Choxie Dark Chocolate Raspberry Lemon Biscotti Truffle Bar

Let me preface this review by saying: Choxie is amazing.

My own chocolate making style is focused more on the purity of the chocolate mixed with a few strong aromas that arouse and challenge the taste buds.


BUT though Choxie's flavors often seem to overpower the chocolate, they are bold and tasty enough to make me a fan. 

I love this bar, because the taste of the dark chocolate is still intact, and it's a tasty dark chocolate, though it leaves a slight powdery residue on the tongue, and may be a bit vanilla-ey. A generic good-tasting dark chocolate, but good nonetheless.

I love how flavor after flavor unfolds- the tart rush of lemon, sweet raspberries, buttery biscotti. I want to sit down with a glass of herb tea and call it an English tea party. (As a matter of fact, this bar would be perfect, broken into squares and arranged creatively at a tea table, complete with roses and lace of course).

I would also love to take this bar on a sunny summer picnic. It evokes happy memories and sunshine. 

The inside truffle is actually made with white chocolate, though once again, it is mostly just a medium for the other flavors- no strong white chocolate taste here.

You know that stick of gum that Willy Wonka makes that is like a 4 course meal + dessert?

After eating one square of this bar, I feel like I have eaten a collection of snacks at least- like lemonade with raspberry biscotti. Filling and interesting.

The sweetness of raspberries assaults the senses first, then the tang of lemon relaxes to a bittersweet chocolate. Bread and butter is a mild undercurrent to the evolution of flavors. 

Once again, this is a dessert bar, so it tastes less like true chocolate, and more like a chocolate confection, but   the chocolate is a great carrier for the other flavors.

Now I will eat my last piece in peace :)

Love,

Sondra

Jordi Roca and his incredible creations

I have been obsessed with the Roca brothers (of the Cellar de Can Roca- ranked 2nd best restaurant in the world) and their philosophy on food, their measured and passionate efforts to create a pungent emotion on a plate. Their philosophy has always been my philosophy- I want my chocolate to create moods and emotions, each truffle a piece of art. To discover similar innovators was a revelation to me.

They have this emotional cuisine down to a science- even labeling food and flavors with the emotion they evoke: milk with tenderness, lemon with joy, acidity and edible flowers with euphoria, earth with melancholy. I would like to expand this spectrum and I am constantly looking for more flavors.

This is Jordi Roca, the brilliant pastry chef of the Cellar de can Roca:

Another thing that I appreciate about Jordi's brilliance is his willingness to share. This Roca recipe, from delicooks.com looks especially delicious:

Milk, cocoa, nuts and sugar

A twist on popular chocolate milk

By Chef Jordi RocaTwitterPost the recipe on facebookYour email (*)print

At a glance

Serves:

4

Difficulty:

Medium

Cost per serving::

Económico

Method:

30 min.

 

 

Ingredients

• 100g Egg yolk
• 100g double cream
• 250 g of chocolate, 70% cocoa
• 60g sugar
• 260 g Egg whites
• Butter and flour
• Cocoa powder
For the praline:
• Hazelnut praline 100g
• 100 g cream
For hazelnuts:
• 50g sugar
• 75g hazelnuts

Method

1. Melt the chocolate. Stir in the hot cream and yolk.
2. Beat the Egg whites and sugar and mix with the cream. Add to an oven dish with butter and flour and bake at 180ºC for 10 min.
3. Cut up and sprinkle with cocoa.
4. PRALINE: Boil the cream and mix with praline cream, stirring until smooth.
5. HAZELNUT: Melt sugar in a frying pan, add the hazelnuts and mix well.

Choxie: Milk Chocolate Creme Brulee Truffle Bar

Target has a very innovative line of chocolate called "Choxie" that I had tried in the past and loved, but hadn't blogged about. Until now!

You should try this brand! They have fun, delicious, and interesting dessert-based flavors.

The milk chocolate creme brulee truffle bar says it is "white chocolate truffle infused with vanilla, caramel, and a touch of toffee."

The bar is milk chocolate filled with white chocolate and toffee bits. It smells very sweet and strong of caramel and vanilla.

I am NOT a fan of white chocolate- it usually tastes like bland concentrated sugar to me. But the white chocolate in this bar was so infused with caramel-toffee-vanilla that it barely tasted like white chocolate. Definite sweetness, definite caramel, not very strong white chocolate. This is a dessert bar, so it's very sweet, not an austere brick of premium dark chocolate like I'm used to reviewing, but I loved the flavors. Lots of milk and caramel, a sort of custard-ey flavor- very soft, very sweet. Also a tad of salt from the almonds in the toffee. Warning: CAN BE ADDICTIVE. I generally just eat two squares for a review- but it's not even 7am and there are only two squares left...MUST PRACTICE SELF DISCIPLINE....

As a side note, this bar would taste delicious with coffee. I don't drink coffee, but this caramel toffee milky deliciousness pairs perfectly with coffee scents.

More reviews and ideas to come!

Love,

Sondra

P.S. My camera is driving me nuts...I'm seriously not that technologically challenged (I have a blog, don't I? lol) but I don't have the means to get pictures onto my computer... to put it simply. Hopefully I get it figured out soon, cause I want to display my chocolate skillz!! :)

How I evaded black noodle day and scored myself a Valentine :)

So I wrote a Valentine's Day blog post, but I lost it....and left shortly after on vacation, so things have been crazy.

Basically.......I am living in South Korea (I need to post on here more often!) and Valentine's Day traditions are a little different in this country.

On Valentine's Day, girls give GUYS the chocolate. Crazy, huh???? I was a little upset, not gonna lie. Not that I expected chocolate anyway...I just moved here and the only time I get out is to go to church. But there is one guy- an adorable Korean boy, who I have been crushing on for WEEKS. But since he barely speaks English, I'm not sure he was getting the vibes, and even if he was picking up on my "HEY CUTIE I REALLY LIKE YOU ASK ME OUT" signals, he might think better of it considering the "we don't speak the same language" logistics.

So anyways, if I expected to have a Valentine, *I* would have to make the move (something I almost never do). In all fairness, Korean men give women candy and presents on White Day, March 14th, but who wants candy when they could have chocolate? On April 14th, all those who received nothing on Valentine's Day or White Day get to celebrate the bitterness of singlehood by going to a Korean restaurant and eating black noodles. Black as in death. Black as in mourning. Even though I longed for adorable Korean boy to ask me out, I am not delusional, and as he hadn't responded to any of my hints, I fully expected to be eating black noodles in April.

The night before Valentine's Day, I bought myself some Ferrero Rocher hazelnut truffles. I listened to music and savored the truffles, hoping to forget about the boy I had been thinking about non-stop all weekend. I was surprised that I was depressed about Valentine's Day. Usually being single doesn't bother me, but this year the bitterness was creeping in, before the holiday had even begun.

Then, the unthinkable happened. Adorable Korean boy ASKED ME OUT. For Valentine's Day. Completely out of the blue.

I was ELATED. Maybe it was the combination: this boy I had been crushing on but had lost all hope that he might like me too, and the bitterness of being alone while the world is celebrating a day of love and romance. In any case, I wanted to dance and sing down the streets, hug unsuspecting Korean strangers. I felt like Cinderella, swept off her feet.

Of course the next day, some of the elation dissolved as I became super nervous. How are we going to COMMUNICATE? I know like three phrases in Korean!!

Luckily, it was a great night :) I'm leaving out a lot of details, because I don't want to make this blog my personal diary (who knows who could be reading this????) but the adorable Korean boy gave me a great date AND delicious chocolate for Valentine's Day.

So Happy Valentines Day! Remember, dreams do come true! :)

Love,

Sondra

P.S. pictures to come....my camera is being lame and not uploading pics.