Chocolate Pizza

On my wanderings today I happened upon this Chocolate Pizza. When I say happened upon, I was directed from English Mum to Foodie Gift Hunter to Heal’s. I like the idea of a chocolate pizza … and I do believe my nephews feasted on something similar in Italy a few years ago. Pizza base, nutella, roasted hazelnuts, grated dark chocolate, mamma mia, excellente!

On my wanderings today I happened upon this Chocolate Pizza. When I say happened upon, I was directed from English Mum to Foodie Gift Hunter to Heal’s. I like the idea of a chocolate pizza … and I do believe my nephew had something similar in Italy a few years ago … maybe pizza base and nutella.

Food and Wine Magazine

My Food and Wine magazine came today. I flicked through it to see if they had a write-up about the upcoming Temple Bar Chocolate Festival. Well indeed they had: great. But to my surprise they mention Some Say Cocoa and have a photo of my white chocolate and lemon truffle. I’m scarlet!

But now I have an excuse for buying some 10kg bags of chocolate – hmmmm I hope they last until 30th Oct :-0

Roald Dahl Day Invent a Chocolate Bar Competition

Himself brought back a section of the Clare People at the weekend so that I could read all about Roald Dahl Day Invent a Chocolate Bar Competition sponsored by Wilde Irish Chocolate and Clare County Library. Kids under 13 (not us young at heart) are asked to design their own chocolate bar and a limited number of the winning bar will be made at the Wilde chocolate factory. What a superb idea and best of luck to all.

Also kudos to Wilde for giving us an easy to navigate online shop :-)

New York Times Hot Chocolate Tips

While browsing I came across this most insightful Hot Chocolate article (thanks to Himself). Now here is a writer, Amanda Hesser, who takes her research seriously!! She devises her own recipe after much experimentation. Her tips include:

- Use the best chocolate you can. “One thing is certain: It is impossible to make good hot chocolate with bad chocolate.”

- Use milk not cream. “Hot chocolates made with cream are not hot chocolate, they are hot chocolate pudding.”

- Combine cocoa and chocolate rather than using one or the other. This will give the best texture, not too watery (i.e. cocoa alone) and not too thick (i.e. chocolate alone).

- Heat to just below simmering; anymore and you risk damaging the delicate chocolate flavours.

- Whisking the ingredients helps to:

1. aerate the mixture so that you get a frothy top. This frothiness adds a lighter note to the texture.

2. emulsify the mixture otherwise the cocoa will sink to the bottom.

3. stop a skin from forming (the skin traps in the aroma).

What a superb article, maybe the state of the chocolate industry has changed since Feb 2000 but the tips hold true for today.

Wanted: Women to eat chocolate for a year

Wanted: Women to eat chocolate for a year … Another excuse (as if we need one) to eat chocolate!

Irish Times: Ten trips for discerning taste buds

Ten trips for discerning taste buds is an article from Irish Times weekend supplement all about foodie breaks. I particularly liked the writeup about the classes at the Rococo Chocolate School in London and the chocolate themed stay at the Jumeirah Lowndes Hotel.

Calling all Bounty Fans

And I’m talking about the chocolatey coconut bar not the super absorbent kitchen towels ;-)

Check out Stitch and Bear’s article on Mars’ attempt to trademark the much loved bar.