JTruffles - Amazing New Truffle Line

I've raved bout the folks at Seattle Chocolates before.  But now - well - I have to tell you - they have completely blown me away.  They've developed a new, amazing truffle line (http://www.jtruffles.com/) they told me about at the Fancy Food Show.  They said they would send me some samples.  Now it has been in the 100's in North Carolina, and chocolate truffles are fragile, very fragile. 

The first set of eight they sent me contained two melted ones.  When Kirsty (their Marketing Maven) heard that, she said - "No way - melted is unacceptable" and sent out more.  All of those were melted.  But I told Kirsty it was okay, I could work with the first ones.  Oh, no - she sent a third set!!!  These people are not only passionate about chocolate, but passionate about customer service and getting it right.  I am very, very impressed!!!

I love architecture, so these designs really appeal to me - look at how cool they are!  Pyramids, deco skyscrapers - I LOVE these creative designs.  I got to meet their chocolatier at the Fancy Food show - and he's so creative and awesome!!  And excited about delicious chocolate creations.  My kinda guy!

Think Mayan and Aztec temples - where chocolate originated - and gorgeous Art Deco skyscrapers as you look at these chocolate works of art.


This is Pura Vida Cafe:

I'm usually not a big fan of coffee and chocolate, but this truffle is the perfect blend.  The milk chocolate is creamy and delish and the strong coffee flavor (actually Turkish ground espresso beans - oh la la!) is offset by the cream it's mixed with.  I loved it - that's how slight, but definitely there, the coffee taste was.  YUM!



This is Limoncello:

Wow!  If you like lemon - this is for you!  It contains a white chocolate ganache with lemon zest and fresh cream in a dark chocolate shell.  This is a super creamy lemon filling - think lemon tart - offset by dark chocolate.  Lemon lovers - this is your nirvana.

See the influence?

The Chrysler Building - one of my favorite buildings in all the world.

This is Cherry Praline:

I think this one could use a stronger cherry and pecan flavor - they were awfully subtle (the chocolate was stronger).  I really love the idea of those two flavors together!!

This is Savory Hazelnut:

Now I really like hazelnut and chocolate, so I was pretty excited about this truffle.  And it did not let me down!  It's almost like eating a hazelnut brownie.  It has tiny hazelnut pieces and a great texture.  I honestly can't think of a better way to describe it - think of the best chocolate brownie you've ever had and add hazelnuts.  That's what this is like - not as sweet as Nutella, a bit more on the salty side.  A+++ 

This is the Magma 65 Dark:

Billed as the line's signature truffle.  It is pretty damn amazing.  A flavorful, smooth dark chocolate with fruity notes.  It's fantastic and dark chocolate lovers will do back flips.  I usually am drawn to milk chocolate, but this one was so good it won me over.

This is my favorite of the shapes - so detailed and so deco!  It's Creme Brulee:

This truffle is filled with vanilla custard ganache and has a layer (at the base of the cream) of carmelized sugar.  And I thought I was going to love it more than I did.  The mixture of textures was awesome, but the slightly burnt taste of the sugar and the bitterness of the dark chocolate took away too much of the sweetness for me.  I bet I would have liked it better in milk chocolate.  But I have a crazy sweet tooth (I like frosting out of the can).  I loved the way the sugar was handled - just like on a real creme brulee (if it's done right!).

This one is Creme 40 Milk:

This is a delicious creamy milk chocolate truffle.  A great basic.  But I actually prefer a truffle with nuts or caramel or some other flavor infusion.  But for a plain milk chocolate - this is delicious.

Another art deco influence:

This is salt water caramel and it's the one I was most excited about:

HOLY SMOKES!!!!  This truffle is a world rocker!!  Chewy caramel - so so fresh and delicious with a dash of salt coated in delicious milk chocolate.  I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE IT!!!!!!!

Overall I adore this new line - creative shapes - unlike any I've ever seen and delicious accessible flavors.  Not that crazy weird stuff like lavender or bacon. Glacck!  Think elegance and deliciousness.  And passion - for chocolate and for people.

A Poxie on Choxie

Hang in there, gang! We are almost done with all the holiday chocolate!

I've got some more Choxie we need to review. The first is a three pack of holiday bars:

This one is a milk chocolate creme brulee truffle bar:

Wow - this is a pretty good, albeit RICH bar. It is "caramel and vanilla infused white chocolate truffle with a touch of toffee, blanketed with milk chocolate." It's the toffee that makes it so good - I wasn't expecting it. It mimics the carmelization on the top of a real creme brulee. I am shocked and astonished and thrilled. VERY sweet and rich, but a good bar.

Of all the Choxie gingerbread offerings, this one is the best. It's a milk chocolate gingerbread truffle bar. It has some gingerbread cookie pieces in in, but they are relatively small (unlike those horrible bits). But this is nothing to run out and buy. Nothing great.

The hazelnut bar had a lot of bloom on it, looking pretty crappy I must say:

This is the milk chocolate hazelnut biscotti truffle bar. The description reads: "satiny milk chocolate yields to reveal a duet of tastes and textures, with pieces of crisp almond biscotti and hazelnuts throughout." Oh la, la! After seeing that bloom, I was skeptical. But damn, this was the best one! I love nuts, so the hazelnut flavor was a big hit with me. I thought the biscotti might make it too dry, but no - delish! I am shocked!!

But I will not remain so for long:

These are dessert truffle meltaways and the assortment is pretty even:

You know how I hate it when you get ten of one flavor and three of another.

The first one is apple pie:

I think apple pie is one of those flavors that doesn't need to be a chocolate. This did taste like apple pie, but was such a poor rendition of apple pie that it's not worth it. Maybe if the center was creamier? I don't know - let's just say one of these was enough to last me the rest of my life. And I like apple pie. But not these.

Pumpkin Pie:

Yucko - all I can taste is a weird spice - no pumpkin. Gross. And I love pumpkin. Evil.

Dark chocolate mousse:

This wasn't too bad - had a good rich dark chocolate taste. But it isn't the best dark chocolate in the Universe. And everything else in the assortment is horrifying.

Gingerbread:

What happened? The bar was good! This is horrible! It doesn't taste like gingerbread and has a weird aftertaste.

All I can say about this box is YUCK.

So far, all I can endorse are the bars. The rest of this stuff is pretty terrible. This is the last of the Choxie holiday stuff - the "Slice of the Holidays" truffle collection:

More pie. I'm scared. First up is milk chocolate pumpkin pie:

Huh? I can't taste any pumpkin. The outer truffle shell is pretty thick and these also have more chocolate in the center of the truffle. Unusual - something about their production. Boo!!


This is dark chocolate cherry pie:

Tastes a little like cherry, but nothing great. Again, maybe too much chocolate? See the lines of chocolate through the filling?


Key lime pie:

This was very not good. I'm not sure I'm the best one to judge because I don't really like key lime, but it tasted kind of fake - kind of chemically. Ew.

White chocolate banana creme pie:

Ugh - same for banana. These are really just not good. The chocolate isn't very smooth and the flavors seem off - not authentic.


Apple pie:

Again, awful. Chemical? Weird spice? Makes me want to taste an apple. Creepy.


Pecan pie:

Glaaack. These are all bad, bad, bad.

Here's what I think about Choxie to date:

Very cool boxes and the chocolate is great to look at. They have some awesome designs.

The bars are good - we'll try some more.

The other stuff - truffles, etc. - is really bad. And this stuff isn't really cheap (a la Palmer), so it should taste a little better.

Thoughts:

Just because it can be chocolate, doesn't mean it should be chocolate. Apple pie ROCKS. Apple pie chocolates are the spawn of Satan.

Another example - Quaker just made a creme brulee rice cake. Would you like to ponder that for a moment? I'd go so far as to say the exact culinary opposite of creme brulee is the rice cake. No good can come of this.

Fancy packages do not mean good content. Over and over we learn this. I'm going to start wearing burlap.

Two rights can make a wrong. Apple pie = right. Chocolate = right. Apple pie + chocolate = wrong. Very wrong.

Two rights can make an even better right. Chocolate = right. Peanut butter = right. Chocolate + Peanut butter = yahoo!!!!

Food math is confusing. I need a Reese's.

Adorable Desserts

Last week one of the Sorbet Sistahs was struck down with an illness and missed our dinner. (Tracy, I'm just glad it wasn't the swine flu!). We carried on without her and were actually considering passing on dessert in her honor. You know - a fallen comrade and all. We decided we would just look at the dessert tray (almost always a fatal mistake).

We were at Brio http://www.brioitalian.com/dessert.html

They offer these small "sample" servings:

Strawberry Panna Cotta Parfaito
A Tuscan version of Strawberry Shortcake. Creamy vanilla bean Panna Cotta topped with sponge cake, strawberry sauce and fresh whipped cream 2.45

Creme Brulee
Creamy housemade custard with the season's freshest ingredients. Choose from Kahlua, Vanilla or Caramel 2.45

Key Lime Pie
Tart and refreshing with fresh lime and a pecan graham cracker crust topped with vanilla whipped cream 2.45

Brio's Famous Cheesecake
Rich and creamy cheesecake topped with caramelized sugar and creme anglaise 2.45

Milk Chocolate Caramel Cake
A decadent chocolate cake, layered with milk chocolate ganache, caramel, rich chocolate frosting and vanilla whipped cream 2.45

Tiramisu
Lady fingers layered with coffee liqueur, mascarpone cheese and cocoa 2.45


They were small. They were only $2.45.


We got four.

I know - crazy, right? But there was CARAMEL creme brulee, and Beth really wanted Tiramisu, and there was milk chocolate caramel cake. And they were cute. And did I mention they were only $2.45?

See how small they are?






I like to make it look like my Sistah, Beth is going to eat them all. See how sneaky I am?


Here they are:

Here they are - so cute!!! In the lower left hand is the chocolate caramel cake. Now here's something interesting - the waiter said this was no good - too sweet. Beth and I LOVED this one - it really blew the other ones away! Above that is Tiramisu. Not bad, but Tiramisu is Tiramisu. The one on the dessert tray was covered in chocolate shavings and that distracted us. Like a diamond. Sparkly.

The other two are the creme brulees. And you know what? They were no good - too soupy. Since I took my cooking class at Williams Sonoma, I knew that they had not been given enough time to set. (Oooh - are you impressed? I kinda was - especially since my most common act of cooking is defrosting things in the microwave.)

Of course, being the food snobs we are we only ate the chocolate and left the rest as a statement for the Chef.

Yeah, right.

The only dessert we leave is sorbet. And maybe biscotti.

Okay - what did we learn?

The expert (in this case our waiter) doesn't always know everything. If we listened to him, we wouldn't have had the best dessert! Get advice, but trust yourself.

Say yes!! When our Sistah fell ill, Beth and I almost didn't go out. But I'm so glad we did! Having fun with my Sistahs is so much fun and such a recharge for me - I don't make enough time for my friends and for fun. Do you? Make the plan and then make it happen.

Sometimes taking a look at the dessert tray is okay. Most of the time we diet, exercise and push ourselves. Our Sorbet Sistahs night is one of our rewards. Are you balancing your hard work with rewards? Make sure you do it - it just doesn't happen. Chances are pretty good you are much harder on yourself than you have to be.

And NEVER let the waiter talk you out of chocolate.

Chocolate and New Year's Resolutions

I love Lindt.

And these three bars in their Petits Desserts line are well worth trying:

I think these would be terrific as favors at a New Year's Party - they are elegant and delish!

The Creme Brulee is my least favorite. I love creme brulee, but with the sweet milk chocolate, this is too much for me. It does have little crunchy pieces of caramelized sugar in it which is a nice touch, but I find this too sweet. But hey - what a great idea! Although I don't think everything needs chocolate. I'd rather have regular ol' creme brulee - no chocolate. It makes it too rich.

The middle one is my favorite - awesome, fluffy hazelnut mousse surrounded by that amazingly smooth Lindt milk chocolate. Ooooh - la - la! The mousse is light enough that the combo really works. GET THIS BAR!!! (unless you don't like hazelnut or chocolate, then don't. Alien.)

The final one is also amazingly good. This is for fans of darker chocolate - and Lindt describes it as "a fine milk and dark chocolate blend with a delicate truffle cream filling and crunchy biscuit pieces." It's sinfully creamy.

If you are looking for a decadent treat before you start some crazy diet - grab one of these and savor the hell out of it! I bet they're great with champagne!

Speaking of crazy diets, I know some of you are going to once again make that New Year's Resolution to lose weight. Here are some tips:

1.) Get serious or don't bother. Really, don't put yourself through this unless you REALLY, REALLY want it and do it right. Realize it's not going to be a change you make for a month or two. It has to be forever.

2.) Aim to lose about a pound a week. Any diet that has you losing lots of weight very rapidly could be dangerous. And the chances of keeping it off will be slim. (Pun intended.) You may lose more in the beginning of any diet, but most of it will be water weight. Hey, you didn't gain all that weight in two days, don't expect to lose it in two hours.

3.) Exercise. Quit your crying. I'd go as far as to say - if you don't plan to exercise, don't plan to lose weight. Or don't plan to keep it off. The vast percentage of people who have lost weight AND KEPT IT OFF exercise. Try walking - I walk about 5 miles five times a week. I love it. Say you can't find the time? Quit lying - you can find time for anything that's important to you. March in place while you watch TV. Have to watch the kids? Make them go with you - they probably need some exercise themselves.

4.) Write down what you eat and track the calories. This is the single most important hing you can do. You may find that this alone helps you lose weight. I think you would be shocked to find out how many calories you need and how many you eat. Writing every calorie down makes it impossible to lie to yourself. (Not that any of us ever do that!)

5.) Be VERY careful when you eat out. I went to lunch with a friend this week at California Pizza. I was planning to get a salad. That was until I did some research on the Net and found out that many of their HALF servings of salad had over 800 calories! For a salad? We split a thin crust pizza for less than 500 calories each. Do your homework or stay fat.

6.) Don't be too restrictive. If you tell yourself you can NEVER have chocolate again, you may start to obsess over it. (Some of us obsess over it anyway.) But if you buy one bar or have a few Dove dark squares in your desk, you'll be okay. Eat some of what you love, just be aware of the amount. Sometimes I have chocolate for dinner! Yay! I'm not saying this is the way to eat all the time, I'm just saying you have to make choices. You can't eat it all.

7.) Be realistic. None of us will ever look like the air brushed "people" in magazines. And fighting the aging game is a losing battle - we get older and things sag. See if you can find a weight that is healthy, that you feel good at, and that you can maintain and still have a life.

8.) Forget the carbs, protein - all that BS. Here's how it works - find out how many calories you need (mayoclinic.com has a good calorie calculator). Subtract 500 from that number to lose a pound a week. Start exercising. Start with a half mile walk. Move. You will get skinnier.

9.) If it makes you miserable, increase the number of calories. If the whole process makes you miserable, make peace with the size you are. No one says you have to lose weight - it's your body, your life.

And if you have questions or need help, let me know!