake or a souffle just to compare with Tcho. 
Here are a few other bars that are pretty tasty. The Madagascar bars don't compare to the Balao ones though.

 


Sunday, January 27, 2013

Simple pleasures

Simple pleasures in life aren't too expensive like the two chocolate bars I have today. Nothing crazy, nothing too complex, just simple and delightful.

PB&J Milk Chocolate bar and Cocoa Truffles from Trader Joe's. TJs always has these nice little tasty surprises. Both of these are products of Canada.

PB&J Milk Chocolate bar - gooey raspberry jelly and salty peanut butter in milk chocolate

Cocoa Truffles - rich dark chocolate truffle covered in cocoa




Tuesday, January 22, 2013

Grenada, Patric and Askinosie

Three rich dark chocolates this week



Grenada Dark Chocolate 71%
Dark, bitter sweet, complex cocoa flavor, slightly piquant almost like coffee

Grenada is a tropical chocolatier from Grenada in the Caribbean. They make single-origin dark chocolates. This specific Grenada 71% dark chocolate won the silver medal from "The London Academy of Chocolate Awards" in 2008. They pride for their complex chocolate flavors and it truly is different and intense.

Patrick Rio Crunch 
Rich luscious, intense with cocoa nibs, mildly salty, complex chocolate flavor from the cocoa nibs

Patrick Rio Crunch is a rich dark chocolate with cocoa nibs and sea salt. Patrick is an American chocolatier from Missouri. He built his own custom chocolate-making facility. His bars are sold since 2007 and he has won several accolades for his chocolate. He sources his beans from South America. After tasting several bars of dark chocolate in the last couple of weeks, we find Patrick's dark chocolate the best. The quality of the bar is very good. This bar is an exclusive at the Chocolate Garage. Chocolate Garage is my newest craze. The garage is a place run by Sunita de Tourreil who loves chocolate and sources the best of chocolate from around the world. She also hosts tasting events.

Askinosie Dark Milk Chocolate with Licorice
Dark, chewy and crunchy, mild sweet licorice flavors, sweetly spicy from anise

Askinosie Licorice bar is probably the only form of licorice I will ever like. It is sweet, chewy and has a nice texture from anise. Licorice and anise add such complexity to the dark chocolate. I have tasted Askinosie malt chocolate some time before which was just as good. The licorice is sourced from Lakritsfabriken, Sweden and this specific one is made with rice flour making it gluten free. This bar also has goat's milk, not that you can taste it.

Oh Askinosie was started by a criminal lawyer of 20 years. You know whats in store :)


Wednesday, January 16, 2013

Amedei Tuscany: Two for one

Amedei is the cioccolato of the week. Amedei bars have the perfect color, texture, and best flavors. Amedei Hazelnut Cioccolato is my only favorite milk bar. Here's a little story about them. Their chocolate is really a piece of art.




Amedei Gianduja (Hazelnut)
Milk chocolate with silky smooth texture, beautiful hazelnut flavor. 
It has the right mix of cocoa butter and hazelnut. It tastes like a piece of dessert in a bar. I have four dark chocolate bars at home and I crave for this one everyday.
Amedei Toscano Blond (Peaches and Apricots)
Dark and crunchy chocolate with dried fruits. Dark chocolate with fruity flavors in the beginning and ends with fruit essence notes. This was my boyfriend's favorite. He had the bar all to himself. 

Where to get it: Secret :) 

Great Cioccolato from Tuscany. Enjoyed every bite. 




Wednesday, January 9, 2013

Madecasse Pink Pepper and Citrus


Madecasse Pink Pepper and Citrus 

Ingredients: 63% Cocoa, pink pepper, vanilla, combava fruit 

 Weirdly peppery, mildly fruity, a little hint of citrus, decently smooth 
Where to find: Whole foods




Every Madecasse bar is made in Madagascar.  This bar unlike Tcho gets its flavors from additions. This has Combava fruit and pink peppers. Combava fruit is kaffir lime which is used in southeast Asian cuisine.
This bar does not have overpowering citrus flavor but does taste too much of pink pepper. Flavor is good but the bite is not too luscious and silky. I might have been pampered too much by Tcho.
However you can feel the high quality ingredients with every bite. Its a fun change from my regular Tcho or Trader Joes truffles. I have Madecasse vanilla essence and it smells and tastes like no other. Desserts and cookies come out so much better.



Enjoy!




Sunday, January 6, 2013

Tcho 99% Chocolate

Tcho 99% Chocolate
http://www.tcho.com/shop/chocolate/bars/91594



Intense Cocoa, not sweet, not bitter but cloyingly cocoa-ey which made it unpalatable. 
Tcho tasting notes: Insanely rich, not bitter. Roasted nut and espresso notes with accents of toasted malt and dried fruits
Where to find: Zombie Runner :http://www.zombierunner.com/about/palo_alto_store/, Whole Foods

I was so looking forward to getting a bite of this 99% chocolate. I am not a purist; I must admit that I could barely swallow it. It was not bitter/sweet but intensely cocoa-ey. We dint touch the bar after this first tasting. But of course I am not going to throw it away.

On new years eve, my boyfriend and I were doing a movie marathon. At about 11:30pm on Dec 31, 2012, I decided to bake a chocolate lava cake to welcome 2013 with a chocolate lingering in the house. And conveniently there was no cooking chocolate or chocolate chips. It was too late to buy and I was too determined to give up. I decided to use this 99% chocolate bar for my lava cake. It was the best ever lava cake. Indulgent, intense, sweet and buttery. 99% chocolate made the lava cake atleast a 1000 times better. It was sinfully indulgent and beautiful. I did not try to balance it with whipped cream or ice cream. Every bite was a decadent welcome to 2013 :)

I followed this recipe (http://satrupa-foodforthought.blogspot.com/2011/04/women-chocolates-and-jealously.html). Thanks Satrupa for the quick and easy recipe.
Substituted dark chocolate with my 99% bar. I dint add any liquor. The chocolate flavor does not need anything to open it up as it is already intense. Do not increase the sugar. But do add some vanilla to get a little sweeter flavor. This is delicious stuff.

This is my unassuming sweet indulgence: