Here we have more chocolate from Eastern Europe – Latvia to be specific – and this bar from Laima features a Fruit & Nut combination I haven’t seen before, namely Dried cranberries and hazelnuts. I picked this up in a supermarket in Riga and it’s a mid-price bar along the lines of UK supermarkets’ ‘Best’ ranges. The bar itself is fairly thick (in order to accommodate the whole hazelnuts and cranberries, I imagine) and as you might expect it has a fruity, light aroma.
What surprised me when I tasted this bar was how sweet it was in comparison to other chocolate bars with similar content, and it wasn’t just down to the fruit. The cranberries don’t seem to ‘pop’ in the way you might expect from a normally tart fruit but the hazelnuts are crisp and retain their essential nuttiness. I found myself wondering whether those cranberries had been treated to a little sugar before being added to the bar.
The chocolate flavours seem to be overshadowed by an overarching sweetness which had a hint of coconut about it (even though coconut isn’t a listed ingredient) and the most striking thing was just how sweet this 70% bar was. The combination of chocolate, cranberry and hazelnut is pleasant enough, but once again it’s the sweetness that I found myself taking issue with. It was only really the finishing notes that allowed the true flavour of the cacao to come to the fore, which was a little disappointing.
Having recently tasted bars from the likes of Mast Brothers which have only two or three percentage points more cacao, I was amazed at just how different from those bars this particular chocolate is. While it’s not unpleasant, it is a world away from ‘high end’ chocolate in terms of complexity and character, and this graphically illustrates the differences between chocolate made from proprietary blends by large corporations and those products made by chocolatiers who carefully select their ingredients. In short, a little love and care results in an entirely different kettle of fish.
This week, Melt Chocolates in Notting Hill opened an “eggxhibition” of Easter Eggs designed by local creatives and made by the team at Melt. We posted photos from the launch event on our Facebook page (‘Like’ us now!), but I thought it would be nice to review a selection of Easter chocolates on sale in the shop too.
Firstly, we have this cute and stylish Easter bunny. As you can see, ours is green, but he also comes in pink and yellow. He’s made in white chocolate and comes with five mini eggs. Being white chocolate, he’s a little sweet for my tastes, but I think it’s a wonderful little gift for children.
Next, wrapped in pink polkadot paper is a very simple milk chocolate egg. It’s a rattling egg, and in my enthsusiasm I managed to break mine while shaking it. Thankfully I didn’t spill the contents out – lots of little crispy ‘pearls’ covered in more milk chocolate. The milk chocolate is very nice, and the pearls – like mini chocolate covered rice crispies – are highly addictive! These are sold in packs of three, and again, I think they’re a perfect gift for children.
Finally, we have a dark chocolate salted caramel egg. Despite coming in a box with a very cute bunny on the front, this one is more suitable for the grownups. Inside the box, packed safely inside a paper nest is an egg made from two separate halves.
The halves are ‘glued’ together with a spot of caramel, which I’m not sure is the best idea. I would rather have each half completely separate so I can share or save half without the sticky blob of caramel on the outside.
But that’s my only criticism of this beautifully rich salted caramel egg. The chocolate is nice and thick and the caramel oozes out seductively when you bite into it.
Overall then, a very nice selection of Easter chocolates.
These gifts are hand made from quality ingredients, and they have a look of simplicity and playfulness to match. What I like best about Melt is that they tend to do their own thing, rather than pay too much attention to the stylish ‘London chocolate scene’. They cater primarily for locals, and everyone else has to make a little bit of an effort to get there.
But they are well worth discovering for yourself, and if you don’t live near their Notting Hill Shop, you can buy them online using the link below or from the Melt concessions in Selfridges and Harrods.
We review a lot of Paul A Young chocolates round here, and his brownies are a recurring theme. You could argue that they’re not technically brownies, but honestly, who wants a technical brownie?
Paul’s take on a brownie is a gooey, fudgey and messy piece of heaven. It’s soft, squidgy and moist, and melts in the mouth almost like a ganache.
As well as his standard brownie, he makes a lot of variations on the theme. We recently saw a Valentines brownie with chipotle and a Christmas brownie mince pie.
This, as you may have guessed, is his Easter offering for 2013. A brownie based on the traditional hot cross bun. As well as the distinctive cross on top, the brownie is made with raisins, currants, candied orange and lemon peel, port, brandy and spices.
As you might expect, it’s absolutely delicious. The fruits and spices work particularly well with the 70% dark chocolate used in the recipe.
Yet as fabulous as this brownie is, it still makes me a little sad. A couple of years ago, Paul came up with what is probably my favourite foodstuff of all time – his Billington’s Simnel Brownie. This brownie was made with vine fruits and big chunks of marzipan, and was absolutely divine.
The Hot Cross Bun Brownie has replaced the Simnel Brownie this year, and although I’m told you can still by Simnel Brownies in Daylesford Organics in Selfridges, I can’t easily get hold of them. And as fantastic as the hot cross bun version is, I want my Simnel Brownie back!
When I mentioned my disappointment on Twitter, Paul did tweet back, offering to make a limited edition Chocablog brownie…
I’m sure he was joking and simply wouldn’t have the time, but if he ever did, I would love a brownie with all the fruit from this brownie, at least double the amount of marzipan of the Simnel brownie, and maybe a little alcohol to make it especially gooeylicious.
I can but dream.
Paul A Young Hot Cross Bun Brownies can be bought from his three London shops. They are not available to buy online, but you can usually arrange delivery if you call the shop.
This rather jolly looking little egg represents the cheaper end of Hotel Chocolat’s Easter Collection for 2013, being priced at a mere £8.00. The 100g egg is described as “Melted slabs of salted caramel and 50% milk chocolate studded with salted caramel pieces and chocolate chips sandwiched between caramel chocolate shells” which is as good a description as any to begin with.
This is one of Hotel Chocolat’s slightly more tongue-in-cheek efforts, with its brightly coloured box and lighthearted presentation. The two halves are made up of a thick piece of mixed chocolate (which puts me in mind of their range of slabs in the way it’s been mixed) and one half of a hollow egg decorated with a couple of zigzags of white and dark chocolate. The eggs are made by hand, hence the price.
The size and presentation of this egg might have you thinking it’s aimed at younger chocolate lovers, but the 50% cacao milk chocolate and salted caramel chocolate combination may prove to be a little rich for younger people. My teenage daughter ended up refusing any more of the salted caramel part because it was ‘just too rich’, so be warned!
In terms of quality I don’t think you can get much better than a 50% cacao milk chocolate, and Hotel Chocolat do a very fine version. The salted caramel chocolate is rich and gooey in the mouth with deep, lingering flavour. Eat all of this in one go and you’re quite likely to end up feeling a little the worse for wear!
The lack of anything inside or around the egg might disappoint, or even put off potential buyers, but for overall quality of ingredients this is definitely one of the better offerings out there and infinitely preferable to about 90% of the generic chocolate eggs that have been sat on supermarket shelves for the past two months. Hotel Chocolat are now a British cacao producer as well as a chocolate maker – another good reason to get behind the company and show your support by buying something from them this Easter.
