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.

The 5 Stages of Dessert

Denial
I haven't eaten too much; of course I can eat dessert.

Anger
Why was the main so big? How could anyone possibly have dessert after that?!

Bargaining
If I go for a long walk after, then I'll be able to have dessert.

Depression
There's no way I could eat dessert.

Acceptance
I may never be able to move again...

Well, after a bit of a chocolate holiday we're back to the taste testing.

L'Artisan du Chocolate makes these stunning little salted caramels



They look like chocolate pearls and taste divine. The pink and black pepper is a lovely combination, but I'm not sure the lemongrass really works as it seems to overpower the chocolate slightly. Still, if you're after a surprise taste in the middle of your chocolate the lemongrass will do that for you. Overall the salted caramels rate as some of the best chocolate I've ever tasted.

If you are lucky enough to live nearby you can pop in and get a small mixed box, otherwise you will be forced to buy a box of single flavour salted caramels or succumb to temptation and buy a much larger box. Which would be such a shame, wouldn't it? All that luscious caramel melting slowly in your mouth... Go on. You know you want to.

Speaking of temptation, next time I order from them I'll want to try some of their chocolate pearls, designed to look like they come fresh from the South Seas complete with that pearly gleam. Can't wait to try them!

Thyme for a new review

NewTree are a Belgian chocolate company claiming to have, in their own words,

"devised in 2001 a new approach to chocolate: the alliance between gastronomy and health."

Yes. Well it would have to be their own words as I don't think I could come up with anything quite so ballsy. The term they carefully avoided there was 'nutraceutical' and NewTree are far from the first to come up with the idea. But perhaps they weren't aware of that. Let's give them the benefit of the doubt and assume they didn't have internet access in Belgium in 2001.

According to the American Nutraceutical Association,

"The term "nutraceutical" was coined from "nutrition" and "pharmaceutical" in 1989 by Stephen DeFelice, MD, founder and chairman of the Foundation for Innovation in Medicine (FIM), Cranford, NJ. According to DeFelice, 'A nutraceutical is any substance that is a food or a part of a food and provides medical or health benefits, including the prevention and treatment of disease."

Meaning as a science "the alliance between gastronomy and health' has been studied in earnest since at least 1989. But it actually goes back a lot further than that. There was this Greek guy, name of Hippocrates, who said "Let food be your medicine and medicine be your food." He was a bit ahead of New Tree. He came up with the idea around 2400 years ago.

Anyway. Leaving aside my quibbling with their marketing people (who should all be fired), let's have a look at one of their chocolate offerings.

Thyme is from NewTree's Alpha range, designed around the 'health-giving' properties of Omega 3. Supposedly Omega 3 helps protect us from everything from heart disease to antisocial behaviour in teenagers. That's quite a reputation to live up to. The Omega 3 in NewTree's Alpha Thym comes from 'golden roasted flax seeds', which is lucky really. As adventurous as I am with chocolate I'm not sure I'm up to eating salmon-flavoured bars.

This block of chocolate also contains 'fragrant thyme'. Except that it doesn't. If you read the list of ingredients it actually only contains 'natural thyme flavouring'. Hmmm? Is natural thyme flavouring as 'healthful' as the real thing? I suspect not.

For reasons unexplained it also contains puffed rice.

No. I can't figure that one out either.

So how does this all-singing, all-dancing, healthier-than-thou chocolate taste?

The chocolate and thyme combination is a little unusual but certainly not unpleasant. I don't think it really blended well though, and I was left with the impression of chocolate and thyme, not thyme chocolate. One taste slightly after the other.

The chocolate itself is not very sweet which is the way I prefer it. Despite there being no diary in this tablet the texture was quite creamy which I attribute to the soy lecithin. The texture was slightly spoiled for me by the flax seeds being present rather than being ground into the chocolate, however this was minor issue. But those rice puffs really got in the way of a good chocolate sensation. I just cannot understand what they are doing there.

Overall I'd rate this chocolate as 'Meh'. Not great, but not terrible either. Did it improve my 'heart, mind, and overall mood'? The jury is still out on that one. Although this post may contain a few clues.

Daisee.


P.S.
NewTree? Get rid of the cheesy new age music on your home page. And I'm serious about your marketing squad.