This ice cream has three strong flavors that work well together: Mexican chocolate, coffee, and cajeta (the latter is like dulce de leche, but made with goat’s milk). Before you think that this might be too overwhelming, consider how the roasted bitterness of the coffee, along with the tanginess of the cajeta, nicely complement the […]
Tag Archives: chocolate
Gianduja, or hazelnut-chocolate ice cream
Sunday, 9 July 2017
Hazelnut and chocolate remains one of my favorite food combinations. So both in ice cream, often found in Europe, forms the perfect summer treat. Gianduja is a bar or spread made of ground hazelnuts, chocolate, sugar, and milk — you can find bars or discs of them online or in stores that specialize in baking […]
Mocha ice cream
Friday, 26 August 2016
For me, mocha has a more chocolatey dimension added to the coffee ice cream. Since that post, we’ve gained a burr grinder and relegated the old rotary blade one for grinding up spices.
Hazelnut & date bars, with a touch of chocolate
Tuesday, 21 July 2015
I’m rather picky about what goes into snack bars: What kind of nuts? (No walnuts or pecans, if I can avoid them.) And I’d prefer the absence of dried coconut. Not too sweet, as I don’t want a sugar rush that results in a headachey crash — dried fruits are good, as long as they […]
Mexican chocolate brownies topped with pine nuts
Saturday, 5 July 2014
I first encountered this brownie while perusing Sunset Magazine many years ago. Alice Medrich’s brownie recipes from Seriously Bitter Sweet (2013) also provided helpful measurement tips. Furthermore, I added a nice, warming kick of chile powder—i.e., ground dried red chile peppers, not the spice mix containing additions of cumin and oregano.
Even better orange chocolate chip cookies
Friday, 7 February 2014
Or, version 2.0 of chocolate chip cookies. Over the years, I’ve found version 1.0 a bit too flat (in texture), a bit too hard-chewy, and even a bit too bitter. I’ve found a better source of chocolate chips (Guittard’s baking wafers), and a great resource for hacking the recipe.
Orange cake with browned butter, and draped in chocolate ganache
Thursday, 28 February 2013
[Actually made this cake nearly a year and a half ago!] Browned butter adds a hint of nuttiness to this cake without adding nuts. Because this cake is made with the sponge technique, rather than a creamed-butter-and-sugar one, it’d be drier without a syrup, so I’ve added that as well. Also, because three is such […]
TCHO: milk chocolate beta & citrus
Thursday, 12 August 2010
So I enrolled in TCHO’s milk chocolate beta. They didn’t want to be judged on texture yet, which made critiquing the creaminess aspect a bit tricky. As of this writing they have yet to release version 1.0. Overall, though the later betas did show remarkable improvement over the earlier samples. But to answer some questions […]
TCHO: nutty, fruity & chocolatey
Monday, 8 September 2008
This year I’ve been watching the progress of TCHO, a new San Franciscan chocolate maker. We’re lucky there are four chocolate producers within the Bay Area: Ghiradelli, Scharffen Berger, Guittard, and now TCHO. Ghiradelli isn’t bad, but their flavored varieties are somewhat uninspired and feel waxy-plasticy in the mouth. Scharffen Berger’s chocolate I find too […]
Chocolate frosting, with mocha & liquor options
Tuesday, 8 January 2008
I’ve often wondered why yellow cake with chocolate frosting is no longer as popular as it was in my childhood. I love the contrast between a simply flavored (vanilla) sponge and a rich frosting of chocolate or coffee. But when I’m at a bakery, grocery store or restaurant, what I usually see is chocolate cake […]