Domori Biancomenta: White Chocolate with Mint Leaves

You know all those chocolate tastings that I go to at Biagio? Do I go there just for the free chocolate? No, of course not. I go there to see what kinds of chocolate I need to add to my hit parade. While some tastings only feature one chocolate that piques my interest, some feature several.

As if I need more chocolates in my addiction que. I suppose variety is key to a healthy diet, no? With that in mind, after one tasting event at Biagio, I introduced the Domori Biancomenta into my well-balanced chocolate diet.

This bar has a white chocolate base, and features Moroccan mint leaves to enhance the flavor of the white chocolate. While some turn their noses up at white chocolate, I find that when combined with the right flavors at the right strength, the smooth cocoa butter and sugar that is the signature of higher quality white chocolate can be just what you need.

And if other people disagree, well, more Biancomenta for me.

The bar has an aroma that, with God as my witness, resembles a strong, hard cheese. Don’t believe me? Go find a bar. Then you’ll believe me. After that initial cheese-like kick, the aroma shifts to a more minty character.

However, there is no cheese taste in this bar, just a soft, sweet white chocolate with refreshing mint leaves that are well chopped and distributed. The uniform distribution of the mint makes the bar consisten throughout, as does the smooth white chocolate without a bit of waxy or dry character.

The bar is superb, and after sampling it, I was convinced that I needed to try other Domori fusion bars.

Have you ever had chocolate with mint leaves in it? How was it?

Summer salad with mandarin and cannaoil

 
A great recipe for hot boring summer days ! 




Ingredients:

1 / 4 cup cannaoil
2 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons white wine vinegar
1 / 2 teaspoon dried parsley
1 / 2 teaspoon salt
1 / 2 cup chopped almonds 
3 tablespoons brown sugar
250 g sweet mandarins
1  lettuce



Preparation:

1. Melt 3 tablespoons of brown sugar in a pan.
2. Add the almonds and stir until they are coated with caramelized sugar.
3. Place them on a plate until cool.
4. Mix a dresing of cannaoil, sugar, vinegar, parsley and salt
5. Torn the lettuce by hand, peel the mandarins, separate them into slices and mix them with the almonds and cannaoil dressing.

Let it sit for 10 minutes into the fridge and it's ready to serve !

Strawberry Goat Cheese Brownies: You Need These

Remember that bake sale that Jaryn and I put together to help her raise money to kick the &^%$^ out of cancer? The result: we raised over $350! And what was the top-grossing item?

My strawberry goat cheese brownies.

Now, I won’t make you pay me $100 or something for the recipe. I’m just that generous. How could I not be, after experiencing some goat cheese, chocolate, and strawberry melded together into a dense, delicious dessert?

Just the sight of that combination should warm your heart. And inspire you to make these yourself.

As a bonus, the "We Should Cocoa" challenge, hosted by Chocolette this month, dared us to mix chocolate and strawberries in a recipe this month. Check.

Strawberry Goat Cheese Brownies (adapted from Nick Malgieri's Supernatural Brownies) - Ingredients

6 ounces bittersweet chocolate (Scharffen Berger 70% cocoa)

8 ounces butter

4 eggs

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup sugar

1 cup brown sugar

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 cup flour

6 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature

8 oz goat cheese, at room temperature

1/2 cup white sugar

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1 large egg

1 1/4 cups strawberry preserves

Melt the butter and chocolate together over low heat until just melted, set aside and allow to cool.

Blend the goat cheese and cream cheese in a food processor until smooth, add one egg, ½ cup sugar, and 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract. Blend until smooth. Set aside.

Beat four eggs until fluffy, then add 1 cup of sugar and brown sugar, beat until fluffy again. Add salt, vanilla, and chocolate butter mixture, blend until uniform. Fold in flour, then pour 2/3 of batter into a 9”x13” pan buttered and lined with buttered parchment paper. Drop spoonfuls of goat cheese mixture onto batter so that it is evenly spread atop the batter.

Drop tablespoon-size chunks of strawberry preserves onto goat cheese, keeping chunks evenly dispersed.

Drop remaining brownie batter in tablespoon quantities in between chunks of strawberry preserves.

With a knife, carefully draw horizontal and then vertical lines through the top of the pan to mix the batter, goat cheese mixture, and preserves.

Bake at 350° F for 45-50 minutes, or until brownies are firm when the pan is shaken.

Allow to cool to room temperature, then refrigerate before cutting.

If you don’t refrigerate them first, your knife will be covered in soft strawberry goat cheese brownie remains, and you’ll have to eat it off the knife.

Tragic.

Have you had goat cheese in chocolate baked goods before? How did you like it?

Chocolate Eclairs: National Chocolate Eclair Day

Knowing that National Eclair Day was right around the corner, I started thinking about my "holiday" post. My favorite eclairs are not the long thin "traditional" hotdog shaped eclairs (although I like those), but rather, the mini-eclairs. Pâte à choux.. little puff pastry.. that I've been making for years that  are simple to make and easy to fill. Well, I checked my blog, and lo and behold, I already posted about these eclairs last year on Chocolate Eclair Day. I think this is worthy of reposting.  Hope you enjoy making these as much as I do!

I've adapted this recipe for Mini Chocolate Eclairs from Paula Deen. It is one of my favorites because it's easy and fabulous! I never use margarine, so I've dropped that alternative from the recipe. Real butter is always best. As always, I use the very best dark chocolate for the topping. I've changed a few measurements and directions in the recipe for the novice Eclair Chef. If you're a purist, just click on Paula Deen's recipe above.

Because these eclairs are so small, feel free to have 3 or 4. :-) Yield depends on how small you make them, but I usually get about 50 small eclairs. They're great for a crowd!

Want to make these even more chocolate-y? Add a handful of chocolate chips to the egg cream filling or fill with chocolate cream instead: just add 1/4 dark cocoa to the dry ingredients. To fill the eclairs, I use a pastry bag, but if you don't have one, you can always fill a Ziploc bag and cut the tip off to pipe the filling into the eclair.

You will probably have some extra icing. You can always half the recipe if you ice sparingly. I'm for  more chocolate, so there's never much left.

MINI CHOCOLATE ECLAIRS

Pastry:
1 cup water
8 tbsp butter
1 cup sifted all-purpose flour
3 eggs

Filling:
3 cups whole milk
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
6 tablespoons all-purpose flour
3 eggs, beaten
2 teaspoons vanilla

Icing:
3 ounces unsweetened dark chocolate
2 cups sugar
1 cup heavy whipping cream

Directions
1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.
2. Heat water and butter to boiling point. Add flour and stir constantly until mixture is smooth and forms a ball when tested in cold water. Remove from heat and let cool. Beat in 3 eggs, one at a time. Drop dough from teaspoon, elongate slightly to form small eclairs (or drop in 'puffs', onto greased cookie sheet. Bake for approximately 30-35 minutes or until light brown. Set aside to cool.
3. Prepare filling by mixing all dry ingredients. Very slowly add milk over low heat and cook until mixture thickens (don't let the heat get too high), so you don't have any lumps. Then pour this custard  into the beaten eggs, stirring quickly (so eggs don't cook). Cool and add vanilla.
4. With a serrated knife, slice pastry puffs lengthwise (or if you have puffs make a hole), but not all the way through. Pipe custard mixture into the center.
5. Melt chocolate for icing, add sugar and cream. Cook over medium heat until soft ball stage. Let cool and beat until smooth. Ice tops of the eclairs.

And, a Vintage Ad.. I don't use pudding for my filling... but thought you'd like to see this Ad:

Photo Eclairs: Food Network

Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory: Raspberry and Plain Dark Chocolate Pieces

Since my main issue with the pieces I tried from the Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory has been lack of flavor complexity and excessive sweetness, I suppose I need to talk about two more dark chocolate pieces before drawing a final verdict on the quality of their creations. The dark raspberry truffle in particular sounded intriguing.

The dark chocolate coating was earthy with a coffee undertone, and very smooth. It was quite thick, which cut back on the space available for the raspberry filling.

The filling flavor was dominated by raspberry, and there was barely any chocolate flavor noticeable. That said, it was more tart than sweet, and the flavor balanced nicely with the chocolate flavor in the couverture. The piece is nice, but needs to be heavier on the ganache.

One more dark chocolate piece remained: this one, a plain dark chocolate truffle.

The coating had a good melt alongside a bitter flavor with strong earthy notes.

The ganache is buttery in texture, and somewhat sweet, which balances nicely with the bitter couverture. Again, the ganache is sparse and the shell is too thick, but each component is satisfactory.

It might be one of the best pieces from the box.

If you go to Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory – which you very well might, given their proliferation throughout airports in the U.S. – stick to the dark pieces. They aren’t spectacular, but they are far better than the milk chocolate based pieces.

Have you ever seen a Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory store at an airport?

Vintage Ad: Baker's Cocoa Cool Chocolate Drinks

Since today is the first 'official' day of summer, and the temperature looks like it's going to hit 101 in San Francisco--Yikes!!-- I think this Baker's Chocolate Vintage Ad is perfect! So mix up some cool cocoa today! Nothing beats Chocolate!

Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory: Peanut Butter and Aspen Cream

A reasonable person would be scared of a box of chocolate after encountering some caramels so bad that they required a visit to the trash can.

I am not a reasonable person.

On to the milk chocolate peanut butter piece from my Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory box.

The couverture was soft but a bit waxy, and featured very faint aromas of nuts and dairy. It had a slight burnt edge, but was quite sweet – to the point that it was reminiscent of white chocolate.

Inside that sweet shell was a mousse-like creamy filling with a strong peanut flavor, which tasted a bit like slightly burnt or over-roasted peanuts. As it was not very sweet, it paired nicely with the sweet milk chocolate. Overall, it’s better than a drugstore peanut butter cup, but was still a little plain.

At least I didn’t have to throw it out.

On to another filled chocolate: the Aspen cream.

The couverture is very similar to that of the peanut butter piece: soft, a bit of a burnt edge and a distinct vanilla flavor.

The interior has the density of a good caramel that is neither overly chewy nor runny, and the texture matches that of the shell nicely. The cream features a vanilla flavor with a hint of maple, and trends towards too sweet. I like the concept of a mild maple-flavored cream, but a less sweet couverture would work better.

Have you ever had a chocolate filled with maple cream before?