Well, not just nuts but all kinds of 'healthies' cocooned in chocolate. How do you feel about them?
I have to confess to enjoying a chocolate covered peanut. But then that suggests that I could have just one, popped into my mouth and enjoyed in a measured and sensible way. When really we know that chocolate covered peanuts are to be crammed into the gob in great grasping handfuls, overfilling a mouth so that brown liquid dribbles unnatractively down one's chin.
The same goes for chocolate covered raisins - a treat I wouldn't tolerate as a child but as an adult I'm a convert. Hallelujah!
We're getting into the big boys arena when we talk of Chocolate Brazils. Selenium-rich and reputedly cancer busting, Brazils are good for us beyond all sense, so dipping them in the good stuff to encourage us to eat more is a service to the nations health. I'm rather fond of the ones you buy from market stalls and which have a very sweet and soft cheap chocolate on them. It offsets the bitter nut nicely. Of course, if you're in the market for a Mother's Day gift then a paper-bag of cheapness won't cut it, so go for a classy box of Just Brazils, or an M&S version - she is your mother after all.
I recall as a child chowing down a bag of chocolate covered liqorice Allsorts, but I can't for the life in me recall if these were something we bought or fashioned at home with a block of Dairy Milkand a saucepan. Probably the latter, given my Dad's penchant for kitchen experimentation. Flipping good though.
Mission for this month. Melt some chocolate - milk, white, dark, doesn't matter - and then dip stuff in it. Keep it clean though, you cheeky little monkeys. I know what you're like...
Tuesday, 15 March 2011
Friday, 23 April 2010
Hot chocolate (not the 'you sexy thing' band)
I don't want to start a heated debate here, but the issue had to come up of hot chocolate; perhaps the most divisive topic of all for us treat-seeking missiles.
Some argue that much of the pleasure to be had from chocolate is in the texture; transforming it from crackingly solid to meltingly gooey in seconds on the tongue. For this reason, hot chocolate, in a purist choconaut's eyes, has no place even using the word chocolate in its name. But for others, it's a piping hot liquid unmatched by any other and the only brown liquid worth heating up milk for. The sugary sweetness, the frothy top, the sludge in the bottom, and the potential for dunking a chocolate biscuit and getting a double hit is certainly an attraction for me. I admit there was a time when milk made me feel a bit queasy - I still can't drink it cold, not even on cereal. Perhaps it's the greasy udderiness that I can't get past. But I have learned to enjoy it hot with the help of my faithful friend chocolate.
For the record, if you're drinking out then there are few hot chocolate's to rival Marks and Spencers for me, in which they always seem to deliver the perfect milk to chocolate ratio. It's good quality chocolate too, what else would one expect? Cafe Nero also delivers a first-rate hot choclate but I mark them down for charging extra for soya milk - cheeky monkeys. And I have been boycotting starbucks because of their unforgiving stranglehold on the coffee-shop market. Let someone else have a bit of business you greedy bucks.
If you're into making a hottie at home then a jar of good old Cadbury hits the spot every time. I don't hold with these low-cal varieties though. They are far too fake and nasty tasting and seem to be stuffed with sweeteners, aspartame, E numbers and the like. Full-fat all the way I think. Just have one less often if you're worried about becoming a bloater.
Ok, might go and put a pan on the hob and choc it up right now to send me into snoozeville. Sleep tight choc-kins and sweet dreams...
Some argue that much of the pleasure to be had from chocolate is in the texture; transforming it from crackingly solid to meltingly gooey in seconds on the tongue. For this reason, hot chocolate, in a purist choconaut's eyes, has no place even using the word chocolate in its name. But for others, it's a piping hot liquid unmatched by any other and the only brown liquid worth heating up milk for. The sugary sweetness, the frothy top, the sludge in the bottom, and the potential for dunking a chocolate biscuit and getting a double hit is certainly an attraction for me. I admit there was a time when milk made me feel a bit queasy - I still can't drink it cold, not even on cereal. Perhaps it's the greasy udderiness that I can't get past. But I have learned to enjoy it hot with the help of my faithful friend chocolate.
For the record, if you're drinking out then there are few hot chocolate's to rival Marks and Spencers for me, in which they always seem to deliver the perfect milk to chocolate ratio. It's good quality chocolate too, what else would one expect? Cafe Nero also delivers a first-rate hot choclate but I mark them down for charging extra for soya milk - cheeky monkeys. And I have been boycotting starbucks because of their unforgiving stranglehold on the coffee-shop market. Let someone else have a bit of business you greedy bucks.
If you're into making a hottie at home then a jar of good old Cadbury hits the spot every time. I don't hold with these low-cal varieties though. They are far too fake and nasty tasting and seem to be stuffed with sweeteners, aspartame, E numbers and the like. Full-fat all the way I think. Just have one less often if you're worried about becoming a bloater.
Ok, might go and put a pan on the hob and choc it up right now to send me into snoozeville. Sleep tight choc-kins and sweet dreams...
Sunday, 11 April 2010
Easter - the aftermath
Well Easter is over. I really think it's my favourite of the bank holidays, even better than Christmas. Not just because of all the chocolate involved, but spring is happening, trees are getting green, cherry blossom is bursting out and lambs are gamboling in the fields. It's just an all-round lovely time of year.
But, back to the chocolate. How many eggs did you consume? I only had three - Smarties, KitKat and Malteasers and friends - that's pretty restrained I think and they were shared with other people. I have to stand by my original claim that Nestle make the best Easter eggs. And why is Easter egg chocolate so damned tasty anyway? There's something about the way thin shards of chocolate melt in the mouth, and the irregular sized pieces are more interesting to eat that the uniform chunks in a bar - when you hit upon a piece of egg that's so thick you can barely break it, it's a pleasure unmatched. Smarties eggs are good too because you can open the tube, and tip it into half of the egg for a bit of pot-luck variation on just pure chocolate. My only gripe with the Smarties egg is that there was only one tube of Smarties in there - for shame. The KitKat had two KitKat chunkys (both gobbled by my Mum) and the Malteasers and friends had a bag each of Malteasers, Revels and Minstrels. Seems like Smarties could loosen the purse strings a little and treat us to two tubes per egg if you ask me.
I also took part in my first ever (I think) Easter egg hunt, which was a hoot - hoofing it through the park looking for decoy eggs to take back to base camp and swap for a prize. We found three in the end, which translated into a bag of mini eggs and a little belgian dark chocolate egg, which we scoffed that very afternoon to offset the exercise we had done finding the pesky things.
By the way, I spotted in one of my Mum's magazines, a whole page of recipes for left over chocolate - but I ask you, who ever has leftover chocolate?
Anyway, I hope you are rubbing your swollen tums with a bashful expression but inward glee and lets think ahead to our next chocolate experience.
Choc on
Choccy
But, back to the chocolate. How many eggs did you consume? I only had three - Smarties, KitKat and Malteasers and friends - that's pretty restrained I think and they were shared with other people. I have to stand by my original claim that Nestle make the best Easter eggs. And why is Easter egg chocolate so damned tasty anyway? There's something about the way thin shards of chocolate melt in the mouth, and the irregular sized pieces are more interesting to eat that the uniform chunks in a bar - when you hit upon a piece of egg that's so thick you can barely break it, it's a pleasure unmatched. Smarties eggs are good too because you can open the tube, and tip it into half of the egg for a bit of pot-luck variation on just pure chocolate. My only gripe with the Smarties egg is that there was only one tube of Smarties in there - for shame. The KitKat had two KitKat chunkys (both gobbled by my Mum) and the Malteasers and friends had a bag each of Malteasers, Revels and Minstrels. Seems like Smarties could loosen the purse strings a little and treat us to two tubes per egg if you ask me.
I also took part in my first ever (I think) Easter egg hunt, which was a hoot - hoofing it through the park looking for decoy eggs to take back to base camp and swap for a prize. We found three in the end, which translated into a bag of mini eggs and a little belgian dark chocolate egg, which we scoffed that very afternoon to offset the exercise we had done finding the pesky things.
By the way, I spotted in one of my Mum's magazines, a whole page of recipes for left over chocolate - but I ask you, who ever has leftover chocolate?
Anyway, I hope you are rubbing your swollen tums with a bashful expression but inward glee and lets think ahead to our next chocolate experience.
Choc on
Choccy
Wednesday, 24 March 2010
Its Easter, my little choc chicks
It's almost Easter - which means we're going to choc down to electric avenue with egg and bunny shaped goodies to gorge on with our families. What fun. If you've given up chocolate for lent and are dribbling at the thought of having a mouthful of the brown stuff (or white stuff, you milkybar kids) then hang in there, and just think how sweet the reward will be when you finally dig in on Easter Sunday.
Myself, I knew giving up chocolate would never happen, so I've given up coffee and crisps - five weeks down and all good. A coffee-fast by the way just means I can't have the drink, but I'm allowed coffee cake, coffee-flavoured jellybeans, coffee revels or coffee creams in a box of black Magic (do they still do coffee creams? I used to love those). As for crisps, that's been slightly harder though I've managed to keep it up so far. The crunch point (crunch indeed) is always after-workies in th pub. With an empty belly and a pint in hand crisps are the natural option. I've had to content myself with farty-smelling dry roasted peanuts, which aren't the same at all.
Anyway, our theme for the next mission is gorge - we've done the abstinence and on Easter Sunday it's time to let your inner chocolate centre come oozing out. Might I suggest you try putting a whole creme egg in your mouth at once, biting the heaad off a Lindt bunny with gay abandon or keeping an entire Easter egg back just for yourself. Sharing? What's that?
I still maintain the Nestle Easter eggs are the finest around - Smarties, Yorkie, Aero, oh my. But I'm open to suggestions. Bring your feasting Easter tales to the table my little chocolate chicklets, and when you go out tomorrow, why not smile at someone you don't know in the street and spread a little spring cheer?
Choccy
Ps. Don't forget the clocks go back at the weekend - one less hour of giving stuff up for lent!
Myself, I knew giving up chocolate would never happen, so I've given up coffee and crisps - five weeks down and all good. A coffee-fast by the way just means I can't have the drink, but I'm allowed coffee cake, coffee-flavoured jellybeans, coffee revels or coffee creams in a box of black Magic (do they still do coffee creams? I used to love those). As for crisps, that's been slightly harder though I've managed to keep it up so far. The crunch point (crunch indeed) is always after-workies in th pub. With an empty belly and a pint in hand crisps are the natural option. I've had to content myself with farty-smelling dry roasted peanuts, which aren't the same at all.
Anyway, our theme for the next mission is gorge - we've done the abstinence and on Easter Sunday it's time to let your inner chocolate centre come oozing out. Might I suggest you try putting a whole creme egg in your mouth at once, biting the heaad off a Lindt bunny with gay abandon or keeping an entire Easter egg back just for yourself. Sharing? What's that?
I still maintain the Nestle Easter eggs are the finest around - Smarties, Yorkie, Aero, oh my. But I'm open to suggestions. Bring your feasting Easter tales to the table my little chocolate chicklets, and when you go out tomorrow, why not smile at someone you don't know in the street and spread a little spring cheer?
Choccy
Ps. Don't forget the clocks go back at the weekend - one less hour of giving stuff up for lent!
Wednesday, 19 November 2008
Chewy goodness
Right, let's get the unpleasantness out of the way with a firm ticking off. We've been neglecting ourselves my choccie friends. It's been almost three weeks since we committed to indulging in the chocathon, and we have barely sunk our teeth into one measly bar. Let's pull ourselves together people. Let us brandish our bars aloft and pledge never to let this kind of neglect (or nouglect, if you will) happen again.
Ok, back to business. For my part, I did buy and eat a Starbar. It was a Friday afternoon and I took it back to my desk after lunch to nibble on discreetly whilst answering emails. Inevitably, a colleague heard the rustle and popped her head over the partition to see what I was scoffing.
BUT, herein lies the beauty of a Starbar. Anything that can be broken into pieces like a Galaxy or Dairy Milk is too shareable, as are little pop-em-in-your-mouth things like smarties, maltesers and (yum yum) Aero bubbles. Starbars are great big gallumping things. The chocolate crumbles off and falls down your top, the toffee stretches unattractively in strings from your mouth. It's very unappealing to a third party.
Don't be rude though, offer a bite graciously of course. Wave it at your coveting colleague and let them see the saliva glistening on the chocolatey, peanuty nub that's just been in your mouth. I can guarantee they'll say no.
So, I was left to enjoy my Starbar in blissful solitude.
'Chocolate, meet peanut. Peanut, this is chocolate. Now run along you two and make each other very tasty indeed.'
That is how I imagine the chocolate/peanut introduction went. And it's one for which I think we have the Americans to thank.
Thanks Yanks.
But, enough, we'll cover all this later when we move on to Snickers.
For now, let's leave the peanut in peace and move on to a wee challenge in the miniature World of funsize. For next week, I propose we take a full size chocolate bar and pitch it against it's mini equivalent. What are the perks of downsizing, and what are the irks? Indeed, how many minis can you get inside a person? My hypotheses is that you need at least three to rival a full bar. We'll take Mars as a control test, but feel free to experiment with the rest - Snickers, Bounty, Twix etc... And let's be clear, we're talking funsize party packs here, not the uber-small offerings of Miniature Heros and Celebrations, delicious though they are.
Ok, chomp away my friends and let me know how you get on.
Ok, back to business. For my part, I did buy and eat a Starbar. It was a Friday afternoon and I took it back to my desk after lunch to nibble on discreetly whilst answering emails. Inevitably, a colleague heard the rustle and popped her head over the partition to see what I was scoffing.
BUT, herein lies the beauty of a Starbar. Anything that can be broken into pieces like a Galaxy or Dairy Milk is too shareable, as are little pop-em-in-your-mouth things like smarties, maltesers and (yum yum) Aero bubbles. Starbars are great big gallumping things. The chocolate crumbles off and falls down your top, the toffee stretches unattractively in strings from your mouth. It's very unappealing to a third party.
Don't be rude though, offer a bite graciously of course. Wave it at your coveting colleague and let them see the saliva glistening on the chocolatey, peanuty nub that's just been in your mouth. I can guarantee they'll say no.
So, I was left to enjoy my Starbar in blissful solitude.
'Chocolate, meet peanut. Peanut, this is chocolate. Now run along you two and make each other very tasty indeed.'
That is how I imagine the chocolate/peanut introduction went. And it's one for which I think we have the Americans to thank.
Thanks Yanks.
But, enough, we'll cover all this later when we move on to Snickers.
For now, let's leave the peanut in peace and move on to a wee challenge in the miniature World of funsize. For next week, I propose we take a full size chocolate bar and pitch it against it's mini equivalent. What are the perks of downsizing, and what are the irks? Indeed, how many minis can you get inside a person? My hypotheses is that you need at least three to rival a full bar. We'll take Mars as a control test, but feel free to experiment with the rest - Snickers, Bounty, Twix etc... And let's be clear, we're talking funsize party packs here, not the uber-small offerings of Miniature Heros and Celebrations, delicious though they are.
Ok, chomp away my friends and let me know how you get on.
Thursday, 30 October 2008
Starbar
Welcome to the chocolate blog. A forum for chocolate bar appreciation. We may occasionally dabble into cake, have a nibble on the odd biscuit and, damn it, possibly even delve into the frozen world of ice-cream bars but, our fundamental choccy allegiances will always lay with the bar - the sometimes fruity, sometimes nutty, occasionally chewy, but always very, very chocolatey, bar.
Ok, lets go. As it's week one, we'll start with a leisurely munch on one of my faves - the Cadbury's Starbar. Nut allergy sufferers will have to sit this one out I'm afraid, as it's crammed with nutty goodness. Be assured, I feel a great sense of shame at this. But, my nut-free friends, have patience, your day will come. On the plus side, Starbars are relatively soft, so old people can join in - hurrah!
So, homework for this week. Find, and buy, a Starbar. Eat it. Share your Starbar thoughts with us here at the chocolate blog. Savour the taste, explore the texture and tell us how you rate it, and don't be constrained by the rules of fairness. You are free to let your judgement be clouded by external influences. If you eat it sitting next to a smelly tramp on the tube and it impairs your enjoyment, then mark it down, that's fair play. It's all about the experience.
Right, get munching freestyle.
Ok, lets go. As it's week one, we'll start with a leisurely munch on one of my faves - the Cadbury's Starbar. Nut allergy sufferers will have to sit this one out I'm afraid, as it's crammed with nutty goodness. Be assured, I feel a great sense of shame at this. But, my nut-free friends, have patience, your day will come. On the plus side, Starbars are relatively soft, so old people can join in - hurrah!
So, homework for this week. Find, and buy, a Starbar. Eat it. Share your Starbar thoughts with us here at the chocolate blog. Savour the taste, explore the texture and tell us how you rate it, and don't be constrained by the rules of fairness. You are free to let your judgement be clouded by external influences. If you eat it sitting next to a smelly tramp on the tube and it impairs your enjoyment, then mark it down, that's fair play. It's all about the experience.
Right, get munching freestyle.
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