Seriously.

I have never felt so multi-personalitied as when I wrote that title.  I am honestly still walking around ina daze saying, “huh?”

Did you know that Kohler had a chocolate company? Yes THE Kohler.

You know, the company that makes that $1600.00 sink that you want for your kitchen? Yeah that one.

They contacted me and I was pretty excited when I saw the email.  I need a new kitchen badly and I am just waiting for a company to want to sponsor a Baking Delights kitchen make over extravaganza.  I have a lot of faith.  I thought this might be it.

It wasn’t.  They wanted me to check out their chocolate.  I said “sure!” because who is going to turn down chocolate?

It did not come in the shape of faucets or toilets.  It was amazingly beautiful.  In fact, Kohler does chocolate the way they do everything.  An architectural work of art.

The chocolates are very shiny and have a slash of color depending on the flavor of the filling.  We’ll get to the filling later, o.k.?

I love it when companies make chocolate so that you know what kind it is without having to cut a hole in the bottom to see what leaks out, don’t you?  Each flavor is represented by a different color that is airbrushed (I think) on and then drizzled on.

This is the macadamia nut filled chocolate.  Very flavorful with great macadamia flavor.  Creamy and not too sweet.  Just right.

Have I mentioned that I am on a diet?  In order to review these I took a bite and then handed them to the kids.  I am telling you, food writing is not the fairy tale fantasy life you all think it is.  You have to make some tough decisions, life changing choices…

Like which is better, Chai or Asian Spice?

Answer: I like the Asian Spice better.  Although the Chai has a nice chai flavor the Asian Spice has a lasting tingle on the tongue that I like.

The flavors are as unique as the chocolates.

• Asian Spice-5 spice with a lasting tingle
• Chai-Perfect chai flavor
• Macadamia- strong macadamia flavor with tiny slivers of nut in the filling
• Creme Fraiche- Tangy, a bit like cheesecake
• Earl Grey- creamy, with a strong Earl Grey top note and ending with a nice citrus nuance.
• Hazelnut Coffee- tastes the way a good pastry shop smells.
• Passion Fruit- tropical and tangy.  First notes are of the passion fruit..the chocolate is secondary with almost a pineapple finish.
• Pear-mmm…starts with ripe pear, then the chocolate and then there is a lasting taste of pear wine in your mouth.
• Coconut.  O.k. how unique can you get with coconut? Very.  Toasty coconut flavor, almost pina colada that lasts and lasts.  You breathe and that pina colada coconut rum flavor comes right back into your mouth.  Nice.  There are not any coconut bits to mar the smoothness of the chocolate either.  No chemical aftertaste.  Just yum.
• Last but not least, raspberry.  Nice balance between raspberry and chocolate, no artifical taste to it at all. Chocolate starts and finishes, raspberry is the middle note.

None of the flavors was bad.  None of them had an artificial taste.  I loved this chocolate.  So did the kids.

Find them at Kohler Chocolates. And tell them I said “Hi” you know, just in case they want to send me more.

images:marye audet

Post from: Baking Delights

Seattle Chocolates recently sent me samples of their truffles to try.

I would have some excellent close up shots of the rich chocolaty shell and the creamy truffle inside but I ate them.  Seriously.

Chocolate and I have an agreement.  The agreement is that if I eat it as fast as possible it leaves no calories.

So far I have lived up to my part of the agreement.

The Seattle Chocolates  truffles are excellent.  The truffle is somewhat firmer than I would expect but it was deliciously rich and flavorful, and the firmness of the ganache was not a bad thing…just unexpected.  The ones that I got were the following flavors:

• Espresso
• Mint
• Extreme Dark Chocolate

The espresso was my favorite with a big coffee taste that paired nicely with the chocolate.  The mint was more on the order of Girl Scout mint cookies in flavor than York peppermint patties, just to give you a frame of reference.

This was a nice, quality chocolate for a reasonable price.  The Te Amo heart pictured is 7.95 and the Terazzo heart (smaller one) is 5.85.  Either would be a great Valentine’s Day gift.

You better hurry.  Valentine’s Day is only a week or so away…of course I think they will be happy to sell chocolate all year.

images:Seattle Chocolates

Post from: Baking Delights

I love the word hearth, it conjures up romantic images of cottages, crackling fires and romantic heroes.

And the cake? That picture is from 1963…and I will share the story in a day or so…

Anyway, Valentines Day has become a holiday that is all about how much you spend, just like Christmas and Easter. The candy companies have convinced us that without a $20 box of chocolate our day is incomplete and we are unloved.

Is there anything more loving that homemade? I don’t think so. Here are some ideas for you, some are mine, some are from around the web. Take back the day. Simplicity is good for our budgets, our environment, but most importantly, simplicity is good for the soul.

Oh, and remember, if you are not reading this at http://bakingdelights.com, then you are reading stolen material.

1. A Chocolate Portrait. Seriously this site shows you how to do a portrait from a black and white picture in chocolate! What a great gift!

2. Decorated Cookies. I love this sugar cookie recipe. I will be making some Valentines Day cookies from it closer to Valentine’s Day. Beautiful with pink sprinkles, or glazed, or gilded with tons of royal icing flowers.

3. Chocolate & Earl Grey Terrine. This is rich, chocolaty and luscious. And sensual. Perfect with a sparkling dessert wine.

4. Melt some good chocolate and dip pretzels in it. Yum.

5.Chocolate Truffle Brownies

6. Apricot and white chocolate scones, cut in a heart shape? Or substitute dried cherries and dark chocolate!

7. Make your own truffles. It really is easy, and believe it or not you can make them as well as Godiva. I promise.

Basic Chocolate Truffles

8 oz good quality chocolate (50% cocoa, preferably higher) broken into pieces
1/2 c heavy cream

1 Tsp corn syrup

1 Tbs unsalted butter

Bring cream, butter, and corn syrup just to a simmer. Remove from heat, and add in chocolate. Do not stir but allow chocolate to soften for 3-5 minutes. Stir until chocolate is completely melted and mixture is smooth. refrigerate until set. Using a melon baller, dip out the cold ganache and roll into balls. Dip into melted chocolate or roll in cocoa.

8. You can also make tea infused truffles, Earl Grey Truffles

9. Three Cheese Fondue with Champagne. I would be impressed.

10. Chocolate Covered Cherries. Yum

Not only that…but over the next week or so I will be giving my recipe for a Romantic Valentines Day dinner, as well as some yummy chocolate covered espresso beans over on Kettle and Cup… I LOVE Valentines Day..so check both blogs …
Today is the first day of voting for the chocolate contest. You can vote for me AND register to win a matching trip yourself…just click on the link.

Post from: Baking Delights

This Christmas’ truffles, from me. Aisa made hers differently, she’ll post about them soon. Part of our homemade goodies box for gift-giving. But these would also work great as topping for a cake. There’s an awesome Swiss cake from Nick Malgieri that’s on my to-bake list, where he pipes out ganache strips on top of a chocolate cake baked in a loaf form; there’s a dusting of cocoa powder that goes on top, and the effect is just stunning.

Basically mine are ganache, with a rum-raisin (raisins soaked in rum) filling. Dipped in coating chocolate — I used Mercken’s from SugarCraft — the tempering isn’t perfect so as you can see the surface isn’t as smooth as it should be, but good enough. Then piped with white baking chocolate. I was going to do a purple chocolate to match the rum-raisin filling, but got lazy about mixing up colors to get just the right shade. Oh, and my favorite way for piping chocolate is to make wax paper cones, little ones, just big enough for my hand to hold like I’m holding a syringe.

The one with the “Y” was Yena’s, which quickly went into her mouth and down to her tummy, immediately after this shot was taken. So I made more. (The hole at the end of the piping cone used for these was bigger.)

Post from: Baking Delights