Wicked by Cravings + Life Lessons In Controlling Sweet Cravings

Wicked is an adjective which means evil, sinful, immoral, wrong, morally wrong, wrongful, bad, iniquitous, corrupt, base, mean, vile; villainous, nefarious, erring, foul, monstrous, shocking, outrageous, atrocious, abominable, depraved, reprehensible, hateful, detestable, despicable,

 odious, contemptible, horrible, heinous, egregious, execrable, fiendish, vicious,

 murderous, black-hearted, barbarous; criminal, illicit, unlawful, illegal, lawless,

 felonious, dishonest, unscrupulous; malfeasant; crooked; dated dastardly, 

intended to or capable of harming someone or something. 

extremely unpleasant. nasty, harsh, formidable, unpleasant,

 foul, bad, disagreeable, irksome, troublesome, displeasing, 

uncomfortable, annoying, irritating, hateful, detestable, 

All of the words above are negative connotation of the word wicked.

However, after visiting Edsa Shangri La mall a couple of months ago, wicked was given a whole new meaning, something positive.  

We actually found this cute cafe while window shopping.  It was my daughter who found and was actually captured by how the place was designed.

The lamps are so adorbs.  They are probably customized inspired from baking whisks and painted red.  

This is how we define wicked differently...

 playfully mischievous. playful, naughty, impish, roguish, arch, puckish, cheeky

excellent; wonderful.

Me and my daughter Dana, who is diabetic, btw, totally was in awe of the place, not only was the chocolate aroma wafted inside and outside the store, their glass encased showcase is filled with all wickedly insane chocolatey and sugary creations.

The crazy mix of red, citrus and of course brown in the interior design was enticing, makes you think of only one word, dessert!

It was hard to for me to decide which one to get.  Firstly, I'm caught on this dilemma - get a chocolaty sugar-free treat  for my daughter Dana and making sure she would enjoy it.  Secondly, There is a miscellany of pastries and chocolate all whispering their names to me.  

Guilt-free Chocolate Cake is their sugar-free flourless chocolate cake!  Hurray!  The silky smooth texture of the cake was a simple gift from the baker while the chocolaty goodness you get from every fork-bite with a mix of bittersweet and milky chocolate, is just a piece of heaven on earth, on Shangri La Mall Eastwing for that matter.  

How did I know well, my goody goody daughter know she couldn't have too much so she gave me 1/4 of it.  And yes, I'm one happy mom, who made a girl truly happy this day.

If you are on a look out for this kind of cakes, do check out My Pink Wasabi's Flourless Chocolate Cake. 

Chocolate Earl Grey Macaron de Paris for me.  

I really wished I ordered more varieties and try some chocolate barks, but I needed to show my daughter the value of control-controlling oneself to get something that could be sinful and addicting.  Cause well, I couldn't argue anymore if someone could have been addicted to this place, I myself I have been a chocolate addict and I have sobered up.

As always cappuccino for me without sugar.  Cause I just value the importance of following kitchen rules and this isn't an exception.

So you see, even though our family is faced in this kind of condition, we can still enjoy like other people who doesn't concern themselves with monitoring blood sugar levels or getting insulin shots just to make it through every meal.

After this wonderful afternoon, we didn't hail a cab, instead we walked towards MRT and rode in it home and walked with her more.  Just to compromise with some of the sugar she had from what we had for afternoon snack.

Can't wait to come back here and try out more of their menu and maybe, just maybe they could add more sugar-free pastries

New Pastry Finds at Rome's Patisserie

It's a season to truly express how much you love you're other half, your friends, even your parents and kids.   But Valentine's Day always have that special touch to bring star-crossed lovers to swoon over each other and  smother each other with romance, and what could be one best way than to enjoy it with sweets.   

So timely that I was able to try a newbie pastry purveyor which happens to be located right smack where I used to make "tambay" during college days.  University Mall building at Taft  has changed a bit but when I got inside the building, I couldn't recognize the place anymore.  What used to be fashion and trinket boutiques are now restaurants, coffee shops and more food stalls.  

As I was saying, I was able to try out some heavenly treats from Rome's Pastries with their stall just in front of CBTL.  They take pride in the perennial bars which Chef Rome have given a few tweaks and a number of the chef's favorite cupcake varieties.

Romulus Miranda, known to be Chef Rome in the culinary scene, have decided to venture into baking business long after his experiences in hotels, food establishments and cruise ship.  He chose to have his first pick up stall near where he graduated college before he took up courses in cakes and pastry art, College of St Benilde.

He had been selling his baked goodies just last year and now he is more serious in offering new dessert and pastry to customers.  

 

 Would you agree that bars such as brownies, revel bars, food for the gods are never out of season and have been unceasing favorites in the market till today?

Aside from easy-to-prepare and hassle-free when eating, these rectangular sugar-laden sweets come in a variety of flavor as well.  The front-runner is Walnut Brownies (photo above).  Upon getting a slice, you instantly get a whiff of pure cocoa goodness, with both a crumbly and moist (but not too much) texture in every bite.   You will also notice the good quality of the ingredients use and that's what I like about home-baking - the priority given to the baked-goods freshness.  Because for me, deliciousness defined by freshness.

However, I like Rome's Cream Cheese Brownies better.  It's not that I don't like nuts on my pastries but I've always had something for cream cheese.  This is my perfect coffee or tea partner and which I like having specially when in times of much-needed inspirations.  It's comfortingly moist and fudgy and the cream cheese melded perfectly with the dark chocolate used in this recipe.

 Layered bars are also a challenge for me making at home and I mostly get disappointed when I buy from somewhere else.  Rome's Revel Bars are two layers of oatmeal cookie dough filled a rich chocolate walnut fudge in the center.   And hey, this one did not disappoint me.  Every bite elicits enough gooey choco and adorably crumbly mix of oatmeal and cookie dough.

Usually bought flat and ultra moist texture wrapped in foil, Food for the Gods is made out of dates and walnuts mixed in a fluffy buttery dough.  The texture is simply phenomenal, think of it as a cross between a moist butterscotch crossed with crumby cookie. It is popular during the Christmas season in the Philippines. Though not everyone likes the after-taste of dates, good that Chef Rome was able to recognize that but leaving the the redolence of butter and brown sugar.
This bar deviates from the norm of food for the Gods, instead it's served like the usual bars though cakey with a dry top and side, but the middle remains moist and with a lovely crunch of cashew and walnut bits here and there.  Making it more affordable, the fruity flavor missed from the dates are reconciled with raisins.

Last on the list under bars, are the Bookies.  Simply put is as cookie on top of a brownie.  Each bar sliced in 3 by 3-inch square is enough to melt one's blues away and will instantly send you to brownie (or cookie) heaven. I can compare it to heroin which gives out a burst  of good feelings when eaten.  (Note: it's just a metaphor OK!  I've never tried heroin or any drugs).

Presenting the model of Rome's Patisserie trying out their newest pastry, the Eclair.  Well, she's not actually an endorser, she was one of the bloggers trying out the eclair. 

Some say that an eclair is an oblong cream puff, which most people daunt trying out.  Let me describe it like a log (baked) doughnut filled with vanilla-hinted custard and covered with chocolate ganache.  I like that the choux pastry used when baked gave out a smooth and tender texture to it.  Also, the cream-custard filling that's not too sweet is very notable.

Rome's Patisserie's cupcake selection are promising and will easily draw you to ruining your diet.  A good motivation perhaps in attaining those perfect abs or the weight you'll be losing after weeks of training in the gym.  How about a few good reasons to spend more time walking or jogging?

Cupcakes:

Chocolate Kitkat: Chocolate cupckae with chocolate ganache icing topped with Kitkat chocolate. (P 65 each)

Red Velvet: Traditional Red Velvet cupcake topped with cream-cheese frosting and red heart fondant decor.  (P 55 each)
P
Carrot: Moist Carrot Cupcake topped with cream-cheese frosting finished with a carrot sugar decor. (P 55 each)

Choco Banana:  Banana flavored cupcake topped with chocolate ganache icing finished with a yellow star fondant decor. (P 65 each)

Dulce de Leche: Vanilla cupcake frosted with a creamy caramel fudge icing. (P 65 each)

They also have Chocolate Reese Peanut Butter and Cookie Butter, both at P 65 each.

To make dessert-giving extra special, why not say it with cheesecakes...I find the NewYork style cheesecake here similar to the dense and creaminess of those serve in five-star hotels.   The Blueberry Cheesecake is available in 4-in round ( P 170) and 8-inch round cake (P 850).

I bet this would melt your lover's heart!  The Red Velvet Cheesecake (same price as the Bluberry cheesecake) inspired from the much-raved upon red velvet cupcakes.  It's a red cheesecake but utterly different in that it's chocolate-flavored and it sits on top of  Oreo crust, enough to be even raved more.

I hope you also give them a try.  I give them my two-thumbs up for providing more sweetness to that side of La Salle.  They will be coming out with more pastries particularly those that are healthier and hopefully sugar-free treats and vegan delights.




Rome's Patisserie
2nd Flr.  University Mall
Vito Cruz, Taft Ave., Manila
FACEBOOK: Rome's Patisserie

Nutella Cream Pie

I still can't get over the movie Julie and Julia, it haunts me even in my dreams.  So after I rested for a day (which I think I shouldn't have had, cause when I do the work seems to pile up on me even more), I realized that I haven't been that busy in the kitchen anymore, hehe, as much as Julie and Julia were in the movie.   So I thought my kids need a break. from a lousy bad-weathered week we had.
In the movie, the protagonist, Julie Powell, a call center support employee turned food blogger/writer,  can be seen first making a gorgeous mound of what seems to be heavenly chocolate cream.   We saw it while drooling over the Chocolate Cream Pie, she together with her husband were comfortly enjoying.  My kids would touch the TV screen as if they would want to dip their fingers into it while shouting, "Mommy, gawa ka 'non (make that)!"
As it was, after a day full of rolling on my bed, I was dreaming of making that and having my favorite chocolates over that pie filling.   The next thing we did is to hit the grocery store for the ingredients, and what do you know, as always, heavens have been on my daughter's shoulder again.  For on that same day, when we get to visit my brother's in laws who came from Milan, the kids got a big jar of Nutella, oh it was heaven for her, the only time the folks saw Dana smile!

So here are what we used to make our own version of Julie Powell's Chocolate Cream Pie.   Nope she didn't use Nutella, so I searched over the net to find a good recipe of Nutella Cream Pie.   I found a good one at Making Life Delicious (a co-World Nutella Day blogger), but her's calls for a bar of cream cheese, which my kids and I were not looking for, we needed to find something with egg yolks, because there was something in the movie about having egg yolks with chocolates making it extra creamy and luscious.  So we found one at Allrecipes.   But of course it didn't have the Nutella.  So I kinda tweaked it a bit.
Oh, did I tell you that no baking is required for this?  
Here is the recipe...

Gastronomy By Joy's Nutella Cream Pie

Ingredients:

Crust
25 pieces of Oreos (you can use either vanilla or Chocolate filling)
4 TBSP unsalted butter, melted
pint of  iodized salt

Filling
2/3 cup Nutella Spread
1/3 cup all purpose flour
2 cups milk
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
3 egg yolks
2 TBSP butter
1 tsp vanilla extract, (I used 1/3 vanilla seeds from a pod)

Topping:
All purpose cream or double whipped cream
powdered sugar (optional)
chopped dark chocolates (I used Lindth Dark Chocolate with a touch of  Sea Salt)

 To make the crust:
1. Grind the Oreos finely on a food processor, if you don't have one, put it in a plastic bag that's tough enough not to split when poked, and use a heavy wooden rolling pin to crush the cookies with its filling. 
2.  Mix in the butter and the salt.
3.  Spread evenly on a pie plate while compacting and making sure it stick to the plate.
4.  Chill on the refrigerator.

To make the filling:

1.  Combine the Nutella, flour, milk, and chocolate chips on a saucepan, stirring constantly.   Cook over medium heat until mixture begin to bubble, continue stirring for 2 minutes.
2.  Mix a little of the hot mixture into the egg yolks, beating rapidly to avoid cooking the yolks.
3.   Stir the warm yolk mixture to the remainder of the chocolate mixture and cook for an additional 90 seconds.  Remove from heat, and stir in butter and vanilla.
4.   Pour filling into the pie shell and chill until set.
5.  Top with cream and shaved dark chocolates or any chocolates of your choice or Oreo crumbs.

It is so easy to use and it was a blessing having my two kids and my niece (Jaeda on Hello Kitty dress) help me in the kitchen  this time.

And here is the finished pie.

I can truly say it is as easy as pie!
Try it and see for yourself.
But beware, you'll get chocoholic even before you start with this pie project.

Chocolate on a Spoon

If only there is a job that would pay chocolate coins, I'd write countless words for them.
If only I have hectares of land to develop, I'd have cacao trees planted on them.
If there is a river of it I'd not stop from swimming in it.
If the yellow brick road leads to the Wizard of chocolates, I'd come with Dorothy and would not mind wearing another red ruby splatters.
Haahh!   If it is just like love...pain would not matter!

 

Last February 14, I didn't recieve any flowers, nor chocolates, nothing, even a word of love to satiate my hunger for it!    Good thing, Powerplant Mall opened the Concourse  for  A Valentines Day edition of Baker's Dozen.   Purveyors  of sweet indulgence lined up the floor siding with chocolate and candy fairies and befriended bakers making it a one stop gift market for the loved ones.

Days after, on a gloomy hour for a  late breakfast,  I suddenly came to my senses remembering the black-dotted  plastic bag, I went home with.   I pulled it out  from its secret spot inside my special box.  Got me a cup, filled it with fresh milk and  heated it in the microwave.   As the  timer ticked away,  my pores went open and hairs started to rise , though I could not run to the table, I made it easily.

Then grabbed one box of the Cru Kitchen's  Choco Spoon, Dark Chocolate.   Dunked it in the cup of steamy milk.   As I slowly stirred it, carefully so as not to spill any milk on my new table runner, my tongue go swirling all over my mouth, anticipating the smooth and sensual experience after.

Curled in a fetal position, nestled in the corner of the kitchen, I sipped a few,  furiously checking Blogger.    My descent into madness is so steep as to be in free-fall.   Then nothing matters anymore, only the the luxurious sensation and comfort a good hot chocolate it gives...with its smooth, chocolate streaks and nibblets afloat, the mini-marshmallow slowly melting, fairly sweetened with a slight bittery kick at the end.  

Thank God for late breakfasts such as this.

Oh, chocolate, forever is not enough for me to love you so...

I bought this at  The CRU KITCHEN  stall at Powerplant Mall, Rockwell.   You can go there every weekend.   They will be there  till the last weekend of Feb.   Check them out and be sure to find more delectable classic desserts and snacks.

They come in Dark chocolate, White chocolate and Sugar-free 

You may call them at 8284474/  09209278188
Email them at  crukitchen@yahoo.com
Facebook:  crukitchen


My Food Trip Friday Entry

My Love for Ferrero Brought Us to Maitre Chocolatier

This is the second on the series of my Valentine's celebration.   This month is raining chocolates.  The first blog about the Heart's month was my contest.  I had this idea of writing about cheesy things for the love month like more tips on how to make the celebration more sweet and full of romance.   So I thought of sharing  our experience here at Maitre Chocolatier.
But before I go further, may I ask you?  What do you like to receive on V-day, flowers or chocolates?  Oops, choose only one.   If you happen to vote for flowers, let me see if you still would like a bunch of it as compared to these lip-smacking, heavenly indulging sweet bites of these...

The Frey Lait Fruit Tartlet embodied an ethereal sweet endings - named Guiltless Crime.  The sliced fruits perfectly couched on a heart-shaped tartlet filled with Frey's Lait Chocolate.  The fresh mango, strawberries and kiwis gave a different  break to our choco-filled palate, as our eyes captured all European chocolate products such as Ferrero Rocher, Lindth, Ritter Sports and Guylian Belgian Chocolates.

So far the best hot chocolate drink I  have tasted, seriously.   This one isn't mine, I had to steal a moment from husbands craving for hot choco and have the first drink of it.   The Classic Chocolate drink made up to the top of my list for all the hot cups of choco drinks I had since time immemorial, even topping our regular Swiss Miss selections and Nesquik with molten dark chocolate.  I made the picture above bigger so you can notice the true European  chocolate floating on top.   The consistency is smooth and sinfully delighting, without any bitter after-taste.  Let me guess,  is this made up of Lindt?  It's something like the consistency of Chocolate Fire's where they use Belgian chocolates not cocoa powder.  sorry but it is way better to our traditional "batirol" style chocolate drinks.   Hubby initially ordered the Mint Hot Chocolate, but we were advised it has an alcohol in it, so opted not to.   Also, quit intriguing are their chocolate cocktails in wide selection.

My daughter Danie enjoyed every cold sip of their Ice blended Chocolate drink, wahaha, yes even with some brain freeze attacks, due to too unstoppable sipping.  Even Kuya Darren had his own blast with the same icy treat.  It has blended Nutella Hazelnut chocolate.
Not in the picture though are scooped Ferrero Rocher gelatto which the two girly D's shared.

If you are looking for a different and wild kick in your ice cream scoops, I strongly suggest you try the spicy chocolate, they have it here like Mio Gelati's and Paradis.

This is a chocolate boutique also where you can find the finest-quality European chocolates at a lower bid.  Maybe not my chocolate heaven though it may be yours.   Still looking for that Nutella jar.   Be eager to find lots of 'em here.   These experiences were all led by our cravings for dessert after a not so satisfying dinner at MJ's Cafe and Bar at Roxas Blvd.   MJ's Cafe served good Filipino style pizzas, such as Laing, Bistek, Menudo and kid's favorite, Sisig Pizza.

If they have Nutella, they better have these.  And yes they do!  In different amazing packaging.   You can even pick up a bouquet of it at a Valentine's promo price.
You see the art work at the top?  It will be the to welcome you into the boutique cafe.   It is actually made from wrappers of Ferrero Rocher Chocolate pralines.  Who wouldn't look gorgeous in it.  Kind of gave me the idea what to wear for Valentines...hahaha....what do you think?

Maitre Chocolatier Boutique Cafe

Address:  2A, No. 28, Jupiter corner Astra Street,
               Bel Air, Makati City, Metro Manila
Contact  numbers: (02) 8978559 / 8962529 / (+63) 9228854107
Email: mchocolatier.manila@gmail.com

Opening Hours:
       Mondays to Thursdays    10AM to 11PM
       Fridays to Saturdays        10AM to 2AM
       closed on Sundays

Dreaming of Chocolate Cake, Without the Nightmares Afterwards

  Cakes have always been associated in  my memories with love, goodness, giving and joy.  I grew up adoring chocolate cakes from Goldilocks.   When Red Ribbon came, not a birthday passed by without my sister buying for us.   The reason why I learned to bake is due to my undoubted love for it.  Instead of tangible yet nonsense gifts, rolls and rolls of this dessert lace every table, in every occasions.  Now, everywhere you go, a bakery or a cafe  always have a version of this.  

   Now my kids bore the same love for it.   Well, as a kid, anything that's chocolate is already food.  My kids would devour bars and truffles in one sitting and the culprit on stains on clothes can easily be determined till the "dramastic" change in our life came.       (Dramastic is a portmanteau word were drastic and  drama were compounded).  

   So why the word dramastic, it was the time we found out that both my parent's had become type 2 diabetics from type 1.   Worst came the heart-breaker, when our then five-year old daughter was diagnosed as type 2 diabetic.  She almost went to coma but with God's ultimate grace and friends' and relatives' contemplative prayers and support we were able to accept the fact that she needed to take insulin injections all her life with constant blood-sugar monitoring.   She got better, but facing the big change in the family's lifestyle was tough.   We have to surrender our sweet cravings when she's around.   Coke and soft-drinks are no-nos in the house.  Candies are given away and I have to lay off baking and chocolate-making. 

Celebrate A Dulcified New Year with My Pink Wasabi's Deal

Since food is my life, I am pretty aware that food, just like clothing, has "fads".  Things like pesto come in and out of fashion like the Louis Voutton purse of the month.
So they say...
I have never been one to figure food in when I am talking about latest trends.  If it's something I like, it's always in fashion at my house.    But If you really want to talk about fashionable foods in my house or everywhere I go here is one I could really  recommend.
And what a way to welcome any celebration this year than with none the less, My Pink Wasabi's Flourless Chocolate Cake!
Oh yes the fad in our hood is healthy  yet scrumptious, simple yet fabulous, sweet but sugar-free!
Now MYP is throwing off  25%  on their  Flourless Chocolate Cake made with regular Callebaut dark chocolate with no added sugar.
The best way for my diabetic daughter to indulge in every cake goodness, without me feeling guilty,  giving  in to her chocolate craving.

Now available for purchase from January 5,2012-January 10,2012
and redeemable on  February 1, 2012-April 30,2012

How to Order:
1.) Send us an email with your Name, Contact Number and order quantity
2.) Pay Php 200/coupon via bank deposit ( details will be sent upon receipt of your e-mail.
3.) E-mail bank deposit slip
4.) Pay balance upon redemption
5.) Pick up at: 49 Elisco Road Kalawaan Sur Pasig City, Mon-Sat 8am-4pm.
6.) Delivery at extra charge. Even numbered days, no deliveries on Friday and Saturday.
7.) Strictly 1 week notice for orders, changes should be made 3 days before redemption.

Diet is now a fad, having feasted with all the sweets and cholesterol form the   holiday dinings, so you don't have to put away  indulging in some sweet  escapes with these deal.

  Here is how to contact them:

 

Visit My Pink Wasabi at their Facebook page...

Chocolate Bark for Noche Buena

Hey!  It’s Christmas and here in Manila, traffic jams since the December month came  really kicked up like hell.   By the mid-month all the mall have been like some kind of a safari!  And just days before Christmas, only then can the feast be planned.  The Noche Buena…and everyone lines up the cashier awaiting to be served after hours spent picking the right ingredients said to be part of the list from a roll of paper.  Hoohh!

I used to remember the holidays when I was a child.   Anticipating about Christmas school-parties, Simbang Gabi, new clothes and stuff, gifts opening on Christmas Eve and of course, Noche Buena.   Those times when fire-crackers start cracking and houses smelled heaven, each home cooking up storms of their heir-loomed recipes.   And our house would have boxes of imported chocolates from Saudi Arabia, and US.  Ahhh…the chocolates.  
I could forever be a kid with my favorite chocolates…

I could never get tired of gnawing on these cubes of goodness.   May it be milky sweet, uber bitter, semi-sweet, coarse, melted, hot or cold, hard as a gravel or whatever form it may seem to acquire.   All those chunks stylishly wrapped in gold or silver is what completes my Christmas!   Well you’d say, you can have it everyday not only during Christmas.   And I’d say, well that would make everyday choco-indulgence a Christmas day for me.

As a matter of fact, with the love I had with cocoa, I learned to bake, and with that I immersed myself studying more on how to sell chocolates in my own simple ways and thus I became a Chocolate Concessionaire.   Molding chocolates and giving so much attention to details that it took over my whole being and forgot how it can also be bad to your health.   Yes the insanity that drove me to delving in too much to it, hahaha… Actually everything that is too much is bad, though there has been a lot of news in the past year about how chocolate is actually (maybe) good for you.  Well, no one can deviate that it is sweet, thus may contribute to the raising issues of diabetes.  No, I don’t have diabetes but my daughter has but not because of chocolate, primarily because she was born with it.  Not until she was five when it really manifested and had almost took us under. 
So there’s dark chocolate, make sure it is not lower than the 40 % dark. I am however taking the concept one step further by combining the miracle food that is chocolate with other beneficial all-natural ingredients to make what I would tend to think of as holistic health chocolate. 
When I was a kid, well until now as well, I would always receive this as gift, handful of toblerones, Mayfairs, Goya and Hersheys to name a few, and this is my gift for you…

Thank you Kulinarya and fellow foodies of the group, for having us, together with Sherilyn of  Senorita Sisa's Blog  , as this month’s hosts.   What I initially thought of was having everyone in Kulinarya share a dish using one of their favorite ingredient.   But alas, well since everyone had been up to decorating their homes well this could also be a good time spent thinking how we can get our table for Christmas more embellished through the menu everyone have designed and with of course the star dish.
As you can see I’ve been clamoring a lot about chocolates, but my first thought was on dried fruits, like the ones we have for Fruit Cakes. 

picture from Chocolate Fire's FB page

It was my plan to do Chocolate Barks as my gift for my kids’ teachers.  I first encountered this at Naci Comfort Foods and Dessert Bar, a newly-opened restaurant at Greenhills.  Then I saw this next during Facebook airtimes of Chocolate Fire, a chocolate café in Salcedo, Makati.  I’ve never actually tried making this nor have I seen a demo on this, but then my kitchen is always up for an experiment.   So of we went to Chocolate Fire to check out their Christmas barks and of course to try out the foray on their menu.  Here is what I got, Belgian Hot choco, Bhogs had the regular cappucino...

Australian Style Hot Dark Chocolate ( P 120)

Cappucino served with shaved Belgian Chocolate (P 95)

We did not buy the barks since I got to think that I might be able to imitate them and I was  prepared since I had my parents buy me  a few packs of dried fruits from Milan, Italy.

The five assortment of dried fruits- Macedonia (mix  of the ff with cherries and pears), dates, apples, peaches , prunes

Well, I did it!  It was as easy as pie...No gadgets to buy, no ovens, and you can actually play with an array of mixins, so if you're not into dried fruits you can just put nuts, rice crispies, marshmallows and many more,
To make it extra special I used chocolate molds with teddy bear and angel design, but you can also use plastic lids or any small trays that would fit your freezer.

It wasn't the look that I've expected though coz I don't have a dried fruit that's red, like cranberries or strawberries, but I'll do better on Christmas eve.
Yes!  I don't have to spend that much to have me and my family enjoy chocolate in a healthy way, since chocolate barks in Christmas packages are sold a bit pricey here in Manila.  But before I give you the full detail on how to make them, let me give you my pre-planned Noche Buena menu, well we don't actually do Noche Buena per se, we eat an extravagant dinner at 8 o'clock on the 24th, since by 10 pm my kids would have gone to bed and would hardly eat at midnight.  They just wake up and open their gifts and go back to sleep afterwards, then they will enjoy their opened up gifts the next day.
My 2011 Noche Buena menu:

Appetizer

Canapes with cream cheese and caviar

Oriental Crab Cake Salad

Entree

3 Cup Chicken (Chef Bruce Lim's Lee Kum Kee recicpe)

Ribbon Pasta with Pesto Sauce

Dessert

Chocolate Java Truffles

Dark and White Chocolate Barks 

While waiting for the Eve...Hot Tsokolate eh, using pure chocolate blocks from Bohol.

This year has really rocked my world, as in...so I don't want to complicate my life in preparing our festive dinner, just the six of us and a few visits from relatives nearby.   It may not be as festive as anybody's but as long as you offer your cooking skills to your loved ones it becomes the best dinner for them!

Hoping that my daughter, Danielle pitch in and bake brownies or cupcakes!!!   (Huwag sana unahan ng katamaran).

Pardon me for the picture, the barks were already in plastic boxes

Recipe for Chocolate Barks

Things needed:

1/2 K dark chocolate bar

1/2 K white chocolate bar

1 cup mixed nuts (i used chopped walnuts and slivered almonds)

2 cups mixed dried fruits 

To make the Chocolate Barks:

1.   Do the white chocolate first.   Chop the white chocolates and set aside.

2.   Chop the dried fruits in small pieces , as in 1 cm thick.  Depends on how thin or think you want your barks to be.

3.   Prepare a double boiler or two pans, one bigger pan or aluminum bowl on top of the other.  Put boiling water on the bottom pan at least 2/3 of the pan.  Put the chocolate on the pan or bowl on top of the pan with boiling water.  For the double boiler, just do the same.  

4.   Once the chocolate is melted thoroughly, and the consistency is flowing when you put up a spoon with it, dump in the nuts and the dried fruits.   Mix well to completely cover the mixins with chocolate.

5.  Spoon slowly on the molds or plastic lids, then put inside the freezer. 

6.  You can remove the molds when you see that the bottom of the plastic is frosty already.

7.  Bash it on a tray carefully to remove the chocolates on the mold.

8.  Leave it there for a few minutes, be careful not to touch it with bare fingers for your marks will be left on them, the shiny look will not be be achieved.

9.  Do the same with the dark chocolate.

10.  You may or may not break the barks up, but if you want the fruits to show off on the edge, you may want to break it, either with a knife or with hands, but put on  plastic gloves first.

Sorry, but due to excitement and time constraints I was not able to take shots of them not on the boxes.  Oh! I think I had at least one, that's on the top in white chocolate though. 

As you can see, these are not only good to munch on all by yourselves, their as good as any gifts worth of expensive gourmet chocolates, you may also want to spruce it up a bit by adding your fave alcohol drink, but put it on the fruits not on the chocolates.   Other chocolates may be used as well such as semi-sweet choco-chips, milk chocolates and others.

Let me have the honor of greeting everyone an early Merry Christmas!