Saturday saw an early start to Chocolate Week with The Great Brownie Bake-Off at Look Mum No Hands, a cycling cafe in Old Street.
The event was organised by Louise Thomas, The Chocolate Consultant, and she clearly did a stellar job as there were over 20 entrants, and the cafe was packed all day. The judging panel was as large as it was varied, with the likes of Paul A. Young, Jennifer Earle, Abi Phillips from The Cake Nest and fellow food bloggers Lee McCoy, Kavey and Mathilde Dewilde all giving their opinions.
I was asked if I’d like to be a judge myself, but opted for the far easier task of taking photos and sampling leftovers instead.
Through the day, the crowd were entertained by baking demonstrations, from Gü Puds, Edd Kimber, winner of The Great British Bake-Off, Sugargrain’s Caroline Aherne, Sasha Jenner form Hobbs House Bakery, and Masterchef finalist Stacie Stewart.
Judging was clearly tough. The quality of the brownies was variable, and judges had to sample every one, good and bad. As I stood watching them, I was quite glad to be behind the camera, rather than being force fed while some annoying blogger took photos.
But they sampled and rated each brownie meticulously, and in the end, there was a clear winner.
Even though I wasn’t entering or judging, this was still a fun event to attend, and I hope Louise organises another next year. If there’s any more entrants next time, I’d love to see preliminary judging done beforehand, and perhaps get the finalists in to bake “live”. That would be be exciting to watch, and perhaps be a little easier on the hard working judges!
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I picked up this little bag of fresh truffles from Prestat’s brightly coloured shop in central London. Having never tried any of their fresh chocolates, I wasn’t entirely sure what to expect – my Prestat experience to date has been based purely on their bars.
In a very scientific manner, I asked the assistant for two of each chocolates from the top row of the display. I didn’t bother making notes as to what they were, and opted to have them all put into a single bag together in order to save a few fractions of a second between the “buying” and “eating” parts of the review process.
Probably not the best idea when you’re mixing pale pink white chocolate truffles in the same bag as dark chocolate cocoa-dusted ones…
The result may be a little messy, with dark chocolate truffles scarred with icing sugar, and dirty cocoa powder marks on the pristine pink and white truffles, but it’s the taste that counts. And the taste is good.
The centres are smooth, light and taste perfectly fresh. There’s a good variety of flavours going on, but nothing is too strong. There’s nothing challenging here – the flavours are all very down to earth and traditional, but they’re well made with fresh ingredients.
I particularly enjoyed the dark chocolate truffles, especially Prestat’s signature ‘Napolean III’ – a simple, unenrobed dark chocolate ganache, dusted in cocoa powder. It has a perfect level of sweetness, and you can actually taste the ingredients. The fresh cream comes through as well as the rich, dark cocoa.
So all in all, a very enjoyable selection. Being a more traditional retailer, the Prestat selection doesn’t perhaps have some of the flair or originality of high end chocolatiers like Paul A. Young or William Curley. But what it does, it does well.
I’d recommend picking these fresh chocolates over the pre-packaged bars for sale in the shop every time (and you can buy the bars from places like Waitrose anyway). But if you’re buying them as a gift, be sure to ask for them to be put into a box, rather than thrown into a bag!
I was introduced to Caroline Aherne by a mutual friend a while ago – back when Caroline was selling at Covent Garden Market (she’s now at the monthly Real Food Festival market) and at a time when she was thinking about whether or not to give up the day job and make Sugargrain a full time business.
Well, thankfully she did, and since then Caroline’s cakes and confectionery have been garnering praise and awards, including Food Lovers Britain approval.
After dancing around each other over the summer months (work commitments and life in general preventing us meeting) Caroline got in touch and sent me a box of three brownies (well, two brownies and a blondie) to try. My blondie was a peanut Butter & White chocolate one, and the two brownies were White Chocolate & Raspberry and Toasted Nut respectively.
Let’s start with the blondie. Of the three I’d say I was the least sure about this one. Peanut butter isn’t a favourite of mine, and nor is white chocolate, so I was thinking to myself “Well if this one works, the rest should be fab.”
Texture wise, this was classic brownie. A slightly dryer crust concealing a rich, chewy interior. Pieces of peanut and small chunks of white chocolate add interesting texture, with the peanuts taking the sweet edge off the white chocolate. I was indeed impressed. Of the three, this was the ‘firm one’, which is to say that these three brownies were quite different in terms of texture as well as flavour.
Next up was the White Chocolate & Raspberry. (The one with the ‘dimple’ in the middle, which was the result of a raspberry disappearing into the mixture). This was most definitely the ‘gooey one’. When I picked it up it drooped slightly, and when I bit into it it seemed almost semi-liquid. If you bake then you probably know that working with fruit can be a dodgy business, and I suspect this brownie has been perfected over quite a while. The white chocolate is an excellent choice to pair with the raspberries and the tartness of the fruit offsets the sweetness of the white chocolate beautifully, with the darker chocolate notes of the brownie lingering on the palate at the finish. Made with 64.5% single origin chocolate from Papua New Guinea and Belgian white chocolate, it has an impressive pedigree. Definitely one to have with a cup of tea though!
Finally I came to the Toasted Nut Brownie. It’s a little more ‘cake-like’ in texture. Still chewy and moist but the toasted nuts give it a slightly more open texture. Again there’s that classic brownie ‘crust’ hiding a moist, rich interior. The toasted nuts add their flavour to the rich, dark chocolate making this quite a ‘grown up’ brownie. Made with 74.5% single origin Venezuelan Dark Chocolate, plus toasted Brazils and Walnuts, this might be a little too much for younger palates, but itcertainly put a smile on my face.
I haven’t reviewed brownies before, and not only did it make a change to be looking at something a little different, but these three cakes made afternoon tea breaks a bit special. I’ve been promised more (including Caroline’s Beetroot and Chocolate Brownie which I was first told about by our mutual friend), and now I can’t wait!
It’s also worth mentioning that Sugargrain Brownies are both gluten and wheat free, and are made with unrefined Fairtrade sugar, free range eggs and unsalted butter. Caroline also makes some rather lovely cakes, and her other treats include award winning marshmallows (with some rather interesting flavours), fudge, coconut ice and raw chocolate (which I’d also like to get my paws on). Based on this showing I’d have to say that Caroline made the right decision to get into the kitchen full time, and I can see her going from strength to strength with products like these.
If you’re interested it’s probably worth visiting Caroline’s web site or following her on Twitter.
You may remember we kicked off last year’s Chocolate Week coverage with an interview with Jennifer Earle, founder of Chocolate Ecstasy Tours.
Well a couple of weeks ago, I was lucky enough to get to try both main chocolate walking tours for myself. I did the Mayfair Tour on Saturday morning and the Belgravia/Knightsbridge Tour on Sunday afternoon. I’ve known Jennifer Earle, founder of Chocolate Ecstasy Tours, for a couple of years now, but this is the first time I’ve had the opportunity to try the tours myself.
To say I was excited by the prospect was an understatement. A chocolate tour isn’t just about visiting the shops and sampling the chocolate, it’s about sharing that experience with fellow chocolate lovers. (And visiting the shops and sampling the chocolate.)
Now I’ve thought long and hard about the best way to write up my experiences, and I’ve decided that I’m not going to talk about the individual shops we visited by name. Part of the excitement of these walking tours is not quite knowing where you’re going next, even if you know the area. I don’t want to spoil that surprise.
You’ll probably be able to work many of the locations from the photos, but I’d rather give you an overall impression of the tours, than a blow by blow account or reviews of the individual shops.
We started our Mayfair tour at 10am at a rather nice bistro/bar/gallery, where we all got the chance to introduce ourselves over a delicious thick, sweet hot chocolate. This is a great way to start, as it gives people a chance to get to know each other. After sampling a couple of pastries, we all followed Jennifer down Regent Street to our first shop.
At this shop, the manager introduced himself, talked about the history of the shop and gave a brief introduction on how to taste real chocolate. Of course, being an “expert” (ahem!), I knew most of this information already, but it was still interesting to hear someone else talking about it – and to watch my fellow tourers consuming the information as readily as the chocolate.
After sampling a few squares of their chocolate, we all had a good chance to look around the shop, and as with all the venues on both tours, we were offered a discount on anything we wanted to buy ourselves.
After we’d stocked up, we proceeded to the next shop, stopping occasionally for a short history lesson on the area from Jennifer. I enjoyed these little stops and learned a lot about my own city. I think I would have enjoyed a couple more little breaks on the way – not because there was too much walking, but simply because I wanted to know more!
Our tour continued around the more traditional chocolate shops in the area. Each time we stopped, we learned about the shop, either from Jennifer or from a member of staff. We got to sample lots of different chocolates, then had the opportunity to buy more. Most shops were happy to give us small samples of anything we asked for, and generally acted like they were happy to see us. It’s always good to see staff so happy when they’re giving their products away!
The Sunday afternoon tour took us around some of the more modern chocolate shops. This time, my fellow tourers consisted primarily of contestants on BBC2’s recent Great British Bake Off. This made the experience a little surreal for all of us, with tourers frequently being recognised and stopped in the street. But it was all fun!
I hadn’t realised how different this tour would to the Mayfair tour. The format of the tour was basically the same, but we got to try some more unusual chocolates and spent a little more time working out what flavour combinations had been used in particular chocolates. Despite the constant rain, I found myself enjoying this tour even more than the previous day.
The company was great on both tours, Jennifer was the perfect guide, and shop staff were universally helpful and smiley, even on the odd occasion when they clearly hadn’t been quite ready for our arrival. But Sunday’s tour seemed like it was aimed more at me than the Mayfair tour.
And that’s going to be your biggest dilemma. Which tour do you choose? I can guarantee you’ll have a thoroughly enjoyable day either way, but the chocolates are quite different.
If you’re more of a traditionalist and simply want to learn more about chocolate and the history of central London, then go for the Mayfair tour. If you’re a certified chocoholic and looking to try new and exciting things, then go for Belgravia. If you really can’t decide, then what better way to spend an entire weekend?
My own weekend was fabulous. I caught up with old friends, made some new ones, learned a lot, and most importantly of all, I ate a lot of chocolate!
Of course, Jennifer is a friend, but I honestly can’t recommend Chocolate Ecstasy Tours enough, whether you’re looking for something interesting to do while visiting the city, or live in London and want to explore your own home town, it really is a great way to spend a morning or afternoon.
Just take plenty of spending money, as you won’t be able to resist stocking up along the way!
Don’t forget, you’ve still got time to book if you want to come to Chocolate Ecstasy Tours Cocktails & Chocolate evening at Le Meridien, Piccadilly on Thursday.
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