Chocolate week coming up fast

And fasting isn't on the cards…

8-14 October 2012
http://www.chocolateweek.co.uk/

Ggglllggg... uummmpphhh.....

These are the natural noises made by someone who has attended the Chocolate Festival on London's south bank recently. The festival is even larger this year, but the organisers have failed to recognise the effect of brilliant sunshine on chocolate so there were some casualties early on. Here's hoping that some canopies will be forthcoming for future occasions…

Some of my favourites:

Cocoa Magic from Wales, do a delightful range (and are delightful people, by the way) of hand-decorated shoes. Occasionally these are available as part of a gift box; look out for it when it happens! The ideal treat for a friend who never stops wanting shoes.

Damian Allsop had a wonderful concept album, in which you experience the several flavours one at a time - flavours are listed on the back of the 'CD' cover.

Some of the most beautiful chocolate packaging I've seen, from fair trade supplier Chocolate and Love.

These, from Sir Hans Sloane, are lovely display pieces. They also have some selections of what I could barely stop salivating for long enough to be told were chocolate with burnished passionfruit, coffee, and raspberry coatings. I definitely got the raspberry right. But due to being distracted by lust, I could be wrong about the rest. It's your duty to go down there and investigate, I tell you!

Chocolate festival on the South Bank

We're coming up to the chocolate festival season again!

And today I found my desired Easter Egg in Waitrose. It's filled with dolly mixture*, but it's not a complete egg, so you can see the dolly mixture inside. Yum!

* I eat dolly mixture because my friends stare when I eat sugar lumps

Waitrose chocolate brownies

I'm making this recipe. Lessons learned so far:

1. The new blender has very touchy buttons. It's best to turn off the power before trying to wrest the jug from the base.
2. Blending with the lid off, even for short periods, results in walnuts everywhere. Twice.
3. Beating by hand makes me too tired to do the dishes while the mix is in the oven. On the other hand, this means the attempt will be recorded officially for posterity!
4. 2 small rounds cake-tins are not always a good substitute for a large rectangular cake-tin.
5. Kitchen scales are *cool*.

In about 30 minutes, I'll take a look to see how they turn out!

Time for an outing

TimeOut London magazine has a useful review of where you can get a decent cup of hot chocolate around London. Check it out!

Chocolate festival reminder

If you can see yourself braving the cold, the Southbank Centre is once again hosting the chocolate festival: http://www.southbankcentre.co.uk/find/tickets/the-chocolate-festival-1000050

J'adore Ador

A while back I posted about New Tree's attempts to market a 'health' chocolate. That seems to have fallen flat. Certainly I haven't seen it about anywhere in a good long time. About the time it's been since I last blogged here, actually.

In the meantime I've found yet another chocolate aimed at the health concious consumer, but this one does seem to be on the right track.

Ador have created a range of chocolate bars using the product PinnoThin, which is apparently Korean Pine Nut Oil. Obviously, if you are allergic to pine nuts then you should probably wait until the next post.

According to the marketing on the bars themselves, PinnoThin "....is made from pine nut oil containing special essential fats that help you naturally curb your appetite." The tag line on the box is "the bar that keeps you feeling fuller for longer" (The lack of capitalisation and punctuation is all theirs).

I would have to research this further to be able to verify that claim, however eating their chocolate didn't give me the same sugar high then dip that I'm used to experiencing. I was able to eat one piece, then walk away having enjoyed that piece without needing to go back for more later. Given that the stated nutritional content per 100g is a whopping 64g of carbohydrates, the lack of blood sugar dip after consumption is quite interesting. There may be something to the claim for PinnoThin after all.

But how did it taste?

It's not a gourmet chocolate. This is not something to pass around after a five star meal to impress guests. It is, however, a very edible chocolate. I tried the dark chocolate and mint version, and thoroughly enjoyed it. Enough that I've since bought several more bars. And eaten them. Not all at once, I hasten to add. The eating happened over a long period, which suggests that Ador may not just be all marketing hype.

Bottom linen - if you are looking after the line of your bottom, then Ador may be the chocolate brand for you. They won't help you look like a supermodel, but they might allow you to have your cake of chocolate and eat it too.