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!!

A Billion Almonds Died for You

I hope everyone had a great Easter! (I really hope you all had some good candy!) I still have some Easter treats to blog about, so just think of them as spring candies.

At Valentine's Day I found these marzipan hearts (if you didn't know, marzipan is made mostly of sugar and almond meal which sounds kind of creepy, but I like almonds and sugar, so...):



I really liked the "white" hearts (these are the color of plain marzipan), didn't like the red hearts. They had some kind of funky flavor that wasn't so good. But the white ones were really good, so at Easter I thought I'd get some more marzipan.

These look pretty festive and they are by the same company - Biermann Marzipan. You can see their website http://www.marzipancandies.com/:

See how brightly colored they can be but still be the marzipan color on the inside?

The verdict? Bleech. Not so good. I don't know if it's the coloring or the lack of chocolate. But these were not so good. Don't waste your time or your calories.

These are by Bissinger's:

Pretty gorgeous, huh?

These were better, but I still don't really like them. I mean, they are okay, but I would soooooo much rather have about 1 million other candies. Hell, I'd rather have just plain ol' almonds.

These were in the L.A. Burdick Kids Box:

Marzipan eggs and a carrot! These were tiny and were very good. But I just have to admit that marzipan is not really my favorite.

I like its texture, it seems to hold shapes and colors well, but eh....

How adorable is this?

Look how beautiful and delicate this is! I bought it at The Chocolate Bear but it's made by Blue Ridge Chocolates:

Those are marzipan eggs:

and they are good! Maybe because the ingredients are just almonds, honey and sugar. And the chocolate was delicious too! Can you see that it's both dark (the base and vertical twigs) and milk? This is a beautiful and delicious creation. Bravo!!!!

Niederegger, a German company, makes some great looking chocolate covered marzipan treats. These eggs come in assorted flavors: pineapple, apple, orange, espresso, caramel croquant, and pistachio.

Here's a milk chocolate and a dark chocolate egg:

This is milk chocolate and apple:

Yucko! I'm just not an apple and chocolate fan. Unless it's a real, fresh apple.

This is dark chocolate and pineapple (pineapple again!):

This one was good!!

As far as the other flavors - dark chocolate and orange was bad, dark chocolate and pistachio was okay, dark chocolate and espresso was yucky, and milk chocolate and caramel croquant was FABULOUS!!!!!! Croquant is French for crisp and there are some nice little crispy bits in this one. If I could get only the caramel ones, I would buy these again. But all the other flavors weren't worth the calories, with the possible exception of pineapple.

These are just adorable:

So, so cute!!!! And coated in chocolate!!

But - eh, not so great. I'm really bummed about the whole marzipan experience.

I hoped this bar by Niederegger would be good, since the chocolate to marzipan ratio is so high:

I can tell the chocolate is good, but the marzipan didn't really add anything. I would have rather had just a chocolate bar. Or a peanut butter bar! Or caramel or nuts or......well, just about anything other than marzipan. Except apple - no apple.

The Milka bar is better:

Of all the marzipan bars, this is by far my favorite. I love the creamy, delicious dark chocolate. YUMMY!!!

I had high hopes for the Ritter Sport dark chocolate with marzipan bar:

It also comes in this baby version:

Disappointing - a funky aftertaste with this marzipan. The Milka bar destroys this one!!

This bar looked really good:

Until I opened it:

Um....cream? I don't think so. Maybe back in the 30s. Another argument for EXPIRATION DATES!!!!

So we have no idea if this might have been a good bar or not. Grrrr.........

This Lindt bar has pistachio with almond cream:

While I LOVE Lindt's creamy delicious chocolate, I found it overwhelmed the pistachio and the almond cream. I could hardly taste their flavors. So while this bar was good, it wasn't extraordinary.

These, however, ARE:

There's amaretto (almond flavored liqueur):

So creamy and flavorful with little bits of nuts - AMAZING!!

And pistacchio:

See the nuts? This was my least fav - but that's because I love almonds more than pistachios. These little eggs are FABULOUS!!

This is mandorla (almond):

Also creamy and nutty and delicious! These are just so, so good!!!

Godiva's assortment of eggs - milk, dark, almond butter and coconut:

Pretty! Shiny!

This is Godiva's almond butter egg. I still don't know why Godiva has to have all that space in the middle of their confections (and you all know how hard I am on them):

But these are actually pretty damn good! I really do love almonds. I'm so sad so many were turned into marzipan. I think we should have a moment of silence.

Godiva also filled this gorgeous egg with their little eggs:





Isn't that a beautiful thing? I love that - I'll keep the pretty egg for next year and eat all the chocolate eggs this year. YAY!!! So you can actually have your egg and eat it too!

Bwah, ha, ha!!!!