Truffle Butter Truffles - Feb. 21, 2013

Romain, La Fromagerie, SF

Chocolate(s) of the Day: 

SunSpire (nSpired Natural Foods)
Organic Chocolate Chips
Good + - Very Good
Weight: 1.5 oz. (42.45 g.) / 9 oz. (255 g.) total bag
Calories: 210 calories (estimate) in 1.5 oz. (42.45 g.)
Cost: $ unavailable
Purchased from: unavailable

Today was Day #5 of Chocolate and Truffle Theme Week. It was inevitable this week that I make some truffle truffles.

Yes, you're reading that correctly. I made some homemade chocolate truffles with Black Winter Truffle Butter from Fabrique Delices (Hayward, CA), that I found at La Fromagerie in (the Dogpatch area of) San Francisco. Thank you to Romain for truffle butter and cheese selection help.

I also made a small, semi-sweet, truffle butter chocolate cup (with a white chocolate and truffle butter center) -- topped with a drizzle of black truffle honey and a few grains of truffle sea salt.


The plate of tiny truffles and the chocolate truffle cup made a great late breakfast, and disappeared quickly. The truffle butter was good enough to eat by itself, or on warm toast (gluten-free bread for me). Fabrique Delices offers a line of charcuterie and savory butters -- e.g., black truffle, white truffle, porcini mushroom, and bacon. The truffle butters were made with imported French butter.

Sadly, SunSpire (nSpired Natural Foods) in San Leandro, CA, seemed to have gone out of business. I melted a few ounces of their organic, semi-sweet chocolate chips  -- that had been stored in my chocolate vault -- to make the truffles. They were quite good.

For those who do not like truffles (the fungi/tuber) -- my sympathies, and please forgive my rapturous delight over truffle honey this week. Soon, I'll be moving ahead to Chocolate and Umami Theme Week, where I'll combine cacao with seaweed, miso, kale, mushrooms, potatoes, parmesan cheese, and other fare. I hope you'll find something you like a bit more in this list. This month has evolved into quite a savory + sweet month.

ChocolateBet: June 23, 2012

Chocolate of the Day:

SunSpire
Coconut Almond Milk Chocolate Bar
Good - Good +
Weight: 1.75 oz. (50 g.) in 1 bar
Calories: 260 calories in 1 bar
Cost: $2.59
Purchased from: Country Sun Natural Foods, Palo Alto, CA

Today was Day #6 of Chocolate and Coconut Theme Week.

The sweet, slightly chewy coconut center was the dominant flavor in this bar from SunSpire (a division of inSpired Natural Foods, San Leandro, CA).

I couldn't really taste the almond bits.

ChocolateBet: December 10, 2010

Chocolate of the Day:
1 package - 3 cups
SunSpire
Dark Chocolate Almond Butter Cups
Good +
Weight: 1.2 oz. (34 g.) total package of 3 cups
Calories: 190 calories
Cost: $0.99 (sale)
Purchased from: Piazza's Fine Foods, in Palo Alto, CA

The peanut butter cup resides in the pantheon of chocolate. Today's SunSpire chocolate is a version of this popular staple -- made with MaraNatha almond butter instead of peanut butter. (Note for people with peanut allergies, these may contain traces of peanuts.) Having tried these cups, I'm thinking it might be interesting to compare different legume and nut butter chocolate cups side-by-side. Another future chocolate lab experiment to be scheduled.

Today was Day #3 of Dark Chocolate and Nuts Theme Week.

ChocolateBet: September 1, 2009

Chocolate of the Day:

3/4 bar
Tropical Source (by SunSpire)
Toasted Almond Dark Chocolate bar
Very Good
Weight: 2.25 oz. (64 g.)/ 3 oz. (85 g.) in total bar
Calories: 375 calories in 3/4 bar
Cost: $0 gift (thank you Alec)
Purchased from: n/a (gift)

I melted down this (dairy- and gluten-free) bar to include it in a chocolate pudding cake of sorts. (I can't follow recipes, but it's hard to go wrong if you combine chocolate, egg, oil/butter, and a bit of rice flour.

I list vendor name(s) for each chocolate I eat. Determining who made this bar was a bit confusing. Tropical Source (by SunSpire) is owned by nSpired Natural Foods - now owned by Hain. This made me think of a nested set of Russian dolls, or of the little fish who was eaten by the medium-sized fish, who was then eaten by the larger fish, and so on. I don't know if this list of names was the result of a branding or acquisition strategy. Waves of change and disruption tend to wipe out lots of carefully crafted product names and brands over time. Ten years from now, I wonder how many chocolate brand names on my blog will still exist.

ChocolateBet: August 18, 2009

Chocolate of the Day:

1/3 Queen of Sheba cake (= 1.32 oz. chocolate)
SunSpire - Tropical Source
Raspberry Dark Chocolate bar (dairy- and gluten-free)
Very Good (chocolate and cake)
Weight: 1.32 oz. (37.35 g.) chocolate = in 1/3 cake
Calories: 660 calories (estimate) in 1/3 cake (198 calories for chocolate in 1/3 cake)
Cost: $0 (gift); thank you Alec
Purchased from: n/a, gift

In honor of the movie Julie and Julia, I used a Julia Child chocolate cake recipe, for Reine de Saba (Queen of Sheba) chocolate cake.

I made two changes. I substituted wheat-free flour mix for regular flour; and I used raspberry dark chocolate, instead of the suggested combination of sweetened and bittersweet baking chocolate. (If I make this cake again, I may substitute extra ground almonds for the flour.)

I enjoyed eating this rich-tasting almond-flavored chocolate cake un-frosted (which helped me justify having 2 pieces); although chocolate frosting would be a nice addition. Unfortunately, this cake was eaten before I managed to take a picture of it.

ChocolateBet: April 22, 2009

Chocolate of the Day:

6 pieces
SunSpire (The Hain Celestial Group, Inc.)
Earth Balls (Fair Trade) Milk Chocolate
Good + - Very Good
Weight: ~1.41 oz. (40 g.)/5 oz. (141 g.) ttl pkg
Calories: 210 calories in 6 pieces
Cost: $4.99 total pkg.
Purchased from: Piazza's Fine Foods in Palo Alto, CA

Happy Earth Day, April 22, to all in the U.S. These Earth Ball chocolates seemed like the right choice to celebrate this occasion.

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Today, I also enjoyed an assortment of milk and dark chocolates from The Chocolate Tree, in Beaufort, South Carolina. This box included milk and dark chocolate-covered brazil nuts; milk chocolate coconut; milk and dark chocolate-covered peanut clusters; milk chocolate peanut butter; and a milk chocolate toffee crunch. Also included in this half-pound assortment box were milk and dark chocolate sand dollars, chocolates with raisins, and a few others. I ate about 4 oz. (of the 8 oz. box), about 610 calories worth. We had a hot spell this week - so it was necessary to eat some of these chocolates before they melted. (Yep, that's my excuse, and I'm sticking to it.)

I was able to order this assortment box over the phone. Thanks to the Chocolate Tree for putting this order together. It's great to have tried some chocolates from South Carolina.