Dagoba Saves the Day

Due to spending the last 2-1/2 months non-stop in airports, I've developed a craving for Starbuck's Vanilla Steamers.  Do not fret.  I am still obsessed with Hot Chocolate.  However, I've come to appreciate Starbuck's Vanilla Steamers.  After running my errands, I decided to lazily drive through the drive thru of my local Starbuck's location.  I ordered my favorite combo:  A tall Vanilla Steamer and a blueberry scone.  In my excitement, I decided to order a Grande Steamer versus the Tall.  Yahoo!  This was going to be a wonderful day.

Unfortunately, the scones were already gone.  However, the associate helping me found a blueberry muffin.  SCORE!  After paying for my order,  I hastily took off without sipping my drink.  I just assumed the beverage was correct since the cup was labeled Vanilla Creme.  Oh my joy was stolen when I arrived at the house to heat up my muffin and enjoy my Steamer.  Yuck!  It was a Vanilla Mocha. 

I tried and tried to indulge in this beverage, but anything with coffee traditionally is just horrible for me.  So, it was off to the pantry to select a Hot Chocolate to quench my thirst for something delicious. 

The chosen hot chocolate of the day is Dagoba's Authentic Hot Chocolate.  As an aficionado of their Xocolatl spicy hot chocolate, I knew this selection would be just as fabulous.

The Authentic Hot Chocolate has a subtle blend of flavors leaving a wonderful essence in your mouth. 

It blended together fine, but required a few extra turns of the spoon in both a clockwise and counterclockwise direction to ensure the cocoa powder and milk was mixed together.

In the end, Dagoba saved the day.

Puerto Cacao, Paris, France

Blast my mother for not teaching me French as a child! I just found this amazing website dedicated to cacao and chocolate and I cannot read a thing! Puerto Cacao is a socially conscious chocolate shop in Paris, France, founded by Guillaume Hermitte. You can gloss the pages of this wonderful site to see the true essence of Puerto Cacao.

Of course, I had to find what was recommended for making hot chocolate. Puerto Cacao has Poudre de Cacao made with 100% cacao. I can only imagine the intense cacao flavor of this powder. Ah!

Puerto Cacao

53, rue de Tocqueville - 75017 Paris
Tél. : 01 42 67 28 51

Puerto Cacao Blog

Deviation can be good

Deviating from a recipe can occasionally create a fabulous new one. I’ve done it many times before with delicious results. This evening I decided to make chocolate chip cookies with E. Guittard Fair Trade Certified Akoma Extra Semisweet Chocolate Chips made with 55% cacao. Unfortunately, I was out of brown sugar so, I opted to use Dark Muscovado Sugar which contains 100% pure cane sugar from Mauritius. Normally, I bake with margarine (I know Paula Deen wouldn’t approve of this), but this time I actually had unsalted butter in the refrigerator. Instead of the typical pure vanilla, I used Tahitian Vanilla.

Although the changes were minor, the dough color was a little deeper and consistency thicker and chunkier than normal. The final cookie maintained it’s chunky shape and each batch came out the same. Tomorrow, I will be shipping them to some family members for their insight. We enjoyed them in our house and if all is well, I will keep the substitutes a standard in my chocolate cookie recipe.