ZOMG, Candy!

Dear Readers,

I’ve taken the week off of work for the Thanksgiving holiday, so I’m taking the week off from writing reviews as well. Instead, you’ll get a news post every day this week. I’ll be back on Nov 30 with more reviews.

To kick of the week in candy news, here’s a long piece from the Economist on the business and ethics of Nestle, which is trying to market itself as a “wellness” brand. It reminds me of a course I took called the Psychology, Biology, and Politics of Food, taught by Professor Kelly Brownell. We had a guest lecturer from Pepsi-Co who discussed similar efforts by his company to “healthify” itself.

Today’s review comes courtesy of my roommate, Celeste, who was kind enough to bring me a German chocolate bar that she bought in Boston. I’ve seen the Milka brand in stores, but I’d never tried them before, and I’d definitely never tried their Joghurt flavor.

As best I can tell, the Joghurt bar is not manufactured for U.S. markets (this bar was an import. Note the German on the wrapper), and that’s a huge shame, as it’s ridiculously good. It’s “I’m almost glad it’s hard to find because otherwise I’d eat it all the time, but gosh, I wish I could eat it all the time” good.

Basically, it’s Milka’s “Alpine milk chocolate” surrounding a yogurt-flavored filling. The milk chocolate is sweet and creamy, with strong caramel notes. It’s tongue-coatingly thick.

Then POW, the yogurt flavor comes through. It’s bright and sour, like good quality plain yogurt turned up to 11. That sour tinge wipes the palate clean and readies you for more. Texturewise, it’s soft and creamy and pliable, though it doesn’t coat the tongue as well as the chocolate does.

The milk chocolate is a little too sweet for my liking, but in this bar, that actually makes it better. It provides a stronger foil for the sour yogurt taste, and it makes the yogurt effect that much more enjoyable. The two flavors don’t mesh; instead, they play off each other and, to borrow a corporate buzzword, synergize to make something that’s even better than the sum of its parts.

This bar is incredible. And Celeste is incredible to be generous enough to give me a whole bar. If I ever have the good fortune to come across it myself, I’m stocking up. A ZOMG!

The first: rethinking a PB&J, or rethinking what constitutes a truffle? Here’s a so-ridiculously-simple-it’s-a-must-try recipe for PB&J “truffles”. Basically, food process a PB&J sandwich until it turns to dough, shape it into a truffle, coat it in something else that is tasty, and enjoy. It would totally be on my to-try recipe list, except I don’t own a food processor.

The second: a truffle recipe that calls for white chocolate, lemon zest, and pistachios.  Less unusual than a truffle made from sandwich, but still not an all that common recipe.

Here’s part two of my review of my free sample of Derry Church Artisan Chocolates (continued from Monday). Today, we’ll review the Plymouth, Savannah, Tangier, and Veracruz. [Note: All text in quotes is taken from the website descriptions]

The Plymouth “is a smooth, creamy pumpkin caramel with just a hint of pumpkin pie spice, then piped into an excellent, intense European bittersweet chocolate mould.” The mould itself is a gorgeous swirly square with two-tones of chocolate.

It smells like pumpkin pie spice. The soft, creamy ganache inside tastes just like pumpkin pie with a strong clove finish. I love all things pumpkin (including pumpkin chili - seriously, it’s delicious!), and I greatly enjoyed this.

The Savannah “starts with fresh, ripe peaches (whenever possible) [that’s] reduced to a thick, sticky-sweet puree and blended into a fine European white chocolate ganache [and piped] into a fine European bittersweet chocolate cup, [all] topped with a brown sugar and toasted oat crumble mixture, and drizzled with… more white chocolate.” Phew!

This tastes just like dessert - a wonderful peach crumble or sweet peach jam. The oat crumble topping tastes just like an oatmeal cookie, and the flavors play off nicely against the cute little chocolate shell. It made me rethink what a truffle could be, and that’s a good thing.

The Tangier had an “African honey and tangerine juice reduction… ground, toasted cumin, and the zippy heat of the cayenne chili.”

If I remember correctly, the inside of this has two layers, a gooey honey/caramel and a creamy chocolate ganache (my tasting notes say caramel plus ganache). It tastes sweet with overtones of orange oil. The chocolate and orange flavors went together nicely, but I didn’t get any cumin or spice notes, which could’ve elevated this to another level.

Last, but not least, the Veracruz: organic cream infused with vanilla beans, which is then turned into a white chocolate ganache that’s piped into a bittersweet base. As the website description brags, “You can actually see the vanilla seeds throughout the ganache!”

The ganache has a thick frosting-like texture to it. It tastes strongly of genuine vanilla, but it’s also rather cream cheesy. Unexpected, but appreciated (in addition to loving all things pumpkin, I also love all things cheesecake). The chocolate base brings a sweetly fruity finish to the piece.

I’d give the Tangier an O, the Veracruz and the Plymouth an OM, and the Savannah an OMG. Derry Church Artisan Chocolates is doing some nice work. I only reviewed 8 truffles; they’ve got 27 in their line-up!

Chocoblog tasted a wider variety than I did, so be sure to check out their review as well.

From the Bitten blog, light outrage about Nutella trying to position itself as a healthy breakfast option. I see the problem with that promotion, but it’s not that far from sugary cereals claiming to be part of a complete breakfast, or the General Mills Goodness Corner claiming that cereals are a good source of energy (aka calories) or calcium (from the milk you pour on it).

Chef Eric Clayton, the executive pastry chef and chocolatier for Derry Church Artisan Chocolates, emailed me about sending me some free samples of his chocolates. After checking out the gorgeous photos and sumptuous descriptions on their website, how could I resist? [Note: All text in quotes is taken from the website descriptions]

Their chocolates are named after different cities. I got an all dark assortment: the Cairo, London, New Orleans, Paris, Plymouth, Savannah, Tangier, and Veracruz. I’ll do the first four today, and the next four will be reviewed tomorrow.

The Cairo contains “a sweet date paste made from plump, succulent Medjool dates and a touch of expensive, thick, syruppy, aged balsamic vinegar.” That circle on top is “a small disk of jaggery cake (brown sugar & molasses) [that] adorns the triangle.”

I found the jaggery cake to bring a brown sugar overload. The chocolate ganache itself has a sour tinge to it from the balsamic vinegar. I found the date paste to be throat-burningly sweet. I respect the creative and interesting flavor combo, but it’s too sweet for me.

The London is a butter toffee sandwiched between “a deep, dark, brooding 70% European bittersweet chocolate” and then coated in “roasted crushed almond.” I had saved a piece of this to photograph for a cross section, but someone at work ate it before I could. I still haven’t tracked down the candy thief…

The toffee layer cleaves cleanly. It’s lovely and smooth, but sadly, there’s not much toffee/burnt sugar/butter flavor to it. Instead, the piece mostly tastes of the roasted almonds that it’s coated in.

The New Orleans is a bananas foster flavored truffle. Bananas foster is traditionally “made with sliced ripe bananas and a brown sugar/rum sauce.” In the truffle, “this entire delicious concoction is pureed smooth and blended into a smooth, creamy fine European milk chocolate ganache and then enrobed in a 70% bittersweet couverture.”

It seems sweet and tastes strongly of toffee and rum notes. The flavor of bitter cocoa run throughout, but it also carries a sweet finish. I didn’t get any banana notes, but that’s probably for the better, as I’m not a huge fan of banana-flavored candy.

Paris is a lovely, large, round, and bumpy dark chocolate rose-looking truffle. It’s homemade strawberry jam and a French white buttercream.

It’s a sticky soft cream that’s super fruity. The strawberry jam is extremely sweet, but it’s tasty and genuine! It’s a great flavor that goes well with the caramel note to the chocolate’s finish.

Derry Church’s chocolates are well made and lovely, with interesting flavor combinations. So far, the Cairo, London, and New Orleans get Os, while the Paris gets an OM. Stay tuned for Wednesday - I liked the latter half of the alphabet even more!

I recently received a generous box of free samples from Aequare Chocolates, a newcomer to the fine artisan chocolates field - they debuted just this past summer. Included in the box were their Dark Chocolate Cocoa Beans.

According to the bag, these are “lightly roasted and peeled cocoa beans enveloped in Aequare dark chocolate.” There’s a much longer description on their product page, where you learn that the beans are single-origin, hand roasted and hand peeled, and panned in several coats of Aequare’s 70% dark chocolate.

I love how, in the above close-up, they could just as easily be a bunch of potatoes. The one on the far right even has eyes!

The beans are heftily-sized and much larger than I expected them to be, probably because I was using chocolate-covered espresso beans as my mental reference point. I’d guess that the chocolate-covered cocoa beans are between 2 to 4 times the size of chocolate-covered espresso beans.

Each bean has a generously thick layer of chocolate coating that crumbles and melts in the mouth with no thickness. The chocolate carries dry cocoa notes with a slightly sweet finish.

The beans inside add a dry crunch and grittiness. They taste even more deeply of genuine, pure cocoa flavor and release a winey fruitiness when crunched.

Aequare has managed to produce a complex, intriguing, and deliciously poppable snack. They’re so addictive that I could eat several in one session, yet so intense that it was satisfying to stop after a handful. I was able to spread the bag out over several sessions. I give them an OM.

And bonus kudos for Aequare’s excellent blog post documenting the Dark Chocolate Cocoa Bean making process.

Candy cycles these days are ridiculous. Halloween candy coming out in August, Christmas candy showing up in early October, and now a Easter-related peeps announcement that actually came out in early October as well… it’s like fashion where they show you the next season’s line when the current season is just getting underway.

Anywho, via BrandFreak (and my friend Jane), news that Just Born will be adding chocolate-covered peeps to their Easter line-up. I hope they pick out a good quality couverture!

The continuation of Monday’s Mama’s Goodies nut brittle reviews:

Cashew Nut Crunch

This has the same thick brittle base as the pecan nut crunch. Cashews, however, are a much lighter flavored nut than pecans, and the cashews here are chopped up into tiny bits, so their flavor winds up totally overwhelmed by the brittle base. Still, the base is goooood. An O, mostly because the pecan incarnation is better.

Macadamia and Coconut Crunch

The brittle base here is sweeter and more toffee-like in texture. That is, it still cleaves but doesn’t quite dissolve into the same pseudo-caramel chew. As you can see, it’s got shredded coconut and whole macadamia nuts.

The flavors here are amazing. It’s just a hint of genuine, not at all artificial coconut flavor that pairs wonderfully with the rich and buttery essence of the macadamia nuts. And the brittle-ness negates the usually stringy texture of shredded coconut that is sometimes off-putting. An OMG.

Almond Nut Crunch

Almonds are a strong nut, and I think this is the nuttiest of the brittles. Again, the lovely brittle is fairly thick and cleaves like toffee, but this somehow avoids the turns-to-caramel-in-your-mouth thing. The almonds make the brittle duskier and darker, which is nice, but they also add a lightly bitter aftertaste. An OM.

Via Serious Eats, a peek into Jacques Torres’s (aka Mr. Chocolate) Chocolate Creations class at the NY Culinary Experience.

I gotta get me one of those laser thermometers!