ChocolateBet: June 26, 2011

 Chocolate of the Day:

2 cookies
Pamela's Products
Chocolate Chunk Cookie Mix (+ add-ins)
Good +
Weight: 1.5 oz. (42 g.) (estimate)/ 13.6 oz. (386 g.) total package
Calories: 213 calories (estimate)
Cost: $7.19 total package
Purchased from: Safeway, in Palo Alto, CA

Today was Day #5 of Chocolate and Gluten Free Cookie Theme Week, and today I tried whipping up a batch of Pamela's Gluten Free Chocolate Chunk Cookie Mix. I say "tried," because I almost always feel compelled to mess with, or add other ingredients to, almost any recipe, or set of instructions, that I try to follow.

Nuts, dried fruits, liqueurs: there are so many interesting possible additions. In this case, my add-ins to this cookie mix included Frangelico (hazelnut) liqueur and some fig and orange jam from Dalmatia.

These cookies turned out to be dark colored (partly due to cocoa powder included in this mix), chewy and somewhat crispy (once cooled). These cookies were good with roasted nuts, and fresh orange.

ChocolateBet: June 25, 2011

Chocolate of the Day:

Karin Johnson Specialty Cakes and Pastries
1.) 1 Chocolate Almond Macaron - Good +
2.) 1 Cardamom Almond Macaroon - Good +
Weight: 1.7 oz. (48 g.) (estimate for 2 different cookies)
Calories: Information not available (estimate: 200 calories)
Cost: $4.00 for 6 cookies (shared rest with others)
Purchased from: Karin Johnson booth/table, at Palo Alto Farmer's Market, in downtown Palo Alto, CA

Today was Day #4 of Chocolate and Gluten Free Cookie Theme Week. European style macarons have become a very popular choice for those in the San Francisco Bay Area with a sweet tooth who can't have wheat/gluten.

Karin Johnson (and her mother) were offering at least three different gluten free cookies at the Palo Alto Farmer's Market this morning, and I tried two: 1.) a light meringue sandwich-style macaron with a chocolate filling, and 2.) an almond macaroon, flavored with cardamom and topped with a whole, blanched almond. These are sweet cookies by nature, but I enjoyed trying both of these. The cardamom was a nice addition to the latter, but not everyone I shared these cookies with could taste the cardamom, so I may have gotten lucky and had a heavier distribution of the spice in my cookie. It's always nice to have more fresh gluten free cookie choices, especially in one's own backyard farmer's market. Karin Johnson Specialty Cakes and Pastries does not appear to have their own website at this time, but this family-run business does participate in other farmers markets in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Note: According to Wikipedia, Macaron stem from the Italian word "maccarone" which apparently means "paste." Macaron and macaroon are sometimes used interchangeably, which can be confusing. Many envision a macaroon as being a sweet cookie made from shredded coconut. Both styles of cookie lack a gluten-based flour base batter, so their initial consistency may be more paste-like.

ChocolateBet: June 24, 2011

Chocolate of the Day: 

1/2 bar
Cachet - Made by Kim's Chocolates N.V.
Almonds & Honey Milk Chocolate bar
Good + - Very Good
Weight: 1.75 oz. (50 g.) / 3.5 oz. (100 g.) total bar
Calories: 289 calories (estim.)
Cost: $2.99
Purchased from: Crossroads Market, in Palo Alto, CA

Today I was hoping to find additional Mediterranean flavors for Day #3 of Chocolate and Gluten Free Cookie Theme Week. Almonds, milk and honey have been enjoyed together in different combinations for many centuries. More recently, say in the last 150 - 200 years, chocolate has been thrown into the mix. Sadly, honey has been less available, and has been replaced by sugar or corn syrup in many cases, but I set about finding a bar with these flavors.


The Cachet Almonds and Honey Milk Chocolate bar fit the bill, and was just the right thickness -- thick enough to accommodate crunchy almonds bits and "honey pieces" and thin enough to quickly access milk chocolate and flavors in the mouth as the bar warmed up and was being eaten.

The Cachet bar is perfectly fine for eating by itself, but I also used part of this bar to make an easy chocolate-dipped, gluten free amaretti. (For a more elaborate ganache-filled version from La Biscotteria, see yesterday's post - dated June 23, 2011.)  So, I melted two squares of this bar in a small ceramic dish, and voila - a tiny dish of instant fondue -- into which I dipped Musso's gluten free Italian Crunchy Almond Cookies. Moments later, almonds drizzled with some Seggiano raw sunflower honey got the Cachet chocolate fondue treatment as well.

This bar made for a nice, smooth fondue; but, you may lose some of the crunchiness in the small honey bits when this chocolate bar is broken up and melted into a sweet dipping sauce.

ChocolateBet: June 23, 2011

Chocolate(s) of the Day:


La Biscotteria
Amaretti Chocolate Ganache Cookie
Very Good
Weight: 3.5 oz. (100 g.) (estimate)
Calories: unknown
Cost: $3.95 per (large) cookie
Purchased from: La Biscotteria, Redwood City, CA

Today was Day #7 of Chocolate and Mediterranean Theme Week,
and Day #2 of Chocolate and Gluten Free Cookie Theme Week.

Almond paste, amaretti and amarena cherries from Italy were today's chief inspirations.

Today's large, gluten free, chocolate almond amaretti cookie from local Italian bakery La Biscotteria (Redwood City) was more like a chocolate pie with a rich, sweet almond crust base, topped with a generous layer of smooth, chocolate ganache, and finished off with a thin chocolate top coat.

I also bought an Almond Torte (which is good plain or with a very light dusting of unsweetened cocoa powder). My advice: split these almond sweets with a few other people for dessert and enjoy the cookie slices/torte wedges with a small glass of port or sherry.


Note: La Biscotteria also makes smaller, 1/2 dipped, and also non-chocolate gluten free almond cookies -- which I've featured previously.

I was also inspired to make some Italian amarena cherry and chocolate yogurt -- by mixing in Amarena wild cherries and syrup into plain greek style yogurt and adding some pieces of chocolate almond cookie described above. A dark chocolate maple leaf from The Oakland Chocolate Co. made a nice garnish. Amarena cherries are an interesting alternative to the neon red marascino cherries we have here in the U.S., for inclusion in fruit cakes, breads, almond tortes or cookies. They are, perhaps, just as sweet, but slightly richer in taste, and more natural in color.

ChocolateBet: June 22, 2011

Chocolate(s) of the Day: 

1.) Safeway Select
French Salted Caramel (Fleur de Sel) Ice Cream
Very Good
Weight: 1/2 cup (66 g.) / 1.5 quarts (1.42 L) total container
Calories: 230 calories
Cost: $ not available
Purchased from: Safeway, in Palo Alto, CA

2.) Fabrique Delices
Salted Caramel Macaron & Chocolate Macaron
Good + - Very Good
Weight: 1.48 oz. (42 g.) / 9.25 oz. (262 g.) total package
Calories:
Cost: $11.99 total package
Purchased from: Whole Foods, in Los Altos, CA

Today was Day #6 of Chocolate and Mediterranean Theme Week, and the first in a series of Chocolate and Gluten-Free Cookies this week. There's nothing like a petit bit of sea salt (from the Mediterranean or another sea) to liven up caramel and chocolate. In keeping with this theme, Safeway's French Fleur de Sel ice cream contained tiny chocolate covered sea salt caramels. And the Fabrique Delices (Hayward, CA) Macarons came in a (frozen) mixed pack of two flavors: Salted Caramel and Chocolate. Mais oui, these were good. Sweet, but good.

ChocolateBet: June 21, 2011

Chocolates of the Day:

The Oakland Chocolate Co.
1.) Lavender Truffle - Very Good
2.) Spearmint Truffle - Very Good
3.) Pistachio Rolled Truffle - Good + - Very Good
4.) Filled Oval Leaf (lime pepper jelly) - Very Good
5.) Filled Scallop Leaf (lemon curd) - Very Good +
6.) Filled Small Log (hazelnut butter) - Very Good - Very Good +

People ask me if I ever have trouble finding new chocolates. No, not yet. But, if I have too many oversampling days like today, I just might. I selected six possible Mediterranean flavors that came in a box of chocolates from The Oakland Chocolate Company (a bean-to-bar-to-bonbon operation). All these individual chocolates were made from Jamaican dark chocolate.

The Lavender Truffle was filled with a white ganache and topped with delicious candied lavender buds. The Spearmint Truffle with a chocolate ganache also was blessed with a tiny piece of what I believe was candied spearmint leaf. My two favorites were: the dark chocolate leaf filled with lemon curd -- a combination that is hard to beat in my opinion; and the small chocolate log filled with hazelnut butter. The hazelnut butter sparkled with bright bits of flavor, sweetness and texture. I much preferred this to overly homogenized hazelnut fillings present in some commercial chocolates.

In the same vein as the leaf with lemon curd, the oval chocolate leaf that was filled with lime pepper jelly was also good -- tart and pleasing, but not overly spicy.

Today was Day #5 of Chocolate and Mediterranean Theme Week.

ChocolateBet: June 20, 2011

Chocolate of the Day: 

1 serving
Villa Dolce Gelato
Italian Kiss - Chocolate Hazelnut
Good + - Very Good
Weight: 1/2 cup (100 g.)/ 1 Quart total container
Calories: 200 calories
Cost: $ unavailable
Purchased from: Whole Foods, in Los Altos, CA

Today was Day #4 of Chocolate and Mediterranean Theme Week; and it was also very hot outside. Something cold was in order. Villa Dolce Gelato's (gluten free) Italian Kiss Chocolate Hazelnut gelato was a good choice.

The packaging for this plastic tub of gelato -- decorated on top with bits of hazelnut and a light drizzling of chocolate syrup -- was reminiscent of displays you'd see in a gelato shop (with side-by-side stainless steel rectangular pans filled with your favorite flavors of this frozen dessert). It was no surprise then to see that Villa Dolce, based in Van Nuys, CA, also sells gelato pans and other supplies.