Cocoa Jelly Roll

Not only did I marry into a German family, but a German family of bakers. My MIL studied sales, with a focus in bakeries (Germans do things this way, you know), and worked in her family's bakery.

She met my FIL when he worked in their bakery to do his apprenticeship. Once a month on Saturday, he would cycle 40 kilometers from the baker in Fürth to his home for a visit. Then back to Fürth the next day.

After working a few years, it was determined that the flour dust was too dangerous for his lungs, so he switched to construction and spent the rest of his life doing tile and brickwork. Hard to imagine that as being less dusty, isn't it?

In any case, here's one of his favorite recipes: a jellyroll. The cocoa form uses cocoa for 1/3 of the flour requirement. Enjoy!

Bisquit Rolle (Jellyroll)
4 eggs
100 g sugar
1 pkg vanilla sugar
2 g sugar
75 g flour
50 g starch (cornstarch or potato starch)
pinch baking powder
250 g marmalade or confiture (strawberry, raspberry or apricot)
powdered sugar
whipped cream

Note: To make a cocoa roll, substitute cocoa for 1/3 of the flour.

Canned pineapple, chopped into small pieces
About a tablespoon Rum or cognac

Preheat oven to 220 degrees C.

1. Beat yolks with 3 tablespoons water until foamy.
2. Add 100 g sugar and vanilla sugar. Beat until creamy.
3. Mix whites with 25 g sugar until stiff. Fold into yolks.
4. Mix flour with baking powder and sift onto egg mixture.
5. Stir until just combined.
6. Spread into a rectangle onto a piece of parchment paper. Bake until done, can vary from 5 minutes until 15 minutes, depending on the thickness of the dough.
7. Remove from oven and turn immediately onto a clean kitchen towel sprinkled with sugar.
8. Roll up immediately, towel and all. You can freeze it at this stage (with the towel) or fill and serve. Sometimes it will crack.
   Disaster Recovery: If it breaks into too many pieces, cut it into small pieces and mix with the filling. Spoon into small mounds onto a cookie sheet, glaze with chocolate, and you now have “Granatsplitter.”
9. Prepare filling by whipping the cream and chopping the pineapple.
10. Unroll the cake.
11. Sprinkle with pineapple juice mixed with some rum or cognac.
12. Spread a layer of marmalade on the cake
13. Spread a layer of whipped cream on the cake.
14. Sprinkle pineapple on the whipped cream.
15. Roll up.
16. Cap the ends with whipped cream. Sprinkle powdered sugar on top, or pipe whipped cream over the cake. Sift some cocoa onto the whipped cream as decoration as desired.

Berger Zartbitter Chili

After an intense day at work, I felt the need to go to The Box for a special treat. I've certainly enjoyed all of these experiments at Lidl and Aldi, but occasionally one requires a truly refined chocolate to make a refined statement.

Today I chose Berger's Zartbitter Chili bar. When compared to the Caffarel chili, it's ever so slightly hotter, but not disturbing. Still quite pleasant. In terms of chocolatyness, it's a pleasant dark chocolate with not too much sugar and very smooth.

An Austrian company, I haven't found Berger chocolate anywhere except Germany or Austria. Austrian companies tend to be rather home-focused, and there aren't many who venture outside of Austria, much less beyond Germany. But Berger would certainly face problems, because their name is so similar to Scharffen Berger, a big name in chocolate worldwide. There's no connection as far as I've discovered.

Oh well, I'll just enjoy it while I can get it.

Reviewed: Berger Zartbitter Chili
Personality: Hot and a little mean
How to enjoy: A great bar to eat when you want a little kick. This would taste good with an iced drink, like say, a margarita.

Rating:
1: Better than sex
2: Little bites of heaven
3: Share with your best friend
4: Will do in a pinch
5: Halloween candy

Where to buy:
Germany: Salon du Cacao

Aldi Choceur Milk Mice

Germans are brilliant! Not only do they make some of the worlds best chocolate, they've managed to redefine chocolate into a health food for kids.

Just like the clever move of defining beer as food, Germans have created Kinderschokolade, which contains not only good chocolate, but also a significant portion of milk. OK, maybe significant means "just large enough to call it Kinderschokolade" but still it's an idea that works.

Then they take this Kinderschokolade and package it in eye-grabbing white and blue wrappers. So you can eat these tasty treats, and trust that you're doing something good for yourself at the same time.
These are cute, too. Check out those little eyes and the adorable smile.

Rating:
1: Better than sex
2: Little bites of heaven
3: Share with your best friend, they'll love you for it
4: Will do in a pinch
5: Halloween candy

Where to buy:
Germany and everywhere: Aldi

Moser-Roth Milk Macadamia

I've often wondered if chocolate could be made to taste like butter. Nougat chocolate comes very close, and so does ganache.

Well, Moser-Roth has come up with a new way to mimic the flavor. They've taken a nice, smooth milk chocolate, and added bits of macadamia. These bits are properly toasted, and have a nice rich macadamia flavor. Add to that the milk chocolate, and the combination is smooth, buttery, and very satisfying.

Storck, the Werther's and Toffifee company, doesn't exactly say this on the first page of its product information, but they manufacture this brand for Aldi. Moser-Roth was once its own company right here in Stuttgart, but was shut down for political reasons in 1942, and even though it reopened after the war, closed again in the '60's. Now it's just a brand name, with no discernable connection to the original company.

Reviewed: Moser-Roth Milk Macadamia
Personality: a smooth chap, with a taste of Hawaii
How to enjoy: good budget chocolate to be eaten any time

Rating:
1: Better than sex
2: Little bites of heaven
3: Share with your best friend
4: Will do in a pinch
5: Halloween candy

Where to buy:
worldwide at any Aldi store

Pralines de Maitre Paul Kir Royal

Ever tasted chocolate from the former East Germany? I just did. "East Products" are in at the moment. People are getting old enough to remember their childhoods more fondly than they really existed, thereby making them think things tasted better than they actually did.

Right after the East German border opened for day visits, I remember my mother-in-law telling us a story of the missing farmer. There was a farmer in East Germany who disappeared from his farm one day. They looked for him everywhere, but when night came, he did not show up.Very late in the night, he arrived home. His family gathered around him, happy that he'd returned, but wondering what had happened.

He had spent all day and most of the night crossing the border. Over in the West for just a couple of hours, it hardly seemed like it was worth the trouble. "I'd never had a banana," he said, "so I went to get some."

That was all. 13 hours, sitting in traffic, to buy some bananas.

Halloren Chocolate Factory is a company in the former East. In business for over 200 years, they made chocolates even during the time 1950 - 1990 when the company was confiscated by the government.

The company's website is worth looking at, and has some of the history of the company. Check out the chocolate room in the museum. http://www.halloren.de/

However, Pralines de Maitre Paul are luxury pralines without the luxury taste. The version I bought is called Kir Royal, but the flavor is too weak to identify either the champagne or the cassis berries. It nicely put together, and you can see the cassis and marzipan sections. We should be able to taste champagne, cassis, pistachios, almonds and chocolate, but it's mostly just sweet. Too bad - it coulda been great.

Reviewed: Pralines de Maitre Paul Kir Royal
Personality: Dull wanna-be
How to enjoy: don't bother

Rating:
1: Better than sex
2: Little bites of heaven
3: Share with your best friend
4: Will do in a pinch
5: Halloween candy

Nestle Snack bars

Nestle Snack bars are new products on the German market. Large waffles covered with a little bit of chocolate, it looks like you get a big bar compared to your average candy bar.

What's important to me is the taste. Both are good, but leave a little to be desired.

The dark chocolate version could use a little more coating thickness, yet the flavor of the chocolate is rich and you know you've eaten a little dark chocolate rather than just a waxy brown coating.

The coconut version really needs more coconut flavor. It left me wishing that I could go back to Atlanta, Georgia, find that antique show again, and eat that heavenly coconut cake that I once had years ago. But the white chocolate coating was delicious and enough to make this a treat anyway.

Reviewed: Nestle Snack
Personality: Light and Airy
How to enjoy: Like they said in their press release, it makes a great light dessert after lunch. That's exactly how we ate it.

Rating:
1: Better than sex
2: Little bites of heaven
3: Share with your best friend. I did! DH and I each ate one.
4: Will do in a pinch
5: Halloween candy

Where to buy:
So far, only in Germany at the stores and snack shops.

Ritter Sport Loacker Napolitaner

Keebler elves are insidious beasties, always enticing me to eat more and more of their delicious fudge-covered wafers known as Fudge Sticks. Since coming to Europe, though, I've found similar cookies, except that they've been covered in chocolate instead of fudge.

Loacker is one of those cookie companies.Now Loacker has joined forces with Ritter Sport to go one step further. They've merged the Ritter milk chocolate with Loacker Napolitaner wafer cookies, but instead of just a coating of fudge, there's an thick layer of actual chocolate on top of the chocolate covered wafers. Now that's a good balance of chocolate and cookie!

Reviewed: Ritter Sport Loacker Napolitaner
Personality: nothing elfin about this
How to enjoy: Try this when you want to eat both chocolate and a cookie. It's a big burst of both. Keep the portion small, though, they're rather dense.

Rating:
1: Better than sex
2: Little bites of heaven
3: Share with your best friend
4: Will do in a pinch
5: Halloween candy

Hershey's Milk Chocolate with Almonds

Back when I was a kid, my grandfather Charlie would sell candy and soft drinks (sody pop) from a shed in his backyard. All the neighborhood kids would come to buy, because he was cheaper than any other opportunity they had.

The Cokes came in 6 ounce bottles, and he kept them in wooden crates. Once a week or so, he and I would drive over to his brother's, Uncle Bill, to get a new supply. Bill was a few years older than Charlie, and had a black stoneware panther on his TV and a tiny stuffed alligator on his china cabinet. His wife had long since died, and I don't remember her at all.

Uncle Bill had a coke machine that dispensed the 6 ounce Cokes for 5 cents apiece, and we would get one when we visited. I can still hear the rattle, thump thump of the machine kicking on, and dropping an ice cold Coke down to the bin. We would take our Cokes and walk along the grape arbor, smelling the rich Concord grapes as they ripened on the vine.

Every once in a while, there'd be a Hershey's almond bar for a snack. Just like we have today, except the bar was wrapped in foil, and the foil was covered by a paper wrapper. Biting into the bar with its unique texture and squeak, nothing tastes like Hershey's. The name Hershey's is imprinted on the bar itself. I would always eat the H first, then the S, slowly making my way in until I spelled SHE, then HE, then the last H.

Reviewed: Hershey's Milk Chocolate with Almonds
Personality: squeaky comfort food
How to enjoy: eat this bar sitting on your back porch, preferably on the steps, while your parents and other relatives are standing around talking, and the wasps buzz around the grape arbor.

Rating:
1: Better than sex
2: Little bites of heaven
3: Share with your best friend
4: Will do in a pinch
5: Halloween candy

Where to buy:
Germany: American Candy
USA: Any grocery store. Sorry, Uncle Bill has long since passed on

Ritter Sport Nugat 250 grams

Tonight's chocolate will be quick, since it's another entry from Ritter Sport (I tell you, it's hard to leave the Ritter factory store without carrying significant quantities of chocolate.)
My daughter likes Ritter's nougat bar, but it's normally available in the 100 gram variety. 100 grams is just about 4 ounces, and she and her father have been know to tussle over the last squares in the package.
Well, I took care of it this time, because, at 250 grams, it will take even a 16 year old quite a while to finish.
Ritter's nougat is not as good as Lindt, or as pretty much any Italian nougat I've tasted. For elegance and refined taste, go Italian. For a budget thrill, go for the Ritter.

Reviewed: Ritter Sport Nugat, 250 gram size
Personality: The "Fat Boy" of nougat bars
How to enjoy: Will last a long, long time. Unless you're a teenager.

Rating:
1: Better than sex
2: Little bites of heaven
3: Share with your best friend
4: Will do in a pinch
5: Halloween candy

Where to buy:
Germany: At the Ritter Sport factory outlet, or any basic grocery store
USA: Some Ritter Sport is available at the Chocolate Apothecary, Amazon, or Belgian Chocolate Online
UK: A Quarter of

Ritter Sport Voll Erdnuss

A bright, sunny Sunday, coupled with a German rarity: a store open on Sunday, brought us to Waldenbuch, Germany, home of Ritter Sport chocolate.

The factory is actually there, along with a museum and a cafe. We had a lovely cappucino and an iced chocolate, then went shopping.

Last year, Ritter sold a Golden Peanut bar. Peanuts and chocolate are as rare as a store open on Sunday in Germany, so I really enjoyed this candy, and one of my goals at Ritter yesterday was to score some more of those bars. It was not to be, however, because the Golden Peanut has been replaced by "echte Kau-Boys." Echte Kau-boys is a pun. Kau is chew, only pronounced like "cow." The tag line for the new peanut bar is: With crunchy American peanuts. For real cow-boys. Har har.

But the chocolate is good, as good as any Ritter bar. And Ritter chocolate is goooood. Plenty of good milk chocolate, peanuts roasted properly, with a pleasant crunch and a nutty flavor.

Reviewed: Ritter Sport Vollnuss
Personality: Dorky "Kau-boy" peanutty satisfaction
How to enjoy: enjoy it a square at a time. One Ritter bar can last a week if you're prudent.

Rating:
1: Better than sex
2: Little bites of heaven
3: Share with your best friend
4: Will do in a pinch
5: Halloween candy

Where to buy:
Germany: At the Ritter Sport factory outlet, or any basic grocery store
USA: Some Ritter Sport is available at the Chocolate Apothecary, Amazon, or Belgian Chocolate Online
UK: A Quarter of

Majani Fiat Caffe'

This nougat candy is beloved by those who know it, and you should get to know it if you can. Majani, located in Bologna, is apparently the oldest candy maker in Italy, having been started in 1796. They supposedly also made the first solid chocolate produced in Italy.
That said, it can be quite difficult to find Majani products worldwide. Too bad, because this Fiat Caffe nougat was fabulous. A good, rich chocolate, with plenty of coffee flavor, it's a classic nougat texture.

The original flavor of Fiat was produced in honor of a new model of the Fiat Tipo in 1911. The piece I bought was actually larger than the normal cube size of the Fiat, but it was delicious anyway.


Reviewed: Majani Fiat Caffe
Personality: Racy
How to enjoy: Take it with you on your Sunday drive

Rating:
1: Better than sex
2: Little bites of heaven
3: Share with your best friend
4: Will do in a pinch
5: Halloween candy

Where to buy:
Germany: Berliner Kaffeeroesterei
USA: Italian Harvest
UK: Still looking for a source
Italy: In Bologna, you can visit the factory outlet

Schokolade zum selbermachen

(Chocolate made yourself)
We were sitting around tonight, listening to German music from the 1920's on television, and DH got a craving for some chocolate, but didn't want to eat the expensive stuff, and doesn't know where I keep The Box, so he remembered his own recipe from his childhood.
His recipe:

• 2 teaspoons of cocoa
• 1 teaspoon of cream
• sweetener (he's diabetic)

Stir together until it forms a paste. If it's too runny, you may need to add more cocoa.

It was remarkably creamy, and I suggested he might enjoy it more if he added a touch of room temperature butter. I also know that just a few grains of salt can really improve the flavor.

Other ways to make it more interesting:

• add flavored sugars like amaretto or vanilla
• rum
• cayenne pepper
• nutmeg
• lebkuchen spices

Last I saw, he had added both rum and cayenne. Things are starting to get out of hand, and the guy on the television is starting to sing "Sex Bomb," which is not exactly a song from the 1920's. In a tuxedo, no less.

I think maybe things are getting a little too interesting. Sheesh. Off to bed.

Dove Liaison Caramel

Today I was just a firecracker! Even though it's Saturday, I got up early so I could enjoy the cool air before it became too humid. The local bakery, Baeckerei Bauer, opens at 6:30 a.m. so I decided to start there. First thing I noticed were the cakes. They make some nice roll cakes, but I had to focus.

No cake today. I was there for the week's bread. Mmm, I bought a nice rye sourdough, some cheese rolls, soft pretzel sticks, and a whole grain baguette.
Then off to the car wash to give ol' Nelly a lick and a promise. That was annoying as all get-out, because only one of the bays had a machine for the prepaid card I'd bought. Then the spray got out of control due to the very high pressure (Germans are very serious about their car washing, especially here in Mercedes-land).

Next the grocery store, to be followed by the recycling station. All of this done by 9:30, with the rest of the day to enjoy as I please. As I stood at the checkout, I noticed a new chocolate bar: Dove Liaison Caramel.

That's a nice combination: Dove, a brand I trust, Liaison, one of my favorite words, and Caramel, one of my favorite flavors.

It didn't disappoint. A nice mass-market chocolate, definitely up to Dove's usual standards, is molded into a 25 gram bar, conveniently divided into 3 segments. Each segment is filled with a very soft caramel, which will flow if left unattended. If you bite exactly between two segments, it can't flow very much. The caramel taste itself is just ok. For a real caramelly taste, I'd rather eat Werther's.

Reviewed: Dove Liaison Caramel
Personality: A true "liaison" of chocolate and caramel.
How to enjoy: Keep these in the fridge and enjoy them as an everyday treat. They make a great little dessert for a packed lunch.

Rating:
1: Better than sex
2: Little bites of heaven
3: Share with your best friend
4: Will do in a pinch
5: Halloween candy

Where to buy:

Germany: In the grocery checkout lane

USA: Try the Dove Miniatures Caramel

UK: Galaxy Caramel

Miss Charlotte's Fontina Sauce Recipe

Great for vegetables as well as pasta!

8-12 ounces Fontina cheese, cubed
½ cup fresh parmesan cheese, shredded
¼ cup fresh parmesan cheese, shaved, for garnish
fresh basil leaves, cut in thin strips for garnish
1 cup cream or milk
1 cup chicken broth or water
1 small onion, chopped finely
2 Tablespoons butter
salt to taste
Dash nutmeg
Optional: dash paprika

Saute the onion in the butter until the onion is translucent.
Add cream and broth and heat to just ready to boil.
Reduce heat to very low, add Fontina and ½ cup parmesan.
Heat until cheeses are melted, stirring to prevent burning.
Add spices to taste. You may want to thicken it a bit by cooking it down or using a thickener.

Plate the pasta, pour sauce on top. Sprinkle with shaved parmesan and basil.

Caffarel Blue

I confess. Italy has seduced me, brought me to do things far beyond my normal morality. Venchi's Cuor di cacao left me only wanting more, so I abandoned my reason, my plans and my senses, and drove to Stuttgart, searching for the satisfaction that Venchi had taken from me.
In Stuttgart, I found di Gennaro. "So heisst geniessen auf Italienisch." "That's what they call enjoyment in Italian."

Di Gennaro is a local importer of Italian goods. Very upscale, they offer a wide variety of fresh Italian meats, cheeses, pasta and more. DH and I tasted a basalmic vinegar that was so sweet, so smooth, so fruity that we had to check if it was indeed vinegar.
Venchi was there, as was Caffarel and others. Even Dolfin chocolate from Belgium had a presence. We bought fresh tortellini and ravioli, fontina cheese, ham and chocolate. (I'll post my special recipe for fontina sauce in another post. Deadly, but worth it once in a while.)

My Italian lust was finally sated by Caffarel Blue, as I fondly call Caffarel's Gianduiotto Fondente. These darker cousins are even better than the Caffarel Gianduja that I reviewed earlier. Caffarel reinvented their original Gianduja recipe to make it even more rich. Reinventing the recipe was definitely worth it, as opposed to, say, New Coke, or, more recently, Brownberry Bread.

This time nothing would do except to have a bag full of the treasures. Even the wrapper is elegant and inviting, with a deep blue foil and gold print.

The chocolate itself is a dark nougat, coated in a layer of equally soft chocolate. They replaced the milk used in the Gianduja with an Ariba chocolate, creating a more intense experience. Otherwise it's still the same 150 year old recipe.

Reviewed: Caffarel Gianduiotto (Caffarel Blue)

Personality: Just right: the right size, the right taste

How to enjoy: A great everyday chocolate

Rating:

1: Better than sex

2: Little bites of heaven

3: Share with your best friend

4: Will do in a pinch

5: Halloween candy

Where to buy:

Germany: Salon du Cacao

USA: stores supplied by Daprano

UK: still looking for a source in the UK. Any ideas? Let me know.

Italy: Caffarel in Turin

Venchi Cuor di cacao

I'm becoming more convinced that Italy makes the best chocolate in the world. Venchi, in the Piemonte, is living proof. How can there be so many wonderful chocolate companies in Italy that I've never heard of? It's almost as if the Italians kept all of this goodness for themselves. Dark eyes, Dark hair, Dark chocolate - I could have guessed.

The Cuor di cacao chocolate is a 75% Ecuador cocoa shell filled with an extra bitter chocolate cream. Stunning. This is a perfect bite, incorporating both a crisp chocolate shell and a filling with just enough cream to show you that they know how to do it. I made this little guy last 6 bites, and started shopping for more.

Reviewed: Venchi Cuor di Cacao
Personality: Everything you want in a dark chocolate.
How to enjoy: Make a date with this little guy. He's worth your full attention.

Rating:
1: Better than sex. Oh yeah. Fabulous.
2: Little bites of heaven
3: Share with your best friend
4: Will do in a pinch
5: Halloween candy

Where to Buy:

Germany: Salon du Cacao

USA: Markethall Foods in California

UK: Chocolate Trading Co.

Italy: They have their own online store

Eilles Pralines

Pralines Royal are a box of mixed chocolate made by Eilles.

They were presented to my in-laws as a small thank-you gift for a favor done.

These are not impressive candies, and the chocolate was just so-so. The 250 gram box contains a broad selection of chocolates, with the most innovative item being a piece of croquant candy on top of the chocolate. You're better off buying a good Florentine at your neighborhood bakery.

Reviewed: Eilles Pralines Royal

Personality: All dressed up, but doesn't go anywhere

How to enjoy: When you're really in need of chocolate, it'll do. Almost.

Rating:
1: Better than sex
2: Little bites of heaven
3: Share with your best friend
4: Will do in a pinch
5: Halloween candy. Really. Not worth the calories.

Amedei Toscano Black Cube

Here's a little treat to send you into the weekend. I'll be traveling and won't have internet access, so you'll have to wait til next week for more.
Teaser: I did go shopping tonight, and I have some very unusual flavors coming up next week DH was already trying to figure out if he could sneak chocolate out of the box before I reviewed it.

Amedei's Toscano Black Cube is a tiny box filled with 6 pieces of Amedei's 70% chocolate, their finest dark chocolate. This fistful of chocolate reminds me of Muhammed Ali: bold, dark and powerful. I'd much rather have this in my hand than a brass knuckle.

Reviewed: Amedei Toscano Black Cube
Personality: All dressed up for an evening out, may be a bit of a gigolo.
How to enjoy: Six pieces are enough to share with guests over a cup of coffee after dinner.

Rating:
1: Better than sex.
2: Little bites of heaven
3: Share with your best friend
4: Will do in a pinch
5: Halloween candy

Where to buy:
Germany: Salon du Cacao
USA: chocosphere
UK: Chocolate Trading Co.