In honor of the cold, wet, snowy, nasty weather, I am designating this week and next as Hot Chocolate Fortnight At The Tasty Show, which is 'officially' running from February 1 - February 14. So that means that I will be 'officially' trying out various hot chocolates with various pals for another 7 days or so. For each hot chocolate, I'll post details about the hot chocolate itself + a hot chocolate-related conclusion.

This week I tried two very different hot chocolates. Here are the two that I tried + two conclusions that we made:

Hot Chocolate at Flour Bakery
I had an entire page of notes that I wrote about the hot chocolate I had with Dan at Flour, but unfortunately I lost them. What I do remember is that it is rich but not overly sweet. And it's a little fluffy, which I liked. It is made with steamed whole milk and dark chocolate ganache. As you can see, I am smiling. We enjoyed our hot cuppa chocolate with a sugar-brushed brioche roll. They went incredibly well together! And it does help that Flour Bakery offers some of the best baked goods in Boston. I tried to take a pic on Dan's phonecam but I'm not sure it really does Flour's array of oven treats much justice (see pic above).

Conclusion [regarding hot chocolate + dessert pairing]
Hot chocolate is a dessert in itself, and should only be paired with something light and gentle. Rich, gently sweet, luxurious brioche does the trick.

Mexican Hot Chocolate at Tu Y Yo
The "Chocolate Caliente de Oaxaca" at Tu Y Yo was made with water rather than milk, & a pinch of cinnamon (but just a pinch) spiced up the deal. It comes in a little earthenware jug (which is great, because I've always liked mini versions of big things).The first and foremost thing we noticed about the Mexichocolate drink is that it was super light and a little watery. It wasn't rich at all. If you're looking for your hot chocolate to transport you to the land of sensual luxurious chocolate decadence with each sip, this hot drink would disappoint you. But if you've just enjoyed a rich, potentially exhausting meal (as we had) and you want to keep it light, then it is perfect. My friend Eric noted that it was much more like a chocolate tea than the thick (sometimes exhausting) hot chocolates we've had elsewhere.

Conclusion [regarding using water as a hot chocolate base]
Try making hot chocolate with water instead of milk for a refreshing hot drink that won't overload you. For a homegrown Mexican hot chocolate, check out Taza Chocolate's Mexicano. If you want to try a made-in-Mexico hot chocolate at home, try Ibarra.

I just added a new category to my blog. It's called "Best Day Ever." I added it in honor of this past Sunday, which was the best day ever. It was such a great day because I spent most of it either (a) in a car with seat warmers (b) eating chocolate (c) drinking beer or (d) eating ice cream - all things that I greatly enjoy.

First Stop: The Lake Champlain Chocolate Factory in Burlington Vermont.

So here's the thing, The Lake Champlain Chocolate Factory isn't really open on Sundays. But the Factory store is, so that's where we went. Lake Champlain is a fabulous company. While I was there, I sampled truffles (both their classic truffles and a newer, smaller line that uses more exotic flavors called Small World truffles that I haven't had before) and stocked up on 5 Star Bars, which are some of the most amazing candy bars I've ever had. Though I couldn't take a tour of the factory like I hoped, I did get to peek through the window and see where all the action happens (that's me peeking in the pic at left).

Second Stop: Magic Hat Brewery in South Burlington, Vermont

I got so drunk at the Magic Hat brewery that I forgot to take pictures. Just kidding. I only got a little bit drunk. But still, I forgot to take pictures so I'm including a nice picture of a Vermont tree instead. While I was at the brewery, I got to taste a bunch of beers that they only have in-house, and that you can't actually buy anywhere except for at the brewery itself. I'm feeling a little ambivalent about posting about them... because, as I said, it's really just a tease since you can't even get them anywhere. Here's my favorite of what I tried:

Magic Hat Thumbsucker: An incredible Imperial Stout that pours almost black with notes of dark chocolate and black cherry. This would make an awesome pairing with a classic dark chocolate truffle flavored with cognac - but is a little heavy for purposes other than tasting or pairing.

Third Stop: Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream Factory in Waterbury, Vermont

Our stop at Ben & Jerry's was short and sweet. First we walked up some stairs to watch a mooo-vie (some people chose to use the Vanillalator instead of the stairs...) where we learned that Ben & Jerry met in gym class in 7th grade and then took an ice cream making class that cost $5. Then we looked into a big room where they make ice cream and then we went to another room where we had a delicious sample of Ben & Jerry's most popular ice cream flavor, which is Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough. (Note that Cherry Garcia is a close second.)

A quick sidenote: While we were in the Lake Champlain Chocolate Factory store, I made friends with the lovely girls who worked there, who made us a Vanilla Latte with real whole vanilla beans. We were such good friends that they clued me in on to how they make it. They use vanilla milk as their base - here's how to make vanilla milk at home:

Vanilla Milk
2 pints of whole milk
1/4 cup sugar
1 vanilla bean

Pour the milk into a heavy bottom saucepan. Slice the vanilla bean in half lengthwise and scrape the seeds into the saucepan, then put in the vanilla bean's outer skin as well. Add the sugar, stir around a bit, and then scald to 150 degrees over med-low heat stirring constantly. (See note on scalding from this previous post.) Once that's all done, either use it right away or allow the milk to cool slightly, pour into a separate container, and keep in fridge until you want to use it. Remove the pieces of vanilla bean pod before using.

Vanilla milk doesn't have any specific uses - but it's quite delicious. I might use it for as a base for a particularly aromatic hot chocolate, froth it to top a cappuccino, add it to coffee or tea instead of regular milk, or just drink it, hot or cold.

Here's another tea-infused chocolate dessert recipe.

As I've mentioned before, when I'm not working with chocolate, I'm blessed to work with fabulous clients through my main endeavor at Zemack PR. And whenever those two worlds connect somehow, I get really excited. So I was totally surprised this morning to get a Google alert for (my client) Whittard of Chelsea that linked to an article about the Chocolate Idol contest at Boston's Langham Hotel... (Whittard of Chelsea is an English tea boutique that opened its first US shop in Boston this past spring.)

Here's a little background about the contest: Several weeks ago, I posted about a chocolate recipe contest being held by the Langham Hotel Chocolate Bar in Boston. The Chocolate Bar at the Langham is a huge lavish chocolate buffet featuring every chocolate dessert you've ever dreamed of that's open every Saturday through the fall and winter. This year, they wanted to do something fun and new, so they organized a chocolate recipe contest. Whoever wins the contest, which was called "Chocolate Idol," gets a season pass to go to the Chocolate Bar whenever they want, and their recipe will also be featured in the chocolate buffet for the rest of the season. The Boston Globe just ran a story about the creator of the winning recipe.

The winning recipe was created by Blanche Ip, a self-taught chocolate and sweets enthusiast who has been crowned Chocolate Idol for her Earl Grey Brownies recipe. In the Globe article about her, she explained that she's become a bit tea-obsessed over the past year, and Whittard of Chelsea's Earl Grey tea is her favorite kind of tea! And this comes at an interesting time, because Whittard has recently done a bunch of exploration in the world of tea-infused desserts with the South End Buttery - I just posted an Earl Grey Green Tea Truffle recipe from a Green Tea Desserts event that we organized at Whittard a couple weeks ago. Blanche's recipe is made up of a classic brownie topped with an Earl Grey ganache frosting. The recipe is posted on the Globe website or if you want someone to make it for you, you can try Blanche's brownies at the Chocolate Bar at the Langham any Saturday.

Blanche's Earl Grey Brownie recipe.
South End Buttery's Green Earl Grey truffle recipe.

More from the Fluff Festival that I went to last week... As I mentioned in my previous Fluff post, a bunch of us met up and went to the Independent, a bar next door to where the Fluff Festival was. They had a bunch of especially Fluffy bar and menu choices. In case you were thinking of having your own Fluff party at home, here are a couple recipes that we tried at the Independent to get you started:

Fluff Royale: Pour a shot of Creme de Cassis into a wine glass, pour Champagne over it until it's about halfway full. It doesn't matter what kind of Champagne you use because it will be mostly overpowered by the cassis anyway. Then spoon a dollop of Fluff on top. The Fluff will react with the Champagne and get all fizzy and expand to the top of the glass (see pic above).

Apple Fluffernutter Sandwich: To make this gourmet Fluffwich, get two slices of fresh sourdough bread, spread a layer of peanut butter and a layer of cream cheese on one piece of bread, top with a layer of thinly sliced macintosh apples, and then spread a layer of fluff on the other piece of bread and put it all together. For added effect, you can toast the bread beforehand.

I really like sweets and try to incorporate things that are sweet into every facet of my life. I do a lot of events for my clients at my main gig, and sweets and chocolate often make their way into my client work in one way or another. So this past weekend, I was at an event that I organized for one of my clients, English tea boutique Whittard of Chelsea, that featured desserts made with Whittard's green teas. The recipes were developed especially for the event by the pastry chef at Boston's revered South End Buttery.

Lee Napoli, the Buttery's pastry chef, was kind enough to supply the event attendees with all of the recipes for the green tea dessert menu that she created. The Green Earl Grey truffles were really fabulous, and demonstrate a concept in truffle-making that can be replicated with many different kinds of flavors and interesting ingredients. Here's the recipe that she gave me for the truffles:

Green Earl Grey Truffles

• 2 cups heavy cream
• 1 cup Whittard Green Earl Grey tea leaves
• 1 pound chopped dark chocolate
• cocoa powder

Place tea leaves and heavy cream in a medium saucepan. Scald heavy cream and tea. Remove from heat and cover with plastic wrap. Let the tea steep in the cream for 30 minutes. Strain out tea leaves and rescald cream. Pour hot mixture over chocolate and whisk until chocolate is fully melted and smooth. Chill chocolate mixture to set.

Scoop chocolate mixture with teaspoon or mini ice cream scoop. Roll each scoop in cocoa to finish.

A quick note on scalding: Scalding is when you heat a liquid - most often milk or cream - until it almost boils. Here's the best practice for scalding from my own experience: Use cream that's at room temperature or close to room temperature to minimize the potential for burning (big temperature differences will give you a higher chance of burning). Use low to medium low heat and stir pretty much constantly. The cream is scalded once small bubbles appear at the edges of the surface.

Steeping the tea in the cream is a flavor infusion method that can be used as the basis for lots of fun experimentation in truffle-making. The recipe above uses Earl Grey green tea, but you can infuse many different flavors into your truffle ganache by steeping the raw ingredients in the cream as it scalds. Here are a few of the ingredients that I've infused this way:

• black tea
  
• lavender
  
• apples (but this one's tricky, because the acidity of the apples can curdle the cream if the apples are too tart, or if the cream is heated too quickly.)
  
• cardamom pods
  
• coffee beans
  
• dried chili peppers and cinnamon bark
  
• vanilla beans
  

Recipe above provided by Lee Napoli of the South End Buttery.

This past Saturday, me and Dan met up with my friend Jeff and one of his friends at a Fluff festival, and then bumped into our friends Eric and Angie, who bumped into a friend of theirs, and then Jeff and his friend saw two of their friends, and we all ended up at the bar next door eating gourmet Fluffer Nutters (which I'll probably post about later).

Coincidentally, Jeff also brought me some chocolates that he got in Australia made by a company called Haighs.

So there I was in a bar with a pretty random group of people with a box of chocolates in my bag. Dan suggested that we open it up and try some. It was kind of sad though, because we came up with that great idea right after my friend Jeff left - my friend Jeff who actually gave me the chocolates. So he didn't get to have any, but a bunch of his friends did. We hung out in the back corner of the bar and tried 4 or 5 odd-tasting filled bon bon-type Australian chocolates.

The chocolates featured 3 native Australian flavors: Quandong, a desert fruit that was present as a dried fruit paste in one of the chocolates. It was sweet, kind of like a combination of dates and dried apricot. The wattle seed chocolate was sticky, kind of like toffee with a little bit of nuttiness maybe. It had a "w" on it for "wattle" (see pic above). And another chocolate we tried was called "Lemon Myrtle." Lemon myrtle is a bushy rainforest tree that produces flowers that have a lemon limey flavor. And the Lemon Myrtle chocolate tasted just like that - lemony, limey, and floral. And super sweet. All of the chocolates were sweet and chewy-sticky. Curious, but not quite my style. What was good was the company. It was fun to pass the box around and have people taste the different chocolates and talk about them.

When I go out, I meet a lot of people who want to talk to me about chocolate and who want to be invited to my next chocolate party (that I have at my house every so often.) From my own experience, chocolate is a pretty sweet way to connect with people. That's one of my favorite things about it. This post on my friend Toby's blog inspired me to not only talk to strangers, but to invite them to taste some chocolate and then see how many new friends I can make that way. Coincidentally, I also met Toby in a bar. Though I did not have any chocolate with me at the time.

Here are a three points about why you should have a mini chocolate tasting in a bar with strangers. Note that these are all based on my personal experiences:

• You might get bored and need a conversation starter.


• Someone might give you a really big box of chocolates that you don't really want to eat all by yourself.


• Chocolate makes many people really happy.

I went over to the South End for brunch this past Sunday and happed to stop by two boutiques that have been on my places-I-need-to-stop-by list for a while now:

Olde Dutch Cottage Candy: A fascinatingly eclectic space full of antique wares and old school candy. It's all about the classics here - candy lipsticks, rock candy, every kind of gumdrop and taffy among glass jars of Mary Jane candies and Squirrel Nut Zippers (it was a caramel candy made in Massachusetts before it was a band from North Carolina...), and multi-colored candy corn line the crowded counters. Candy necklaces and stuffed animals hang from the ceiling, and the cramped floorspace is stocked with antique tea sets, layers upon layers of crystal dishes, stacks of silver trays, old books, posters, and framed mirrors, various chests and antique wooden furniture pieces. I found all the penny candies that I remember from when I was little - except for flying saucers... but there was so much to look at I might have just missed them. Next time I go in there, I'll have to ask.

Choco Choco House: I've always liked Choco Choco House ever since I discovered chocolatier/founder Aliya Wali's couture chocolate purses a few years ago. Late in Fall 2006, they opened a retail boutique in the South End where they've got chocolate handbags, chocolate shoes, truffles (pictured above), and other chocolate confections. Choco Choco House has always been into using really unique flavors - rose petals, curry powder, chili pepper, lavender, and champagne (no, not all in the same recipe), among classics like cognac and hazelnut. We tried two truffles:

Goat Cheese Truffle: Chocolate and goat cheese is a combination that I have done a lot of experimentation with. As unlikely as it sounds, the tanginess of fresh goat cheese can be a heady, rich complement to chocolate. Sometime I'll have to post my recipe for fig and goat cheese appetizers with chocolate balsamic vinaigrette. Anyway, the Choco Choco House goat cheese truffle sports just a bit of tang - nothing too overpowering. It flirts with your palette, giving you a subtle introduction to a potentially explosive flavor combination. The ganache is coated with dark chocolate and cocoa powder.

Fresh Mint Truffle: This truffle was extremely herbal. It takes a step beyond plain ol' minty freshness and made its way into the grassy, earthier origins of fresh mint leaves. The texture of the ganache is quite firm and dense, similar in style to that of the goat cheese truffle.

Not one, but two chocolate desserts found their way onto a plate right in front of me this week:

Pots de Creme at The Beehive: I've been wanting to check out The Beehive ever since it opened in Boston's South End a couple months ago. The space is theatrical and cavernous, full of velvet and exposed brick (pic above). We liked it a lot there, at least until the music started... which was great, but it ended our conversation pretty much instantly. Thankfully, by that point, dessert had arrived and we just focused our attention on the earthenware crock of chocolate pot de creme in front of us. A bit of a twist on the smallish "pot" that this French dessert usually arrives in, the Beehive's version seemed pretty huge in comparison (though it's not like it was that big, just bigger than the norm - and anyway, we were sharing it between the two of us). After an exhaustive search through a mountain of homemade, barely sweetened whipped cream sprinkled with nutmeg (don't get me wrong, the whipped cream was fabulous... there was just a little too much of it), we found the chocolate part of the dessert. It was dense, stiff, and rich - much stiffer than classic pots de creme. The chocolate flavor was intense but not bitter at all, on the sweet side with notes of caramel.

Cocoa Bean Souffle at Oleana: Oleana is one of my favorite restaurants. Last night, four of us sat outdoors at a little table in their beautiful enclosed garden. We ended a really delicious dinner with a frozen cocoa bean souffle with a cocoa hazelnut tartlet topped with cocoa sherbet. We paired it with a late harvest Cabernet Sauvignon by Coturri Winery in Sonoma Valley. It was incredibly interesting - an exploration of the vast flavors and textures of the cacao bean. The souffle was mild and gentle on the palette, yet it had a lot of flavor. The smoothness of the souffle was a big contrast to the extremely crunchy, lively texture of the tartlet, which was intense and explosive. And the sherbet was just barely sweet, a little bitter, and had a focused, even, deep cacao flavor. Overall, the dessert made a pretty good pairing with the Cabernet, which was rich and port-like, though the souffle got somewhat overpowered and would have been better with a gentler, airier wine.

In addition to the truffles, the other items we picked up at Chocolate Bar in New York over the weekend were 6 of the Chocolate Bar's Retro Bars. The Retro Bars are solid chocolate bars with really fun, retro-classic fillings like key lime pie and raspberry jam. We broke them out after we got back from a really rockin' soccer game on Saturday night. We were starving.

Key Lime Pie: Key lime cream wrapped in dark chocolate. You couldn't mistake the key lime in this one, that's for sure, though I was hoping for more actual filling. The chocolate itself was pretty thick and over powered the filling a bit.

Coconut Cream Pie: Coconut cream wrapped in dark chocolate. Pretty nice. Just coconut-y enough - though it wasn't all that creamy. Kind of the same thing as with the Key Lime Pie; I wanted more coconut creaminess but it was overpowered by the chocolate.

Raspberry Jam: Raspberry jam wrapped in dark chocolate. This one was my favorite. Bill's too. Lots of raspberry, fun contrast in textures.

Salty Pretzel Milk: Milk chocolate with salty pretzel pieces. This one's a classic - sweet, crunchy, salty delicious... Dan voted this bar his number 1.

Salty Pretzel Dark: An interesting contrast to the milk... this one was Kristi's favorite. She really liked the dark chocolate salt combination.

Caramel Apple: Apple-infused caramel wrapped in milk chocolate. This was my second favorite. Very apple-y - more so than I expected - with a nice filling-to-chocolate ratio.

Another highlight from my NYC trip this past weekend was stopping by the Essex Street Market, an indoor market in the Lower East Side. We were accompanying our foodie friend Bill on a culinary shopping spree. Essex has been around since 1940, and has recently experienced renewed interest from New York culinary enthusiasts - particularly during the past year alongside a bunch of re-openings and grand openings of some really sweet gourmet food stalls. While there will soon be a chocolatier to be found among the many tiny kiosks and counters in the Essex market, I was most excited to visit Saxelby Cheesemongers. Anne Saxelby not only sells cheeses, creme fraiche, ricotta, and several other dairy products, but she also ages many of her cheeses in an onsite cheesecave. She sources all her stock from within the United States.

So Anne was there when we stopped by and I asked her for a couple off-the-cuff recommendations for cheeses can be paired with dark chocolate. She smiled and exclaimed that there are so many choices! Here are two:

Pleasant Ridge Reserve: This Gruyere-style washed-rind cheese is made in Wisconsin from the milk of a single herd of cows. We tried a piece while we were at the market - the flavor was smooth and a little nutty.

Bayley Hazen Blue: She told me that the sweetness and tanginess of blue cheeses can make a really nice complement to dark chocolate, and recommended this Vermont blue as one that would pair particularly well.

Saxelby Cheesemongers has been doing a series of chocolate, beer, and cheese tastings the last Wednesday of each month at Jimmy's No. 43 in the East Village. The next one is on August 27th. The September event will feature the chocolate creations of Ellen Mirsky of emChocolatier. (Note that come October, the tastings will be held the first Tuesday of every month.) Anne also has a really great cheese blog at saxelbycheese.blogspot.com where she posts various tidbits about her experiences in the vast world of fine cheese.