Dark and milk chocolate-covered treats; the best to buy and recipes to try!

When you crave a snack, do you search all your cupboards and see all sorts of snacks, but suddenly find yourself depressed because none of them are covered in chocolate? 

If that sounds like you, here are some delicious chocolate-covered treats that I recently discovered, as well as some suggestions for making your own chocolate-covered whatchamacallits.

Organic Traditions Dark Chocolate Hazelnuts.  I bought these at a little health food store and they are fantastic.  By no means are these sweet because the chocolate is rich, dark and the hazelnuts are just lightly coated in chocolate and then rolled in cocoa powder.  This was more of a healthy mid-morning snack or possibly a pre-workout pick-me-up that also satisfies your dark chocolate craving.

Starbucks Salted Almond Chocolate Bites.  These are dark-chocolate coated almonds with a hint of saltiness that pairs perfectly with the sweetness of the dark chocolate.  I keep trying to get a photo of these, but on the last three trips to Starbucks (which is not often these days for a rural girl like me), I have eaten the almond package faster than I can get to my camera!


Organic chocolate-covered cacao nibs at Bulk Barn.  I am not sure who the confectioner is for this product, as they were
sold in bulk, but they were bitter & slightly sweet at the same time, with a nice crunchy kick.

Chocolate-covered pieces of Coconut.  Another Bulk Barn treat sold in bins, this snack is also a filler and a healthy alternative to a Mounds bar, if you are a chocolate & coconut fanatic.

An even better chocolate and coconut treat is the Dark Chocolate Covered Macaroon at Manitoulin Chocolate Works in Kagawong, Ontario.  I ate two of these last weekend!  They are light and fluffy and covered in a rich semi-sweet dark chocolate.




When you cannot find chocolate covered treats, do what I do - cover your treats in Chocolate!


Here are some recipes:

Milk Chocolate-Covered Rice Krispie Treats

All you need to do here is find a great milk chocolate (I used Camino's Organic and Fair Trade 41% Milk Chocolate Couverture), melt and temper it, and dip small squares of Rice Krispie in it! Here is the link to the original rice treat recipe.

Chocolate-Covered, Gluten-Free Cornbread: What?!?

This cornbread is yogurt-based and slightly sweet, so it pairs nicely with a milk chocolate.

You need:

• 1 cup rice flour or gluten-free flour mix (can also be made with spelt flour and regular unbleached all-purpose flour, if you are not worried about gluten).
• 3/4 cup yellow cornmeal
• 1 1/4 cup plain yogurt (I have used fat-free, 2% and 3%)
• 1 tbsp. organic cane sugar or coconut sugar
• 1 to 2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp sea salt
• 1 egg, beaten
• 2 tbsp. butter, melted

Instructions:
1. Grease a muffin pan with butter.
2. Preheat your oven to 450 degrees F (230 Celsius).
3. Stir or whisk together all the dry ingredients in a medium bowl.
4.  In a separate bowl or measuring cup, whisk together the eggs and yogurt.
5. Add the moist ingredients to the dry ingredients and stir until mixed.  Add the melted butter and stir a few times.
6. Pour batter into the muffin pan, filling each muffin cup about halfway.
7. Bake for 14 minutes and check.  To check 'doneness', insert a knife into the pan and if it comes out clean it is done. If not done, place back in oven for three minute intervals until they are golden on top and fully cooked.

Dip in chocolate!
These cornbread muffins taste amazing warm, but if you are willing to wait, let each cool on a cooling rack.  Meanwhile, melt and temper about 8 to 12 ounces of milk chocolate. I melt 8 ounces of milk chocolate to 115 degrees (while stirring a LOT!) in the microwave for 2 minutes on half power, or over a double boiler, then, after removing it from the double boiler and drying the bottom of the bowl, I toss in another three or four ounces of the same chocolate and stir until I reach a temperature of 86 degrees.  The chocolate should be in temper at this point. It should be shiny, easy to stir and have no lumps.

Dip the bottom half of each cornbread muffin in the chocolate.  Let some chocolate drip back into the bowl and place right-side-up on a piece of wax paper.  Pour some tempered chocolate into a plastic snack bag and cut a small hole in the corner.  Squeeze the chocolate out of the bag and create lines or a pattern of your choice on top of the cornbread to decorate it.  (If your chocolate has cooled, just rewarm in the microwave for 5 seconds to get it back to the correct temperature).

Since this cornbread tastes best on the day it is made, plan to make these the same day as you serve them. They are healthy, but also have enough of a sweetness to pair nicely with an afternoon cup of tea or an after-dinner decaffeinated coffee or cappuccino.


Here are a few links to other "chocolate-covered" recipes that I have posted on this blog:

Chocolate Poppers and Chocolate-Covered Popcorn
Chocolate-Dipped Shortbread Cookies

Here is another article on a fantastic dark chocolate-covered snack:

Chocolate-covered cacao beans by Camino

Chocolate Cake that Looks Nothing Like Chocolate Cake

Chocolate is my first passion, but making chocolaty cakes that look and taste fantastic is a close second. May was a very busy month for cake orders, so I thought I would share some of the cakes that I have created.

When I was asked to make a Star Wars cake for a boy's 7th birthday party, Darth Vader immediately came to mind as being the coolest, darkest figure that could be created out of cake.  So this was my first attempt at a 3D Darth Vader cake.  The head is made of Rice Krispie treats, molded and covered in black fondant.  The body is a three-layer Moist Chocolate Cake with Peanut Butter Buttercream and Organic/Fair Trade Milk Chocolate Chunks, covered in black fondant.  I used a silver edible cake spray to get the silver accents and the overall glisten and shine on the head and face.  I went with a more current Darth Vader look since the birthday boy is only seven and likely more familiar with the newer look of Darth Vader than the older version. 

So what did I learn from making Darth Vader? Well, although I think he looks great, I would have had slightly cleaner lines over his eyes and made his eyes larger and darker. I also realize that to get a more realistic look on any 3D 'head' figure, I need to learn some woodworking so I can create cake stands with built-in support for the heavy upper-section (Darth Vader had a neck at one point, but the head was threatening to fall over, so I had to remove his neck). But overall, I think it turned out well and my client was pleased.

I made a 'Monster Truck Cake' for a client last week. Using that same trusty old Rice Krispie recipe, I created the insides of the truck and the wheels.  I glued the wheels onto the truck with dark chocolate (did you know that chocolate makes the perfect edible 'glue'?) and covered the truck in orange-flavoured fondant.  The wheels were covered in a vanilla-flavoured black fondant.

The cake itself was a chocolate cake with a chocolate buttercream icing. I only use Organic and Fair Trade chocolate and cocoa powder, unbleached wheat flour, real butter, real vanilla, sour cream and cream.

So what did I learn with this creation?  Rice treats can warp in the middle, so when making a thin truck bed, a lollipop stick is needed to support the full length of the truck.  Luckily, I figured that out before I covered it in fondant.  Another option for supporting the middle of the truck bed would have been to dip the entire rice treat in chocolate. That would have hardened and supported the truck, but a lot of chocolate would have been needed for that!

In mid-May I made a Race Car cake. In this case, the client preferred less fondant, so I decorated this one in a vanilla buttercream, but made the accents, like the cars and race track, out of fondant. The interior of the cake is chocolate (what else?) layered with chocolate buttercream and organic milk chocolate chunks.


I was very happy with the result of this cake.  I am used to attaching fondant decorations to a fondant-covered cake, and recalled that the previous time I had difficulty in getting clean lines on the cake because of the soft buttercream.  This time I figured out that refrigerating the buttercream until it is hard, just prior to attaching fondant decorations, makes working with it a lot easier and clean lines can be accomplished.

Some other cakes that I made this month include a Nautical Theme Cake, a small wedding cake with a cupcake display and several buttercream cakes.  A few examples can be seen here and below.


You can also visit Facebook to see more of the custom cakes that I have done in the past. My business, Ultimately Chocolate, is located on Manitoulin Island in Ontario, Canada.

I am now ramping up for the summer wedding cake season.  It should be fun!






Whipped dark chocolate ganache surrounding a of milk chocolate truffle centre make these chocolate cupcakes ideal for any chocoholic.

And real Vanilla Buttercream on double-chocolate cake tastes fantastic and adds a wedding flair to a cake and cupcake display.

Seedless Raspberry Buttercream and Dark Chocolate Truffle add a punch of favour to this moist chocolate cake.

A Dark and Delicious Gift for a Chocolate-Loving Mom

What is the BEST EVER gift that a chocolate-lover can receive on Mother's Day?  SOMA chocolate!  Last week, I received a surprise shipment of very fine chocolate from Toronto-based Soma Chocolatemaker.  I was delighted to find three dark chocolate bars and a box of truffles from one of Canada's finest chocolate makers.

I was excited about Soma's Green Tangerine chocolate bar - one of the best flavoured bars that I've tasted.  Also, Soma's 'Black Science' Trinidad chocolate bar and Madagascar chocolate bars were a perfect gift for me because I love to taste and compare the two origin chocolates. And Soma's 8 year Aged Balsamic Vinegar truffle and their Olive Oil truffle were also included in the box of filled chocolates, which are two of my favourites.

But mostly, I was excited to find a new chocolate bar that I have not yet tried of Soma's, a new blended bean bar called 'Abstract Chocolate Science'.  It has 82% cacao solids and a blend of beans sourced from four countries, plus large pieces of cacao beans from Madagascar were thrown in for some added crunch and cacao flavour.

This chocolate bar is intense, woody, smoky and also full of that disctinct flavour of Madagascar cacao. What's more, it does not have the bitterness that often comes with an 80-something percent chocolate - even a seventy-percent chocolate lover like me can appreciate it. I absolutely love it.

So next time you need a gift for that chocolate connoisseur in your life, check out Soma (www.somachocolate.com).  Their selection is vast and their flavours are excellent.  What's more, they make the chocolate directly from the bean in Canada!

Great Canadian Maple and Chocolate Combinations

We Canadians know our maple.  We have the maple leaf on our flag, our largest city has an NHL hockey team by the name, and Wikipedia calls it the "national symbol of Canada", claiming the maple tree was once called "the king of our forest" (ref).  So naturally, we consider the maple tree's syrup to be our national (and natural) sweetener. 

And since I am a chocolate lover who also happens to be Canadian, I feel it is my job to share information on all great chocolate bars with real Canadian maple. Today I have two kinds that I recently discovered, and of course they both come from the province of Quebec, which some may consider the maple capital our country.

Theobroma Chocolat makes organic chocolate in uniquely packaged 35 gram chocolate bars. I have tasted nearly every one of their fantastic flavours (raspberry - yum! banana, pineapple and more), but just a few days ago, I came across their 'Sweet Maple Butter' chocolate bar.  This bar offers about five or six breakable pieces of 60% dark chocolate with a small dollop of maple butter in the centre of each piece.  The shell is thick with dark chocolate and the sweetness of the maple butter comes as a surprise.  However, the amount of maple butter is just small enough to not be overpowering.  In fact, I think it is just the right amount to provide the full maple flavour without it being too sweet.

What I like about this chocolate is that there are only five ingredients (cocoa mass, cocoa butter, sugar cane, maple butter, and soy lecithin) which are natural and all organic, except for the soya lecithin.  There is no added vanilla and there are no artificial flavours or colours.

The other maple chocolate bar is made by Olivia Chocolat.  This bean-to-bar artisan chocolate maker has a selection of fine chocolate bars with maple, including "a touch of maple" chocolate bar and a touch of maple "with maple sugar flakes" chocolate bar.  Also, they recently launched a raw chocolate bar line which includes a very bitter 92% chocolate bar that is partially sweetened with maple sugar. I have tasted this one; it is thin and delicate, and offers a nice hint of maple flavour.  So if you can handle a very dark chocolate in the 90% range, I highly recommend Olivia's 92% Maple Raw chocolate bar (order here).

Both chocolate bars are Gluten-free.  Check out their websites for more information on these products:
www.theobromachocolat.com/
www.oliviachocolatiers.com

If you know of any great Canadian maple and chocolate combinations, feel free to add them to the Comments below!

Gluten-Free Crepe Recipe (with Chocolate!)

I love to experiment with grains.  The reason?  Well, when I look into my daughter's lunch box, all I see is wheat, wheat and more wheat, and I think, "no wonder there are so many gluten and wheat intolerance's". I truly think we have overdone it. 

Most people that I know who are in their 30s can compare and recall eating all the same snacks and lunches: Ritz crackers, cheese and crackers, peanut butter and jam sandwiches.  But nowadays, there are so many different kinds of snacks on the ever-expanding grocery store shelves, that our children will likely not be able to agree on which snack item was the most popular.  Even all the main brands of cookies and crackers now come in "minis" and are pre-packaged for lunches. 

In addition, our choices are now limited because we can no longer send anything with nuts in it to school (nor anything that "May contain" nuts); so wheat-based products are the easiest option. Also, no one is baking Rice Krispie squares anymore because nearly all the moms are working and have limited time to bake. I work from home and seem to constantly be cleaning, child-rearing or working and I have no time for baking wheat-free snacks except on the weekends.

So I like to change things up on the weekend, and give my kids a breakfast or lunch with non-wheat foods, just to ensure that they are not overdoing it with any one type of grain.

As a result, I have been converting a lot of crepe recipes to 'gluten-free'. Crepes can be made quickly and easily, and the lack of wheat is not noticed by my kids. The best one I found that converted easily to gluten-free was the Homemade Crepes recipe, which was in the Chatelaine Magazine this month (May 2013, Page 109).  The recipe called for all-purpose flour, so I modified the recipe and used a gluten-free flour mix. The results were perfect! The best part about this recipe, was that you could not taste the grittiness that often occurs with gluten-free flour blends because the recipe was rich with eggs and milk (so rich in protein, which is great for the kids!).

RECIPE: Gluten-Free Crepes - All Natural and Delicious!
(adapted from Chatelaine Magazine, May 2013 issue, www.chatelaine.com)

You need:

• 2 eggs
• 2/3 cup milk (any percentage - I used skim once and homogenized another time)
• 1/2 cup Gluten-Free Flour Mix (I used a brand called "Purely Bulk", which also has Chia and Sprouted Flaxseed in it or you can use rice flour or spelt flour, which is non-gluten free but still non-wheat)
• 1 tbsp Grapeseed Oil, Canola Oil, or melted butter
• 1 tsp granulated sugar or agave syrup
• 1 tsp vanilla

Instructions:

1. Heat a non-stick frying pan over medium-high heat.

2. Whisk eggs in a medium or large bowl.  Add in the milk, gluten-free flour, oil, sugar and vanilla and whisk or blend with hand mixer until there are no lumps.

3. Pour 1/2 cup batter into the centre of the hot pan.  Immediately spread around into a circle with a spatula or lift the pan and tilt in a circle until you have the shape that you want.

4. Cook only about 30 seconds until edges are lifting from pan and flip.  Cook only another 30 seconds or so until crepe is golden. Transfer to a plate.

5. Once the crepes are all on the plate and somewhat cooled, spread a large circle of chocolate spread (see below for the kind I used) and add a strip of all-natural peanut butter down the centre.  Roll up.  Alternately, use a hazelnut spread like Nutella or PC brand (see below again for comparison of the two brands).

For the chocolate spread, I used President's Choice Dark Chocolate spread - they come in 400 gram jars and the ingredients are pretty natural with no 'modified' or 'hydrogenated' oils and real vanilla extract (no artificial flavour or colours!).  On top of the dark chocolate spread on some of the crepes, I added some MaraNatha No Stir Peanut Butter (this is not a paid plug for them, it is just my FAVOURITE peanut butter EVER and I eat it every day because it is all natural and partially organic and SO smooth). But another choice is the President's Choice Chocolate Hazelnut Spread.  Compared to Nutella, I prefer PC's product because it does not contain any 'modified' oils and it has real Bourbon vanilla. Nutella's ingredients include Modified Palm Oil and Vanillin, which is artificial flavouring. Again, this is not a paid endorsement for PC, my kids liked Nutella so I searched for a healthier solution and PC's Hazenut Spread came out on top with their ingredients.

And of coure, you can always just make this recipe with wheat (just replace the gluten-free flour above with all-purpose flour), and you can also make this a meal by filling the crepes with chicken, lettuce and veggies or an egg and cheese, or whatever you like!

You can contact me at ultimatechocolateblog@gmail.com if you have any questions about the recipe above or feel free to leave a comment below.

Using Cacao Nibs to Make Chocolate at Home

Whole cacao beans are not always easy for the average consumer to find.  And when you do find them, the beans need to be shelled, which is a messy process that may leave you vacuuming your kitchen for a week. So one way to make chocolate 'from the bean' in your own kitchen is to use cacao nibs.  These are considerably easy to find compared to whole beans, and the shells have been removed, so you will have less of a mess to clean up after you have made your home-made chocolate.

I have recently used three brands of cacao nibs that are readily available in stores (and online). Giddy Yoyo (Toronto), Camino and Organic Traditions.

Giddy Yoyo sells Wild Ecuadorian Heirloom Cacao in 454 gram (1 lb) bags, which is the largest package size that I have found in stores (at HomeSense). The flavour was mild and not too acidic. Giddy Yoyo also makes and sells raw chocolate and promotes a raw food lifestyle. I made chocolate from these raw cacao nibs once, then I roasted them to taste the flavour difference.  Truthfully, I preferred the roasted flavour of my homemade chocolate best (see below for roasting instructions).

Camino sells 100 gram bags of organic and Fair Trade cacao nibs that come from Peru. Also raw, these nibs were tangy and acidic and offered a lot of bold flavour to my homemade chocolate. Once roasted, they also made for a great snack 'as is', if you can get used to the flavour of unsweetened nibs. Camino is available in many stores across Canada, like Loblaws and Superstore and these nibs can also be purchased online. I bought three cases!

Organic Traditions offers nibs in 227 gram (1/2 lb) bags. Also a little acidic, these are probably the most widely available in Ontario; I have found them at both Independent Grocer and HomeSense.  With an unspecified origin, the packaging lists these nibs as organic. They are also raw.

I have seen nibs at American grocery stores in the health food section and I am sure that a health food store in your area would carry them.  Or you can purchase nibs in both small and large quantities from Nuts.com (1 lb, 5 lb and 20 lb bags).  They also sell peeled cacao beans, although they are more expensive and basically the same thing.  Also, Nuts.com sells a Criollo variety of unpeeled cacao beans.  While you are on their website, check out the cacao butter selection.  Cacao butter is not easy to find, but you may want to add some while making chocolate to 'grease' your mixing equipment.

Where else you can buy cacao nibs online? Navitas Naturals Online sells 4 oz, 8 oz and 16 oz bags. In Canada, Upaya Naturals sells a Sunfood brand online. For people on the other side of the world, Life Foods - a New Zealand website also sells cacao nibs.

Roasting Instructions for Cacao Nibs
To roast cacao nibs, pre-heat your oven to 300 F.  Spread the nibs out on a cookie sheet and bake for 12 to 15 minutes (check them at 12 minutes and stir to ensure that the smallest pieces are not burning).  Take them out of the oven when they start to smell like baked brownies.

Quick Recipe for Making Chocolate at Home from Cacao Nibs (62% dark chocolate):

1. Grind 4 oz of roasted (or raw if you prefer) cacao nibs in a small, single blade coffee grinder.  Pour into a bowl and set aside.
2. Grind 2 ounces of dry sugar crystals (coconut or cane sugar) in the same coffee grinder.  Add the scraping of one vanilla bean if you like and grind with the sugar. Add to the bowl with the cacao beans.
3. Pour the ground cacao beans, sugar and vanilla bean into a dry blender. Start to blend on high.  Let mix for a few minutes. 
4. Meanwhile, melt about a 1/2 ounce of cacao butter over a double boiler or in the microwave (for 2 minutes on half power).  Add to the blender.  You will notice your chocolate becoming liquid as your blender warms up and the warm cocoa butter also begins to melt your chocolate.
5. Ensure that your blender is not overheating.  Turn on and off if it is and try to blend for about 10 minutes in total. 

If you have a thermometer and your chocolate is about 90 degrees F, then pour it into a chocolate mold (or a small square pan or plastic container if you do not have molds) - you may get lucky and it will be in temper! If your chocolate is a bit white-ish or streaky once cooled, you will need to temper it. Since you are making your own chocolate from scratch, you will not be able to use the 'seed' method to temper it. Here is a website that has excellent instructions to temper chocolate over an ice bath: http://www.healthyseasonalrecipes.com/cherry-almond-chocolate-bark/.

For choosing molds, I find the thinner the pieces, the better the taste since your chocolate will be a little gritty still (you need some fancy and expensive equipment if you want to make smooth chocolate at home).

Contact me at ultimatechocolateblog@gmail.com if you have any concerns with your homemade chocolate project or this recipe. Good luck!

Bite-Sized Delights

When you need a little pick-me up, where do you turn?  I turn to chocolate, of course.  But opening up a 100-gram chocolate bar is not necessarily the best thing to do when our energy levels are at their lowest, because we are most likely to eat the entire bar in one sitting (precisely what the manufacturers want from us, despite their marks in the bars to make it 'easier' to break off small pieces!) and then we feel worse both mentally and physically because we've overdone it. So I love it when chocolate comes pre-packaged in bite-sized portions.

Apparently this is the time of year to cut out unnecessary indulgences, if you believe the numerous ads on television telling us that we have X-number of weeks left to drop five pounds in order to be beach-body ready for summer. But I say do not cut out, but rather, cut back! To me, this is the time of year to turn our attention to portion-controlled pieces of chocolate deliciousness.

Conveniently, I came across three different bite-sized portions of chocolate that would satisfy any chocolate lover's cravings during that 2:00 p.m. energy drop on a business day. The first were Saxon's 10 g bars of chocolate that came in two flavours: 70% Dark Chocolate with Sea Salt and Milk Chocolate Hazelnut. I liked both of those for different reasons. With the Hazelnut, I got that milk chocolate sweetness but with a boost of hazelnut protein and flavour. The 70% dark chocolate satisfied that side of me that says "stick with the dark stuff because it's healthier", but the salt added an extra flavour to make it stand out from the plain-Jane usual 70% chocolate that I eat. The other bite-sized chocolate was Ghirardelli's 10.6 gram 'Squares', which was nice because it covered my cravings for both sweet and bitter.

I found all three of these at Loco Beanz Coffee House in Little Current, Ontario. But Ghirardelli can be found all across the U.S. and you can buy it online: build a bag of 54 mini 'Squares' on their website with any mix of flavours that you choose. If you have these on hand, you can pack a square or two in your lunch bag every day. Smaller bags are also available. Saxon is available across Canada and in the U.S.; check their store locator for more information.

If you are trying to get your 'beach-body' back in time for summer, or just like your chocolate to be in portion-controlled packages, here are some other kinds of portion-controlled chocolate that I've found in the past:

• Lunch-bag friendly milk chocolate (Green & Blacks and Ritter Sport)
• Portion-controlled milk chocolate (Starbucks and Valor)
• Camino Snack Bars