Author Archive: Bryn Kirk
Amaretto Chocolate Pudding
August 3, 2011
Chocolate pudding makes a great Summer-time dessert. Well, it makes a great dessert any time of the year, but I like pudding in the Summer because it is served chilled and it's kind of a light dessert. Eating it in the Summer just feels right.
A box of instant chocolate pudding is good, regular (non-instant) is better, and a pudding that is hooched up a bit is even better.
Here's a chocolate pudding recipe that starts with a box for convenience, adds more chocolate for enhanced chocolate impact, and includes Amaretto liqueur for a nice almond flavor. The whipping cream on top is a nice touch which you can enhance further by topping with a fruit or more chocolate.
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Aunt Belle’s Chocolate Fudge
August 1, 2011
Do you remember the slogan for an old commercial that had people taking sides on tacos? Some would say, “I like making it!” and others would say, “I like eating it!” If you are over 40 and grew up in the U.S., I’ll bet you remember.
When it comes to fudge, most people would say they like eating it way more than they like making it!
Making fudge is tiresome, tedious work that often ends with unsatisfactory results. Fudge has to be cooked at a high temperature then cooled while stirred constantly or the sugar will crystallize into a gritty mess.
So, with patience and a gastronomic aptitude one can achieve great fudge. That is why I like eating it. I don’t possess either one of those fudge making qualities.
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Hershey’s Air Delight
July 29, 2011
Yesterday (July 28) was National Milk Chocolate Day. Did you do anything special to celebrate?
Other chocolate manufacturers have had aerated chocolate for some time. For example, I wrote about the 75th anniversary of the Nestle Aero bar last October. Overall, aerated chocolate accounts for about $500 million of annual global confection sales.
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Aunt Belle’s Bear Paws
July 25, 2011
Aunt Belle's Confectionary, LLC has two stores in northern Minnesota, and I just found one of them in Walker, MN.
Walker is a small town with a main street that looks and feels like a trip back in time. Aunt Belle's boasts old fashioned homemade candies and fudge. According to their website, you'll step into their store and feel like a kid again. I did feel giddy like a kid in a candy store (pun intended) and picked out all the goodies I thought I'd enjoy; chocolate dipped brittle, chocolate covered potato chips, chocolate covered nut clusters, and chocolate fudge.
While they had several different types of nut clusters such as the traditional turtle, I chose one of the variations called the Bear Paw.
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Almost Fat Free Brownies
July 20, 2011
With all kinds of summer parties and other gatherings, it seems that it's really easy to over eat.
Wanting to enjoy all the good food, without the guilt, I found this recipe for almost fat free brownies.
This one uses a jar of prune baby food. This is basically the substitute for the oil you would normally add. Another substitution, if you have all the other ingredients handy and don't want to run out for pureed prunes, is apple sauce.
In fact, in many recipes you can replace some or all of the fat with apple sauce and get good results. I have tried that with other brownie recipes and it works well, though the texture changes, sometimes resulting more fluffy cake-like texture than a dense brownie texture.
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A Refreshing, Summer Pairing
July 18, 2011
Like most people, I crave a sweet treat at the end of a meal. In the summer, when food is generally on the lighter side, I like something sweet but not TOO sweet.
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Chocolate Cinnamon Angel Food Cake
July 13, 2011
After dinner or in the evening of a hot day, you have that urge for something chocolate. But you just don't want something heavy.
How about a nice chocolatety angel food cake? Angel food is light and fluffy as well as having little fat and fewer calories than other desserts.
You could have a big piece and still have very little. Good chocolate flavor without filling you up. That makes it a perfect dessert for a summer night.
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Sweet Obsession Chocolate
July 11, 2011
Whatever happened to truth in advertising?
I review a lot of chocolate, and I’d be the first to emphasize that anything I report is a matter of subjective opinion and personal preference. That is, what I write is MY personal preference. Just because I like it, doesn’t mean everyone will like it. We all get that.
This time, however, you can take my review as gospel truth and just trust me…. YOU WILL NOT like Sweet Obsession™ chocolate.
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Printing with Chocolate
July 8, 2011
Throw away those old ink cartridges. It's time to load your printer with chocolate. That would be neat wouldn't it? Load some rice paper, spray a message in dots of chocolate, and then eat your words.
That description may still depict a future scene. For now, there's a 3D chocolate printer that has just come out. It prints gobs of chocolate into shapes by adding layers of chocolate on top of previous layers of chocolate.
I saw a story a couple years ago about a 3D printer that printed parts in plastic to make the parts for a new, identical, 3D printer. It could make the parts to replicate itself. I thought that was really neat.
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Chocolate Pops
July 6, 2011
Summer is heating up so it's time for a chocolate recipe that can help cool you down.
In this recipe you're making a kind of smoothie and freezing it into a delicious chocolate popsicle. Keep them frozen until you need a nice, cool, chocolatey snack.
| Chocolate Pops • 1 8-ounce chocolate-flavored low-fat or non-fat yogurt • 1 very ripe banana • 3/4 cup club soda or 3/4 cup sparkling water Read more |