Happy New Year: Vintage Chocolate Poster

Wishing Everyone a Wonderful New Year filled with Chocolate!

Champagne Truffles: Ring in the New Year

Today is National Champagne Day. Now here's a food holiday that's perfect for the day. I do a lot of wine/champagne chocolate pairing events with my company TeamBuilding Unlimited, and we often have trivia quizzes. How many bubbles in a bottle of champagne? 49 million to 250 million! Now, that's a lot of bubbles. Wishing you and yours a Happy and Healthy New Year!

You won't have any bubbles in these truffles tonight for New Year's Eve, but you will taste the champagne.. and the Cognac. I posted this recipe last year for New Year's Eve, but I still find it's my favorite for easy Champagne Truffles. This recipe uses more champagne than most Champagne Truffle recipes, and the Cognac also adds some zip. If you're in a pinch you can use a different type of sugar or even cocoa to coat the truffles. The sanding sugar, though, gives it a festive New Year's Eve look!

Martha Stewart's Champagne Truffles
Makes about 3 dozen

Ingredients
1/2 cup heavy cream
8 ounces semisweet chocolate, coarsely chopped
1/4 cup plus 1 Tablespoon Champagne
1 tablespoon Cognac
Coarse sanding sugar, for rolling

Directions
1. Bring the cream to a boil in a small saucepan over medium-high heat. Immediately pour hot cream over the chocolate in a medium bowl; stir until smooth. Stir in the Champagne and Cognac. Refrigerate until chocolate mixture is firm enough to roll into balls, about 1 hour. (or more!!)
2. Using a small melon baller or ice-cream scoop, form 1-inch balls. Roll each ball in coarse sanding sugar, and transfer to rimmed baking sheets lined with parchment paper. Cover with plastic wrap, and refrigerate truffles at least 30 minutes or up to 3 days before serving.

You can also use unsweetened cocoa or confectioner's sugar if you don't have sanding sugar. This recipe was in Martha's wedding section, so the sparkly white sugar looks great for weddings and holidays, but cocoa tastes just as good.. just different.

What Is Sanding Sugar?
Sanding sugar is a large crystal sugar used as edible decoration that will not dissolve when subjected to heat. Also called pearl sugar or decorating sugar, sanding sugar adds "sparkle" to cookies, baked goods and candies. The sparkling affect is achieved because the sugar crystal grains are large and reflect light. You can order Sanding Sugar online or buy it in cake decorating departments.

Photo: Martha Stewart website

Obligatory 2010 Wrap-Up: A (Partial) Year in Chocolate

The bloggin' thing to do at the end of the year is to summarize all the bloggish stuff you did. Despite having only started this blog in late July, I suppose I've been up to a lot of chocolate business. So here goes a recap of 2010.

I went to Milwaukee. To eat frozen custard and to bake for family members.

Then I went to Chicago. Mostly for a business meeting, but also to check out a Vosges boutique and subsequently fall in love with their entire concept, though not every bar they produce.

Back home in DC, I was delighted to find that Cacao had opened shop about half a mile from where I live. A lucky event. A not-so-lucky-event: my experiment with meringue buttercream in August heat and humidity. A truly brilliant event that followed: covering the frosting with chocolate.

Reasonable adults consider balls of frosting covered in chocolate to be appropriate food. I promise. They also make nearly 200 mini cupcakes to share with colleagues and swimming buddies to celebrate their birthdays and believe that cake is a great vehicle for vegetable consumption.
All things that reasonable adults do.

In the midst of all my "reasonable adult" behavior, I had another business trip. This time to Dana Point, CA. It was there that I found a shop that sold gigantic truffles that tasted like stale Tang. Luckily, my faith in the availability of good food returned when I came home to a box of fudge from Chip's Chocolate Factory, which was pretty awesome.

When I got back, I also made way too many banana mini cupcakes for a coworkers birthday. Oops.

As the DC heat and humidity left for good in October, I tackled a crazy project for my brother's rehearsal dinner. And then I met Nick Malgieri, which has to be just about the coolest thing ever.

Seriously, he is really, really cool. He even commented on one of my posts, which involved two of his recipes.

In November, I was excited to go to the Chocolate Show in NYC, but was waylaid by my kidney (it happens). Instead, I stayed home, went to a sample day at Biagio, and made a cherpumple. From scratch.

Before December rolled around, I joined Daring Bakers. And had Leigh visit from Germany. I gave her macarons, because it was the right thing to do.
Much of my time in December was devoted to making cookies. Thumbprint cookies. Cinnamon Roll Cookies. Really unusual but tasty Swiss Cookies. Again, it was the right thing to do.

For Christmas, I went back to Milwaukee. And fed my family an outrageous cake.

And I have a bold prediction for 2011. Want to make bets on whether or not it will happen?

Here it is: I will eat chocolate.

Do you have any predictions for 2011?

Food Holidays, Chocolate and Me

Many years ago I read The Five Year Sentence by Booker Prize winner Bernice Rubens. In it a woman who works in a sweets (candy) factory is preparing for her last day of work. She’s cleaned her house, and she’s checked the oven. Everything is ready, we’re sure, for her return from the day when with nothing left to do in her life, she will return home and turn on the gas. However, fate intervenes, and she is given a 5 year diary as a retirement gift. It’s as if she’s been given  ‘a five year sentence’. She feels she has an obligation to fill in each day. The novel takes some imaginative turns, and Bernice Rubens, who was also a mystery author, should be sought out and read.

Sometimes I feel like the woman in the story…not the suicide bit… but being given a ‘purpose’ to do what I do. When I started this blog DyingforChocolate.com, I followed a similar thought process, and although I do posts with chocolate reviews, chocolate news and recipes as they strike me, a lot of the time I post recipes that coincide with the Food Holiday of the Day. They’re at the top of my ‘diary’.

Surprisingly every day is some sort of Food Holiday (See The Nibble). Even if some Food Holidays aren’t specifically chocolate food holidays, just about everything goes well with chocolate, so I post a chocolate recipe! The big holidays are easy: Christmas, Easter, Passover, Halloween…lots of chocolate, but there are some very esoteric food holidays, such as:

Chocolate Covered Insect Day (October 14): Chocolate Scorpions (not for the faint of heart)

National Cocoa Day (December 12): Recipe Round up from Mexican to Peppermint

National Espresso Day (November 24): Espresso Truffles

California Strawberry Day (March 21): Strawberry Chocolate German Pancake

National Rice Pudding Day (August 9): Chocolate Rice Pudding

National Pecan Day (April 14): Chocolate Pecan Pie

Be sure and search DyingforChocolate.com for more Food Holidays and easy chocolate recipes.

As well as writing chocolate posts to fit a particular holiday, I do something similar on my mystery blog, Mystery Fanfare. On Mystery Fanfare, along with posts about the mystery world in general, I am drawn to dates and holidays and make extensive lists of titles that fit the holidays. Have a look at my Christmas Crime Novels list that is so big this year that I divided it into 5 posts. I’ve also posted Halloween Mysteries, Fourth of July Mysteries, Father’s Day Mysteries , New Year's Mysteries and lots of other holidays. 

I suppose I’m still in school with the teacher giving me a topic to use as a springboard, or as in Rubens’ novel, a day in a diary to fill in. I’m so lucky to write about my passions chocolate and crime fiction! This isn’t to say I don’t stray a bit with reviews and recipes ‘off list’, but for the most part I find it fun to fulfill the day and holiday… in mystery and in chocolate.

So, you might say my whole life is about mystery and chocolate. How sweet it is!  

Vosges Bars: Bapchi's Caramel Toffee

When I spied the Vosges Gingerbread Toffee Bars on sale at the Whole Foods in Tenleytown earlier this month, naturally, I inspected the shelf for other bars that were on sale, and quickly scooped up several, including a Bapchi's Caramel Toffee Bar.

As noted on the packaging, Vosges founder and CEO Katrina Markoff named this bar after her grandmother “Bapchi,” who taught her how to cook.

Inside the packaging is a bar based on a 45% cacao deep milk chocolate, which is created by mixing a touch of dark chocolate in with Vosges signature milk chocolate. Taste-wise, this chocolate is blended nearly 50-50 with the other contents of the bar.

Those other contents include sweet butter toffee, walnuts, and pecans, which are finely chopped and evenly sprinkled throughout the bar.

In addition to being well-chopped and evenly distributed to result in a more uniform and pleasing tasting experience, the added ingredients have an outstanding texture, both individually and in contrast to the smooth milk chocolate. The nuts are well toasted and not remotely soggy, and the toffee is crunchy but not tough or brittle. The toffee bits also feature a distinct salt taste and a subtle butter taste, which stand up well to the deep milk chocolate. In this bar, Vosges has done an outstanding job of mixing the salty toffee with a not-too-sweet milk chocolate. I enjoyed this bar quite a bit, and managed to catch a few extra from the shelves of the Tenleytown Whole Foods before the holiday supplies began to dwindle.

Do you like toffee? With or without chocolate?

Williams Sonoma Holiday Chocolate Sale

Some of my favorite Williams Sonoma holiday chocolate is on sale! You can't really stock up for next year, but you can enjoy these chocolate products now.

I really like their hot chocolate and peppermint bark, so I wanted to share the information on this sale. Disclaimer: I don't work for Williams Sonoma, nor do I benefit by mentioning :-)

There are other items on sale, and those will keep! Cookie cutters, chocolate pots and more! Most of the chocolate foods come in great containers. Perfect to store cookies and candies or use for gifts! Enjoy!

Peppermint Bark: Sale price: $12.99

Hot Chocolate & Peppermint Hot Chocolate: $14.99

Peppermint Bark Cookies: $16.99

Chocolate Filled Peppermint Snaps: $17.99

To order anything, go to a Williams Sonoma store or order online.

Football and Foliage

Maybe I'm crazy, but it seems like there are a whole lot more football specific candy/baked goods than ever before.  Have you seen these babies?  Football Oreos:

Look at all the different designs!  Gotta love "lick the competition."  Do these do anything for me?  While I admire the different shapes and the many designs, I have to say - not really.  There seems to be more cookie and less cream and I am so NOT about that.  I was born for Double Stuff.

Little Debbie (LD) has some football shaped brownies (oddly these are the same shape as their Easter egg brownies, but the shape is better for footballs, so you go, LD!)  They taste pretty good - the same as all the other Little Debbie brownies I've reviewed.  A new shape is just a good excuse to buy more.  Cheap and pretty chocolately - while not a touch down, I'd say definitely a field goal.

Look pretty good, huh?  Always moist - Little Debbie has the cheap, mass produced brownie down cold.

And look at these!  Reese's Footballs!

These are totally the Reese's eggs repackaged as footballs.  But they are still that delicious Reese's peanut butter, so I'm not complainin'!  And the bag weighs like a ton!  (2 pounds!)

Since football is a fall sport, I'm going to include some other fall flavors.  (Yeah, yeah I know it's January - give a girl a break!  I've been busy!)  Harry and David has these Red Apple Caramel balls:

And while you guys know I love most of Harry and David's stuff, I did not love these.  They had some kind of funky aftertaste.  Boo!  If Hershey can get the exact taste of caramel apples in their Kisses (reviewed on September 5th), Harry and David can do better than this.  Flag on the play!

Godiva also has a caramel apple Gem:

Now it's just pathetic when Hershey does better than Godiva.  Once again I rant at how damn expensive Godiva is and how not so great.  (Just like some pro football players we could name.)

Not to be limited by football, LD also had these for the Fall and their usual brownie trees for Christmas:

A solid performer.

Marshmallow Treats again - this time for Fall.  Nothing wrong with them - they are basically second rate Rice Krispy treats in fall colors.  A little less crispy, a little less sweet, just not quite as good as the original. 

But you gotta give LD credit for those colors.  I like a little originality and flash.  (Just like some pro football players we could name.)

My favorite decorated sugar cookies from Harry and David:

Good tasting, not rock hard like some of these decorated cookies can be.  They are VERY hard to stop eating.  And they are in adorable little designs.  I'm glad to see they have remained politically correct and not included an Indian head dress.

These little marzipan works of art were in World Market:

You know they are from Europe when you see the toadstool.  We would have never included that in the good ol' US of A.  Leaves yes, fungi no.  They come from Germany.  Land of the fairy tale (and the fungi).

Really pretty, aren't they?

The taste isn't bad - they have a good, strong almond flavor.  I would like it if the chocolate coating was thicker.  Marzipan can be so sweet - I like it best with paired with heavy chocolate.  But I really like the artistry of these - very nice.

If you are intrigued by any of these - Harry and David stores are having a great sale right now.  I got the cookies for half price.  Little Debbie's never stay around for long - I have to grab them as soon as I see them.  The Reese's footballs I found in Wal-Mart.  But two pounds is a lot - be ready. 

Go Team Chocolate!!  Coming up next - my other beloved - pumpkin!!!!!