Belgian Chocolate Candies: A Great Gift Idea for Your Loved Ones(belgian chocolates)

belgian chocolates

If you are having any trouble thinking of a gift idea for your wife's birthday or on mother's day, you have to consider getting one that everyone will love. One kind of a great gift idea is chocolates. You can never deny the fact that everyone loves to eat chocolates. In fact, at the time when chocolate was discovered in the Americas, people have started to cherish them and love them. You have to consider that chocolates have been around for centuries and up until today, chocolates are still very popular candies that everyone loves.

Diet fanatics even considered chocolates as a dieting nightmare because they can never stop themselves to eat some even when they are on a diet. They even say to themselves that they will eat only one piece but often ends up eating a whole box. This is how addicting and how delicious chocolate candies are. However, you have to consider that the regular chocolates you see in your regular store today are nothing compared to eating one of the world's finest chocolates called Belgian chocolates.

Belgium has been producing the same chocolate recipe that has been discovered by the Spanish in the Americas. As you can see, the original recipe for chocolate is still widely available and can still be tasted through Belgian chocolates. You have to consider that Belgian chocolate candies are one of the most popular in the world and it is also one of the finest chocolates available. It offers fine tasting chocolate that many people have claimed to be something to be treasured and one that they cannot get enough of.

Unlike cheap brands of chocolates where you can easily get sick of, Belgian chocolate candies offers a one-of-a-kind taste that will make you crave for more. Chocolate lovers from all over the world have testified that Belgian chocolates are indeed the finest chocolate in the world.

If you let it melt in your mouth and savor the taste of Belgian chocolates, you can be sure that you will end up wanting for more. There is even a testimony from one female chocolate lover that when she was given a Belgian chocolate as a gift, she planned on consuming it for five days, one for each day. However, when she ate the first one for dessert after having dinner, she just couldn㦙 get enough of the Belgian chocolate that the whole box of five Belgian chocolates were consumed in less than thirty minutes, savoring each chocolate as it melted in her mouth.

Chocolates are also regarded as a great medicine for depression. Even more, what if you give a Belgian chocolate to your friend or family member who is depressed, or why not try eating one if you feel depressed yourself. You will find that chocolates uplift your mood and will eventually feel euphoria.

If you came across a TV ad where someone ate a chocolate and ended up seeing angels from heaven, you have an idea on how it would feel like as the chocolate is melting in your mouth.

So, if you are planning to give chocolates for your wife as a gift, you should consider purchasing a box of Belgian chocolate candies for her. Although it may be on the expensive side you will definitely see that it's worth every penny.

Another great thing about chocolates is that it was found that it is an aphrodisiac.



belgian chocolates

Decadent Chocolate Cake

Ingredients

* 1 3/4 cups SR Flour
* 1/2 teaspoon Salt
* 1/2 cup cocoa
* 2 eggs
* 1 1/4 cups sugar
* 125 grams Melted butter or Marg
* 1 teaspoon Vanilla
* 1 cup Milk

Instructions
Combine flour,salt,cocoa,& sugar in a bowl
Add melted butter to beaten eggs,vanilla & milk
Combine & beat well cook in a greased line slice tin 25 mins at 180c
Don't over beat it .

Recipe donated by Eli from http://www.goodrecipes.com.au/

Chocolate and Walnut Biscotti

* 185 grams Butter
* 1/3 cup Caster Sugar
* 1/3 can Condensed Milk
* 1 1/2 cups Self Raising Flour
* 1/4 teaspoon Salt
* 125 grams Chocolate Chips
* 1/2 cup Walnuts chopped


Instructions
Put small spoons full onto lightly greased trays and bake for 15 - 20 minutes in 180dg. oven (fan forced).
Loosen and cool on trays.

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Recipe donated by Eli from http://www.goodrecipes.com.au/

Simple Chocolate Sauce

* 1 1/2 cups sugar
* 1 cup milk
* 1/4 teaspoon salt
* 1/4 cup cocoa powder (not drinking chocolate)
* 1 teaspoon vanilla essence

Instructions
Mix sugar and cocoa powder together in a pot, add milk, making sure there are no lumps. Slowly bring to the boil stirring continiously making sure the sugar has dissolved. Boil for 10 minutes. Add salt. Remove from stove and allow to cool slightly, add vanilla. Keeps well stored in the fridge.
Enjoy!!

Eli's Chocolate Brownies

Ingredients

* 1/2 cup rice flour
* 1/2 cup plain flour
* 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
* 1/3 cup cocoa powder
* 1 1/4 cups caster sugar
* 2 eggs
* 150 grams butter, melted

Instructions
1)
Preheat oven to 180°C. Grease a 4cm-deep, 20cm x 30cm (base) slab pan. Line with baking paper, allowing a 2cm overhang at both long ends.
2)
Sift flours, baking powder and cocoa into a large bowl. Add sugar. Stir to combine. Make a well in the centre. Add eggs and melted butter to flour mixture.
3)
Using a metal spoon, mix until just smooth.
Spread mixture into prepared pan. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes or until a skewer inserted in the centre comes out with crumbs clinging.
Remove from oven.
4) Allow to cool in pan. Lift from pan. Cut into squares.


Recipe donated by Eli from http://www.goodrecipes.com.au/

Double Chocolate Brownies

1 cup all purpose flour
1/4 cup cocoa powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 cup vegetable oil
2/3 cups brown sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup low fat evaporated milk
1 1/2 cups dark chocolate

chips
1/2 cup chopped pecans

1. Set oven to 325 degrees F. Grease a 9 x 9 baking pan.
2. Combine flour, cocoa powder, and baking soda. Set aside.
3. Whisk together vegetable oil, brown sugar, eggs and vanilla extract.
4. Meanwhile, in sauce pan heat milk and chocolate chips until all the chips have melted. Remove from heat and allow to cool. Slowly add to sugar mixture while whisking.
5. Add flour mixture to chocolate mixture and whisk until just combine. Fold in remaining 1/2 cup chocolate chips and chopped pecans. Pour batter into baking dish

and bake in a 325 degree oven for 30 minutes. At this point, an inserted toothpick will probably not come out clean but this does not mean that the brownies are not cooked. Set on a wire rack for 10 minutes, then cut into cubes.

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This recipe is from my blog Healthy and Gourmet (www.healthyandgourmet.blogspot.com) and is in response to your request from foodbuzz for recipes with chocolate. I focus on creating recipes that look and taste absolutely decadent but which are made with an emphasis on healthy and wholesome ingredients. I try to avoid using unhealthy fats as much as possible. Most of my recipes are my own creations but some are my healthy versions of traditional American/European and other ethnic dishes.
Please feel free to email me if you have any questions.
Thanks!
Natasha

Raw Chocolate Cake

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups walnuts, unsoaked

dash of salt

12 medjool dates, or 16 deglet dates, unsoaked

1/4 cup raw cacao powder

1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

3 tsp water

2 tsp maple syrup or agave nectar

1/2 cup raspberries to garnish (optional)



Steps:

1. Blend walnuts and salt in a food processor until finely ground. Add the dates, cacao powder and vanilla. Process until the mixture begins to stick together. Add the water and sweetener and process briefly.
2. Transfer to a serving plate and form mixture into a 5-inch round cake. Chill for at least 1 hour. Decorate with fresh raspberries or make a raspberry fruit sauce before serving, if desired.
3. Cover with plastic and keep in the refrigerator. Will keep for three days or two weeks in the freezer.


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Recipe added to http://tastebuddelights.com by gfchef from http://www.heartofcooking.com/

Raw Chocolate

Ingredients:

2 cups raw cacao powder

1 cup coconut oil or cocoa butter

1-2 Tbsp. vanilla extract

3-4 Tbsp. agave nectar

chopped almonds, walnuts, raisins, or anything else you’d like to add

Steps:

1. Heat oil slowly over low-medium heat in a saucepan. Mix in the agave and vanilla. Then mix in the cacao powder. Make sure it never boils or gets above medium heat (or 110 F).
2. Pour mixture into a pan and put it in the freezer or refrigerator to harden.

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Recipe added to http://tastebuddelights.com by gfchef from http://www.heartofcooking.com/

Chocolate Chip Pudding Cookies

2 1/4 cup flour, unsifted
1 tsp. baking soda
Salt
1 (4 serving size) of chocolate instant pudding mix
1 cup butter, softened
1/4 cup white sugar
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
2 eggs
1 (12 oz.) pkg. chocolate chips


Mix flour, soda, and salt. Combine butter, sugars, and vanilla until creamy, beat in eggs. Add flour mixture, then pudding mix. Stir in chips. Drop on ungreased cookie sheet.

Bake at 350 degrees for 8-10 minutes or until lightly brown.

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Contributor is Chef Tom

Weekly Cookbook Club: http://www.recipesnoop.com/club

Revise and Conquer: Chocolate Heroes and Heroines

George Saunders, MacArthur Genius Award winner and a liberal-minded quick-witted model citizen of the 21st century, has written that "the best stories proceed from a mysterious truth-seeking impulse that narrative has when revised extensively; they are complex and baffling and ambiguous; they tend to make us slower to act, rather than quicker." In the optimistic (despite this semester's "narrating war and protest" theme) and frenetic freshman composition courses that I teach at the University of Pittsburgh, I obsessively quote Saunders, along with the heady and graceful poet/memoirist Patricia Hampl ("it still comes as a shock to realize that I don’t write about what I know, but in order to find out what I know"), and I present revision as the divine route to, if not salvation, at least understanding. At the beginning of the semester, I tell my students that "revision is much more than copy-editing--it is an informed return to a piece of writing, an opportunity not only to refine but to reconsider your writing." Toward the end of the semester (that is, right now), as projects get longer and questions get more complex, I emphasize that "while writers often approach revision as a way of looking back, revising can also be about looking forward."

I don't always follow my own advice. In the free-wheeling rant I posted on this blog a few weeks ago, I mentioned that I'm not writing very much right now. What I do write, I don't tend to revise. This semester, I tend to give my work a quick scan, followed by a long sigh, and then I send it off to where it needs to go (this website, a professor's mailbox, an editor's inbox), hoping I won't have to look at it again any time too soon. But what would have happened if I had reread and revised my post about "Barthes and the Chocolate Man"? I might have found that my philosophical bafflement over Roland Barthes was actually the key to a provocatively original analysis (anyone similarly hoping to turn frustration into epiphany may want to consult the heartening textbook for introductory classes much like the one I'm teaching The Elements (and Pleasures) of Difficulty, by Mariolina Rizzi Salvatori and Patricia Donahue). I also might have concluded--perhaps more importantly, in this context--that my comment that "while food industry insiders find chocolate to be the greatest thing going, I'm finding the conversation to be a bit banal" was incomplete, worthy of more elaboration. I could have said, instead, that the oversaturated market makes the search for transcendent experiences in chocolate more challenging.

But there are, of course, transcendent experiences to be had. That is, there are still heroes and heroines in the chocolate world. Last weekend, I made my annual trip to the Annual New York Chocolate Show, where I discovered a chocolate-outfitted Wonder Woman, a new(ish) California chocolatier named Christopher Michael (and Food & Wine magazine reports on yet another one: Eclipse Chocolat), and several old friends and allies, including Jeff Shepherd of Lillie Belle Farms, who told me that my purchase of his new "Red Velvet Almonds" would go toward his daughter's college education.

And I've gotten--in addition to bogus chocolate tablets imprinted with PR slogans--some terrific chocolate samples in the mail in the past couple months. Alan McClure of Patric Chocolate sent me his latest 67% and 70% mircobatch Madagascar bars--the stuff is currently more expensive than Valrhona and it's not (yet) as good as Valrhona, but Alan is dedicated enough to get there. The utterly unpretentious staff at Michel Cluizel's US outpost sent me the company's new 85% and 99% "ganaches" (or ganache-filled bon bons), packed tightly into a handy little box that's no bigger than a pocket reference book--the ganache itself was a bit too dry and grainy for my tongue, but the little box is an absolutely delightful marketing feat.



Looking back is useful, helpful, necessary. So is looking forward. Sometimes, you can take your work, rearrange it, make it work better. And sometimes, you have to break the whole structure apart. One of the most vindicating moments of the last month was when a bunch of guys (mostly roboticists and nuclear power plant engineers) whom I invited over to play poker took it upon themselves to forcibly demolish the Axe chocolate tablet.

White Chocolate Raspberry Trifle

175g White chocolate
2 Medium egg yolks
25g Castor sugar
150ml Milk
85g Double cream
2& 1/2 Tbsp Icing sugar
4 x 4cm slices Swiss roll(Bought/homemade)
2Tbsp Kirsch Liqueur
225g Fresh Raspberries
A few fresh mint sprigs

1.Put a 55g piece of white chocolate in the fridge. Break remainder into smaller pieces.
2.Cream egg yolks & caster sugar together in a large bowl. Whisk for about 2-3mins till the mixture is pale,thick,creamy & leaves a trail.
3.Pour the milk & cream into a small,heavy based saucepan & bring to the boil.Pour on to the egg yolk mixture,whisking all the time!
Pour back into the pan & place over a moderate heat. Stir the mix with a wooden spoon till it's starts to thicken & coats the back of the spoon.
4.Add the chocolate pieces & stir in until completely melted.
5.Remove the pan from the heat & allow to cool slightly.Cover the custard with a little icing sugar & piece of cling film to prevent a skin forming.
6.Place the Swiss roll slices in a large glass bowl & sprinkle with Kirsch. Scatter with fresh raspberries reserving a few for decoration.
7.Pour the white chocolate custard over the Swiss roll & leave to set in the fridge. Over night would be ideal
8.To serve: Decorate the trifle with the reserved raspberries. Take the piece of white chocolate from the fridge & finely grate over the trifle.
9.Finally ,dust with a little icing sugar & place the mint sprigs on top


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Contributed by Angelique Frew.

Chocolate Biscotti

160 ml Whole blanched almonds
175ml flour
100g dark/milk chocolate, grated
125ml sugar
60ml cocoa powder
2 eggs,beaten
5ml vanilla essence
1egg white

1.Preheat oven to 160'C
2.Place nuts on a baking tray & toast for +/- 10mins in the oven. Allow to cool
3.Line a large baking tray with baking

paper.
4.Combine flour,chocolate,sugar & cocoa pwd. Add beaten eggs & vanilla essence & mix to form a stiff dough.
5.Dough should be slightly sticky.Dust hands with flour & shape into 3 wide logs & place on baking paper.
6.Brush with beaten egg white. Bake for +/- 30mins.
7.Remove from oven,turn down oven temp to 140'C & slice logs with a slight diagonal into thick slices.
8.Place back on baking tray,sliced side up & bake again for another 20mins or till dried out.

Makes +/- 24

Enjoy with yummy chocolate cups!!!

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Recipe contributed by Angelique Frew.

Barthes and the Chocolate Man

My decision to start this blog was arbitrary. I liked chocolate, I talked about it in ways (both high and low) that other people didn't seem to, and I had a lot of free time. I imagined that, perhaps more than taste-testing the substance itself, I would write about obscure things peripherally related to chocolate. If the blog had taken that trajectory, I might have sat down sometime over the last month and written about the ludicrous commercial I saw at the cinema, for the new chocolate-scented Axe body spray. I might have written about how--perfectly timed with my viewing of the ad in which women flock to and then consume parts of a man who appears to be made of chocolate--I received an email from a publicist for Axe, telling me that "more than 70 percent of women around the world ranked chocolate as more irresistible than shopping, jewelry or even sex. Based on this insight, AXE created new AXE Dark Temptation, both a bodyspray and a shower gel for guys that is as irresistible as chocolate." (That publicist sent me a box of samples several weeks ago, and I only this moment realized that the box contained not only the shower gel, which I have been using on myself, and the body spray, which I have not, but also an enormous block of chocolate on which the above PR slogan about women, chocolate, and sex is printed.)

However (as regular readers of this blog must have noticed) I've spent the past month writing nothing at all.

Perhaps the reasons for my silence come not from chocolate at all but from an existential crisis about the act of writing itself. But, read another way, that crisis has everything to do with chocolate. At exactly the time that I started this chocolate blogging endeavor a few years ago, the (artisan/artisanal/high-end/origin/high-cacao-content/call-it-what-you-will) chocolate industry and the business of writing about it mushroomed from a sideline fascination into a full-fledged cultural phenomenon. So instead of writing about chocolate-laced advertising campaigns, I started to write about individual pieces of candy, their flavors (or lack thereof), and the importance (or lack thereof) of their cacao percentages. And people read this stuff and wrote back, and I, in turn, kept up the dialogue by writing yet more about the subject. (Even during the month when I wrote nothing here on Chocolate in Context, Imbibe magazine deemed me an expert on the subject--though you'd have to find a hard copy October issue to read it.) Lately, though, while food industry insiders find chocolate to be the greatest thing going, I'm finding the conversation to be a bit banal.

In my mind, the (at least pre-financial-meltdown) astronomical growth of the specialty chocolate market has resulted an extraordinary increase in the production of mediocre chocolate, or products that employ artisan techniques yet have neither the taste nor the generally laudable creativity of the first wave of contemporary American chocolate makers. On my last trip to San Francisco, I asked the astute Seneca Klassen what he thought about all of this. He answered that

There's a fundamental problem with the whole concept of artisan chocolate making at this time, and that is that one of the components that I generally associate with artisanal processes is that they're intergenerational, and that there are skills that are passed down from person to person. And that's been erased over the past hundred years of chocolate's history because of the industrialization of the product. So there aren't people to go ask how to do this stuff. So what does artisan mean, then? So we're at the point where anybody entering this pursuit has to basically start from scratch and cobble together what knowledge they can, however they can, and hopefully build relationships over time that improve that body of knowledge. But it's a pretty weird set up because basically we're all fishing in the dark, trying to achieve really high quality, amazing things, but the results are radically different. And that's only within the small community of people who really give a shit. There's a broader community of people who just want to be able to more effectively market and label their products.

The Axe Chocolate Man is just such a person. I am meant to infer (though this is certainly not what I or anyone watching this ad would actually feel) that this (artificial) image of a man made out of (artificial) chocolate is sexy, or somehow sexier than sex. I'm not talking about chocolate anymore. I'm talking about some kind of body spray that's not made of chocolate and doesn't even smell like chocolate, but rather smells like the very distinctly non-artisan artificial aroma that, as a result of those hundred years of industrialization in the food industry that Seneca referred to, Americans now associate with chocolate. Well, isn't this what I set out to do with this blog anyway? To make sense, as a chocolate fan, of representations of chocolate? Perhaps. But what's the point? "[T]his is the point:" writes Roland Barthes, whom I take entirely out of context, "we are no longer dealing here with a theoretical mode of representation: we are dealing with this particular image, which is given for this particular signification. Mythical speech is made of material which has already been worked on so as to make it suitable for communication: it is because all the materials of myth (whether pictorial or written) presuppose a signifying consciousness, that one can reason about them while discounting their substance." Here, I might have been inclined to lapse into an anecdote about my-only-partially successful attempt to fill up my empty writing hours with reading hours and about how I found Barthes's Mythologies to be some combination of useful and baffling. Such an anecdote would have allowed me to wrap my self-deprecating characterization in a bit of classy prose in which I dismiss my inability to apply my reading of Barthes to the Axe ad in anything but the most coincidental of ways. I might have done that, except that, in his essay "Blind and Dumb Criticism" in the same book, Barthes asks,

...But if one fears or despises so much the philosophical foundations of a book, and if one demands so insistently the right to understand nothing about them and to say nothing on the subject, why become a critic? To understand, to enlighten, that is your profession, isn't it? You can of course judge philosophy according to common sense; the trouble is that while 'common sense' and 'feeling' understand nothing about philosophy, philosophy, on the other hand, understands them perfectly. You don't explain philosophers, but they explain you.

Why be a critic, indeed? I don't know, man, but I think it's a question worth my time to figure out. And that might take another month (or more) of not writing about anything. For the moment, I'm resolved to sit here a bit bored and a bit baffled, reading the enormous chocolate tome presented to me by the Axe Chocolate Man. ("Eighty-two perfect agreed that chocolate is a temptation that is hard to resist," it tells me.)

Chocolate Crunch

Ingredients

8oz butter
8oz sugar
11oz flour
1.5oz cocoa


Cream butter and sugar.
Add flour and cocoa and mix well.
Put into your tin, sprinkle with water and bake at gas 3 or 170C for approx 40 minutes.
Very easy to make and my kids love it :)

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Thank you for the recipe madamepearson

Chocolate Mint Cookies

1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup butter, softened
1/4 cup applesauce
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon mint extract
1 large egg white, beaten

In a bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, and cocoa together. In another bowl, combine the brown sugar, granulated sugar, butter, applesauce, vanilla, mint and egg white. Beat with a hand mixer until well blended. Combine the flour mixture with the sugar to form the dough. Roll into a log and cover with plastic wrap. Put into the freezer for about an hour. Spray a baking sheet with cooking spray. Slice into 1/4 inch pieces and place on the greased baking sheet. Bake at 350 degrees F for about 10 minutes. Remove and let cool.

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Thank you for the recipe Chef Tom.

French Silk Chocolate Pie

1 9" pie crust, baked (use your favorite recipe or a pre-made one)
Filling:
1 cup butter
1 1/2 cups superfine white sugar
4 Tbsp. cocoa powder
1 Tbsp. vanilla extract
1 cup pasturized egg substitute (such as Egg Beaters(R)) or 4 pasturized whole eggs
Topping:
1/2 cup heavy whipping cream
1 tsp. vanilla
1 tsp. sugar

Directions:
Soften butter. Cream together with sugar until fluffy. Beat in cocoa and vanilla. Mix in 1/4 cup egg substitute (or 1 egg) at high speed until well mixed. Repeat 3 times until all eggs are incorporated. Keep beating on high until mixture is light and fluffy and sugar crystals are well incorporated (the recipe should NOT be gritty - the superfine sugar should help ensure that).
Spread in cooked pie shell and refrigerate at least 4 hours.
Before serving, beat whipping cream, vanilla and sugar together to form soft peaks. Spread over pie, cut and serve.

Note: Since this recipe is not cooked, it's important to use either pasturized egg substitute or pasturized eggs to avoid the risk of infection, especially in young children, pregnant women or people with weakened immune systems.

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This recipe comes courtesy of ValleyWriter. ValleyWriter is passionate about words, wine and food - especially chocolate! Visit http://pioneervalleyma.blogspot.com today for more great recipes and a taste of the Pioneer Valley.

Dads Orange Chocolate Chip Muffins

1 1/2 cups ap flour
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 cup sourdough starter
1 egg, beaten
1/2 cup orange juice
1/4 cup milk
1/3 cup vegetable oil

2 tsp orange zest
3/4 cup chocolate chips

Combine flour, sugar, salt, baking powder and baking soda. In a separate bowl mix together the starter, egg, juice, milk, oil and zest. Add starter mixture all at once to the dry ingredients and stir till just moistened. Fold in the chips. Fill greased or lined muffin tins 2/3 full and bake at 375 for 18-20 minutes or until done.


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Contributed by BobtheDude on http://tastebuddelights.com.

Warm Flourless Chocolate Cake with Caramel Sauce

1 cup butter, cubed

8 ounces semisweet chocolate, chopped

1 1/4 cups white sugar

1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

6 eggs

1 1/2 cups white sugar

1/4 cup water

1 1/2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice

1 cup heavy cream

2 tablespoons unsalted butter





Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).

1. Butter the bottom of a 10 inch springform pan, and line with parchment paper.

2. Melt the butter in a large saucepan over low heat. Stir in chocolate, and continue to stir until almost melted. Remove from heat, and stir until melted and smooth.

3. In a large bowl, stir together 1 1/4 cups sugar and the cocoa powder. Whisk in the eggs until well blended, then whisk in the chocolate and butter.

4. Pour the batter into the prepared pan.

5. Bake for about 45 minutes in the preheated oven, or until a knife or toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean.

6. Cool cake in the pan over a wire rack. Run a knife around the sides of the pan to loosen the cake, then remove the sides of the pan, and invert onto a serving plate. Remove the parchment paper.

7. In a heavy saucepan, stir together 1 1/2 cups of sugar, water, and lemon juice. Bring to a boil over medium heat, and cook without stirring until the syrup is a deep amber color. For an accurate color check, dip a metal spoon into the syrup and lift it out of the pan to check the color. Once the syrup is amber, remove from the heat. Gradually stir in the cream. The mixture will bubble vigorously. If lumps form, stir gently over low heat to dissolve them. Stir in 2 tablespoons of butter.

8. Cut the cake into wedges while warm, and serve with caramel sauce spooned over it. You can also chill the cake and sauce, then warm again before serving

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Thank you for the recipe mistressofcakes

El Chocolate y la Salud

El Chocolate contiene una sustancia llamada "Methylxanthines" que produce daños físicos y fisiológicos en el ser humano.Este elemento también se encuentra en el café y en las colas.La gente ignora estos daños porque no son bien conocidos, sin embargo, sus efectos son muy serios. La naturaleza química de ésta sustancia es muy dañina para la salud. Esta puede alterar el protoplasma de las células

El Huevo de Pascua

Para la cristiandad -y los ortodoxos lo son- , el domingo de Pascua es una fiesta de júbilo. Y al tradicional cordero en la mesa -símbolo de pureza- se ha unido otro símbolo: el huevo de Pascua.Éste constituye el signo la resurrección, porque el huevo de Pascua ha tenido siempre una venerable historia, desde aquellos primeros cristianos que le consideraron como símbolo de la Resurrección de Jesús

Chocoterapia: Reanima y Rencorforta el Cuerpo

El uso del cacao con fines estéticos se obtiene mediante la aplicación superficial del delicioso alimento sobre la piel. El chocolate tiene propiedades antioxidantes tanto por vía oral como cutánea. El cacao es un alimento vivificante con propiedades estimulantes, que reanima y reconforta el cuerpo. Es una excelente terapia para subir el ánimo y ayuda a eliminar la fatiga. Su sabor dulce aumenta

El valor nutritivo del cacao

Con variedad de minerales, vitaminas, calorías y otros nutrientes, los productos del cacao también son agradables al paladarEl chocolate y los productos del cacao, al mismo tiempo que constituyen un placer al ingerirlos, también representan un valor nutritivo. Todos los alimentos tienen un valor nutritivo, relacionado con la cantidad y el tipo de proteínas, carbohidratos, grasas, minerales y

Licor de crema de chocolate

Ingredientes3 tazas de leche200 gr de chocolate rallado1 cucharada de cacao dulce1 cucharada de fécula de maíz2 tazas de azúcar2 tazas de coñac1 cucharadita de vainillaProcesoPoner en una cacerola la fécula y agregar de a poco la leche fría, revolviendo siempre hasta disolverla. Agregar el cacao previamente disuelto en un poco de leche tibia, el chocolate rallado y el azúcar. Llevar a cocinar

Museos de Chocolate

Museo del Chocolate de BarcelonaEn el antiguo Convento de San Agustín encontramos hoy el tentador Museo del Chocolate, promovido por el Gremio Provincial de Pastelería de Barcelona.Este museo hace un recorrido por el mundo del chocolate desde sus orígenes y llegada a Europa, hasta la actualidad en que forma parte del día a día de nuestras vidas.leer más...El Museo del Chocolate de

CHARLIE Y EL CHOCOLATE (Joaquín Collantes)

(Este relato es uno de los contenidos en el libro MATECUENTOS-CUENTAMATES 3 de J. Collantes y A. Pérez Ed. NIVOLA 2006)A Charlie no le gustaba el chocolate. Sin embargo a su madre sí le gustaba el chocolate; a su padre le gustaba mucho el chocolate; a sus dos hermanos les gustaba muchísimo el chocolate; todos sus amigos se volvían locos por el chocolate y a él, que era amigo del señor Bonca, el

CUENTOS Y CHOCOLATE....

CHOCOLATE CON CHURROS (Carmen Fuentes)Vestido con su traje de luces rojiverde, Manolo estaba listo para demostrar su talento en la plaza aquel domingo de mayo. Antes de marcharse a la faena, María su madre le hizo beber un chocolate bien caliente acompañado de tres churros azucarados. Luego, el muchacho se hincó para recibir la bendición.-¡Suerte, hijo mío! Ya sabes que a eso yo no voy.-Gracias

Chocolate-induced prolonged angiooedema in an elderly patient

ALAGIAKRISHNAN KANNAYIRAM, ALI REZAIE & SEIKALY HADIAge and Ageing Advance Access published June 5, 2008Case reportA 93-year-old woman with a history of hypertension, hypothyroidism and diabetes mellitus type 2 was admitted with a complaint of tongue swelling, after consuming a piece of diabetic chocolate for the first time. There is no prior history of allergies to drugs or foods. She had been

Chocolate on Trial: Slavery, Politics, and the Ethics of Business

Lowell J. SatreEnterprise and Society 2006 7(2):392-393AbstractSolid scholarly historical studies of overseas businesses in Africa are rare. Rarer still are studies of this area that deal with ethics and corporate responsibility without cant or overheated rhetoric. Lowell J. Satre’s Chocolate on Trial stands out as a nuanced history of the dilemmas of doing business responsibly in a colonial

Assessing the Role of Color Cues and People's Beliefs About Color–Flavor Associations on the Discrimination of the Flavor of Sugar-Coated Chocolates

Carmel A. Levitan, Massimiliano Zampini, Ryan Li & Charles SpenceChemical Senses 2008 33(5):415-423AbstractWe report 2 experiments designed to investigate the effect of people's prior beliefs concerning specific color-flavor associations on their ability to discriminate the flavor of colored sugar-coated chocolate sweets. The participants in our study judged whether pairs of Smarties had the same

PAY DE FRESA Y CHOCOLATE

INGREDIENTES (8 porciones) BASE 20 galletas de chocolate 50 gramos de mantequilla 1 huevo 4 barras e chocolate, para fundir RELLENO 1 paquete de queso crema 1 taza de leche condensada 1 naranja (el jugo, colado) 18 fresas lavadas 1 cucharada de grenetina hidratada en un ¼ de taza de agua 8 fresas lavadas y rebanadas P R O C E D I M I E N T O PASTA Muele finamente las galletas,

Chocolate Ice Cream

http://tastebuddelights.com /Category: Sweets/Desserts / Cold Desserts (Fridge)

2 egg 2 egg yolks 75g caster sugar 300ml single cream 225g plain chocolate 300ml double cream,whipped 1.Whisk together the eggs, egg yolks & sugar in a large bowl.Heat the single cream & chocolate in a small pan until melted & then bring to the boil.Pour on to the egg mixture & stir well 2.Return to the pan & heat gently,stirring all the time until the custard coats the back of the spoon.Strain into a bowl,cover the surface of the custard with a damp greaseproof paper.Cool 3.Fold the whipped cream into the custard & pour into a rigid polythene container.Seal & freeze for 2 hrs.Remove from the freezer until the ice cream is firm.Before serving,allow to soften in fridge for 20mins. Makes 1Litre Tip: For SA residents double cream is available @ Woolies

Double Chocolate Terrine

Tastebuddelights.com/Category: Sweets/Desserts / Cold Desserts (Fridge)
2eggs,separated
50g/2oz caster sugar
4tsp gelatine
125g/4oz plain chocolate
300ml/ 1/2pint cream
125g/4oz white chocolate
plain & white chocolate shavings, to decorate

1.Beat 1 egg yolk & 25g/1oz sugar together until smooth.Sprinkle 2tsp gelatine into 1 Tbsp hot water over a pan of simmering water & leave to stand for 5mins.Melt plain chocolate over a pan of simmering water.
2.Whip 150ml/ 1/4pint cream until it forms soft peaks.Whisk one egg white until forms stiff peaks.Stir the gelatine & melted chocolate into egg yolk mixture.
3.Gently fold cream & egg white into chocolate mixture & spoon into a 1.2L /2pints loaf tin lined with cling wrap.Chill for 2 hrs until set.
4.Make the white chocolate layer as above,using the remaining ingredients. Spoon over set layer & chill.Freeze overwrap with foil.Store up to 2mnths.Thaw overnight in fridge.
5.Turn onto a serving plate,remove wrap & sprinkle with chocolate shavings.

Layered Mousse Gateau

Category: Sweets/Desserts / Mousses

175g Bourbon biscuits 225g unsalted butter 225g milk chocolate 6 Tbsp brandy/rum 3eggs, separated 300ml double cream 225g white chocolate 225g plain chocolate cocoa & icing sugar,for dusting 1.Line the sides of a 20cm round loose-based cake tin with a strip of foil.Finely crush the biscuits in a polythene bag using a rolling pin. Melt 50g butter & mix with the crushed biscuits.Press into the base of the tin. 2.Use the milk chocolate,50g butter,2Tbsp of brandy/rum, one egg & 100ml double cream to make a mousse,following the recipe above.Spoon the mousse over the top of the biscuit base.Level the surface & chill thoroughly. 3.Use the white chocolate, 50g butter, one egg & 100ml cream to make a white mousse & then use the remaining ingredients to make dark mousse in the same way.Spoon each layer carefully into the tin & chill well between layers.Finally,chill the completed gateau overnight. 4.Dust the surface with cocoa & icing sugar.Remove sides of cake tin & carefully peel away the foil to serve.

Marbled Chocolate Mousse

Category: Sweets/Desserts / Mousses
100g/4oz plain chocolate
4Tbsp brandy
50g/2oz unsalted butter
100g/4oz white chocolate
2eggs,separated
150ml/ 1/4pint double cream

1.Break up plain chocolate & place with half of the brandy & half the butter in a bowl over simmering water.Turn off heat & leave until melted.Repeat with white chocolate,remaining brandy & butter.
2.Stir one egg yolk into each bowl of mixture.Place the whites in a clean,grease-free bowl & whisk until they are stiff. Whip the double cream in a separate bowl until it's lightly peaking.
3.Divide the whipped cream between the chocolate mixtures & carefully fold in,using a metal spoon.Divide the egg whites between the two bowls & fold in gently,taking care to keep in all the air.
4.Place a teaspoonful of dark mousse in each serving glass.Fill with alternating spoonfuls of light & dark mousse.Tap the gladdes gentlyon the surface to get rid of any air pockets as you go.
5.To marblethe mousses,push a fine-handled teaspoon into each glass.With the tip of the spoon touching the inside of the glass,gently swirl mousses together to achieve a marbled finish.Chill
Serves 4

LECTURA Y CHOCOLATE

Es difícil encontrar mejor acompañamiento para una humeante taza de chocolate que un buen libro. La mezcla de cacao y lectura hace que ambas actividades multipliquen el placer proporcionado. Se trata de pensar por unos momentos en nosotros mismos, relajarnos y disfrutar de estos pequeños placeres que la vida nos concede y que se encuentran al alcance de nuestras manos. El Secreto del Chocolate (

¿Contiene cafeína el cacao?

Sí, en pequeñas cantidades. Los granos de cacao son sometidos a un proceso de secado y fermentación para develar su sabor y color. La cantidad de cafeína en los gramos varía con el tipo de granos y el grado de fermentación.En consecuencia, el polvo de chocolate contiene cafeína, entre un 0,1 y un 0,5 %.

CURIOSIDADES

EL CONSUMO DE CHOCOLATE MEJORA LA CIRCULACIÓN SANGUÍNEAInvestigadores del Hospital Universitario de Zurich suministraron 40 gramos de chocolate a 20 fumadores. Después de dos horas, les tomaron tomografías por ultrasonido las cuales revelaron que los polifenoles, sustancia que contiene el chocolate oscuro mejoraron la circulación sanguínea en sus arterias con un efecto de ocho horas, lo cual

La batalla legal del chocolate

España pierde la batalla judicial sobre la denominación de chocolates con grasas vegetales distintas a la manteca de cacao.España ha perdido definitivamente la guerra legal del chocolate. Su decidida posición, consistente en prohibir que los productos que incorporan entre sus ingredientes grasas vegetales diferentes a la manteca de cacao pudieran denominarse 'chocolate', ha quedado atrás para

La seguridad del chocolate

El chocolate podría definirse como un producto esencialmente seguro, tanto por sus características como por la disponibilidad de tecnología que asegura condiciones aptas de consumo. Ello no le exime de riesgos potenciales asociados. Los principales son la presencia de Salmonella y de residuos de plaguicidas. Ambos pueden minimizarse mediante el cumplimiento de protocolos homologados de buenas

Chocolate negro, tableta de salud

Los flavonoides contenidos en el chocolate parecen jugar un efecto protector frente a enfermedades cardiovasculares por sus efectos antioxidantes.Durante años el chocolate ha sido objeto de un sinfín de acusaciones. Desde fuente de vicio hasta origen de caries infantiles, pasando por adicciones incontrolables, problemas metabólicos, cefaleas o sobrepeso. De un tiempo para esta parte, sin embargo,

Las otras caras del chocolate

Un nuevo estudio sobre los beneficios del cacao correlaciona su consumo con efectos contra el estrés en niños recién nacidos. El consumo de chocolate, en sus más diversas variedades, está siendo objeto de estudio en el último lustro debido a la constatación de propiedades supuestamente benéficas. A la lista formada por características antioxidantes, especialmente del chocolate amargo, o de placer

Un poco de historia…

Origen El xocoltl era un alimento muy común entre los aztecas y mayas. Su preparación se efectuaba de la siguiente manera: las habas eran primero tostadas y luego trituradas para hacer una pasta que después se mezclaba con agua. Esta mezcla se calentaba hasta que la manteca o grasa del cacao subía a la superficie. Se le quitaba la espuma y luego se volvía a mezclar de acuerdo a ciertas

Composición del chocolate

Los dos principales ingredientes del chocolate son calóricos: la grasa y el azúcar. Los hidratos de carbono provienen principalmente de los azúcares, que aportan casi la mitad de la energía total. El cacao como materia prima contiene además almidón y fibra, pero estos componentes quedan luego más diluidos en los productos finales de chocolate. Las grasas proporcionan la otra mitad de la energía

¿De dónde viene la palabra Chocolate?

Existen diversas versiones sobre el origen de la palabra chocolate, pero todas ellas están relacionadas con las lenguas mayas o aztecas. La palabra chocolate es una adaptación de la palabra náhuatl xocoltl, que hacía referencia a una «bebida espumosa hecha a base de cacao» y cuyo significado literal es agua agria. Se postulan dos etimologías para zoclotl: se trata del resultado de añadir a la