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Making a shot of Hot Chocolate with cocoa powder, Drinking Chocolate for one, Ballard's Orange Extract, Fresh Black Brugundy Truffles and more at chefshop.com/enews |
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| Recipes | Chef's Pantries | Shop for Food & Ingredients | Food Blog |
Making a shot of Hot Chocolate with cocoa powder. Making hot chocolate and achieving success is one of those tasks that I look forward to. In the Shop we have been making hot chocolate for years. During the winter months we use various types of chocolate, cocoa powder and pre-made ready to go hot chocolate, sampling to anyone willing to taste! For many years we called it drinking chocolate which, in reality, is what it is. It's a liquid chocolate that, in small portions, is just about perfect to satisfy a craving and, in the process, it satisfies the soul. So, over the past couple of months we've been testing and rating a set of hot chocolate recipes. This is our version of “Drinking chocolate for One”. After trying water, milk, half and half, heavy cream and sweetened condensed milk, the most consistent and best result when using cocoa powder is 100% heavy cream. ================ The rich, dreamy heavy cream makes the best drinking chocolate. Using heavy cream results in the best mouth feel and flavor of all the options we tried. We had seen and heard that using sweetened condensed milk in place of milk was a rich choice. It was that, sickly rich in fact, and left a mucky mouth feel of “way too much”. We tried a number of variations varying the amount of condensed milk to sugar added. In the recipe we ended up with the option of adding a tablespoon of the condensed milk and removing the sugar completely. You get the flavor of the condensed milk without the overwhelming finish. What we liked best was using only heavy cream, or any mixture of heavy cream and milk, or half-and-half, or even water resulted in the correct flavor profile we were trying to achieve. More “thinning” of the cream reduced richness without impacting the luxurious feel we wanted. Another common ingredient included in hot chocolate is vanilla extract. When added to the cocoa (chocolate) rich cream, there was very little, if any, flavor of vanilla. There was a touch of alcohol (not in a good way) coming from the extract, however it did give us pause to wonder why an extract was needed and how it changed the character of the drink. We did find that adding orange extract from Ballard Bitters gave the right flavoring, adding a hint of orange and extracting more intense flavor of chocolate to the palette. When you really crave something warm and sweet by the fire, you need that shot of hot chocolate! An Italian Cocoa Powder like no other - click here to see the simple recipe! |
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 Ballard ExtractsAmazing extract, handmade, by Mom and Daughter here in Ballard, a neighborhood, in Seattle. It comes from their heart and the shared passion they have of baking. It has a wonderful nose and what a flavor! Shop now for Ballard Extracts Orange Extract |
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 Fresh Black Perigord Winter TrufflesFresh Black Perigord Winter Truffles - 2 pounds. This is a seasonal product and only available between January and March. Price includes overnight shipping within the Continental US. This is a very special order product. Please indicate when you would ideally like your truffles to arrive. We will contact you before your order is finalized. You must be available for delivery. Thanks to Chef Roberto for the photos! Shop now for Fresh Perigord Black Truffles! |
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Parmigiano-ReggianoThis cheese comes from a mountain farm located near the small village of Tizzano Val Perma in the Apennine Mountains. It is one of the mountain cheese houses. The milk for their cheese production comes from 15 different local dairies all located within 30 kilometers of the cheese house. The owner of the cheese house, Giovanni, says that the cows from which the milk is harvested are 50% Bruna Alpina cows, and 50% Frisona -- with a few Vacche Rossa and Montbeillards as well. Click here and shop now for Parmigiano-Reggiano! |
| Cooking Classes Have Started |
Cooking Classes
They are fun! A great place to meet new like-minded people who love great food. People attend because they want to see new things, learn old things, and have a good time. People who have cooked their whole life and people who have never boiled an egg come and everyone has a good time! Inclusive not exclusive! Check out the Classes! Store Hours Monday thru Saturday 10AM to 6PM. Come Visit! Sample just about everything! ChefShop.com 1425 Elliott Ave W Seattle, Wa 98119 206-286-9988 Store Parking The big one is much easier to park in. Click here to see the map. Come taste it's worth the visit! |
| This Weeks Recipes |
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Roasted Carrots with Cocoa Coriander Recipe Roasting carrots is very easy -- and pretty quick. I like to leave the carrots whole -- especially if they are freshly picked from my garden and still thinnish and tender. With bigger carrots, peeling them and slicing them on the diagonal might work better. Red Wine Chocolate Cake Recipe This recipe was adapted from Cooking For Comfort by Marian Burros (Simon & Schuster, 2003). This pudding does not have any added fruit -- such as raisins. It is stirred, not baked - so it becomes very, very creamy. Adding Apple Balsamic gives it that slightly sweet, slightly acidic, something different kind of taste. Enjoy! Hungarian Goulash / Paprikash Recipe Our friend, Don, was Chef Louis' Night Chef at The Bakery in Chicago. This recipe is adapted from The Bakery Restaurant Cookbook by Lois Szathmary (CBI Publishing, 1981). |
| See what you missed in previous Newsletters |
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New Olive Oils, Parmigiano - Reggiano, The Shape Of Shipping Included - Easy Gift Ideas to Spur Your Imagination Sweet and Savory Stocking Stuffers, Olio Nuovo, Shipping Cut Off |
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