Chocolate

During the past few long winter months, my husband and I have invented what we call Saturday ‘Drive-Abouts’. The rules are simple. We wake on Saturday, dress for adventure, and bring walking shoes, warm jackets, gloves, and a small supply of snacks. We usually stop for breakfast somewhere, and then choose a direction and drive the back-roads. Last Saturday, our drive wound north through Montpelier, Idaho. Along the way, we spotted a large bald eagle whose massive white head gleamed in the snowy winter sunlight. We also spotted a colt, the color of toffee – beautiful, leggy, and very new – born well out of season. Our car thermometer read 16 degrees as the colt nursed beside his mother, visibly shaking. The sight of the new colt warmed us for the rest of the morning, and as we circled south on our drive, we stopped in Ogden, Utah, at a small shop on Historic 25th Street – the old railroad town center – to browse. The shop, called The Queen Bee, sold books, chocolate, home accessories, and other small delights. After browsing the bookshelves, I stood in front of the chocolate section. Being a fan of dark chocolate, I picked up several bars and began reading the ingredient lists on the back of the packages.

“Can I tell you a little bit about our chocolate?” asked a young woman with shoulder-length blonde hair.

I nodded, "Of course."

“Most of it is European,” she said. “We carry Milka® of course – that’s always a favorite." I was already very familiar with the brand of melt-in-your-mouth milk chocolate mixed with hazelnuts, raisins, or filled with flavored nougat. Then, she held up a bar wrapped in gold foil. “This is our highest-end chocolate,” she said. “The company that makes it requires that we sell it for no less than ten dollars for the 3.5 oz. bar. There are other companies that sell it for up to twenty dollars a bar."

“Twenty dollars a bar?” I said to myself. “It must be very good chocolate.”

She continued our tour, holding up various chocolate bars, citing cacao percentages, 70%, even 80%. “The quality and origin of the cacao bean makes a real difference in thechocolate,” the young woman continued. “A few days after I started working here, I had to taste each brand of chocolate we sell. It was amazing,” she said. “Oh, and this is one of my favorites.” She held up a bar of Hatchez® chocolate, a 77% cacao bar, lightly flavored with oil- of-orange. “When you bite into this, there is an over-flavor of orange peel, with the under-flavor of deep chocolate. It’s one of my favorites.” She picked up another bar, “But this one is our best-seller from Hatchez®, it’s mango-chili. It has the tang of mango, followed by the hot flavor.

“I’ll take a bar of bitter-sweet orange,” I said.

What I learned, as I carefully ate and savored every morsel of Hatchez® bitter-orange chocolate over the next few days, caused me to toss out my stash of Hershey’s® kisses. This chocolate, made in Germany, by a chocolatier who has been in business since 1890, was best savored one infinitesimal bite at a time. At first, the taste was exquisitely bitter, then the orange flavor kicked in, followed by a silky-semi-sweet after-taste. It was like wearing a 100% two-ply cashmere sweater, after wearing sturdy, serviceable cotton for my entire life. I had entered a whole new realm of chocolate connoisseurship; one I plan to continue exploring.

Later that evening, after having expanded my world-view of chocolate, I wandered into our kitchen. Company was coming, and I needed to whip up a quick dessert. Chocolate, of course. I chose my quick classic: Brownies. The recipe follows below, and makes a 9” x 13” pan. If company isn’t coming, you can halve the recipe to make an 8” round or square pan.

Chocolate Brownies

2 cups sugar
2 squares butter (1 cup)
¾ good quality cocoa
(Note: you can increase the cocoa up to 1 ¼ c. depending on how intense you want the chocolate
flavor to be).
4 eggs
1 ½ c. all-purpose flour
1 to 1 ½ cups chopped walnuts

Note: The recipe is correct; you do not add salt, unless you use unsalted butter, then, add ¼ t.
salt. There is no baking powder or baking soda either; the eggs provide the leaven.

1) Place butter, sugar, and cocoa-powder in a 2 quart saucepan. Over medium heat, warm until
the butter melts and mixes smoothly into the cocoa and sugar. Stir constantly. Remove from
heat as soon as the butter is completely melted. Cool for five minutes, or until the mixture is
warm, not uncomfortably hot, to the touch.
2) Whisk the eggs into the mixture in the saucepan, by hand. Add only one egg at a time, and
stir until it is completely blended, then add the next egg, etc., until all four eggs are blended into
the mixture.
3) Stir the flour into the chocolate mixture by hand, until all flour disappears and the mixture is
well blended.
4) Stir the chopped walnuts into the mixture by hand.
5) Pour into a well-greased and floured 9” x 13” pan (I prefer glass, but metal pans work well
too).
6) Bake on the middle shelf of a 350-degree oven for approximately 25 minutes. Mixture will
be firm to touch when baked, but still slightly soft inside – for best chocolaty flavor.
7) Good without frosting. I sometimes add a light dusting of powdered sugar. Or, if I’m feeling
very decadent, I frost with a can of Duncan Hines® or Betty Crocker® classic chocolate (not the
yucky fluffy) frosting, after the brownies are cool.

There, for my fellow choc-a-holics, to help survive the sometimes long months of winter – two kinds of chocolate: brownies and gourmet chocolate bars. I’ve decided that life is short, so I might as well enjoy really good chocolate. In fact, next time I visit my favorite chocolate shop – I might spring for the ten dollar bar, just to see what the ‘best chocolate in the world’ tastes like. And I highly recommend Saturday Drive-Abouts as well.

Mom-Mom