Let’s face it, Mondays stink!

After all, Mondays = WORK!  Well, except for today, of course, since it’s Labor Day and the majority of us have the day off.  Yay us!!!

But on those “normal” Mondays when we’re all at work and school – Mondays stink!

So starting today, I’m declaring Mondays at Got Chocolate, “Chocolate Covered Mondays”! After all, what better way to get through a Monday than to cover – or dip – it in CHOCOLATE!!!

For my first installment of Chocolate Covered Mondays, I’d like to share with you a combination of foods I never would have considered putting together.

Chocolate and Bacon!

Yes, Chocolate AND bacon!

I think my arteries hardened a little at the thought of eating such a combination.  Ha!  While my initial thought was, “Ewww, gross”, curiosity got the better of me, “Hmmm, what WOULD that taste like?”

Nutella

I first heard about combining Chocolate and bacon from a couple of Got Chocolate‘s Facebook followers.  They also told me about a hazelnut/Chocolate product I hadn’t heard of - Nutella.

Last Saturday I decided to try this Chocolate and bacon combo during breakfast. What a coincidence since Saturday JUST happened to be International Bacon Day!  Haha! Or was this a coincidence? Had the pig and Chocolate gods somehow gotten into my brain to make this happen on this day? Hee hee!

So I cooked up the bacon and got out the jar of Nutella I had recently purchased and tried my first taste.

YUM-O!

Who would have thought Chocolate and bacon would taste so good?  Not me!  Then again, each item in itself is FABULOUS, so combining them makes total sense now. Duh!

Now I’m curious – have you tasted Chocolate and bacon together? If so, what did you think of it? What kind of Chocolate did you dip or cover the bacon in?  Please share!  Us Chocoholics need to know!  :)

]]> http://www.gotchocolate.com/2010/09/chocolate-covered-mondays-chocolate-bacon/feed/ 1 http://www.gotchocolate.com/2010/09/if-only-i-lived-in-san-francisco/ http://www.gotchocolate.com/2010/09/if-only-i-lived-in-san-francisco/#comments Fri, 03 Sep 2010 17:30:48 +0000 gotchocolate http://www.gotchocolate.com/?p=3774

For those of you lucky enough to be in the San Francisco area… I HATE YOU!!!

Just kidding… I’m actually SUPER JEALOUS!!!

Go for me!!!

DETAILS

The 15th Annual Ghirardelli Square Chocolate Festival will take place on Saturday, September 11 and Sunday, September 12, 12:00-5:00pm.

Sample all sorts of chocolate products from all over the United States.  In addition to chocolate sampling, activities include Chef Demontrations, the Famous Ice Cream Eating Contest, Live Music, Children’s Entertainment and more!  For event schedules visit www.GhirardelliSQ.com

The event is free to attend, however, tickets much be purchased to sample chocolate.

If one of my readers happens to go to this, I’d sure LOVE to know what it was like!!!

Hint, hint!!!

Someday…

I want to know which Godiva Chocolate YOU would pick?  :)

I know everyone’s made Chocolate Chip Cookies at least once in their life. Most likely HUNDREDS of times.

This afternoon I whipped up another batch of Nestle’s Chocolate Chip Cookies and decided to take pictures along the way.  I had fun doing this and decided to share these with you – my fellow Chocoholics.

As any good baker knows, first you better make sure you have all the ingredients!

Flour, granulated sugar, brown sugar, butter, vanilla, chocolate chips, eggs, salt and baking soda. Pretty basic ingredients!

First, you measure the flour into a mixing bowl.  I noticed after I uploaded this picture that it looks like I put the flour on the table instead of a bowl.  I promise, it’s in a glass bowl.

Then add the baking soda.

And the salt.

Mix the dry ingredients together.

Put the butter in a separate bowl.  Yes, the butter above has sugar on it.  I forgot to take the “butter” picture, so picked the pieces out of the sugar to get my shot. HA!

Add the granulated sugar.

Add the brown sugar.  Am I the only one who loves to pack brown sugar into a measuring cup, then flip it over and into the mixing bowl, hoping it keeps its shape? It’s like building a sand castle, don’t you think?

Add the vanilla.

Mix until smooth!

Like this!

Add one egg.

Mix well.

Add the last egg.

Mix well.

Gradually add the flour.

Mix well until it’s all smooth and fluffy.  At this stage it’s already tempting to eat some of the dough!

My FAVORITE part – adding the Chocolate Chips! Don’t you just love the sound of Chocolate Chips falling onto each other?  YUM!

Mix well.  This is where dough ball consumption is MANDATORY! Although I doubt any arms need to be twisted at this stage. Ha ha!

Fill the cookie sheets with doug balls.

Place in the oven! We’re getting close!

Baking – they’re almost done!

Cool on a rack.  There’s almost nothing better than warm cookies right out of the oven.

Except with a cold glass of milk.  These were D-E-L-I-C-I-O-U-S!!!

TIP: Place cooled cookies in a paper bag.  This keeps the fresh baked cookies softer than any ziplock bag or cookie jar will.  I promise!

Just roll up the top of the paper bag for storing the cookies.  Ignore the grease spots on the bag, they’re fine. Believe me, you’ll be the envy of everyone for making THE softest cookies.

]]> http://www.gotchocolate.com/2010/08/chocolate-chip-cookies-a-pictorial/feed/ 6 http://www.gotchocolate.com/2010/08/milky-way-giveaway-winners/ http://www.gotchocolate.com/2010/08/milky-way-giveaway-winners/#comments Sun, 29 Aug 2010 01:29:11 +0000 gotchocolate http://www.gotchocolate.com/?p=3676

Thanks to everyone who entered my Milky Way Simply Caramel giveaway! The random number generator has selected commenters 31 and 34 to win a $75 gift certificate to SpaFinder.com and five Milky Way Simply Caramel bars to enjoy. Congratulations to Elaine and Rhonda!

Last Friday I reviewed Mars’s new Milky Way ‘Simply Caramel’ bar. Starting today I’m giving TWO readers a chance to try them out for themselves!

Milky Way has given me TWO “Simply Caramel Relax and Enjoy” prize packs to give away to Got Chocolate readers. Each prize pack will include a $75 gift certificate to SpaFinder.com for a yoga class or massage and “Enough Simply Caramel Bars to indulge in for a month (FIVE).”

I find it quite hilarious that Milky Way considers FIVE candy bars to be a month’s supply.  While this gift pack is very generous, a TRUE Chocoholic could eat five candy bars in a WEEK, if not a couple days. OK, maybe I’m exaggerating a tad. Or am I?  After all, eating sweets should always be done in moderation right?  :)

HOW TO ENTER: Unlike most giveaways I’ve seen, I’m making this one VERY simple -> Leave a comment about how many full-sized candy bars you would consider to be a month’s supply. Be sure to leave a real email address (seen and used only by me to contact the winners). Limit ONE entry/comment per day, per email address. Deadline is Saturday, August 28th at 9pm EST. TWO winners will be chosen by a random number generator based on your assigned comment number. See, I told you I’d keep it easy!  :)

Good luck and ♪ Happy Chocolate Trails to you!  ♫ (OK, I know that was corny, but I don’t care.  I had to say it.  :) )

If you haven’t tried Milky Way‘s new ‘Simply Caramel’ bar, I highly recommend trying it.

I have to admit I’m not the caramel lover my 11-year-old daughter is, but since it was covered in Chocolate, I HAD to try it.  Duh! After all, anything covered in Chocolate is good, right?  Well, almost anything!

My first bite into the Simply Caramel bar and my taste buds were instantly satisfied.  Even though I much prefer Dark Chocolate, Milky Way’s Milk Chocolate is VERY good – smooth and not too sweet.

And the caramel?  It’s just that, C-A-R-A-M-E-L…

YUM!

Milky Way’s ‘Simply Caramel’ bar will satisfy any Chocoholic and/or caramel lover. They even taste good if you freeze the bar for a few minutes before eating (if you can wait that long!), as does just about any Chocolate bar for that matter.  Just my opinion though.  I like the “snap” cold Chocolate has!

Mmmm!  :)

Be sure to come back on Monday for my Milky Way ‘Simply Caramel’ GIVEAWAY.  Enter to win a $75 gift certificate to SpaFinder.com as well as FIVE Milky Way Simply Caramel bars!

Chocolate Peanut Clusters

Makes about 2 dozen

1/2 Cup HERSHEY’S Milk Chocolate Chips
1/2 Cup HERSHEY’S SPECIAL DARK Chocolate Chips or HERSHEY’S Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips
1 Tablespoon Shortening (do NOT use butter, margarine, spread or oil
1 Cup Unsalted, Roasted Peanuts

1.  Place Milk Chocolate chips, SPECIAL DARK Chocolate Chips and shortening in small microwave-safe bowl.  Microwave at MEDIUM (50%) 1 to 1-1/2 minutes or just until chips are melted and mixture is smooth when stirred. Stir in peanuts.

2. Drop by teaspoons into 1-inch diameter candy or petit four papers. Refrigerate until firm, about 1 hour. Store in airtight container in cool, dry place.

ENJOY!

Source:  Hershey’s Cookbook

Have you ever made an ice cream cake before?  Well, I never had, until now.

My daughter turned 11 a few days ago and she requested an ice cream cake for her “kid” birthday party.  I made a confetti cake for the “family” birthday party a few days prior which turned out pretty good, so thought I’d try something different the second time around.

The Ice Cream Cake Concept

My idea for making an ice cream cake was simple.

1. Bake the cake
2. While it’s cooling on the rack, line one of the cleaned cake pans with a large piece of plastic wrap (large enough so it’s hanging over the sides for easy in lifting it out of the pan).
3. Freeze the ice cream for 3 or 4 hours.
4. Pop the ice cream out of the cake pan.
5. Build ice cream cake – cake, ice cream, cake.
6. Frost cake.
7. Put completed cake in the freezer until ready to eat!

And it would look like this…

The Ice Cream Cake Reality

Like I said, I was really short on time when I got around to making the cake.  I had worked a ton of hours that week, including a bunch of overtime to get my desk ready for vacation.  So by the time I found the time, it was the night before the party. Ack! And just my luck, it had been a hot day so the house warmed up to 85 degrees!  Not a good time to make an ice cream cake! Then my stubborn lovely daughter had a slightly different idea for making the cake.  Actually, this was good because I’ve been trying really hard to let her be more creative in the kitchen, so I let go of the “mom reins” and we followed her idea.

My daughter’s idea was very close to mine, however, she wanted to scoop out the middle portions of each cake round, making them “hollow” so when assembled, there was only ice cream in the very middle of the cake.

It was a great idea, but sounded a bit tricky.

Sure enough, it was a near-disaster!  After putting the bottom cake piece on a plate, then scooping out the innards to make a “bowl” and filling it with ice cream, the challenge was to know how much ice cream to add to the hollowed out top cake round. Plus the top cake round was rather flimsy at this point, so I had to hold it with both hands while my daughter filled it up with ice cream. We decided to add more ice cream than it looked like it needed, just for good measure (there’s NO such thing as too much ice cream!), then carefully flipped the top cake round over and on top of the bottom one.

Whew!  We did it!

I frosted the cake as quickly as I could, but the ice cream was melting just a tad in one spot, seeping through the frosting.  After I finished frosting it, my daughter quickly threw some sprinkles on it and I put it in our deep freezer.

The next day, here’s what it looked like…

And after we cut into it…

NOT the most attractive cake is it?  Surprisingly the kids all LOVED it and said it tasted GREAT, better than the store bought ones!

Music to my ears!

I learned a few things while making this cake:

1. Make it two days prior
2. Freeze the cake sections after they have cooled, making for easier cake assembly and not causing the cake to be concave.

All in all, it was great fun to make and it really did taste VERY good, as the kids said.

Have you ever made an ice cream cake?  I need more tips for a more pleasing looking cake!  Do tell!!!

I know, you’re probably thinking, “Chocolate science?  What on earth are you talking about NOW Laura?”

I’m talking about this very interesting (and yes, somewhat dorky) video about the science of Chocolate titled, ‘How Chocolate is Made‘.  It actually has some great information about the basics of breaking down the cocoa bean to make Chocolate as well as the effects Chocolate has on those who consume it – a.k.a. CHOCOHOLICS!  Duh!  :)

So here you go.  You’re sure to learn something new about Chocolate!

I’d love to hear what you learned about Chocolate from this video.  Or are you a TRUE Chocoholic and already knew everything?