Category Archives: Chocolate

Exceptional Chocolates in Berkeley

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Bright, bold, and beautiful chocolates from Chocolatier Blue.

Artisan chocolatier Christopher Blue has elevated the art of chocolate making to a whole new level at Chocolatier Blue in central Berkeley, which opened earlier this summer.

Blue, who has worked with the likes of Chef Charlie Trotter of Chicago, is the only chocolatier in the United States to use Amedei chocolate from Tuscany that’s made from 100 percent Venezuelan sun-dried cacao beans. He also uses Five Star organic butter, which has the highest fat content of any butter in the world.

His chocolates are organic. What’s more, the fillings are made using such techniques as grilling, roasting, and sous vide. The packaging is all biodegradable, and much of it made from recyclable materials.

Christopher Blue (Photo courtesy of Jessica Steeve)

I’ll use my patented scale of 1 to 10 lip-smackers, with 1 being the “Bleh, save your money” far end of the spectrum; 5 being the “I’m not sure I’d buy it, but if it was just there, I might nibble some” middle-of-the-road response; and 10 being the “My gawd, I could die now and never be happier, because this is the best thing I’ve ever put in my mouth” supreme ranking.

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It’s Not What You Think

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Sushi. Or is it?

Consider this the ultimate sustainable sushi.

After all, nothing over-fished went into creating this beautiful dish. The maki rolls, salmon egg nigiri, and even the pickled ginger and dab of wasabi you see here are cookies and candies. Yes, all made of chocolate, crisp rice, apricot gummi “eggs,” and other edible items.

Suedy’s Koo-Ki Sushi of San Jose crafts these intricate, realistic-looking sushi sweets by hand. Two sisters — one a former illustrator, the other a former teacher — started the business 13 years ago. They set out to create a unique cookie, and more than succeeded.

Purchase an array of sushi cookie assortments, as well as chocolate chopsticks and “kanpai!” cups at the tiny retail store tucked into a warehouse/office park area of San Jose. Most items also can be ordered online.

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Root Beer — It’s Not Just For Drinking

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The secret ingredient in this luscious cake? Root beer.

One of my fondest memories as a teenager is the jolting brain freeze I’d get slurping an A&W root beer float after spending the afternoon playing tennis with my older brothers.

The frosty mug of root beer and soft-serve vanilla ice cream went down sweet, slightly bitter, and creamy. I was usually so thirsty that I couldn’t help but take that first gulp big and fast. The coldness would race up my nose to the middle of my eyes, forcing them shut with part pleasure and part pain. For a kid, it was the ultimate reward after all that running around after a fuzzy, bouncing ball.

Nowadays, I can’t remember the last time I picked up a tennis racket. And I long gave up root beer floats in an ode to try to be more health conscious.

But when I saw the photo of Root Beer Bundt Cake in the new “Baked: New Frontiers in Baking” cookbook (Stewart, Tabori & Chang) by Matt Lewis and Renato Poliafito, I knew I had to make it. There’s root beer in both the chocolate cake and the chocolate frosting.

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Calling All Chocoholics Who Love to Cook

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Create a cutting-edge, imaginative recipe using fine artisan chocolate and diverse ingredients in the second annual “Chocolate Adventure Contest,” and you could end up thousands of dollars richer.

That got your attention?

Scharffen Berger Chocolate Maker of Berkeley and TuttiFoodie.com know how to put a contest together. And yes, this one does stipulate you use Scharffen Berger chocolate in any one of three categories: sweet, savory, and beverage. One grand prize winner in each of those categories pockets a cool $5,000.

Contestants also are required to use at least one “adventure ingredient” from the following list: popping candy (unflavored or flavored), wattleseed, palm sugar, basil, mustard seeds, coriander, black sesame seeds, black or pink peppercorns, chili pepper (fresh or whole dried), coconut milk, kaffir lime leaf, matcha tea, mango, plantain, jicama, tapioca pearls (any size), tamarind (or tamarind paste), and/or cacao nibs.

It’s that simple, so get cracking. You have through Jan. 4, 2009 to enter online at www.chocolateadventurecontest.com.

“When we started Scharffen Berger, we were the first ones in the United States to focus on bringing out the intrinsic flavors of cacao in our chocolate, and the first to highlight the importance of cacao by featuring its percentage on our label,” says company Co-Founder John Scharffenberger.  “Our goal was to enhance the way Americans thought about chocolate.  We’re looking for that same forward-looking spirit in this recipe contest.”

Entries will be scrutinized by a panel of chocolate experts, including cookbook authors Alice Medrich and Elizabeth Falkner, John Scharffenberger, and TuttiFoodie.com’s Lisa Schiffman. Recipes will be judged on originality, creativity, taste, and ease of preparation.

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Bouchon Bakery Donuts — For Early-Risers Only

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I’d known about these elusive donuts for awhile. I just never managed to get to Bouchon Bakery in Yountville early enough to snag any.

Until last Sunday.

You see, in addition to the usual variety of baguettes, nutter butter cookie sandwiches, and flaky-beyond-belief croissants, the bakery makes a limited quantity of donuts only on Saturday and Sunday mornings. It amounts to a mere couple dozen of each type of donut offered each day.

They are made in the fryer at next-door Bouchon Bistro before it opens for lunch. Once the doors to the bistro open, the fryer is tied up with orders of irresistible frites instead.

When I arrived at the bakery about 9:40 a.m. last Sunday, there were already about half a dozen people in line, and another half dozen sitting at outside tables, sipping coffee and noshing on brioche and macaroons.

As I inched my way through the doorway, I spotted them — three different types of donuts on the wooden back shelf where all the bread was. There were only about nine donuts left. My heart sank, thinking the people in front of me might buy them all.

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