Check this out -- chocolate for the techno geek, from Corporate Gift Showcase.
They have chocolate cell phones (no, not this kind, the kind you can EAT!), chocolate computers, chocolate microphones, chocolate computer accessories, even a chocolate remote.
I really want some of these, but you know, they wouldn't last more than about 5 minutes on my desk. Heheh.
Found via Chocolate Nerd
I found this nifty little site some while ago and bookmarked it for a morning just like this one. My cupboard is indeed bare. I need to go the grocery store, but who has time? Where are the errand-elves when you need them? Heh. Not to worry! Cookingbynumbers.com offers recipe ideas for the items you have on hand.
This morning, I checked these items: coffee, eggs, and chocolate. Guess what? That's 100% of the ingredients needed to make chocolate mousse:
Chocolate Mousse
(a la cookingbynumbers)
4 eggs
200 g/7 oz chocolate, grated
5 tbsp hot strong coffee
Separate the eggs, whisk whites until stiff. Grate chocolate and add in hot coffee to melt the chocolate (heat gently if it needs more melting). Whisk in the egg yolks.
Fold egg whites into the chocolate mix.
Decant into a bowl or individual bowls and refrigerate to chill.
Can it really be that easy? I've avoided chocolate mousse all this time because I thought it was too hard... too much of a 3-dot recipe for this one-dot cook to even try. But this... well, howleelooya, I'm gonna give this a try.
cookingbynumbers.com even has a "how-to" skills list, for things like brule, folding, piping and separating an egg. Unfortunately, there's no description there for decanting, so I'll have to figure that one out elsewhere. Hey, maybe someday I'll graduate and become a two-dot cook! Pics to follow.
UPDATE: I can't imagine why anybody in their right mind would actually try to hand whisk egg whites to stiffness. Your arm could fall off. You could grow old! Or both!! Go electric, that's my advice. This recipe wasn't bad, I was pretty pleased with it. A dollop of unsweetened whipped cream was just the thing. Next time, I would probably use a tad bit of flavoring, maybe almond or orange extract.
I need to pause and say thanks to those folx who emailed and wondered about my blog-absence . You know who you are, and you're much appreciated! :)
I don't think I've ever made anything that was so satisfying for me -- on SO many levels - as this dish.
There is something really comforting about bread. Psychologically speaking, it ranks right up there with chocolate for sheer comfort factor. And coffee, of course, one of my favorite things, ranks high on the pleasure list. Put all of these together and whaddya got? Something I'm going to have a hard time sharing, that's what.
I used foodnetwork.com's recipe as my starter and guide, but I did modify it quite a bit. Some of the mods were because I didn't have the right ingredients, and some were ... just because. I needed substitutes for some of the milk and cream, but it didn't seem to affect the outcome very much. It's still a serious to-die-for gimme-comfort delish dessert. But next time I'll make sure I have enough milk and cream on hand to try the original recipe and see how it does.
Chocolate Coffee Bread Pudding
8-10 slices of bread, cubed
2 cups milk
1/2 cup half and half
1/2 cup non-dairy creamer (I used a combination of Vanilla and Amaretto)
1/2 cup strong coffee or espresso
1/2 cup Kahlua (or other coffee liqueur)
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp almond extract
1 cup sugar
1 cup light brown sugar, packed
1/4 cup cocoa powder
8 oz semi-sweet chocolate, finely chopped or grated
6 eggs, lightly beaten
Lightly grease a 9x13 baking dish and place bread cubes in it. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. In a large bowl, whisk together milk, cream, non-dairy creamer, and Kahlua. In a separate bowl, combine sugar, brown sugar and cocoa powder. Add sugar mixture to milk mixture and stir well. Beat eggs lightly in a separate bowl and add in vanilla and almond extracts. Combine egg mixture with milk mixture and mix well. Stir in the grated / chopped chocolate.
Note: for chocolate, I used 4 oz semi-sweet, and for a little extra coffee kick, 4 oz Ghirardelli Intense Dark Espresso Escape. I also didn't bother trying to grate the chocolate, as finely chopped was good for me.
Gently pour over the bread cubes in the pan. Leave to set for about 20 minutes, or until the bread is saturated, stirring occasionally.
Bake for 1 hour or until set. A knife inserted into the center should come out clean. Serve warm or chilled, with whipped cream, ice cream, or other topping of your choice.
Enjoy!
I have to be perfectly honest, my first attempt at ganache didn't really have much panache. It was mouse-waddling, if you're not fussy about blobs. But it's not particularly pretty or artsy. In fact, heh, this is more of a "what went wrong" story. What I had planned as a large heart-shaped tart, covered with a lovely, swirling sheen of ganache ... turned out to be a bigfat cookie with blobby chocolate icing.
Ok, ok, it wasn't that bad, but... well, you'll see.
Ganache, as I now know, is a French term (pronunced gah NAHSH) referring to a combination of heavy cream and chocolate. From joyofbaking.com:
The origins of ganache are debatable but it is believed to have been invented around 1850. Some say it originated in Switzerland where it was used as a base for truffles. Others say it was invented in Paris at the Patisserie Siravdin.
Recipes vary, depending on what you're going to do with it. It can be used as a glaze or icing, or it can be used as a filling for cakes and pastries. Some recipes call for a little bit of butter or oil to be added, which will give the chocolate a shiny quality. Flavorings can be added, such as liqueurs, extracts, etc. But for my first attempt, I opted for this basic recipe from FoodNetwork:
Ganache With a Sheen
3 tablespoons corn syrup
6 ounces heavy cream
12 ounces dark chocolate, chopped into small pieces
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
In a small saucepan combine the corn syrup and heavy cream. Bring to a simmer and add the chocolate. Stir until smooth. Remove from the heat and add the vanilla extract.
I used a combination of milk and dark chocolate, so maybe I can blame my blobs on that. I tried to drizzle it in some artistic way. Then I tried just spreading it all over and swirling it with a spatula. I finally just gave up and left the streaks and blobs.
Ok, now for the "what happened to the tart?" part of my story. I had originally planned to make a big heart tart with a cookie crust. I decided to make some chocolate chip cookie dough, thinking it would cook up as a nice tart crust, with some kind of pudding filling, topped with ganache. Silly wabbit. I forgot how much this recipe expands. It kept growing and growing, and pretty soon it bubbled up over the edges of the pan. So much for crust, and so much for my heart tart! What I ended up with was this bigfat heart-shaped chocolate chip cookie, with really delicious blobby ganache icing.
Here's the slightly modified Toll House cookie recipe, in case you ever want to follow my errant path and make a non-tart/bigfat cookie:
Mocha Chocolate Chip Cookie
2 1/4 cup flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 cup unsalted butter
3/4 cup (packed) brown sugar
1/2 cup sugar
1 shot espresso, or very strong coffee (or 2 tbsp instant coffee)
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 large eggs
12 oz semi-sweet chocolate chips
Combine flour, baking soda and salt in a small bowl. In a larger bowl, cream butter, sugars, vanilla extract and eggs. Beat until creamy. Slowly add flour mixture and continue beating. Add chocolate chips and stir with a spoon.
For regular cookies, drop by spoonful onto a cookie sheet and bake for 10-12 minutes at 375°
For a non-tart/bigfat cookie, or for bars, spread dough into pan and bake for 20-30 minutes at 375°.
The good news is, this is a very tasty bigfat cookie! Enjoy!!
My BlogRoll badly needs to be updated. I suppose I could just use one of the bloglist services and have it update automatically, but I kind of like having my fingers right IN the linky-pie, so to speak. I'm gonna get to it, really I am. In the meantime, here are some of the chocolate and foodie blogs I've been enjoying recently:
Chocolate Obsession - I blogged about William's site a few weeks back (see post here), but it's worth mentioning again.
Chocolate in Context - Emily Stone, a native New Yorker, now living in Australia, writes about chocolate and travel.
Chocolate & Zucchini - Clotilde Dusoulier, a Parisian woman who lives in Montmartre shares her passion for all things food-related. Jump directly to the most important category: Chocolate.
Ice Cream Ireland - Kieran Murphy lives and blogs about chocolate (and other things) from Ireland.
Brownie Points - She calls herself McAuliflower, from Eugene OR. Is that her real moniker? No matter, the posts are wonderful, recipes mouse-waddling.
Sweet Pleasure - or plaisir sucré belongs to Sam, of Toronto, Canada. Another foodie blog that leaves me drooling.
And this, just discovered: Food Porn Watch- for food blogs, shows latest updates and such.
I'm a Kiss fan from way back. No, not Gene Simmons' Kiss ... altho they're ok too. I'm talking about Hershey's chocolate kisses, of course.
This year marks the 100th Anniversary of Hershey's Kisses, and in honor of the event, The U.S. Postal Service has released a With Love and Kisses stamp. So now you really can send off your letters with a kiss. The post office is also running a sweepstakes. All you have to do is guess how many Hershey®’s Kisses® Brand Chocolates will fit inside a U.S. Postal Service Priority Mail® flat-rate box. Submit your guess online at www.guessandwinsweeps.com before Feb. 15, and you could win $10,000 for a romantic getaway of your choice.
Hershey's Kisses have been around since 1907, when they were hand-wrapped. Can you imagine, wrapping all those little chocolates one at a time by hand? They finally got the whole thing automated in 1921, and with the exception of a brief period from 1942 to 1949 when silver foil was rationed during the war, we've been enjoying milk chocolate Kisses in pretty much the same shape and appearance for a whole century.
We can now enjoy Hershey's kisses in a variety of holiday wrapping. Kisses chocolates wrapped in red and silver foil were introduced in 1986 in honor of Valentine’s Day. At Christmas I always have red, green and gold kisses in a bowl, and added as filler to my gift baskets. And they come in a huge variety of fillings now - caramel, almond, macadamia nut, peanut butter, and even a limited edition cherry cordial. Check here for a full list from Hershey.
I enjoy the chocolate mint kisses, and I occasionally will go for a nut filled. But honestly, my all-time favorite is the plain old milk chocolate. I guess it reminds me of my gramma, who had a secret jar full of kisses on a shelf in the kitchen. When mom wasn't looking, she'd sneak that jar down and let us kids grab a handful and dash out the door. We felt like we were really getting away with something grand. The joy of stolen chocolate can't be beat.
By way of warning, I'm on a tart kick. My ambition is to become the Queen of Tarts. Ok, maybe just the tart queen of Arizona. At the very least the tart queen of my block.
So, for Chocolate Friday, I'm doing Chocolate Marshmallow Tarts, a recipe that began life on the Hershey's Kitchens website, modified to suit my taste, of course. It is now dangerously decadent. No really, I mean it. If your eyeballs aren't jiggling after you eat one of these tarts, I'll eat my ... hmm ... crown.
UPDATE: I had to modify the recipe. It was too rich and sweet, even for me, and that's saying something. Taking into account how sweet the marshmallow creme is, I reduced it, added whipped cream.
Chocolate Marshmallow Tarts
2/3 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
1/4 cup milk
1/4 tsp almond extract
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 cup Marshmallow creme
1/4 cup whipped cream
6 (4 oz. pkg.) mini graham cracker crumb tart crusts
Optional Topping:
Whipped cream, fresh fruit, or maraschino cherries or chilled cherry pie filling or slivered almonds
Directions:
1. Place chocolate chips, milk and sugar in small microwave-safe bowl. Microwave at HIGH (100%) 1 minute or until milk is hot and chips melt when stirred. With wire whisk or rotary beater, beat until mixture is smooth; stir in vanilla and almond extract. Cool to room temperature.
2. Whip cream. Stir whipped cream and marshmallow cream together. Fold chocolate mixture into the cream/creme mixture and stir briefly, but leave some separation and "striping". Spoon or pipe into crusts. If you're a good piper, you could really do something beautimous with the striping effect of the brown and white. I just poured it in, impatient girl that I am.
3. Cover; refrigerate until set. Top and garnish as desired. Makes approximately 6 servings.
Note: You can make the graham cracker crust yourself, but I found these Keebler mini-tart shells already pre-made at the grocery store. They're about 3 inches in diameter. I tried them with the lemon curd because it sounded good but ... not so much. Chocolate filling with graham cracker crust is MUCH better. It's a lot like a s'more!
Pictures coming soon! Enjoy!
My brother's work brings him all kinds of little perks - leftover stuff, forgotten stuff - and all this stuff gets shared with us, his grateful fambly. In this case, it was leftover promotional materials in the form of little silver tins. What was inside? Chocolate covered sunflower seeds!
I 'm totally addicted to these colorful little bombshells.
I have to say, as promotional materials go, chocolate is one of the best. If you're in the market for this kind of thing, pass right by the t-shirts and ball caps. Give the heave-ho to the pens and mouse pads. Go for the chocolate. You can get chocolate covered sunflower seeds in a variety of shapes and containers from any one of the many promotional product companies out there. Check here and here and here, for instance. Some of them will let you customize the colors for specific holidays or events! And this place offers all kinds of chocolate and candy promotional products.
I'm almost tempted to get something like this for my own business. I could hand them out at development meetings, I guess. But since I don't go to trade shows, or other public type marketing events ... who would eat all that chocolate?
Heh.
Ok, maybe I'll just save some money and buy via the regular route.
The cold weather and rain here really puts me in the mood for hot cocoa. While searching for good hot chocolate recipes, I stumbled across this wonderful chocolate blog I just have to share! Chocolate Obsession, written by chocoholic William Kinder, offers "news reviews and thoughts on the most perfect of foods". Lots to read here, but what caught my eye today was the whole series of hot chocolate reviews that are way-read-worthy.
To you get you ready for the reviews, William first offers his own recipe which stands - heh - as the standard by which all other hot chocolates shall be judged:
Chocolate Obsession's Hot Chocolate
2 oz high quality dark chocolate finely chopped
8 oz heavy whipping cream
6 oz whole milk
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 tablespoons confectioners’ sugar
Optional:
Cinnamon, other miscellaneous spices
Liqueur of choice
Go here for the complete destructions. This is not a "quicky" recipe. But it promises to be scrummy.
William - can I call you Bill, you feel like such a kindred spirit - then proceeds to offer 12 days of Xmas hot chocolate reviews, from the powdered mix Bellagio Chocolate Truffle Gourmet Hot Cocoa, to Jacques Torres Wicked Hot Chocolate, to the all-natural Omanhene Peppermint Hot Cocoa. TWELVE! Pretty cool.
Go here for the category where all reviews are posted.
Gak. I just realized I'm out of milk. Disastrous!
I bought some white chocolate creme liqueur to try. Is it too early for a toddy? Can I sip my lunch?
Did you know our traditional holiday egg nog began as "Egg and Grog in a Noggin"? According to Saint Margaret Mary:
... 
It became customary for a community’s young men to go “wassailing” on New Years Day. They visited the houses of their family, friends and the town’s elite, receiving at each abode a bit of meat and an alcoholic drink. The wealthy benefactors were obliged to share their bounty in order to win the loyalty of the lower class and preserve the social structure, so the young men sang and made merry, becoming more and more inebriated after each visit. The man who completed his holiday rounds was revered by his intoxicated peers.
In this precursor to Christmas caroling, the drink most often served was the Tom and Jerry — a frothy potion made from egg, milk, brandy and spices.
...
Except for holiday wassailing, the drink was confined to the upper class in England; poor London-folk could rarely afford milk. In America, however, farms and dairies were plentiful, and the drink gained popularity and a new name — eggnog.
The word “noggin” was used in 1500s Europe to denote a small, carved wooden drinking vessel, and the word “grog,” often used in Australia, typically denoted a rum-and-water drink. “Egg and grog in a noggin” was a mouthful, and the name was shortened.
Be that as it may, I wanted to share a couple of interesting recipes I found, variations on tradition, to be sure, but interesting none-the-less. First is a modified recipe, originally posted on about.com's coffee/tea section, for coffee grog. I added chocolate, a splash of orange flavored vodka, and voila. Not for the faint of heart.
Chocolate Orange Coffee Grog
3 cups coffee
1/2 cup heavy cream
1 cup brown sugar
4 ounces melted dark chocolate
2 tbs butter, softened
1/4 tsp cloves, ground
1/4 tsp nutmeg, ground
1/4 tsp cinnamon, ground
Peel of 1 orange
Peel of 1 lemon
1-2 jiggers orange vodka
Melt chocolate. Break fruit peels into 6 pieces, each. Place one piece of each into cups. Blend butter, sugar, cloves, nutmeg, chocolate and cinnamon in a small bowl. Mix coffee and cream together with the spice mixture.
Serve into 6 cups with whipped topping if desired.
Second, a recipe I haven't tried yet, but it's up next. Can't remember where the recipe came from. I'll let you know how it turns out.
Chocolate Egg Nog
1 cup milk
1 1/2 cups chocolate milk
5 eggs
1/4 cup brown sugar (packed)
1/2 cup whipping cream
1/2 cup Kahlua (or strong coffee)
1/2 cup dark rum
1/2 tsp ground cinammon
Combine milk and chocolate milk in a saucepan and scald (do not boil). In another bowl, beat eggs and sugar together until thick. Add about 1/2 cup of the hot milk to the egg mixture and mix through. Then stir the egg mixture back into the hot milk, and place over low heat.
Add whipping cream and Kahlua. Cook and stir until mixture thickens. Do not boil. Remove from heat and add rum and cinnamon. Let cool and refrigerate until chilled. Serve with a sprinkling of grated chocolate and nutmeg.
There, now you're all ready for Christmas wassailing with grog and nog. Merry merry!
Don't forget to get your last minute Christmas recipes in to the Carnival!!
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