The EU of Hazelnut Eggs

Ah - what came first - the hazelnut or the egg?

I saw these at Candy Expo and I happened to have some I found at World Market.  They are pretty clever - it's a real eggshell, decorated and filled with a hazelnut truffle egg:

They are made in Germany - aren't they pretty?

It really is an eggshell!

Pretty clever!  I'd like to see the process of making these!

They also taste delicious!  Smooth creamy milk chocolate with a good hazelnut flavor.  Dreamy!!  And gorgeous!

These milk chocolate nougat filled eggs were also made in Germany:

These are delicious too - there is a good hazelnut flavor here also and the milk chocolate coating is rich and creamy.  They are made by Niedergger, a German confectioner known for marzipan (I've reviewed some of their creations).  Europeans are bigger on hazelnut in their chocolate than Americans, but I really have developed a tasted for it.  (Chalk that up to Nutella.)  I like these WAY better than marzipan.

The Italians also got in on the hazelnut egg action - I got these at A Southern Season in Chapel Hill.  They had a huge barrel of them and you could serve yourself.

They were very creamy and delicious, but I could barely taste the hazelnut.  Fantastic for milk chocolate truffle eggs, not too impressive for hazelnut cream eggs.  Seems hard to believe the Italians would be subtle.

This is Lindt's Lilliput Egg Bag:

And the eggs are assorted - blue and pink are milk chocolate solids, purple is a dark chocolate solid and gold is hazelnut.  The autopsy photos are weird - this is a milk chocolate cut in half lengthwise:

This is a hazelnut cut in half width wise:

I liked the hazelnut better than all the solids.  The solids were just too boring in comparison.  The chocolate is good, but still - zzzzz.  And, compared to the Italian and German eggs, Lindt didn't fare so well.  Those were better.  Sorry, Lindt - I still love you.  Just maybe a little less than yesterday....

Okay, this is a creative way to offer chocolate and it does look like a carrot (or an umbrella):

But I didn't like it that much.  I don't like eating chocolate off a plastic stick - it seems to alter the experience (and not in a good way).  And again, not so good with the hazelnut.  The German eggs are so, so much better!

However, I really do love Lindt's ladybugs:

It's the creamy hazelnut with the crisps - love that textural mix!  And they are just so damn cute!!

Neuhaus is a Belgium company and has been kicking some chocolate butt in my reviews.  Expensive as heck, so far they have proved worth it.  In blue foil is a milk chocolate coated speculoos (a spicy cookie - like gingerbread flavor) and the pink is milk chocolate with gianduja (a hazelnut paste):

I really liked the speculoos (see, we learned a new and utterly useless Dutch word!) - it has a crunchy brown sugar texture and was really tastey - hard to describe - not too strongly of gingerbread, but a lovely spice flavor. 

And - shockingly enough - I liked the German hazelnut eggs better than the Neuhaus!  Wow!  The hazelnut flavor was just too faint.

Here the green is a dark chocolate with a praline nougat and the red is a dark chocolate with hazelnut paste:

I found the Neuhaus dark chocolate - which is absolutely delicious dark chocolate - overpowered the fillings and I could hardly taste them.  I think part of the "problem" is the Neuhaus eggs have a layer of chocolate between the two halves - meaning a higher chocolate to filling ratio.  And in this case - it's too much, offsetting the flavor of the filling.

Neuhaus had a lot of other eggs flavors - one that was new this year was a milk chocolate and creme brulee.  It got crushed in the autopsy photo - sorry!  But it was way too sweet for me.  But I like that they offer so many different flavors, although next year I might buy them individually so I can pick my favs.  This year I bought an assortment.

Thanks for visiting a few European countries with me today!  As always, taste is up to you - some of you may prefer the subtle hazelnut to the stronger flavor that I like.  And some of you may hate hazelnut altogether.  The key is to keep trying new things and figure out what YOU like.  Life is an adventure - both culinary and otherwise.  The key to good adventuring is:

1.) keeping an open mind

2.) trying things you've never tried before

and 3.) following your bliss.

And chocolate can definitely be your bliss!  Have some adventures this summer!!

White Chocolate - the NonChocolate

White chocolate is the red headed step child of the chocolate family. It's really not chocolate at all, (no cacao) but I still like it and I think we should keep an open mind. 

Can you believe I still have some Easter candy to review? I know, I know - time gets away from me! So much chocolate, so little time!

Lindt made a white chocolate Lindor truffle egg:

I can't say anything negative about this - sweet, delicious with that creamy truffle center.  Wow!

Neuhaus also did a white chocolate egg and this one is a solid "chocolate" egg:

 

This is also a great white chocolate egg - it's not as light and fluffy - not a truffle, but it's delicious.  It's hard to compare the two - both have great flavor, but are in such different consistencies I can't make a choice!

Now you all know I love Hershey's Kisses, but this white chocolate can't hold a candle to the Lindt or the Neuhaus - it has a waxier quality.  Nowhere near as good.  And the orange flavor is soooooo not my fav.  I could never eat another one of these again and be happy as a clam.

 

This is Lindt's Straccitella truffle egg:

It's the white chocolate truffle egg with some cocoa nibs on the outer layer.  The sad thing is, you can hardly taste the nibs at all.  Maybe if they were mixed all the way through?  I dunno - seems like they need more...something...maybe CHOCOLATE?

I found these at Harry and David:

They have a white chocolate outer layer, a dark chocolate layer and then the malt ball.  These didn't do anything for me.  The malt flavor seemed to offset everything else - kind of yucky.

These beauties are anything but yucky.  They are by one of favorite chocolatiers - Knipschildt.  And at $10.00 for five little eggs, they are not cheap.  But DAMN, they are delicious!

They are about the size of a robin's egg and are filled with a milk chocolate hazelnut paste that is amazing.  These are some of the best of the chocolates I had this Easter. 

These cuties are from L.A. Burdick and are the most adorable little white chocolate bunnies:

Each has an almond and a delicious chocolate and hazelnut truffle filling.  They also have a dark chocolate base:

L.A. Burdick makes the most gorgeous and delicious chocolates.  They also made this egg:

This delicious guy has our new friend white chocolate, then a layer of corn flakes (very crispy, very delicious!) and then a Gianduja filling (a sweet chocolate paste containing about 30% hazelnuts).    Not only is it totally cute, the combination of flavors and textures is wonderful.

So what did we learn?  White chocolate may not technically be chocolate, but it adds a lot to the family.  (Let's all join hands and sing "We are the World.")  It's mighty sweet, but it makes a great coating and has a lighter taste than milk chocolate.

Also - sometimes really great chocolate is completely worth the money.  There are artists who work in chocolate.

And finally, no chocolate is too cute to eat.

Have a great week - I'll be reporting from Candy Expo!!

Milk Chocolate Eggs (and a Carrot)

These are the most beautifully packaged chocolates I've yet to see:

Each of the eggs is slightly larger than life size and the color Mylar wrapping is tied with a golden cord:

I found them at Williams-Sonoma and they are Florentine Chocolate Eggs. They even have their own little plastic pedestal!

They were hollow and I find it hard to compare hollow chocolate to solid chocolate. I know - it shouldn't matter, but the thinner pieces let so much air get in and the smooth surface changes the texture. This is a wonderful silky milk chocolate - I'd place it between Lindt and Neuhaus (see below). Not quite as earthy as Neuhaus, but wonderful and delicious.

I found these Madelaine chocolates in Kohl's of all places (chocolate is everywhere - life is good!):

I really like these springy, tropical foil wrappers - they just scream aloha!

This is a solid milk chocolate. Good.

They also made these large solid milk chocolate eggs:

Very pretty, very good.

Isn't chocolate a beautiful thing?

These Hershey's Bliss eggs (in the stolen Cadbury packaging) are pretty good:

Mostly because of the "meltaway center":

It gives them a smooth, creamy richness. I really liked these.

Palmer has an egg assortment (we already reviewed caramel and peanut butter). This one is fudge:

Because it's more like a truffle with the fudge filling than their solid egg (below) it's better, but it's still got the outer waxy mockolate shell. These are just too sugary sweet and not chocolately enough. But the assortment was fun overall.

Palmer's regular solid mockolate eggs are just plain bad:

So waxy and just awful. Not worth the calories. Not even close.

I got this carrot which was originally $4.95 for 47 cents. I couldn't say no to it.

I'm showing you the back because I thought it was interesting to see all the drizzle marks:

This carrot was made by Seattle Gourmet Foods and was richer and creamier than both the Madelaine and the Harry and David Milk Chocolate Easter Eggs (I see why it was originally $4.95 - it was very good. I think they didn't sell because it was a carrot. No one wants to think about carrots when they are indulging in chocolate). The H & D Milk Chocolate Eggs:

In fact, I couldn't tell this one and the Madelaine eggs apart. They tasted exactly the same to me.

These are sooooo cute! They are a little bit smaller than all the other eggs:

Lindt has some great packaging - this is a little tin box:

These blew all the others out of the water. You just can't beat that super smooth and creamy Lindt chocolate. And this smaller size is great! Very poppable! (And thus very dangerous. Thank God they have the foil wrappers to slow you down.)

These are mini Lindor truffle eggs in the Lindt trademark golden bunny (I reviewed the little bunny that was in the middle in an earlier post - yep, he's gone):

But not forgotten!

Of course, they are fabulously creamy and delicious:

And the larger eggs? Need I even say anything?

So rich, so creamy, so decadent - I don't see how Godiva can stay in business with Lindt out there. There is just no comparison! These truffles are transcendent!

Speaking of Godiva:

I hate to say it, but these milk chocolate eggs are pretty good. They are not as good as Lindt, but they are better than H & D and Madeline.

But yet again, the ultimate winner is Neuhaus - at least in the solid milk chocolate category:

What makes these so good is they really taste like chocolate - that wonderful earthy, complex, rich taste. They aren't overly sweet or cloying. They are just about the chocolate.

You know, I'm really starting to get the hang of this chocolate thing. I see why Palmer is so bad and Neuhaus so good. But I had to pare it down to the essentials - i.e. no peanut butter or caramel confusing things. You really do have to try a lot of different things to figure out what works best for you. And you have to be brave enough to say - I've tried them all and I still like the Snickers bar! If you don't try different things though, you really can't know. That's what the journey is all about - trying things, exploring and figuring how who you really are.

Thanks for taking this chocolate journey with me! And let me know what you think or what you'd like me to review. Kris - coconut is still coming, I promise!!!!!