One day, I hope to live in the Chocolate Belt: that narrow strip around the equator where cocoa trees grow. How great would it be to have your very own cocoa pods dangling outside your front door? The process of transforming the raw bean into a chocolate bar is a very long and complicated one, [...]
Continue reading about Making Modern Chocolate Beverages in an Ancient Way
I don’t know about you, but when I find an exciting new (to me) ingredient, I like to drop it into as many culinary settings as I can to see what happens. Some ideas, like my “let’s make hot chocolate with red wine instead of milk!” notion, though, are rather ill-fated. Random combinations are not [...]
Who doesn’t like a Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup? Peanut butter and chocolate just go together. But I guarantee that once you make your own PB&C in solid form or smoothie/shake form, you won’t ever want to go back to the prepackaged kind. The homemade variety tastes better, it’s a whole lot better for your health, [...]
What started out as a basic chocolate cake became much more fragrant and flavorful with the simple switcheroo of unrefined peanut oil for butter. Using maple syrup instead of sugar intensifies both the chocolate and the peanut, and you can add your choice of spice to provide a different dimension of flavor. In the end, [...]
Whether you’re gluten-intolerant or just want to try something new, you’ll love these very-dark chocolate cupcakes. The coconut flour is the perfect backdrop to the chocolate — it provides just enough creaminess to accent cocoa’s rich tones without getting in its way. And the teff and brown rice flours give the cakes a bit of [...]
As part of my continuing quest to find more flavorful (and healthier) alternatives to white sugar–especially when I want to bake something tasty for breakfast–I decided to try my hand at maple syrup creations. (See Sweeteners for more information on natural sweeteners.) The result? A lightly-sweetened bread with the warm undertones of maple, the smooth [...]
Warning: these are not for the faint of heart–i.e., those who prefer milk chocolate to dark. These brownies have such a high cocoa content, in fact, that the batter doesn’t flow into the pan, but rather behaves more like a semi-malleable chocolate bar that you have to spatula in one clump at a time. Don’t [...]
Here’s a healthy way to enjoy holiday treats like flavored hot chocolate: make your own! Pre-packaged drink mixes almost always contain artificial flavorings, excessive sugar, and non-dairy creamer. (Which contains mostly hydrogenated oil and corn syrup, neither of which is going to bring you holiday cheer.) Rather than reach for the Swiss Miss, pick up [...]
