Tasting Wheel

I found this great tasting wheel on All Chocolate and added some words that might be used to describe chocolate with all five senses. Sometimes a smell or flavour is on the tip of my tongue but I can’t think of it … the tasting wheel gives some possibilities and hints.

Rocky Road Buns

HoneyB is getting very helpful in the kitchen and took her place at the worktop this weekend to ‘do cooking’. Her mixer in her hand, she made the ‘whoooooo’ noise and, without, any encouragement tucked into the raw bun mixture.

To make Rocky Road buns, just take any chocolate bun recipe, add 50g marshmallows, 25g flaked almonds (optional) to the mixture before spooning it into bun cases.  Once cooked, the marshmallows melt and leave gooey holes on top of the buns … a little concealer is called for!

I used Alice Medrich’s Glace A L’Eau from Bittersweet (changed it slightly). Alice does warn that “It naturally produces a very intense bittersweet flavour, even without using a high percentage chocolate”.

• 4 oz chocolate, chopped
• 4 oz butter, cubed
• 1/4 cup water or strong coffee

1. Add all the ingredients into a microwave bowl.
2. Melt in the microwave on medium heat stirring ever min until everything is nearly melted.
3. Remove and stir until smooth. Allow it to cool and spread over the buns … decorate at will.

Hmmm, sometimes I think yes I am a good mother spending quality time with Honeyb, this morning when she was eating buns before her porridge I think, hmmm maybe I am not :-|

Cote D’Or Framboise

How lucky are the French?? They have great chocolate and can score a goal with a touch of the hand :-(

In a Parisian corner shop one can buy a pretty OK dark chocolate at a snip. This Cote D’Or 70% Framboise was €1.19! I am not sure we could get a Cadbury’s here for that price. Now I hear that they’ve reduced VAT on dark chocolate … French government are encouraging people to eat it such are its health benefits. I would mention this to Mr. Cowen but I feel he has more pressing issues to deal with.

Anyhow, I won’t be going back for another bar unfortunately. It was waxy, bland and tasted of nothing distinct … maybe like eating a candle with raspberry crisps. Ah well, you win some, you lose some! And I won with the Lindt purchase from the same corner shop.

Parlibel in Clonmel

On Sunday the ‘girls’ (NannyB, Mommie and HoneyB) went to the new Showgrounds Shopping Centre in Clonmel. There was M&S for NannyB, a fab kids clothes shop called NameIt where HoneyB got her ‘christmas dress’. And for me … a chocolate shop which stocks Parlibel exclusively.

The shop is sleek white, with the brown Parlibel logo and dashes of orange. Who forgot their camera??? Arghhh!! The owners offered copious samples and were very enthusiastic. I was expecting Leonidas type experience and certainly you can pack your own selection from an array of flavours. But owners tell me that Paribel is a few steps up from Leonidas and they are the only Irish importer. I spy a 4ft chocolate santa in the cabinet … apparently one will be raffled for charity before Christmas.

My favourite was the dark lemon truffle and this was not dark chocolate filled with some moussey lemony cream … this was dark lemon ganache. The truffles were big … big enough to share and coated in lots of chocolate. This is kinda the opposite to my favourite truffle which is small, delicate and coated in a thin layer of chocolate. But it’s good to share!

I am so disappointed that I have no photos which show off their visual appeal. Just wait until next time! There were really groovy ones (think white chocolate but spray painted with green dots) which went to my babysitter-bro.

Nestle Eclat Caramel Pointe de Sel

Nestle – yum. Yes indeed, this ‘Eclat Caramel Pointe de Sel’ from the Nestle Grand Chocolat range shocked my taste buds. I suppose I was expecting, ‘ya, it’s ok’ but this bar is quite a treat. I’ve had milk chocolate fleur du sel and milk salted caramels before and was never totally accepting of them.

But the lack of sugar (64%) in the mild dark chocolate works nicely with the crisp of the caramel shards and the salt grains. Me likey ;-) I wouldn’t eat too much of it though but I might experiment myself with this combo.

The problem is that this was bought in Salon Du Chocolate, not at my local :-(

Aine Chocolates

Did I mention that I bought 3 bars of Aine dark chocolate at the Chocolate Sundae? Anyway I did. I had already tasted the 70% bar so it was time to taste the flavours range. I am not too keen on the 70% but I think it would be a winner with lots of folk. Actually it would be a nice addition to a 70% tasting plate, offering it as the first sample.

Honeycomb

Lovely crispy random sizes of crunchiness. The presentation is a treat too, neatly wrapped bars with greaseproof lined foil as opposed to just foil. I tend to make a big mess when I get foil … I try to re-wrap the bar for later and it never goes back neatly. Maybe I should take the hint and eat the lot!

Lemon Zest

Yes indeed lemony, like grains of lemon sugar, but an aftertaste of honeycomb … and that would be because there is honeycomb in the bar. It adds a chewy feel against the crispness of the zest.

Butterscotch

This one suffered chocolate bloom :-( I’ve had Cluizel bars, truffles, Galaxy bars with the same thing. It’s unfortunate but bring on the see-thru wrappers!!

People say that it is ok to eat – I disagree – it’s rotten, the mouthfeel, the grainy texture, no melt away sensation, the flavour is definitely impaired.

People say you could cook with it – I disagree but no one refuses brownies – anyone for a blooming brownie :-o Maybe during the cooking process, the structure breaks down anyway so the bloom damage does not matter?

I do not know what type of bloom this was (am guessing sugar) but Wikipedia have suggested test that can help tell … must try them in future.

Lucky In-Laws

Lucky in-laws .. why? ’cause they have me as a daughter in law … no I don’t think so. But they won a spot prize at a local ‘do’. Then it was lucky me as mother in law offered it to me :-)) Yeah excellent, posh cups with saucers. And not those roundy saucers that mean the chocolate biscuit melts to the side of the cup, but oval saucers where the cup is at one side leaving lots of room for the obligatory chocolate treat.

Lime and Dark Chocolate Truffles

These Ts were inspired by our dinner Zingy Chicken Stirfry. Now when I say ‘inspired’ I really mean ‘made from the leftovers’ i.e. leftover limes.

• Place 200mls of cream with the zest of two limes into a pot.
• Make dinner, then tidy up.
• Do jigsaws.
• Play jumping on the bed.
• Read The Tiger who came to Tea, Bedtime for Spot and Lullabyhullabaloo books.
• Put a sleepyhead to bed.
• Bring the cream to the boil and strain over 200g dark chocolate (Belcolade 72% dark).
• Leave until the next evening before forming truffles, dipping and decorating (nuts, coconut).

This day last week I was mostly …

Making truffles.

There are lots of photos of the weekend that was the Chocolate Festival Weekend at the Temple Bar Blog and their Facebook page.

And The Daily Spud reports on the whole weekend with such detail that I want a time machine!!

 

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Chocolate Sundae

It was a cold wet miserable Sunday morning. Was I the only one daft enough to leave a cosy house to face the elements all for chocolate? Himself certainly thought so. But the Chocolate Fair happens once a year and by hook or by crook we were going.

HoneyB donned her wellies and was quietly excited about meeting the chocolatiers to get some tastes. By the time we got there the rain had eased and I was encouraged to see all the chocolatiers setting up, unperturbed by the weather. We got down to business straight away, relaxed by the Willie Wonka music playing the in background.

We got a tremendous reception at Wilde Irish Chocolate. Trish remembered us from last year and brought some chocolate bunny lollipops especially for HoneyB. Yahoo! We got a special ‘Wilde Rocky Road’ to taste … their secret: lots of delic milk chocolate, mini mallows and honeycomb. It is a chocoholics dream i.e. more chocolate than ‘other stuff’ :-)

Their truffle boxes were amazing, so colorful and inviting … now you can have a box of your favourite flavour. Maybe a box of Orange Truffles for Mum this Christmas??

I got my fix of Super bar (80% & cocoa nibs), and a jar of White Chocolate Hazelnut spread for the nefs. Well, as part of my research I had to open the jar for a tiny taste. I was expecting soft and spreadable, but it was pretty firm. Just like spreading butter straight from the fridge … how will that work out I wonder??

Next port of call was ChocONeill who do simple things with wonderful chocolate – why mess with a good thing, eh? I picked up a Peru single plantation for tasting later.

At this stage a patch of blue sky emerged – hallelujah! and an old school mate of mine arrived. Yes it was time for hot chocolate ala Louise Lennox: 3 types of chocolate, milk and cream – yum. Himself went for the marshmallows (aka flogs … do you remember flogs?) on top. Then it was time to decorate cupcakes … and yes we would all like a go … sweet messy stuff is not the preserve of kids ;-)

Although I was cold, HoneyB must not have been as she dived into a free tub of Ben and Jerrys ice-cream. We headed inside to see Benoit Lorge’s demo leaving the ice-cream behind … that was not a good idea and HoneyB exploded into tears. Himself quickly nipped back to get more and in the meantime the chocolatier came to her aid with a piece of Valrhona :-)

The demo was excellent and both boys were rightly impressed. TC … might you leave down your guitar and pick up the spatula?? HoneyB sat patiently or maybe somewhat confused thinking ‘hey this guy is making a mess and mommie not cross’.

I must mention Sarah Varela, face painter extraordinaire. HoneyB was too young for face painting by got her hands done-up like a tiger (just like in Peppa Pig, grghhh).

O’Conaill were there with an immense range of chocolate bars with everything sprinkled on them, molds from way back when, drinking chocolate kits and even some dipped fruit peel. The coffee beans on top of dark chocolate sounded like one for Himself.

Dinner was supplied by Mero Mero Sabores de Mexico in the form of Turkey Mole … spicy but hit the cold spot perfectly and for €5, good value.

Final port of call was Aine Chocolates where apparently their chocolate is made from beans (rather than couverture) … ‘takes a very long time’ I’m told. They buy the beans, roast them etc … ‘yes, it takes a very long time’. I was stunned … where were the trumpets to announce the bean to bar stall??

We bought 3 bars for €6 too but oh the pain when I got home and saw what was behind the Butterscotch wrapper. The bar was bloomed beyond belief (streaked white and crumbly). The Lemon Zest and Honeycomb was fine though – phew!

And now I realise the benefit of clear wrappers. I’ve bought Cluizel bloomed so I know it can happen … but with a clear wrapper you can see the state of the chocolate before you buy. Maybe I’ll start a campaign for ’see-thru’ wrapping. Actually Aine Chocolates had some clear wrappers … maybe they are moving over …

There were many stalls we didn’t visit as HoneyB started to get tired and my arms were at breaking point. There was the Truffle Fairy, Natasha’s Living Foods, Celtic Chocolates, Gallaghers, Chez Emily, Chocolate Garden of Ireland … as we left the fair, the sky was blue and the stalls busy.