Thank to everyone who took the time to offer thoughts and feedback on new Exotic Candy Bar flavors. After a tally, it seems that the smoked salt, stout and lardon caramel with 70% dark chocolate received the highest number of votes followed by the toffee and banana in deep, milk chocolate. I will certainly be thinking of all of you and your ideas as I hone the recipes and make final selections for the fall!

The randomly chosen winners will receive an email soon so we may secure your address and treat you to some chocolate! Congratulations to Saralyn, Aaron, Shana, Monica and Carrie.

Flush the Toxins with this Blueberry Chocolate Tonic
Throughout the year, I regularly enjoy cleanses of various sorts to detoxify my body and jump start my energy. I feel so revived and alive after focusing on my spirit and health. Along with a physical cleanse comes mental clarity which is always followed by bursts of creativity and presence.

This blueberry chocolate tonic was first developed to coincide with the yoga + chocolate program we do with David Romanelli of Yeah Dave yoga. We designed a yoga + chocolate gift box that included truffles to correspond with yoga poses and a booklet to guide your journey, which featured a recipe or two.

Both blueberries and chocolate are loaded with health benefits. AND, they are both tasty too – a win-win! According to the Blueberry Council, the berries are high in vitamin C, a good source of dietary fiber and rank among the highest in antioxidant properties. Antioxidants help fight cancer, cardiovascular disease and possibly even Alzheimer’s.

Another food high in antioxidants? Dark chocolate of course! Dark chocolate is loaded with flavanoids and is considered a superfood. And if you haven’t read it yet, chocolate also stimulates endorphins giving you a sense of pleasure.

Are you half way off your chair, on your way out to buy the ingredients for this magical, delectable potion? Though it can’t cure all ills, it will push you in the right direction.

Blueberry Chocolate Tonic

Prep Time: 5 minutes
Serves: 2

2 cups blueberries; cold
2 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
1½ cups almond or oat milk; cold
2 tsp flaxseed oil
21/2 tsp manuka honey or agave

Place all ingredients in a blender and blend on high for about 30 seconds. Drink immediately or the pectin in the blueberry seeds will make a pudding rather quickly.

For extra health benefits add 1 tsp licorice root powder.

Suggested pairing: Sip the blueberry tonic with our Absinthe truffle (Chinese star anise + fennel + pastis + dark chocolate + cocoa powder).

Up the Ante on your Game Day Popcorn

Many of the best recipes and inventions are those that creep up on you and nearly invent themselves. A few days ago, a fantastic, red headed, spicy mama-to-be friend of mine was over and as we popped Red Fire Toffee morsels, conversation somehow led us to the upcoming Superbowl. (hearts are broken around here as our Bears head to their cave for hibernation…

I’ll admit, I am a bit of a closet football fan. And, like most gatherings, it is a great reason to socialize with friends and eat really delectable and sometimes junky things. It must have been the conversation of football merging with the sensations in my mouth and my love of bringing up the high on the low food… all of a sudden I felt that the Red Fire Toffee had to be tossed together with hot buttery, salted popcorn.  I jumped up, grabbed my Indiana forged, Whirley Pop popper and set those kernels a-bursting! It must have been the spicy red head influence.

The key to this recipe is to toss the fresh and hot popcorn with melted salted butter and then immediately follow with roughly chopped toffee while it is still steaming so it begins to melt into the corn dispersing it’s chili-spiked, cinnamon toast notes all around. The slightly melted chocolate and toffee will marry with the popcorn forming a heavenly salty, sweet, crunchy snack that is SO good, it just might steal the attention from the game.

Red Fire Toffee Popcorn
Makes 12-15 cups

2/3 cup corn kernels
2 Tablespoons canola oil
1/2 cup salted butter (or add 3/4 tsp Maldon salt to unsalted butter)
1/2 pound Red Fire Toffee, roughly chopped (traditional Caramel Toffee or Bacon Toffee would be good too!)
Salt to taste if needed

Heat the oil in a stove top popcorn popper or pan. Add the kernels and cover. Keep the popcorn moving to avoid burning. Melt the butter. Pour the butter over the hot popcorn. Immediately add the Red Fire Toffee and toss to combine. Add additional salt to taste if needed.

Thank you to all my chocolate comrades for taking the time to send your Valentine’s wishes and desires. It is such a pleasure to use this blog as a portal of creative exchange with you.  i am inspired by much of what you said, especially mango butter cream! Also, many of your mention Le chocolat en Rose truffle collection, the best way to eat this is drop the beauty in the bottom of your champagne glass, sip until you get near the finale bubbles then take a bite. The champagne soaks into the dried rose petals and makes this experience even more sumptuous. And now getting to the creme, I have randomly selected SIX people to receive a Flaming Heart by mail. We will be in touch to get your addresses!

Kara, Justine, Katherine, Mara M, Irene and Robin: You’ll be indulging soon.

xxx
katrina

Thank you all for you comments and interest in the Collection of Zion truffles. Adrianne Kautz is the one who will be nibbling her way through Jamaica’s favorite flavors. You’ll get an email this week to arrange shipping information. Merci!

Chocolate Parmesan Tapioca with Scallops

I have long been drawn to the possible combination of seafood and chocolate. The match seems unlikely and thus it captures my imagination like wildfire.

I believe that most edibles have a chocolate mate. And, I am fueled by the challenge so the prospect of devising a scrumptious seafood recipe has been at the top of my list. Some sea creatures are hearty enough to stand up to chocolate in a nice way, the flavor is even augmented. But be wary of the oily fish that if combined will cause a raucous of yuck.

This recipe is a study in balance: a soft bed of bubbly, parmesan and chocolate tapioca support the crispy, caramelized scallop topped with jagged shards of bittersweet chocolate, a drizzle of sweetened acidity in the balsamic must, and a sprinkle of crimson smoked paprika.

Serve just one scallop per person as a starter or alongside a crisp arugula salad as a first course. Since taking the photo, I decided that some pickled shallots should be added as a finishing touch – try it and let me know if I am right!

Chocolate Parmesan Tapioca with Scallops
Servings: 6

2 ¾ milk
½ cup large tapioca
1 tsp kosher salt
3 ½ ounces Resihi Mushroom dark chocolate bar, 65%
1 tbsp cocoa powder
¼ cup coconut
2 egg yolks
½ cup Parmesan cheese, grated
black peppercorns, freshly milled medium size grain

12 large scallops

Accouterments:
smoked paprika
balsamic must
pickled shallots

Heat milk to warm add tapioca and salt. Continue heating until small bubbles appear on the perimeter of the pan. Cover, turn heat to very low and cook for one hour or until soft. Stir in egg yolks and chocolate an cook until very thick about 15 minutes. Add Parmesan.

Scallops:
Place saute pan on stove high heat, add grape seed or canola oil (any high flash point oil will work). When hot season, season scallops with salt and pepper and sear on each side for 1 1/2 minutes per side.

Serve ¼ cup of tapioca for every 2 scallops. Garnish with a sprinkle of smoked paprika. A drizzle of balsamic must. A sprinkle of Reishi mushroom organic dark chocolate shards and pickled shallot on top.

Thank you dearest readers not only for your comments, but your thoughtful insight regarding your love of either chocolate, caramel.. or both!  Blogging has offered such a wonderful opportunity for me to connect with other chocolate lovers and I will certainly be keeping your thoughts in mind as I stir, mix, cast and concoct my upcoming chocolate and caramel creations.  Through a random number generator, Karen was chosen as the winner of the new bars.  We will be in contact to send you your caramel-filled Exotic Candy Bars.

Peace, love, chocolate and caramel,

Katrina

I have been pondering and recently decided that chocolate and caramel lovers live in different houses.  Maison du Chocolat might be a neighbor of Maison du Caramel but I think that each person ultimately resides in one abode or the other.  It was the inhabitants of the caramel household that were on my mind when creating the new caramel filled Exotic Candy Bars that we recently launched.

For the first time, our new collection includes two caramel-filled bars. Though all four new Exotic Candy Bars are like my new children and I can hardly choose a favorite, the Vosgiennes have been clamoring the loudest for the Black Salt Caramel Bar.  Dark Hawaiian sea salt is infused into burnt sugar caramel and awaits inside  70% cacao.

The Blood Orange Caramel bar pays homage to one of my favorites, Tarte from the Exotic Caramel Collection which includes Campari and blood orange burnt sugar caramel with a touch of hibiscus in 70% dark chocolate. This flavor combination is close to my heart as I first sipped a blood orange Campari cocktail in Florence on Valentine’s Day. Once you try this bar, you too may fall in love.

May I treat you? I will gladly ship each of these bars to a lucky reader.  Are you one of the caramel lovers of the world? Just leave any comment about your love of chocolate or caramel on this post.  Next week, I will randomly choose a winner and send these caramel-filled beauties to your door.

p.s. Due to international shipping restrictions, the winner must provide an address in the United States.

Turning Scraps into Treasures

There is waste and then there is waste.  Perhaps you can relate based on your own kitchen experience.  Scraps of pie dough in the oven with butter and sugar?  Discovery of sauteed beet root greens? In the Vosges Haut-Chocolat kitchen things melt, break, and get trimmed.  Yummy things that create yummy waste.

One of our most popular comfort foods, the Caramel Marshmallows were born out of desire to make a use for a yummy by-product.  We make our crunchy Caramel Toffee in sheets and then coat is with milk chocolate and then sprinkle on walnuts and pecans.  In order to sell bite-sized portions, we then break the toffee into chunks. When breaking this coated toffee, a small rain shower of crumbled nuts touched with chocolate that haven’t fully secured to the toffee.  At first, we all took turns bringing home bags of toffee crumble, as we called it, to sprinkle over ice cream.  But, as production grew, we had more crumble than we could use.

A brainstorm session led to the idea of marshmallows, then we considered caramel and then of course… I had to coat it all in chocolate.  Perched proudly on top, crowning our new Caramel Marshmallow creations, the leftover toffee crumble found its day in the sun.

The top photograph showing snacks of buttery, soft fresh caramel  is a common one in our kitchen when we make our Exotic Caramels and Wink of the Rabbit Caramels.  Batches are made in our old copper kettle (never more than 120 pounds at a time.)

We then pour the caramel on trays to cool.  After it is room temperature, we measure the caramels and cut them by hand, one-by-one into a perfect bite-sized morsel.  The by-product of our equally sized cut caramels is a pile of edges.  Our tray of caramels is brought to the enrober where the bites go under a chocolate waterfall, coating them in either milk or dark chocolate.  While the chocolate is still wet, we sprinkle freshly ground spices or organic nuts on top.

So, we find our way to my conundrum.  These piles of caramel scraps call to me.  Some are eaten of course.  But do they have a path to better ending?  Might they be as lucky as the toffee crumble and find their day in the sun?  What would YOU do with these caramel scraps?

Anxiously awaiting your ideas,

Katrina