Chocolate Apprentice

Savoury Chocolate

Enough of the sweet stuff.

I am exploring chocolate’s savoury side, this week.

I think it has to do with me being fascinated with chocolate’s roots, before the sugar was added, and those fascinating people:  the Mayans and the Aztecs. [Read more…]

Chocolate Covered Cherries

I don’t like cherries.  I never have.

We had two huge, and aesthetically beautiful cherry trees growing in our yard, when I was growing up.

Inevitably, when running around bare-footed, in the summer when the cherries were ripe, I would step on them, and the feeling of them squishing underfoot was akin to stepping on a slug (another thing I always managed to do at least once a year – and we have BIG slugs in British Columbia). [Read more…]

Dulce de Leche

After last week’s “road trip in the rain”, seeking out some of Vancouver’s best chocolate covered fleur de sel caramels, I am hooked.  And once I have rehydrated myself, and my well-salted taste buds have recovered, I have to try making them, myself.

My first attempt is at a firm caramel, recipe found here.  Canadian Living magazine is one of my “comfort food” things.  Always reminds me of Mum, as she bought me a subscription, every year.

I am excited to open my Sel Marin de Guerande. [Read more…]

Bubbly Chocolate and Squishy Citrus Centres

It came to me as I was supposed to be emptying my mind, and being in the moment, in yoga class.

We were doing a funky asana, which required us to put the ball of one foot and the back of our skulls at either end of a looped strap, and surrender our cores to the weight.  It actually felt really good, and of course, my mind started to wander as I hung there, because I didn’t have to concentrate.  I immediately began thinking about food, specifically, the last thing I ate before coming to class. [Read more…]