Green & Black’s Classic Collection

It’s about time I continued working on my backlog of reviews. First, a PR representative for Green & Black’s kindly sent the lovely Classic Collection of miniature chocolate bars. The first thing that popped into my head when I saw the tiny bars was that they would be a great size for an American Girl doll (my favorite childhood toy). Maybe that's why I still think miniatures are so fun!

The cutest thing about the bars was that they were perforated, just like a full size bar! Adorable. The perforations worked, too, which is always a plus! The collection includes six varieties: Milk, 70% Cocoa, Ginger, Cherry, Almond, and Toffee. There were two bars of each kind, so I recruited my husband as a guest taster and have included some of his comments below. I should also mention that, to quote the press email, Green & Black's sources high-quality organic and fair trade certified ingredients for all of its bars, and that this collection will be available for $9.99 in US major retailers starting in September.


look how cute these are!
Even though it's a standard flavor, Milk was not my favorite of the set. It's really just my personal preference (which is typically > 60% cocoa or bust). It was very sweet and milky with a sticky melt (which is what my husband likes about milk chocolate). I detected a hint of what almost seemed like mintiness, but it could have been my imagination.

However, when the milk chocolate was combined with Toffee, I loved it. The bar had a nutty, caramelized flavor that went very well with the sweet milk chocolate. The chewy, slight crunch of the toffee was just right (Heath bars are too hard for me). The finish was very sweet, but it went well with the subtly salty toffee.

The Almond bar smelled milky, and the chocolate was soft and sticky. the almond pieces had a tender texture with a slightly crunch coating. The flavors mixed well, and it had a well balanced sweetness.


But you know I was waiting for those dark bars. The Dark 70% bar had a satisfying snap and a nice, sweet start. The middle was fruity and slightly bitter, with the bitterness in the forefront on the finish. It had a lovely smooth melt and hints of toasty marshmallow flavor. It was never too bitter or too sweet, making it a fine specimen of dark chocolate. I'd be tempted to buy this bar alone in full size if I had a dark chocolate craving.

Cherry consisted of dried cherries in dark chocolate, and I was immediately stuck by just how sour the cherries were. My husband and I both love sour cherries, but neither of us were crazy about them here. The cherries struck me as especially tangy against the dark chocolate, and I might have liked it better with a sweeter chocolate to counteract the sour. It might have been because of the small size, because I noticed bites that had more chocolate than cherry were much better.


Finally, the Ginger bar was a standout for both myself and my husband. It totally hit the spot. The 60% cocoa went very well with the sharp and noticeable (but not too strong) ginger pieces. The bar was clean, refreshing, and unique. The ginger added a tasty crunch and spicy flavor without a sinus-clearing burn. I could definitely see this as a great dessert after a pungent meal.

Green & Black's Classic Collection has a lot to offer, with the Toffee, 70% Cocoa, and Ginger bars standing out in particular. While I wasn't crazy about the Cherry, I did appreciate its boldness, and it was really only the Milk that didn't excite me. The Classic Collection felt fresh, and tasting the set was a very enjoyable experience.

A-

Green & Black's website

Product was submitted for review by a PR representative. No compensation was received and the product was reviewed just like any other.

Chocolaterie Chocolates

My sister and her husband went on a trip to New York City and the surrounding area recently, and sometime between sightseeing and attending a taping of The Colbert Report, they bought some chocolates at a shop in Nyack, New Jersey and brought them back home.

Chocolaterie is run by Annette van Loon, a Dutch woman who moved to the United States but missed the chocolate of her homeland so much that she decided to open a European chocolate shop. I've done my best to match the flavors my sister and brother-in-law brought back to the guide on the website, but I could be mistaken.


Papillon (French for butterfly) was Fair Trade Certified, and it had a very buttery filling surrounded by a nice, bitter chocolate. The honey and ginger flavors in the filling were subdued, but it was definitely a nice piece. B+

Aztec Spicy Truffle had a dusty brown sugar coating over sweet dark chocolate, but the ganache was quite spicy. Along with the chili flavor, there were hints of ginger and liquor. Despite the sugar coating, the level of sweetness was just right. A-


The Brandy Truffle had a sweet and milky white chocolate coating, balanced with a milk chocolate inner layer. The filling wasn't distinctively cognac, but it had a very tasty liquor flavor. B

The Rum Truffle was simply fantastic. The filling was ultra boozy and distinctively rum, and the chocolate coating was perfect with it. I'd love to eat this one again! A+


The Ginger & Honey Heart was another nice quality dark chocolate piece. The ginger flavor seemed stronger than in the Papillon, and the honey gave it a slightly deeper flavor. B+

One of the truffles was a bit stale in the middle. I'm not sure what happened, but it had a sugary grit throughout and I don't believe it was supposed to. That truffle was excluded from the rating.

Overall, I enjoyed the liquor chocolates and truffles the most, and was pleasantly surprised by the punch of the Spicy Aztec. If I'm ever in the area, I would definitely stop by to try other kinds!

Chocolaterie Website

Vosges Black Pearl Bar

I've been eating so much chocolate recently, but I haven't gotten tired of it. It's hard to get tired of Vosges! The only bar of theirs I haven't liked was the bacon bar, and I'm not a bacon enthusiast to begin with.

When stores only offer a few Vosges bars, Black Pearl is almost always among the ranks. At first glance, wasabi chocolate doesn't sound too appealing, but the whole flavor palette here is pretty interesting. I love sesame seeds and ginger and wish they were used more in chocolate. Like the Red Fire, it's another barely dark bar at 55% cacao.


It was easy to see and feel the sesame seeds from the bottom of the bar. The chocolate smelled earthy and roasted, with the ginger and sesame seeds in the background. The chocolate tasted fantastic and had a delightfully smooth melt, and the sesame seeds added to the texture.

The wasabi flavor wasn't strong, but that's probably for the best. The ginger stood out much more. As expected, the flavor progression was interesting. The bar started savory and sweet (full of umami), then toasty, with a mild wasabi/ginger finish. Overall, it was a complex bar, and I enjoyed it.

A-

Vosges Haut-Chocolat

Godiva Holiday Truffles

Godiva may not be the best boutique chocolate, but it is readily available. It feels like I'm eating a lot of Godiva chocolate these days, but when I bought those Halloween truffles, I signed up for their Chocolate Rewards Club. It's free, and you can get a free truffle from their stores every month. There are other perks, but the free truffle is the only one I have used.


It's nice that there's no purchase required to sign up or get the free monthly truffle, but only certain truffles are available for free. Special molded ones tend not to be, but they do offer some seasonal ones! Here, I have Candy Cane and Gingerbread (acquired November 27 and December 6). I had meant to get Egg Nog for December, but it was sold out. The foil wrappers were cute and festive, but not as impressive to behold as the molded chocolates (see the link to their home page below).


First, the Candy Cane had a strongly minty smell when unwrapped. It tasted a lot like peppermint ice cream, the pink kind with the red and green candy bits inside. I was impressed with it because the white chocolate was quite tasty. It was well balanced and very fresh, and not too sweet at all.


The Gingerbread smelled like ginger and other cookie-type spices. My husband and I were both surprised to find that it actually tasted like a mild gingerbread! Despite having the potential to be sickeningly sweet, it wasn't. This was a nice, fudgey truffle. I was pleased that neither of them exhibited the oiliness that Godiva truffles sometimes do.

I may be inflating the rating simply because these were free, but they were both very pleasing truffles.

A-

Godiva website

Gingerbread Pudding Cake

In an attempt to clean out clutter, last week I went through a huge stack of cooking magazines, ripping out pages of recipes dog-eared as promising (and then completely forgotten about for years), and I happened upon a recipe for Gingerbread Pudding Cake from the December 2007 issue of Bon Appetit that sounded like the perfect dessert for a brisk Autumn evening at home.

Oh, and it was! This spice heavy ginger cake with a bottom layer of ginger pudding (I prefer to call it goo) is so good and perfectly homey, I think I'm going to make it again this weekend for a relaxed dinner at a friend's house.
First you make the batter, and pour in into a baking dish. Then you top the batter with brown sugar. Then...
you pour a mixture of water and melted butter on top of the brown sugar-topped batter, and shove it in the oven. Crazy! Kind of scary, too. But, fret not. It bakes up with a crackly cakey top and a gooey bottom. The goo is the best part. Whipped cream would be a heavenly accompaniment, but I had none. I would say I was sad about not having whipped cream, but I wasn't; the self-saucing cake is fabulous enough on it's own.Gingerbread Pudding Cake
adapted from Bon Appetit
serves 8

I used sorghum syrup in place of light molasses, because I have sorghum to burn in my pantry. Also, I have no allspice, so added 1/4 teaspoon more of each cinnamon and ginger.

1 1/4 cup all purpose flour
1 1/4 teaspoons ground ginger
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup butter, room temperature
1/4 cup sugar
2 tablespoons beaten egg (from 1 egg)
1/2 cup sorghum syrup
1/2 cup water
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 1/2 cups hot water
5 tablespoon butter, melted

• Butter a 2-quart baking dish and preheat oven to 350 degrees.
  
• Mix flour, ginger, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, and salt in a medium bowl.
• In a large bowl, cream together 1/4 cup butter and 1/4 cup sugar. Beat in egg.
  
• Stir sorghum and 1/2 cup water in a measuring cup.
• Alternately add flour mixture and sorghum mixture to butter mixture, mixing to blend between additions.
• Pour batter into the buttered baking dish, and sprinkle brown sugar evenly over the top of the batter.
• Stir 1 1/2 cups hot water and melted butter in a small bowl. Gently poor over top of batter.
• Bake at 350 degrees for about 45 minutes, or until top is cracked and toothpick inserted in to center comes out clean.
  

Moravian Molasses Cookies

Pies are so last week! With Christmas around the corner, it's time to bake cookies. I thought I'd break out a cookie recipe I usually bake at Christmas, but have, for no good reason, retired for the past few years.

Coming from the culinary traditions of members of the Moravian church in Pennsylvania that settled in the Winston-Salem area of North Carolina in 1753, these spicy Moravian molasses cookies are a traditional Christmas cookie. You may be familiar with them if you've ever received a gift basket with a tube of these delicately thin cookies made by the Salem Baking Company.

Moravian molasses cookies are basically an ultra-thin and crispy, ramped up ginger bread cookie. And they're too good to be retired.Baking notes:

• Unable to find a scallop-edged cookie cutter to replicate the classic Moravian molasses cookie shape, I've been using a tee-tiny tart pan for many years now. Make any shape you wish, though.
• The thinner you roll the cookie dough (try for at least 1/8-inch), the crisper the cookie will be. The longer you bake the cookies (but don't burn them), the crisper the cookie will be. You're aiming for thin and crispy. About half of mine end up crispy on the edges, and a tad chewy in the middle. I'm not perfect. And the chewy cookies are just as tasty.
  
• It is possible to roll the dough thinner by rolling smaller portions of the dough between plastic wrap, but it is nearly impossible to transfer the cookie to the baking sheet without ripping the dough. Try it if you're fabulous.
  

Moravian Molasses Cookies
makes about 40 cookies

1 cup all purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon ground cardamom
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/3 cup molasses
1/4 cup vegetable shortening
1/2 cup dark brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla

• Sift together flour, cinnamon, ginger, cloves, cardamom, and baking soda in a bowl.
  
• In a large bowl, add molasses, vegetable shortening, brown sugar, and vanilla, and mix with an electric mixer until incorporated.
• Gradually add flour mixture to molasses mixture, then knead until thoroughly incorporated.
• Wrap dough in platic wrap and refrigerate for at least three hours, or overnight.
• Remove dough from refigerator, unwrap, and roll out as thin as possible (at least 1/8-inch thickness) on a floured surface, picking up dough and adding more flour to surface to prevent sticking when needed.
• Cut cookies and place 1-inch apart on a greased baking sheet (a spatula is really going to help you lift the cookies and transfer them to the baking sheet).
  
• Bake in a preheated 300 degree oven for 6-8 minutes, one sheet at a time.
  

Cranberry, Pear, and Ginger Chutney

Yep, I’m still working on some of the recipes in this year’s Thanksgiving issue of Bon Appètit. I thought I’d hit up one of the four cranberry sauces in the magazine.

My traditional cranberry sauce is my absolute favorite, and I would not be without it. Really, it’s a relish, and it’s super easy. Grind up fresh cranberries and oranges (peel and all), mix with sugar and spices, and let sit overnight in the fridge. Easy.

For giggles, I decided to go with the cranberry sauce recipe – cranberry, pear, and ginger chutney – least like my traditional cranberry holiday staple. If you can tell anything from the four or five jars of chutney in my fridge, it’s that I love chutney. The strong, piquant flavors of chutneys have a hold on me, I’m afraid.

The flavors of Bon Appètit’s cranberry, pear, and ginger chutney are quite strong, so if you have any wimpy palettes at your table, you might want to skip this one. But brave soldiers will devour this chutney. That is, if you follow my suggested changes in the recipe.

The original recipe calls for ¼ cup of grated ginger, which seemed like too much, so I halved that amount right from the start.

The two cups of apple cider vinegar did not faze me when I read the printed recipe, as I can drink vinegar straight from the bottle. But after it was all said and done, I thought the chutney to be heavy on the vinegar. So did some other people who tested the recipe. I’d suggest, at minimum, halving the vinegar and replacing the other half with apple or orange juice. (Recipe below reflects suggestions.)

This brings us to the troubling question of whether or not magazines and cookbooks actually test their recipes. Personally, I think it’s a crock if a for-profit publication doesn’t test all of their recipes. I know some do and some don’t. Which one’s exactly, I’m not sure. I do know that Cook’s Illustrated bases it’s whole publication on the fact that they test, test, and retest their recipes until they get it right. And you know what; I’ve never made anything bad from them.

I’m not saying the chutney below is bad. The recipe just needed tweaking due to, perhaps, a typo or, at worst, an untested recipe. The cranberry, pear, and ginger chutney is lined-up in the fridge door with all of my other chutneys, and most likely will be enjoyed on a cracker with cheese.

Cranberry, Pear, and Ginger Chutney
Adapted from Bon Appètit
makes about 3 1/2 cups

1 cup apple cider vinegar
1 cup apple juice or orange juice
1 cup onion, finely chopped
2 tablespoons ginger, grated
2 ½ teaspoons lemon peel, finely grated
2 ½ teaspoons orange peel, finely grated
1 cinnamon stick
½ teaspoon dried crushed red pepper (I used really hot homegrown and dried peppers, and enjoyed the heat)
¼ teaspoon ground cloves
12-ounce bag fresh cranberries
1 ¼ cups brown sugar, packed
2 large Bosc pears, peeled, cored, and cut into ¾-inch cubes

• Combine apple cider vinegar, apple juice, onion, ginger, lemon peel, orange peel, cinnamon stick, crushed red pepper, and ground cloves in saucepan. Boil mixture for about 10 minutes, or until reduced to 1 ½ cups.
• Add cranberries, brown sugar, and pears. Stir until sugar dissolves.
• Reduce heat to medium-low, cover and simmer until pears and cranberries are soft, about 30 minutes. Stir occasionally.
• Mash mixture coarsely, if at all, with a potato masher.
• Cool and serve at room temperature.
• Can be made 3 days ahead and stored in the fridge.

Ginger Granola Bars

I adore ginger. Ginger jam on bagels, pickled ginger with sushi, Moravian ginger cookies, chocolate covered ginger… You get the idea.

I devised this recipe after being inspired by ginger granola bars I bought from the grocer in the UK. I’ll eat chewy or crispy granola bars, but I prefer chewy. These are chewy and don’t require baking – perfect for hot summer kitchens. One caveat: Keep these stored in the fridge if your kitchen is warm or the sugar/honey binder warms up too and the bars crumble.

Ginger Granola Bars

½ cup brown sugar
¼ cup honey
1 teaspoon vanilla
¼ cup butter
⅛ teaspoon cinnamon
1 ½ cup oats
1 ½ cup cereal (I used Kashi GoLean)
½ cup raisins (substitute dried fruit of choice)
¼ cup crystallized ginger, chopped finely
¼ cup sunflower seeds (substitute nut of choice)

• Combine brown sugar, honey, vanilla, butter, and cinnamon in a saucepan. Bring to a boil. Lower heat and simmer for 2 minutes or until sugar is dissolved. Cool completely.
• Mix oats, cereal, raisins, crystallized ginger, and sunflower seeds in a large bowl.
• Mix the brown sugar mixture into the oat mixture.
• Spread mixture into a buttered 13x9 baking pan and press down firmly.
• Refrigerate for 2 hours.
• Cut into bars.

Papaya-Coconut Cupcakes with Ginger-Lime Cream Cheese Frosting

Speaking of exotic flavors, I finally got around to making one of the scrumptious sounding and looking cupcakes at Cupcake Bakeshop by Chockylit, a blog devoted to the cupcake. If you haven’t been to the site, do go. I put it on my blogroll a few months ago.

Her cupcake darlings are creative and inspiring. They're not your standard flavors offered at bakeries. Here’s a sampling of the unusual-for-cupcake flavors: tarragon, basil, fennel, chili, tea, eggnog, persimmon, and lychee.

Some of the cupcakes are complex and amazing. I’m eyeing a cupcake inspired by the Samoas® Girl Scout cookie for an upcoming eating event – my second favorite Girl Scout cookie after Thin Mints.

I’m a sucker for pictures, and her pictures are gorgeous. I know my cupcakes will never look that good due to my chronic impatience and lack of a pastry bag, yet I still am not afraid to dive in and try to recreate the beauty.

The cupcakes all look good, but I decided to try the papaya-coconut cupcakes with ginger-lime cream cheese frosting.

I had everything already in the kitchen, expect for a papaya. The recipe calls for six ounces of papaya, but I don’t have a scale. I just threw some in; I’m not sure how much.

I substituted reduced-fat coconut milk and reduced-fat cream cheese because it was on hand. I would not recommend reduced-fat cream cheese if you were taking these to an event, only because the resulting icing is softer. If it’s warm outside, the icing could be a melting mess.

The result was very good. The cake was more like a fruit quick bread. The icing was my favorite part – tangy lime with spicy ginger. I put the full tablespoon of ginger in, but for my taste I could have put more in.

If only I had the time and metabolism to make and eat every one of her cupcakes!