Expert Chocolate Cookbook Fails

This review today, Sisters and Brothers, is both a book review but also will serve as a Special Sacramental Review since I'm including a wonderful product a chocolatier sent to me in the final recipe I'll cover.  As always with cookbooks, I tried three different recipes for three different types of products if there is enough variety to do so.  There is a lot of variety in Greatest-Ever Chocolate

Chocolate for Passover

This evening at sundown, the Jewish Passover will begin so your Chocolate Priestess wanted to reveal a few of the chocolate products she found in her local Kroger that claim to be suitable for the holiday.  Let's check them out one by one to see if they are also suitable for a chocolate lover.

The first are a small bag of chocolate coins wrapped in a plastic net from Lieber's.  This bag has four

Cheap Easter Chocolates

A few years ago I started seeing these chocolate crosses appear in stores before Easter.  As a trained ancient historian, I was confused.  Why would anyone make chocolate in the form of an instrument of execution?  As a Christian I was offended.  Was the desire for money so great that we belittled the symbol of salvation by turning it into chocolate?  This year, because of my duty as your

Easter Truffles from Kara

Kara Chocolates sent an Easter sampling for us, Sisters and Brothers, that you might want to check out.  If the molded candies are not your thing then Kara has some of their truffles individually wrapped or in boxed sets just for Easter. I don't have the nutritional information for all three varieties they sent but if you eat one or two that is being moderate and as you should know by now,

Create a Chocolate Holiday

Today, March 26th, is "National Create Your Own Holiday Day" so I have a challenge to all of  you, Sisters and Brothers.

I've been mentioning chocolate holidays and holidays we can say are related to chocolate now for a year on this blog.  Do a search under the label "Chocolate on the Calendar" and check it out.

Now come back here and suggest your own chocolate related holiday that we could

Cheap Swiss Rolls in All Ways

In the past, your Chocolate Priestess has said that the Mrs. Freshley brand of products isn't too bad for chocolate.  Every company will have successes and failure so how do their "Swiss Rolls" I got at Kroger stack up?

2 cakes equal 1 serving which comes conveniently in 2 cake plastic sleeves.  This is much better than packaging we've seen that has multiple serving per interior package or each

Chocolate & Raisins & "Holidays"

Today is "National Chocolate Covered Raisins Day" if you didn't know, Sisters and Brothers.  Your chocolate Priestess may have loved chocolate for as long as she can remember but she certainly has not tried all the varieties.  In honor of today, I tried a Nestlé Chunky and I want to review it for you.

I’ve seen this for years and never tried it because frankly I’m not a huge fan of raisins and

Chocolate Goldfish

Before your Chocolate Priestess found our Path and began this Journey with Chocolate, she was enslaved to cheap candy bars.  This meant many things but one of the saddest was that she didn't see the variety of products that used our Sacred Substance.  I found these Goldfish Grahams Chocolate flavor crackers a few weeks ago on sale so I bought them.  According to our Chocolate Coconut Acolyte,

Chocolate Bunny with Social Consciousness

Our Taraluna friends who have sent The Chocolate Cult several items over our first year end their offerings in time for Easter with this solid milk chocolate bunny.  This is a Sjaak's chocolate but since Taraluna sent it to us, I strongly recommend you think of ordering it from them.  As you can see this comes simply wrapped in plastic and closed with a bow on a twisty tie which made it very easy

American Chocolate Week

The fun holiday, American Week of Chocolate, has been going on this week since Sunday, March 14th, and will end tomorrow when we have another Saturday Sacrament.  You want to come back for that because I vegan Ester Bunny that actually tastes great!

As you have seen I've had posts all week about finding chocolates during a recent trip.  I ended up finding seven chocolate shops in a nine day

Speedy Chocolate Chip Cookies

On our recent trip, your Chocolate Priestess, tried a cookie from a Speedway.  Now, she knows what you are thinking: "How could you possibly buy from a convenience store when you get all these amazing chocolates?"  Traveling entices us to eat things we probably shouldn't though over all I think I did a great job of keeping to our Path or Moderation and Purposefulness.  I never had anything

Happy Joe's Pizza & Ice Cream Parlor

Even though today is Saint Patrick's Day and even though I am 1/8th Irish, I couldn't find any Irish Chocolatiers I could get samples from in time.  I don't count just adding Bailey's as making Irish chocolate.  So instead I've done this "On the Road" post for you all.

On your Chocolate Priestess's recent trip, she visited a few nice local chocolatiers, chocolate shops, and restaurants where

Iowa Chocolate #2

In your Chocolate Priestess's hometown of Vinton, Iowa, there has always been a malt shop along highway 218.  Currently under different ownership and called Leon's Malt Shop, it has been expanded and offers several chocolate items.  While we were recently there, the Milk Chocolate Acolyte, the Chocolate Priestess, and her father tried three of their Cyclones which are soft serve ice cream with

Iowa Chocolate #1

Not far from where your Chocolate Priestess was born and raised, she discovered a chocolatier called Divine Decadents that her parents had seen advertized in the county newspaper.  We had to stop in and were told they were still recovering from a busy Valentine's Day season -- this what we love to hear on The Chocolate Cult.  Judy is the chocolatier and according to her husband Ed, the man who is

National Pi Day and American Chocolate Week

Today, Sisters and Brothers, is National Pi Day.  This is a real holiday in that the US House of Representations designated this day in honor of the symbol pi which represents the relationship between a circle's width (called "diameter") and the distance around the circle (called "circumference") for those who may not have had geometry for a while.  This isn't officially related to anything

Toronto Chocolates

Boardwalk Chocolates in Toronto is our chocolatier today, Sisters and Brothers.  The wonderful owner, Siue, sent your Chocolate Priestess two little boxes of their vegan, gluten free, fairtrade, organic homemade truffles: "By the Sea" and "Nut Roaster" varieties. Together these include half of the 16 flavors they offer.  Each truffle is at least one inch in diameter, and most are globes,

World Kidney Day

Today is "World Kidney Day" and while this has nothing to do with chocolate directly, your Chocolate Priestess wants you all to take good care of yourself so you can continue to enjoy the Sacred Substance for the rest of your life.

I get a blood test regularly for my kidney health because of strong family history of problems.  Because I exercise regularly, eat fairly healthy, and practice what I

Chocolate Holidays in March

Starting next week we will see a few chocolate related holidays you may want to celebrate, Sisters and Brothers.  Here is the list that I currently know about.  If you know of others, please leave a comment with the holiday and the date and if it is nation or region specific.

March 14 = National Pi Day -- often celebrated with pies of some type so why not make it a chocolate type of pie?

March

Women Chocolatiers

Today is International Women's Day, a day where many nations around the world honor what women contribute to all aspects of their societies. In some countries this is on par with a national holiday, in others it may be recognized as part of social celebrations people may chose to honor, but in others this day is almost unknown as it sadly is in the USA.



Here in the Chocolate Cult I wanted to

Parisian Chocolates in the USA

Sisters and Brothers, today your Chocolate Priestess is going to reveal a 17-piece collection from Antoine Amrani Chocolates. These are preservative-free chocolates, so if you decide to order or buy some yourself, remember that you should consume them within three weeks for the best quality. The entire collection is labeled "Organic," yet some of the individual varieties are also labeled "organic

Bagel Shop's Chocolate Options

One of our local eateries in Bloomington, Indiana, is the Bloomington Bagel Company.  On Monday afternoon, your Chocolate Priestess was downtown and went by the branch there to see if they had anything chocolaty.  She bought three items: Chocolate Chip Bagel, Chocolate Chip Cookie, and Chocolate Chip Scone.  There were some other chocolaty items but perhaps I'll review them later.  These three

How to Win Chocolate from The Chocolate Cult

We've had two product contests so far in The Chocolate Cult but your Chocolate Priestess all ready has four new contests in line for 2010.  Today I want to tell you a bit about these and give you directions on how to win.  Why wait to take all these steps when you could get at least one of them out of the way right now.

For the first time, we will be hosting a non-food but still very chocolate

Mint Hot Chocolate

This is the last of the Kroger Private Selection Cocoa Supreme individual serving envelops your Chocolate Priestess bought a while back on sale.  I won't repeat what is basically identical nutritional information here; you can find that on the three other flavors I reviewed as well as the trans fat caution.

I made this hot cocoa drink with the recommended amount of hot water, 6oz, and it mixed

South Beach Cereal Bar Test

Since the South Beach Living Protein Fit Chocolate variety cereal bar was on sale last week at my local Kroger and I had a coupon as well, your Chocolate Priestess decided to buy it and give it a try.  Obviously the focus is on protein in this product but it isn't too bad on other items on the nutritional list.  1 bar, which measures 3.5 by 1.25 by 0.75 inches, has 140 calories composed of 3.5g

Everyday Chocolatier & Recipe: Elizabeth's Mille-Feuilles

I have known some great cooks in my lifetime. Some of them can do wonderful things with the Sacred Substance. I want to do a series of interviews with these folks so you, Sisters and Brothers, can see how you might be able to incorporate chocolate into your baking and cooking.  Today I want to introduce one amazing woman who holds a PhD, teaches, researches and makes the time to do a lot of