by 8chocolate on November 22, 2009
Not only does Sucre offer a special collection of chocolate to send for the holidays but they are also giving a portion of their holiday sales to the SPCA in Louisiana. Yep, they’re going to the dogs so when they offered to send me a sample of their chocolates to review, I was on board. They’ve shared with me a FREE shipping promo code to share with you too but more on that later.
I must have been living under a rock because I hadn’t heard of Sucre before but they sure have garnered a lot of attention. First from Oprah with their Parisian Macaroons being featured in the March issue of O Magazine and then from Paula Deen when she paid their shop a visit to name a few. Looking through their website, I found this wonderful catalog that shows their extensive collection of luxurious chocolates and confections along with their creative packaging. My only disappointment is that they don’t deliver to Canada, yet.
Now let’s get down to business. The CHOCOLATE! Sucre sent me a box of chocolate truffles from their Sugar & Spice Collection and a Coconut & Toasted Almond Artisan Bar. The truffles - Eggnog, Gingerbread and Candy Cane – oh my! Nothing says festive like those three flavours.
The Eggnog Dark Chocolate Truffle – The eggnog mixed with the white chocolate created a rich sweetness especially when combined with the dark chocolate shell. It did taste just like eggnog, nutmeg and all. The truffles were decorated with brush strokes for a ‘painted’ artisan look. A nice touch.
The Gingerbread Milk Chocolate Truffle – The milk chocolate shell had a bronze patina encapsulating a blend of gingerbread spices and milk chocolate ganache. The flavours were a natural combination reminding me of more traditional times and were my favourite. Creamy, smooth and spicy, these were very easy to pop into my mouth. And there was no sacrificing of Gingerbread Men.
The Candy Cane White Chocolate Truffle – Not being a fan of mint, my partner took the reigns on this one. He liked that it wasn’t as sweet as he expected and the peppermint wasn’t over powering. It was a subtle blend of peppermint and white chocolate ganache creating a sophisticated candy cane sensation. These had a great creamy white chocolate shell with red flecks sprinkled on top. An attractive accompaniment to the darker truffles in the collection.
Not only were the truffles attractively packaged, they also traveled 2,000 miles and were in excellent condition when I opened them. I sometimes worry how a gift will look when it arrives but not a scratch, dent or upset on these gorgeous chocolate truffles. A flawless presentation. Kudos to Sucre for knowing how to ship chocolate and have them arrive as if you had just picked them up at their store in New Orleans.
The Artisan bar sent was made with 65% dark chocolate and covered in shreds of coconut and slivered almonds. There was a clean snap to the bar showing it was well tempered. At 65%, the dark chocolate was on the sweeter end of the scale with a smoothness that balanced the fresh coconut and the almonds coarse texture. They provided subtle after tones following the intensity of the dark chocolate. This bar feels substantial and is the perfect indulgent treat after a stressful day.
I did promise to share a promo code with you. If you include promo code BONBON at checkout, you’ll receive FREE shipping on orders over $70 per address within the continental US. It’s almost a $10 savings and valid until November 30 December 23, 2009. Contact Sucre for full details if you need further information. Bon Bon by the way is their resident French bulldog who’s helping his pals at the LA/SPCA with a portion of the holiday sales. That makes it a win-win-win all around: for you, for the recipient and for the SPCA in Louisiana.
That’s a lot of good karma from a box of chocolates.
by 8chocolate on November 15, 2009
After friends recently returned home from France bragging about the chocolate mousse they had, and then my fav local French bistro, Bistrot Bistro, sent me their newsletter that included their chocolate mousse recipe, I figured it was a sign to share their recipe with all of you.
I presumed chocolate mousse had lots of ingredients and was difficult to make - like working with a soufflé. I never knew chocolate mousse was only two ingredients, chocolate and eggs. That’s it! Now who doesn’t have those on hand all the time? This is a great last minute recipe for unexpected company or when you want to impress them. Using really great rich chocolate, this dessert is raw and as true as you can get to chocolate heaven. I’ve enjoyed it many times.
Below is the recipe for Chocolate Mousse, compliments of Bistrot Bistro in Vancouver, BC.
Here’s the full (and very short) recipe:
Bistrot Bistro Chocolate Mousse
150 grams high quality dark chocolate (don’t use milk chocolate, it won’t set properly)
8 eggs
Note: If you don’t have the best quality chocolate on hand, you can add a drop of coffee extract to enhance the chocolate flavour.
Melt the chocolate in a bowl on hot water. Separate the egg yolks from the whites and place the yolks into a large, round bowl. Beat up the egg whites slowly, first at a low setting (#2) for one minute and then at a faster setting (#4) for one minute then at top speed until firm. Tip - To get the maximum air into the mixture, hold the bowl upside down. If the egg sticks you are good, if they drop on the floor… well you know what you need to do.
When the chocolate is melted, mix with the egg yolks quickly but careful not to let them cook or you will have a grainy feel in the mousse.
Now for the tricky part, incorporating the egg whites into the chocolate. You need to be quick without losing the air trapped in the egg whites. All at once put the whipped whites in with the chocolate. Using the flat side of a big wooden spoon, use your left hand to turn the bowl and your other hand to cut and turn. Cut and turn delicately - do not mix or you will have a soupy dessert.
Transfer into a clean bowl and place it in the fridge for 4-5 hours to set. To serve, spoon out into individual bowls. Makes 8 servings.
If you don’t want to make it yourself, you can taste the real thing at 
Bistrot Bistro. It’s a casual, unpretentious French restaurant with charming owners in the popular Kitsilano area. If you are visiting Vancouver in 2010 for the Olympic Games, make sure to make your reservations early before thousands of visitors descend on our city and you miss the chance to try their great chocolate mousse.
Thank you Valerie and Laurent for graciously allowing me to share your recipe. They will all thank you.
by 8chocolate on October 28, 2009
Every day is chocolate day in my house but today give chocolate your extra special attention. There really isn’t a more perfect food.
So make today the day you visit your local chocolatier. Today spend that little bit more for the decadent piece of high quality chocolate. Today be thankful that someone discovered cacao beans and figured out what to do with them to make the most velvety, dark, rich chocolate.
Oh sweetness! Happy National Chocolate Day! Nom, nom, nom.
by 8chocolate on August 4, 2009
Have you ever wanted to know how to make chocolates? I’ve always admired chocolatiers as it seems to be a lot of work to produce a perfect tasty morsel of chocolate art. The first step for would-be chocolatiers might be to take chocolate making classes. Imagine tasting your way through assignments?
A local college, Vancouver Community College (VCC), offers chocolate making courses this September. The course, “Chocolate Tempering & Making”, teaches the theory of tempering couveture using different techniques. The class includes the use of molds to make various shapes and preparing fillings and truffles in tastes of mocha, raspberry, hazelnut and more.
Another course, “Chocolates”, is part of their Baking and Pastry program so if you wanted to take your foodie love to a new level, you could sign up for their complete program and learn how to make professional pastries and desserts. How delish would that be?
Recently, two students won medals at the Baking Congress wedding cake competition so their programs are top notch turning out top talent. VCC sent me chocolates made by some of the students of the Baking and Pastry Arts from the ESL class (English Second Language) where they use the program to bridge English language learning and career.
The chocolates were perfectly formed; some with sparkly bronze dusting and others painted with colour. There were ganache fillings of lemon, caramel and cardamom chili wrapped in Belgian chocolate and in white chocolate. Some pieces had intense flavour like the cardamom chili however the lemon ganache could have achieved a more intense lemony citrus flavour.
If you prefer to leave it to someone else to make the chocolates, you can purchase them at the school’s Seiffert Market on the downtown campus at 250 West Pender. The chocolates are only available when the course is offered but you won’t be disappointed if you drop by. Freshly baked goods made by the students are always offered Monday to Friday.
I think your friends and family won’t mind you taking a chocolate or baking program given the sweet benefits they would reap from your homework. Check out your local school board or community college to see what they are offering this fall. It’s the perfect time to get your culinary skills ready for holiday baking and gift giving. Check out VCC’s website for their full list of culinary programs.
by 8chocolate on July 13, 2009
Chocolate and peanut butter. Two flavour combinations that are meant to be together. Jer’s Handmade Chocolates sent me a few of their tasty treats to try and I have to say it was a bit nostalgic in taste. I remember having Nestle Crispy Crunch and Hershey’s Peanut Butter Cups growing up but now older, I find myself gravitating to the premium dark chocolate blends you find at independant chocolatier shops. You don’t usually see peanut butter in their mix of chocolate pieces.
I think Jer’s has found the best of both worlds and makes me wish chocolatiers would use peanut butter more. If you are need of a peanut fix, then picking up a box of Jer’s should do the trick. All the chocolates are made in small batches without any added preservatives or fillers.
They sent me two kinds of their Peanut Brittle Bites – Yippee Cayenne and Pretzo Change-O. Four bites of goodness in each at about 55 calories per serving. Enough to have a taste to subside your cravings without breaking the calorie bank.
The Yippee Cayenne was first up with spicy cayenne pepper mixed with brittle and milk chocolate. It was very sweet and you could smell and see the pepper in the one inch chocolate square. I didn’t find the pepper very spicy but had a subtle heat to it that came on a little after the first bite. It was a nice combination however I like things spicy and would have preferred a good kick from the cayenne.
The Pretzo Chango-O was next with a mix of salty crushed pretzels, milk chocolate and sweet brittle. Right away it was a crunchy bite of brittle and pretzel pieces. Very yummy and you could really taste the pretzel. I didn’t find them overly salty and the blend of chocolate, brittle and pretzel is a perfect bite sized combination of sweet and salty. It was hard to stop at just one…ok, two.
Last but not least, Jer’s award winning Gourmet Peanut Butter Confections. The box they come in feels like a throwback to another era and reminds you these chocolates are handmade. The box is really well made and the bow adds a nice touch. It’s rounded on each end giving it a distinct look. The colours and designs on the box change with the seasons and holidays with their blue box being their signature package. It makes a really nice presentation.
But let’s get down to the more important stuff – the chocolate! The box contained three large chocolates each one with its own unique center made from all natural peanut butter. There was a range of sweetness between the three pieces depending if it was milk, dark or white chocolate on the outside.
The Incrediball piece was creamy with a crunch to it. It was very peanutty and encased in dark chocolate. The Toffee Break piece was super sweet. Not sure if that was because of the white chocolate on the outside or the toffee bits throughout the center. Sugar rush coming on. And finally, the Pretzo Change-O piece which had a saltiness to it because of the pretzels with a center that reminded me of crunchy peanut butter. Enveloped in milk chocolate, this was my fav.
All the chocolates were decadent with added bits of nuts, pretzels or toffee mixed into smooth, velvety peanut butter centers. Don’t want to know the calories on these babies. Some things are just on a need to know basis and all I wanted was to finish up the last bites of Jer’s chocolates without any guilt. Mmmm!
by 8chocolate on June 25, 2009
Can Willie make an encore performance? Earlier this month I reviewed the Willie Harcourt-Cooze Peruvian 70 bar and fell in love. You can imagine my delight when my good friend, ERGagit, sent me a Venezuelan 72 bar from the same Forgotten Flavours collection.
Willie Harcourt-Cooze has created his own chocolate destiny. He bought land in Venezuela, planted, farmed and harvested the beans, and then sent them to his own chocolate factory in the UK where he turned them into his amazing chocolate. How cool is that? What a journey it goes through to become this rich chocolate morsel melting in your mouth.
The ingredient list on the box is only three ingredients - Cocoa mass, Cocoa butter and Cuban raw cane sugar. That’s it. And he believes the less meddling you do with the chocolate the better. Well, he must not have meddled too much with this chocolate because it tastes so good.
The Venezuelan 72 is so creamy with a smooth full-bodied flavour similar to the Peruvian 70. However, the chocolate has a more bitter taste and has a sharp edge to it. Its fruity undertones are not as dominant as the Peruvian 70 but they reach through with each bite you take. Note, that’s not a bite out of the bar in the photo, it had already broken off…REALLY. If I had to pick between the two, I still prefer the taste of the Peruvian 70 bar.
Willie is definitely doing something right with his chocolate. He takes you beyond chocolate and makes you wonder why we ever changed the way we did things. Oh for the good old days when chocolate was chocolate. I promise you you’ll find it in his Forgotten Flavours.
by 8chocolate on June 22, 2009
Who said chocolate dipped coconut macaroons aren’t for breakfast? Truth is after having three of them first thing this morning, I felt I was done with any breakfast caloric intake I had left.
I recently found @BrownEyedBaker on Twitter when she posted her recipe for Chocolate-Dipped Coconut Macaroons. I’m usually not that big on macaroons but my beau is big on coconut. Since these were dipped in chocolate and her photos made them look so good, I thought I would gave them a try.
The recipe has only a few ingredients and is great for those who need a wheat-free, nut-free or dairy-free dessert. (I have many friends in one or more of these categories) It’s also VERY easy to make so a good recipe to make with the kids.
I have to warn you that they are very sweet. For some, I realize this is not an issue but a welcome advantage. My coconut macaroons didn’t turn out as well as Brown Eyed Baker’s did in her photos. Maybe I needed to have my macaroons in for longer to get a little darker on top or my convection oven creates a different result.
At any rate, I’m sure they tasted just as good because mine were also delicate, two-bite coconut pyramids of sweetness and chocolatey goodness. I admit in my inhaling of these macaroons that some became one-bite morsels.
Visit Brown Eyed Baker’s post for the complete recipe. It makes three dozen so there’s plenty to share.
by 8chocolate on June 17, 2009
A recent chocolate purchase from Bovetti Artisan Chocolatier of France brought together the popular combination of salt and sweet in their Caramel and Fleur de Sel bar. What stood out to me first was the packaging. While other companies go for richness and gloss in their look, this company goes back to basics.
Their packaging is similar to kraft cardboard with an envelope look complete with postmarks. It has a clear window on the front teasing you with the chocolate waiting inside. The melted caramel bits resting on the naked chocolate caught my eye. It was very raw looking and honest. No foil wrapping, no where to hide.
The milk chocolate bar is made very thin to get the maximum amount of ‘underside’ for the caramel and salt to rest. The salt was not as visible on the bar I had and in some bites there was none and in others it clearly came through in the taste. I wondered if this was because the salt is tossed randomly on the bar by hand and not machine?
The sweet caramel was just enough flavour, not too sweet. It gave the bar a chewy texture in my mouth and the larger caramel bits added a quick crunch now and again. The milk chocolate was a definite backdrop to the strong play of caramel and salt and didn’t stand out as extraordinary chocolate. The additional ingredients were what raised the level of the bar.
When I purchased the bar at the retailer, they had only five different flavours to choose from. I was surprised to learn that Bovetti has over 100 bar flavours including Apricot, Anise, Cranberries, Lemon, Fennel, Cocoa Bean, Dry Fruits, Ginger, Blue Mint, Honey, Hazelnut, Crystallized Orange, Poppy, Sichuan Pepper, Pistachio, Sesame and Lavender. All of these have their ingredients added to the underside of the bar so it’s hard to know how to serve it. Maybe we are not meant to share it and we are to keep these yummy chocolates to ourselves. We wouldn’t want to create a faux pas now would we.
The Bovetti website is naturally in French and they do have an English language selector however the translation doesn’t appear to be working. I wish I could have learned more from their website but photos of their chocolate would have to suffice and that’s not such a bad thing.
by 8chocolate on June 8, 2009
Whenever I think of caramels, I think of the chocolate covered caramel squares you normally find in a box of chocolates. Well, no longer since experiencing Amella Caramels sent by Artisan Cocoa.
These caramels have no preservatives, have all natural ingredients and come in three flavours: Passion Fruit, Black Forest and Carrot Cake. Not the usual names when you think of for caramels. The names do grab your attention to further discover what these are all about. Each flavour comes in a box of three caramels with a peek-a-boo window on the top.
The first one I tasted was the Passion Fruit as it’s a favourite flavour of mine. I had never seen this combination together so I wasn’t sure what to expect. You can taste the tang of the passion fruit right away. It had a sour/sweet blast of flavour: the very fruity sourness of the passion fruit combined with the sweetness of the caramel and milk chocolate. The caramel is very smooth and buttery, not sticky and stringy like some caramels can be. It was all good but wondered what it would taste like topped with bitter dark chocolate instead of milk chocolate.
Next up was the Black Forest Caramel. The classic black forest cake combines chocolate and cherries and these caramels carried on that tradition even including shaved chocolate on top. I thought these would be heavy on the dark chocolate but it’s the Amarelle cherries that stand out both in taste and in texture. There must have been a whole cherry in that caramel. As the chewy sour cherry mixes with the bitter dark chocolate and the smooth sweet caramel and white chocolate, it provides a symphony of flavours and textures in your mouth. I was expecting a strong chocolate flavour but the other ingredients hold their own and share the taste equally. You can’t go wrong with this flavour combination as it has something for everyone.
The final flavour was Carrot Cake. Yes, carrot cake. I thought this was odd and wondered how this would turn out as a caramel. Well surprisingly, even to me, it turned out to be my favourite. A mix of fresh carrots and pecans with a white chocolate top reminiscent of cream cheese icing. These tasted just like a morsel of carrot cake indulgence. Again texture came into play with real carrot strands mixing with the rich smooth buttery caramel and white chocolate. I’m not even a fan of white chocolate but the Carrot Cake caramels won me over.
In the end, all the caramels were very unique and were quite a different caramel experience than I’ve had in the past. Unique is good because it makes you stand out however with any new business, it takes a lot of work to get your new brand out there. I felt a little confused with this branding as Amella seemed to be the brand but equal weight was given to the company name itself, Artisan Cocoa. In my opinion, if Amella is the name people should remember, use it predominantly throughout your packaging, print and online and use the other very sparingly.
I thought the graphics on the packaging were lovely and suited the product well. I was a little confused when I saw the brand name upside down on one end of the package and the printing on the lid opposite to what it should be when opening a box. I understand now when I view how your counter packs are displayed but may be perceived as a printing error if receiving a box on its own. I wish people could see the sides of the caramels, as they look scrumptious stacked and out of the box. Is there room for a photo of stacked caramels on the counter displays? A turn on the Packaging Launch website may provide feedback on packaging ideas for future options.
Amella Caramels is a fairly new company that has proven to me that they offer a unique and delicious product that will get you rethinking what a caramel is. They may even have created a new category within the confectionery industry. With so much excellence and creativity presenting itself, only goodness can follow them.
by 8chocolate on June 4, 2009
There truly is a chocolate factory owned by Willie. That would be Willie Harcourt-Cooze, a UK chocolatier who has turned back time, producing amazing chocolate with his antique chocolate machinery.
He has been farming cacao beans for more than a decade in Venezuela. The cacao trees are not sprayed with pesticides, fertilizers or chemicals, and once harvested and fermented they head off to the UK to be turned into delicious chocolate bars at his chocolate factory.
If you have the luck of finding his chocolate, snatch it up quick. It’s in quite high demand and there have been long line-ups for it at Selfridges in the UK.
What’s the big deal? That’s what I wondered and thanks to a fellow tweep on Twitter, ERGagit, I was able to get a special delivery of the Peruvian 70 bar. The bar is from their Forgotten Flavours collection and the beans come from the province of San Martin in Peru.
In each box, there are two slim dark chocolate wafers (70%) individually wrapped. The box notes: one for now – one for then. I have to say I’ve not tasted chocolate quite like this. It really is different.
When I let it melt in my mouth, I picked up a sour fruity taste as the sweetness came through to the top. It was incredibly smooth and rich like a full bodied wine.
I’ve been rationing it now because I know once it’s gone it will be a very long time before I’ll be able to get a hold of another bar. I’m starting to understand why people lined up. He has raised the bar to new heights.
