Become a Chocolatier!

So you may not have the financing of TCHO chocolates or the artisanal flare that started Scharffen Berger, but everyone should have the chance to let loose their inner chocolatier. Now you can…at least in video.

A few days ago, I came across a video game after my own heart! The game Chocolatier received positive reviews from people on multiple websites. The game’s concept is to travel the world to find quality ingredients, make unique chocolates, buy factories and deal with market place competition. All the action takes place in an old world setting with drama at every corner.

The Chocolatier video game by Play First has two volumes on the market with latest and greatest in the series released earlier this year. Chocolatier 2’s modern day saga tackles making eco-friendly chocolate, deception and globetrotting activities to find the finest ingredients. Now, if I could only taste these creations…

If you wish tap into your inner chocolatier, click here to play Chocolatier 2.

What's in your pantry?

My vast selection of hot chocolates were pushed out of my pantry last year and moved into it’s own little area next to the dining room. Now, my Bakers Rack is overflowing with hot chocolates. After having some of the tins/cans fall on the floor when someone walks pass, it appears I will have to have a hot chocolate marathon soon?

A true confession of a hot chocolate junkie!

Ice Cream Wars

During these hot Texas summers, we’ve been enjoying a lot of ice cream lately. A few weeks ago my husband purchased a pint of chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream for me and a pint of something type of ice cream for himself. Although I picked out the cookie dough, it was very refreshing. After eating a few bites, I returned my ¾ full pint to the freezer while my husband opted to eat his entire pint in one sitting.

On Friday, I decided take a little bit of ice cream before I headed off to work. Can you imagine! That joker ate my pint of ice cream and left a measly little teaspoon for me. I was livid! Good thing he left to the office first.

With that in mind, I devised a plan to make a luscious ice cream with my favorite featured product…. hot chocolate. As for sharing this dessert, I think not. I know this is very childish; however, he started it… :}

The basis of my ice cream was Vosges Haute Chocolat’s la parisienne couture cocoa with dark chocolate and Madagascar vanilla bean pieces. According to the Vosges’ website, Rachel Ray ranked la parisienne couture cocoa #1 out of 75 contenders. My recipe started out with:

1 pint Heavy Cream

1 cup Half & Half

1 tbl Sugar

¾ cup la parisienne cocoa

My goal was to create an extremely decadent ice cream, hence the heavy cream and half & half. I used my new double boiler to blend the hot chocolate with half & half over a medium heat. Once the mixture was heated through, I added the sugar and heavy cream. Since the hot chocolate was already sweetened, I did not wish to add a lot of sugar to the mix. I allowed the mixture to cool, or so I thought.

Since my double boiler didn’t have a lip/spout, I used a funnel to poor out my hot chocolate mixture in to my ice cream maker. After running it for the appropriate amount of time, I noticed it was not solidifying. Yikes. In my hast, I didn’t allow the mixture to cool enough. Check out my runny dessert in the picture to the right.

To further my disappointment, I allowed the husband to take a taste. I expected rave reviews, but received “you’ve made better hot chocolate than this before.” Geez. I needed to tweak the recipe a little more.

Anxious as always, I decided to put the entire freezer unit and mixing arm into the freezer to decrease the mixture’s temperature. That wasn’t too smart! I forgot to remove the freezer bowl until three hours later which left me with another mess. Now I have frozen solid hot chocolate ice cream. After keeping the bowl out for a little while so the “ice cream” can melt a little. I revved up the machine only to have mush on my hands and a warm “freezer” bowl. I needed a time out after this.

Day 2. The ingredients went back into the machine along with another +¼ cup of la parisienne couture cocoa and 1 small scoop of sugar. Unfortunately, I was eye balling both of these steps so I do not have an exact measurement. Too bad because when this ice cream maker was finished churning, an amazingly thick chocolate ice cream appeared. Look how it coated the bottom of the freezer bowl.

The husband came down to help remove the dreamy hot chocolate ice cream from the bowl. Along the way, we both snuck a taste. We both were amazed. This little recipe was DIVINE!

I reminded my husband of his dirty deeds earlier in the week, but I shared a round of hot chocolate ice cream. He smirked and gulped down his bowl of ice cream. Hmmm! That would be his last. A few mornings later, I had ice cream for breakfast and I shared the rest with my co-worker. She too thought the ice cream was divine and was impressed it held up with my commute to work. She also stated her husband, who is a cookie connoisseur, would absolutely love this ice cream.

After dinner that night, the husband was looking for the ice cream. He was very unhappy that I shared and devoured the ice cream without him. But I had to remind him of KARMA!

My New Toy

Over the weekend, I decided I needed a new gadget to simplify my homemade hot chocolate making experience. My current double boiler is nice, but I was itching to spend money I didn’t have.

After doing a little research online at my favorite specialty kitchenware stores, I found exactly what I was looking for and prepared myself for a mini shopping excursion. Tada! I purchased a BonJour All-In-One Double Boiler. This easy to use stainless steel double boiler comes with a small black funnel to add water to the unit’s reservoir. After washing the unit, I used the funnel to fill the boiler’s reservoir with water. Once filled with water, I placed the unit on my stove, turned the burner on and I was off to the hot chocolate races.

To christen my new double boiler, I decided to make chocolate ice cream using a dark hot chocolate mix. (I will go into more depth on that comedy of errors on a later post.) Nonetheless, I was pleased with the unit’s performance. I didn’t have to worry about water boiling over on to the stove’s flames, and it was easy to wash and store. Most importantly, I didn’t have to worry about scorching my chocolate shavings.

With a traditional double boiler, you must make sure the water level is just below the base. The steam from the hot water melts the chocolate, but if you have the water too high it will engulf the boiler’s base and the extremely hot water may burn your chocolate.

This gadget would definitely get a lot of use by my friends at the Foodie Blog Roll! My only recommendation for the next generation double boiler is to add a lip for simplified pouring. (Hint, hint… BonJour if you get this post via an alert or rss feed :})

Sconza Capitalizes on Hershey’s Departure

The legendary chocolate company Hershey’s closed their 45-year old plant in Oakdale, California, this past February to relocate their production facility to Monterrey, Mexico. As one of the main sources of job opportunities for this small town of 18,500, the closure nearly devastated the town. However, a knight in shining amour has arrived!

Okay…maybe not a knight in shining amour, but family-owned company called Sconza. Sconza, a growing candy manufacturer previously based in Oakland, California, is relocating to the Oakdale area. Founded in 1939 by Vincent Sconza, the company is capitalizing on Hershey’s departure by relocating to a region saturated with confection making talent and excited to have a company stay in the good old USA.

Hmmm... Maybe they will add hot chocolate to their product line…?

The Chocolate Story

The other day, I came across a Google hot chocolate alert that sparked my interest. After clicking the link, I was brought to a press release about a book called The Chocolate Story: A sweet little fable. The book is “described as an inspirational fable that offers a lesson centered around hot chocolate.”

Penned by Rick Moser, the book evolved from stories he created and told to his children during long walks in the forest. With solid reviews from the local educational community as well as support from the International Cocoa Initiative of Geneva, Switzerland, The Chocolate Story will teach and inspire children from all walks of life.


The Chocolate Story is expected to be released this Fall with 10 percent of the book’s profits to be donated to the International Cocoa Initiative to end child slave labor in the cocoa industry.

The Chocolate Story Website

a stream of chocolate

Twenty-seven feet in height, Jean-Philippe Patisserie’s chocolate fountain is designated the largest and tallest volume chocolate fountain the world. Positioned on the outer edge of Jean-Philippe’s and encased in glass, this fountain of creamy goodness contains a blend of dark, milk and white chocolate streaming from the ceiling to the floor of the Bellagio Hotel. Numerous people were mesmerized by the fountain as they walked through the hotel’s passageway. With over two tons of chocolate freely flowing through the intricate shell-shaped designs, I personally experienced a vision of being in a sophisticated version of Willy Wonk and the Chocolate Factory.



It took some time to figure out how to transfer the chocolate fountain footage from my cell phone to make a somewhat decent video. I am terrible at figuring these techie things out, but I am having fun in the process. So, this is my last installment from my On a Hot Chocolate Mission segment. I’ll be heading to Washington, DC, soon where my hot chocolate adventures will continue!

In Search of Cocoa’s Genome

Recently, Mars, Inc., one of the largest privately held confections manufacturers in the US, The U.S. Department of Agriculture and IBM joined forces to map the DNA sequence of the cocoa tree.

Due to an increase in global demand, the fragile nature of the cocoa tree and the ferocious appetite of fungal diseases, such as Witches Broom and Frosty Pod Rot, weakening or eliminating various cocoa tree strains, cocoa has become the new “Gold”. Cocoa, the foundation of a $5 billion dollar chocolate industry, is currently trading on the stock exchange at a 28-year high. To quench a world-wide thirst for chocolate, a task force was formed consisting of $10 million in funding, advanced technology, scientists and agriculturalists to identify the cocoa tree’s DNA sequence to improve overall cocoa quality and create healthier crops with higher yields.

With the establishment of a research facility in Davao City, the largest city located on the Philippine island of Mindanao, and the use of a 24-hectare (59.31 acres) cocoa plantation located within the Malagos Garden Resort, the Philippines is designated ground zero for this research project. Currently ranked eighteen in global cocoa production, the Philippines is looking to increase their footing in the cocoa industry. Over the next five years, the task forces hopes to safeguard for the world’s cocoa production as well as assist in eliminating the tree’s estimated $700 million annual expenses due to fungal disease infestation.

Paradise in a Travel Cup

For some reason, I decided to make hot chocolate from scratch 15 minutes before I was suppose to walk out the door to start my commute to work. The theme of this hot chocolate masterpiece is…tropical.
To start this project, I selected Valrhona Cocoa Powder from France. Valrhona’s deep, reddish brown unsweetened cocoa powder is exceptionally fragrant and makes a wonderful cup of hot chocolate. Since the “Best By” date was April 2008, it was in my retail “expired” products box for me to create something, donate or discard. From there, I browsed the refrigerator for more inspiration. I pulled out a carton of Half-and-Half and a lemon. However, I needed a something to counter balance the lemon…LIME! Darn, no lime. But I had something even better…Key Lime and Myer Lemon Margarita Mix. The blend of Key Lime and Myer Lemon juice lacks alcohol, yet the flavor is intense.

The base of the recipe is as follows:
6 oz Half and Half
2 tsp Valrhona
Key Lime and Myer Lemon Margarita Mix
Sugar

Due to my time constraints, I planned on making only one formulation with 1 tbls of Key Lime and Myer Lemon Mix and 2 tbls of Demerara Sugar. However, after taking a sip of my masterpiece, I thought to myself, “too sweet.” Although I used Demerara Sugar, other sugars are fine. So, I elected to try to another formulation with less sugar.

The second recipe contained Half-and-Half, Valrhona, 1 tbls of Key Lime and Myer Lemon Mix and 1 tbls of Demerara Sugar. I planned on sharing this recipe with my friend that receives the many benefits of my hot chocolate escapades.

After creating two rounds of hot chocolate in my trusty double boiler, I poured the mini hot chocolate masterpieces into travel mugs. Too impatient to wait until I arrived at work, I snuck another sip. What a wonderful blend, but something was missing? Considering I hit the road 10 minutes late, I arrived at work on time and placed my friend’s hot chocolate on her desk. Since she had yet to arrive to the office, this will be a nice little surprise. I hope.

Without a hitch, she was in my office a few minutes with a coffee in one hand and my hot chocolate in another. How dare she bring coffee into my office :>. A discussion began over the newly minted recipe. She enjoyed the creaminess of the blend and the overall flavor. I mentioned how I thought my recipe was too sweet. She thought the sweetness was just right with one 1 tbls of sugar, but the recipe could use a little more tang from the Key Lime and Myer Lemon mix. I agreed. Too bad I am out of margarita mix to reconfirm our new findings. As for that mug of coffee, she was frowning while sipping it. After a blast of a zesty hot chocolate, nothing could compare.