"Sugar Free" Chocolate Options: Simply Lite Dark Chocolate

Even though I’m against New Year’s resolutions, as I believe that January 1 is just another day, a lot of people make them. A common one is to cut back on sugar.*** Maybe this is yours, and you still want to be able to enjoy some chocolate. You certainly have lots of options available to you at most supermarkets. But which ones are worth it?

I’m here to help. Aren’t I always?

I’ll be reviewing a few “sugar free” chocolate bars this week, which I call “sugar free” because many of them have OTHER sugar-like substances. While you can read the nutrition label for yourself to decide whether or not a bar will help you meet your goals, it won’t tell you anything about the taste.

But I will tell you all about taste. And texture. Starting with the Simply Lite Dark Chocolate Bar from Trader Joe’s, which is 70% cocoa solids.

This bar weighs in at 100 calories and 8 grams of fat for a 25 gram serving, and is sweetened with maltitol. For reference, most dark chocolates have about 500-550 calories per gram, so a 25-gram serving of this bar as opposed to most dark chocolate bars will save you about 20-35 calories. Not a lot, but it’s something, assuming you can tolerate maltitol.

But what about the TASTE? This bar features a strong vanilla flavor and a coffee undertone, and the relatively mild and pleasant taste lingers for quite a while. The texture is actually exceptional for a 70% cocoa bar, and is not grainy at all. To be honest, I would eat this chocolate regardless of the nutrition facts, and it’s a pretty solid dark chocolate bar. If you have friends who are sugar sensitive, let them know about this bar, it might help them enjoy chocolate more often.

And I want everybody to enjoy chocolate as often as possible.

Did you make any New Year's Resolutions?

***NOTE: I am not a doctor or a nutritionist. If you are unsure of whether or not this product is appropriate for you, please consult with a medical professional.

National Chocolate Covered Cherry Day: Chocolate Covered Cherries

Today is National Chocolate Covered Cherry Day. When I was growing up, I always wanted the chocolate covered cherry in the Whitman Sampler Box. As I remember they were usually covered with milk chocolate, but I'm a dark chocolate fan. Here are two simple and easy recipes for Chocolate Covered Cherries to celebrate the day. If you don't have fresh cherries --well it's winter here in the Bay Area, and I like to buy local produce--you can use maraschino cherries. Just be sure to dry the maraschino cherries thoroughly. If you're using the maraschino cherries, save the juice from the jar to make the Chocolate Covered Cherry Cocktail at the end of this post! Either of these recipes would be great for Valentine's Day, so bookmark this page!

Chocolate Covered Cherries

Personally I like dark chocolate with cherries, but if you're a milk chocolate fan, go for it! As always, use the very best quality, organic, fair trade chocolate!  Hint: If the melted chocolate starts to harden  before you’re done dipping, put it into the microwave for a few seconds and then give it a good stir.

8 ounces of semi-sweet dark chocolate
1/2  pound of fresh, sweet cherries  (* for maraschino cherries, see below)

Wash and dry cherries.
Line a platter with parchment or wax paper.
Melt the chocolate in the top of a doubleboiler or in a saucepan over a saucepan that has boiling water (turned down when you add the chocolate).
Stir the chocolate constantly until it is completely melted and smooth.
Remove the chocolate from the heat.
Grab each cherry by its stem and dip into the chocolate. Swirl the cherry clockwise, coating the bottom 3/4.  It's always nice to see the cherry showing at the top.
Place the cherry on the parchment paper covered platter.
Repeat with the remaining cherries.
Place platter in refrigerator until chocolate hardens.
If not eating right away, put chocolate covered cherries in a covered container and keep them in the refrigerator for a few days.

You can use  the above recipe with maraschino cherries. Just be sure and dry the cherries thoroughly before dipping.

Feel like something alcoholic to celebrate National Chocolate Covered Cherry Day? Try this. Yum!

Chocolate Covered Cherry Cocktail

Fill a tall glass with ice. Add 1/2 ounce Bailey's, 1/2 ounce Kahlua. Add a few drops maraschino cherry juice. Shake. Strain into another glass with ice. Add a Chocolate Covered Maraschino Cherry for garnish!
 

DC Visitors Bearing Gifts: Teuscher Champagne Truffles

Seems like almost everybody was visiting DC between Christmas and New Year’s this season. I suppose it made up for the fact that everybody who normally lives here split town. It meant that I got to go out for lunch with Lindsay, and that I had a colleague from the Bay Area drop by with his daughters for lunch.

During their break from the museum tours, the three of them came by, enjoyed some of my leftover Christmas cookies, and chatted. They also brought me a box of Teuscher champagne truffles straight from the San Francisco shop.

You may be wondering just how often I will write about these things. It’s a fair question, since I have gotten some from Chicago, Philadelphia, and Boston since starting this blog back in July. The answer: this is Teuscher’s specialty, so get used to it.

This batch of truffles featured a milk chocolate shell that was soft and easy to bite into, with a dusting of powdered sugar on top to make the entire truffle just a bit sweeter.

The champagne center was super sweet, as it should be, but is sufficiently small to prevent the sweetness from overpowering the truffle. Instead, a silky dark chocolate ganache forms most of this well-balanced truffle. Another win for Teuscher.

Have you ever had the Teuscher champagne truffle? What did you think?

Lunch with an Old Friend: Teaism Chocolate Salty Oat Cookie

Last week, while absolutely nobody was in DC, my friend Lindsay, who I have known since middle school, was in town from Milwaukee to dog-sit for one of the folks who had split town. Luckily, I was around, so she and I went to Teaism for lunch.

While we were there, we got some chocolate dessert. Teaism’s salty oat cookie is semi-famous in DC, so we picked up a chocolate salty oat cookie to share.

As evidenced by this picture, the oats make up a heaping portion of this cookie. As also evidenced by this picture, there is some coarse salt sprinkled on top, yet this doesn’t come through much in the taste. The chocolate taste is also a tad weak, and is really only strong when you get a chunk of a super-smooth semi sweet chocolate. There is, however, a very clear coconut taste in this cookie – Lindsay agreed. I would personally prefer a softer cookie with more chocolate chunks, but for $2, this is a fairly large cookie that tastes alright.

Have you met up with any old friends recently? Did you eat chocolate while doing so?

Chocolate Cream Puffs: National Cream Puff Day

Today is National Cream Puff Day. Cream puffs are so easy to make, and there are so many ways to make them special. You can make a Croquembuche that elaborate structure that is so popular at the holidays here and abroad.  It's really just a triangular stack of cream puffs drizzled with chocolate or spun sugar. You can stuff Cream Puffs with all manner of sweet and savory fillings.

The Cream Puff is a very versatile pastry and so simple to make! Basically it's a baked puffed shell of choux pastry. There are many different recipes, but following is a basic recipe for Cream Puffs and another non-traditional recipe for Chocolate Cream Puffs. I posted a different Chocolate Cream Puff recipe on the Croquembuche post last year, and you might want to try that one, too.

CREAM PUFFS

Ingredients
1/2 cup butter
1 cup water
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup all-purpose flour (some people use bread flour and that will really give these a different taste and texture, give it a try)
4 eggs

Instructions
Preheat oven to 425.
1. In a large pot, bring water and butter to a rolling boil.
2. Stir in flour and salt until the mixture forms a ball. Transfer the dough to a large mixing bowl.
3. Using a wooden spoon or mixer, beat in the eggs one at a time, mixing well after each.
4. Drop by tablespoonfuls onto an ungreased baking sheet.
5. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes in the preheated oven, until golden brown. Centers should be dry.
6. When the shells are cool,  split and fill.

Chocolate Cream Filling

Ingredients  14 ounces chocolate (65-85% cacao), finely chopped
2 cups heavy cream
1/4 cup sugar Instructions

1. Place the chocolate in the top pan of a double boiler over simmering water in lower saucepan (or in a double boiler). Stir just until the chocolate melts, then remove from the heat.
2. Pour cream into a bowl. Using an electric mixer set on high speed, beat until soft peaks form. Add the 1/4 cup sugar and beat until stiff peaks form, about 20 seconds.
3. Pour all of the melted chocolate into the whipped cream quickly, and continue to mix on high speed until evenly combined, about 1 minute.
4. Place the chocolate cream in a clean pastry bag fitted with a 1/2-inch plain tip. Pipe into the bottoms of the cooled cream puffs. Replace the tops on the filled bottoms and serve immediately. Alternatively, spoon the cream onto the bottoms being careful not to put too much. Of course, it looks pretty when it's piped!
***

Or you can make Chocolate Cream Puffs. The following recipe adds cocoa to a traditional cream puff recipe. Stuff with sweetened whipped cream. You don't need to add the sugar in the cream puff recipe, but I find the chocolate cream puffs taste a little better since there's no sugar in the cocoa. Of course, you could try this recipe with sweetened cocoa. Let me know what you think if you do that.

CHOCOLATE CREAM PUFFS

Ingredients
1 cup water
1/2 cup sweet butter
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup all-purpose flour
3 tablespoons cocoa
2 tablespoons sugar
4 eggs

Instructions
Preheat Oven to 400
1. Combine flour, cocoa and sugar in a small bowl.
2. In a heavy saucepan over medium heat, bring water, butter and salt to a boil.
3. Stir in the flour, cocoa, sugar mixture, until a smooth ball forms. Remove from heat and let stand for 5 minutes.
4. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat until smooth and shiny.
5. Drop by heaping tablespoonfuls (golf ball size) 3 inches apart onto greased (or parchment lined) baking sheets.
6. Bake (in middle of oven) at 400 degrees F for 30-35 minutes or until set and browned.
7. Remove to wire racks. Let cool before splitting. Cool puffs completely before filling with whipped Cream, Ice Cream, or whatever!

Multi-Layered Desserts for New Year's Eve: Unnamed Excellence and Mini Smith Island Cakes

Ah, yes, here we are. National Hangover Day. Or, for those of you who are like me and don’t drink, let’s call it “National Day after We Made Multiple Chocolate Desserts with More than Fifteen Layers.”

Kinda long. So let’s stick with National Hangover Day but talk about chocolate desserts that happened yesterday anyway. My Aunt Cindy was in town for a few days to visit her son and daughter-in-law, who recently moved to Rockville.

They’re all originally from California. Well, except Aunt Cindy, who is from Milwaukee. Like me. And we all spent New Year’s Eve together in Maryland. Logical. But not nearly as logical as starting a stack of chocolate crepes with layers of alternating hazelnut buttercream and chocolate custard.

And then making that stack really tall.

And then covering it all with chocolate glaze.

And sprinkling the top with toasted hazelnuts and chocolate covered cocoa nibs.

I honestly don’t know what this was called. Does it matter? I’ll just call it “delicious stack of chocolate and hazelnut that I can’t make on my own because I need Aunt Cindy on crepe duty.”

Again, kinda long. Let’s keep it nameless.

I do, however, have a name for the other multi-layered chocolate dessert that I made yesterday.

Mini Smith Island Cakes.

So cute you could just eat them. Actually eat them.

I made six of these little guys in honor of my cousin’s relocation to Maryland. Why? Well, because Smith Island Cake, which is named for a tiny island in the Chesapeake Bay that is home to not quite 300 people, is the official state cake of Maryland. Also because it was the cake listed for Maryland in United Cakes of America, the book by Warren Brown that my grandmother got me for Christmas. I adjusted that recipe just a bit to make them mini, because that seemed like it would be more fun.

Mini Smith Island Cakes (as adapted from Warren Brown's United Cakes of America)

1 cup flour

¾ cup powdered sugar

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

¾ cup evaporated milk

¼ cup milk

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

10 tablespoons butter

¾ cup sugar

2 eggs

Mix the flour, powdered sugar, baking powder and salt in a bowl, set aside. Mix the milk, evaporated milk, and vanilla in a separate bowl, set aside. Cream butter and sugar on medium speed of a mixer for about five minutes, then beat in eggs one at a time. Alternate adding the dry ingredients and milk mixture in four additions and three additions respectively.

After your batter is done, trace 3” diameter circles onto some parchment paper.

Fill a pastry bag with batter and pipe thin layers of batter in the shape of the circles.

Bake at 350° F for 12 minutes.

Fudge frosting ingredients

5 cups powdered sugar

2 ½ tablespoons cocoa powder (Scharffen Berger)

5 tablespoons butter

1 cup evaporated milk

5 ounces unsweetened chocolate, melted (Scharffen Berger)

Whisk together the sugar and cocoa powder, set aside. Heat butter and milk to a simmer in a saucepan, then mix with sugar and cocoa powder and return to saucepan. Simmer over medium heat for approximately 15 minutes, then stir in the chocolate.

Now spread some on one of the little cakes.

Repeat until you use eight cake layers.

Then cover the whole thing in more frosting.

I think it’s about 60-70% frosting. And I’m OK with that. Great way to start a year and welcome somebody to Maryland, if I don’t say so myself.

Does your state have an official cake? What is it?

Happy New Year: Vintage Chocolate Poster

Wishing Everyone a Wonderful New Year filled with Chocolate!