Chocolate Blender Gateau Recipe

No one will guess how easy this recipe was to make!

3 eggs
3/4 c sugar
1 c pecans
1 T self-rising flour
1/2 c cocoa powder
1/3 c apricot or raspberry jam

4 oz semi-sweet chocolate
6 T butter

Turn on blender and add eggs one at a time, and then sugar, pecans, flour, and cocoa without turning off blender. Once batter is smooth, pour into a greased and floured 9" round cake pan. Bake at 325 degrees for 30 minutes, till set.

Cool in pan for a few minutes and then turn out. Heat jam and spread over cake.

Melt chocolate, gradually stir in butter, and pour the glaze over the cake. Chill till the glaze is firm.

Want to Sell Sweetique Sweet Shapes of Nature?

We have a special retail promotion going on right now for Sweetique Eggs in 2010, but don't overlook the immediate option of Sweetique's Sweet Shapes of Nature.

With only a $200 minimum order, you can add these fun shapes to your product mix for fall shoppers, Halloween, and Christmas giving.

Find the details on our Wholesale page.

Want to Sell Sweetique Eggs?

We hear from people who want to buy Sweetique eggs pretty regularly. We all want them for Easter baskets, of course, and people have also mentioned how great they'll be for Secret Pal or Secret Sister gifts, teacher gifts, and Easter table settings.

With so much desire for the Sweetique eggs -- natural eggshells filled with a delectable blend of milk chocolate, dark chocolate, and hazelnuts -- we need plenty of outlets to sell them.

We're offering a variety of packaging choices suited not only to gourmet food shops and candy stores, but also to gift shops, bookstores, toy shops, and other retail or service establishments that can benefit from sales of these very special confections.



Orders for Sweetique eggs submitted by 11/30/09 will receive a 5% pre-book allowance and will be available for delivery from February 1st 2010.

Click on "Wholesale" above to get started as a Sweetique retailer.

Melting Chocolate

Chocolate is a basic in the kitchen, and you often need to melt it when you cook or bake with it.

This simple process strikes terror into the hearts of a lot of people. There's no need to panic, though. There are just a few things to remember.

First, you can melt chocolate in a lot of ways, but a pan on the stove isn't one of them. Put chocolate into a saucepan, set it on the stove, and you are almost sure to burn it. Instead, put the chocolate into a double boiler over hot water, zap it in the microwave, or even use a coffee maker.

Directions for using a double boiler often specify that you mustn't let the water boil. This is because boiling water is likely to spatter or steam, and that is likely to get water into the melting chocolate. Water in chocolate -- even a drop -- causes it to seize up and turn into a horrible mess.

Many people avoid this danger by using a microwave. The key to success here is to put the chocolate into the microwave for just a few seconds at a time and stir the chocolate in between bursts of power.

This is particularly important if you use chocolate chips. Chocolate chips are designed to hold their shape even when they get hot. This means that they can appear to be solid when they have in fact mostly melted. Stir them to be sure.

The electric coffeemaker is the safest method for melting chocolate, if you have plenty of time. Set the chocolate in the coffee carafe, turn the coffeemaker on, and do everything else you need to do. Once the chocolate has melted and you've used it for the cake or brownies or mole or what have you, go ahead and make a pot of coffee. You'll have a nice mocha for the end of the meal, and no extra trouble to clean up the chocolate.

If your recipe involves hot liquids, such as scalded cream or a sugar syrup, you can pour the hot stuff over the chocolate and melt it that way, but this will work best if you chop the chocolate first.

The Beginning of Eating Chocolate

Just as with coffee and tea, chocolate was initially boiled up for drinking. Like coffee and tea, chocolate was sweetened and flavored, and eventually used for baking. Chocolate differs from coffee and tea, though, in containing more than 50% fat. This meant that it was possible to develop chocolate that could be eaten rather than drunk. It wasn't easy. Getting from cacao pods to the Sweetique Egg took centuries of technological innovation.

Chocolate was brought to Europe from the Americas in the 1500s, and by the 1700s it was a popular beverage all over Europe.

Dutch chemist Casparus van Houten developed a cocoa press in 1828 that could remove the cocoa butter and leave cocoa powder. His son Coenraad Van Houten developed the first approximation of eating chocolate over the next two decades, but Englishman Joseph Fry is generally credited with creating the first actual chocolate bar in 1847. Fry melted cocoa butter, combined it with cocoa powder, and molded a candy bar. In 1875, Daniel Peter and Henri Nestle added powdered milk to chocolate to create milk chocolate, and it was in 1879 that Rodolphe Lindt developed the conching process that led to chocolate that melts on the tongue.

Eating chocolate overtook drinking chocolate in popularity in the twentieth century, and now Americans eat ten to twelve pounds of chocolate a year -- though we still can't compare with Europeans. The British, according to the most recent figures, eat 35 pounds of chocolate per capita each year. They were the first to have eating chocolate available, after all, and we simply haven't caught up with them yet.

Chocolate Decadence Recipe

A fancy torte like this one can be a wonderful punctuation to a meal in a special restaurant, or an indulgent focus for a visit to a special pastry shop.

But you can also get this luxurious chocolate effect at home with a much simpler recipe. You must bake this flourless gateau in a water bath. That means you set the cake pan into a larger pan with about an inch of hot water in it. This allows the confection to bake very gently, creating a lusciously smooth texture.

Chocolate Decadence

1 cup (2 sticks) butter

12 oz 70% bittersweet chocolate

5 large eggs

1 c sugar

7 T water

Grease a 9" round cake pan and line with parchment paper.

Melt chocolate in double boiler over hot water and remove from heat.

Beat eggs with 1/3 c sugar until mixture forms a ribbon. Heat remaining sugar with water over moderately low heat, stirring till syrup is clear.

Pour syrup into chocolate, stirring to combine, and let cool 10 minutes. Add butter and eggs slowly, beating till combined. Pour into cake pan.

Set pan into water bath and bake at 300 degrees for 1 hour, till set. Cool completely before removing pan from water bath. Turn out and serve.

Logo Eggs

Sweetique Eggs make great promotional items or corporate gifts. Our special imprinting process allows you to choose any motif or message. You're limited only by your imagination.

Chocolate in Art

Chocolate has its place in art as most wonderful things do: Renoir painted a lady stirring a luscious cup of chocolate in 1878, and Jeanne-Etienne Liotard created a detailed record of how chocolate was served in chocolate houses a century and a half before that.

But one of the most satisfying sources of chocolate art must be the advertising posters of the turn of the 20th century. In art nouveau and art deco styles, these posters sang the praises of chocolate, hot cocoa, chocolate and chocolate cookies.

So many of these elegant designs were created by the illustrators of the time that there is a book of Chocolate Advertising Posters, bilingual in French and English, by Alain Weill and Dr. Israel Perry. This is a lavish coffee table book, at a suitably lavish price.



Whether you enjoy them online, on your walls, or in books, you can't miss the joie-de-vivre of these images. The artists may have been experiencing the well-documented mood-elevating effects of theobromine.

The Sound of Chocolate

Chocolate offers wonderful smell and taste, and chocolate in its many forms is often beautiful, but many of us miss the sound of chocolate completely.

In fact, the "snap" is one of the characteristics serious chocolate aficionados use to gauge the quality of chocolate. A fine quality chocolate bar made with a high proportion of cacao will break with a clean, sharp snapping sound.

Vegetable oils or large quantities of extra sugar will spoil the snap and leave only a clunky breaking sound, or no sound at all.

On the other hand, the shape and the other ingredients used in a confection will also affect the snap. Sweetique chocolates, fine as they are, are the wrong shape to break, and contain special added ingredients that would prevent them from creating a good snapping sound anyway. Chocolate cakes, truffles, drinking chocolate, and filled chocolates won't produce a snap.

Next time you're enjoying bar chocolate, though, break a piece and enjoy the snap before take a bite, for the full sensory experience of chocolate.

Special Labels

Sweetique's delicious chocolate Sweet Shapes of Nature are excellent just as sweet treats. But they also make charming souvenirs, promotional items, fundraisers, or wedding favors.

There's a great variety of labels available.



One of the favorites is the "Chocolate Rocks" label, because it does, doesn't it?



But you can also replace the word "chocolate" on this label with the name of your company, cause, or whatever you think rocks.

Add Chocolate to Fall Treats

It's one of the signs of fall -- caramel apples! You find them at the fair or drive out to the orchard to get them, or you may even buy them at the grocery store,knowing they're not as fresh and delicious. It's fall, though, so you must have caramel apples.

This year, why not gather in the kitchen with friends or family to make them? It's fun for kids and adults.

You can make your own caramel, but it's easier to buy caramel bits. Melt them on the stove or in your microwave while you wash and dry the apples.

Poke skewers into the apples and dip them into the hot caramel. Set them on waxed paper to cool.

Now comes the fun part. Melt chocolate, again either on the stove or in the microwave. For long-term storage, dipping chocolate has to be tempered, but your caramel-chocolate apples won't last long, so you can ignore that part. Just be sure not to allow any water to touch the chocolate, or it will seize and dipping will be impossible.

Dip the apples into the chocolate, or drizzle melted chocolate over them.

Once your caramel apples have been decorated with chocolate, you can add chopped nuts, candy sprinkles, or coconut for maximum luxury. Add your decorations before the chocolate sets, and then let the apples cool completely before eating.

Special Offer for Retailers

Most of us aren't thinking about Easter yet. However, if you're a retailer, and you'd like to be one of the lucky ones to have Sweetique Eggs in your shop for Easter 2010, you should take a moment to think about it.

Here's why:

Orders for Sweetique eggs submitted by 11/30/09 will receive a 5% pre-book allowance and will be available for delivery from February 1st 2010.

For gift shops, bookstores, toy stores, children's clothing stores, groceries, gourmet food shops, home and kitchenwares shops, bakeries, party goods stores, and all sorts of other retail outlets, Sweetique eggs are a perfect option for impulse buys at the check out counter next spring.

Call today for an application, and check out our Wholesale page for more details.

Chocolate Waffles

Chocolate Waffles

1 c half and half
8 oz dark chocolate, chopped
2 eggs, separated
1 c self-rising flour

Scald cream (or heat in microwave just till small bubbles form at edge of container) and pour over chocolate, stirring till smooth. Add egg yolks and flour. Beat egg whites till stiff and fold gently into batter. Cook in a waffle iron in the usual way.

The result is a delicious waffle, not particularly sweet, with a lingering flavor. Enjoy chocolate waffles with fruit for breakfast, or with ice cream for dessert.

Meet Ganache

Ganache is a mixture of chocolate and cream. It's very easy to make -- just pour heated cream over an equal amount of chopped chocolate and stir till the chocolate melts.

Once you have some ganache prepared, you can do all kinds of things with it:

• Use it for chocolate fondue.
• Pour it over a cake -- it'll make a smooth, firm icing.
• Fill cakes and cookies with it.
• Pipe it into tart shells.
• Whip it to make a decorating icing.
• Add butter for a richer taste.
• Add flavorings (liquers, for example, or peppermint extract) to vary the taste.
• Chill it as a base for truffles.

People will be impressed with your skills as a pastry chef, and only you need know how easy it was.

Chocolate Cures Headaches?

A study being presented today at the International Headache Congress meeting in Philadelphia suggests that chocolate might cure migraines.

The data comes from studies with rats, not from human subjects. Paul Durham, director of the Center for Biomedical and Life Sciences at Missouri State University, found that the anti-inflammatory properties of cocoa appeared to block pain in rats.

This information conflicts with the long-held belief that chocolate triggers migraines. Dr. Durham suggests that a craving for chocolate as part of the onset of a migraine could lead people to believe that the chocolate caused the migraine. This misleading anecdotal evidence could then persuade others that chocolate was a migraine trigger, when in fact a craving for chocolate might be the body's natural attempt to limit the pain of a migraine.

If chocolate can really cure headaches in humans, wouldn't we have noticed by now? After all, the average American eats twelve pounds of chocolate a year, the equivalent of about 110 Sweetique eggs.

The difficulty is that so many of the things that we identify as chocolate contain so little actual chocolate. The typical U.S.-made 1.5 oz candy bar has a thin coating of milk chocolate which is itself no more than 10% cocoa. A pre-migraine craving for chocolate satisfied with a candy bar will have gotten only the tiniest fraction of an ounce of cocoa -- not enough to treat the migraine, and certainly not enough to test the value of chocolate in treating migraines.

For that matter, it's not enough to test the idea that chocolate causes migraines. It's mostly just sugar.

So does chocolate cure headaches? Today's new study is just a preliminary hint that it might. We'll keep you posted.

Regency Chocolate

It's hard to imagine it now, but there was a time when chocolate didn't come in bars, and was rarely eaten at all.

In 1674, a Frenchman opened the first chocolate house in London. Like today's coffee shops, chocolate houses were a place for the people of the Regency to hang out and talk. Those establishments that were primarily frequented by men were often gambling dens as well. We may find it hard to imagine those hard-drinking men gambling away the night with a cup of hot cocoa at hand, but chocolate in those days was considered a stimulating adult drink.

Chocolate pots, much like teapots, but with a place for a candle to keep the chocolate warm, were filled with hot milk and ground chocolate, and the resulting drink was whipped to a froth. Writing from the time suggests that people had different tastes in their hot chocolate -- sweet or bitter, strong or milky -- just as modern coffee shops offer lots of variations on coffee.

Chocolate was also used for baking in the Regency era. Cakes and rolls made with chocolate were the province of the rich, of course, and eating chocolate was not yet known, so the average Regency family would think of chocolate as something to drink.

As a beverage, chocolate was one of the most popular flavors of the day, for men and women both. The ladies in the picture above are probably on their way to get some.

Chocolate Fondue

A festive option for parties -- and a way to use that fondue pot that's gathering dust on your shelf -- is chocolate fondue. The effect is grand, but it's actually very easy to do.

The word "fondue" comes from the French "fondre": to melt. That's exactly what you do with the chocolate. Heat half a cup of cream, chop 12 ounces of good-quality dark chocolate, and stir the chocolate into the cream till it melts completely.

Pour the chocolate into your fondue pot or chafing dish.

Prepare some things to dip into the chocolate:

• cut-up fruits, from strawberries to slices of banana or pear
  
• cubes of pound cake or angel food cake
• meringues
• simple cookies like ladyfingers or shortbread
• crystallized ginger
• marshmallows (cut them in half and roll in graham cracker or Oreo crumbs for extra fun)
  
• marzipan
• cheesecake bites (buy them, or cut a cheesecake into bite-sized pieces)
  

No fondue pot? Use a double boiler and gather around the stove. Fondue forks are great, but regular forks are fine, too. We recommend the fondue pot for more formal gatherings, but the stove-side approach is fun and messy for casual evenings.

Add variety by stirring in a spoonful of peanut butter, or using Sweetique eggs instead of plain dark chocolate. Use your imagination -- you can't go wrong!

Chocolate Glossary

It can be confusing to talk about chocolate. Here are definitions of some common terms:

cacao: the plant and seeds from which chocolate is made, and the earliest raw form of chocolate, before any other ingredients are added to produce drinking chocolate or eating chocolate.

cocoa: a fat-free powder formed when cacao is pressed into hard cakes with the cocoa butter removed, and then ground into powder.

hot cocoa or hot chocolate: drinking chocolate, made from cocoa or eating chocolate melted in hot water or milk.

dark chocolate: eating chocolate made with more than 50% cacao. In the United States, eating chocolate or baking chocolate containing 70% or more cacao or chocolate liquor is classified as bittersweet chocolate, but the trend toward darker eating chocolate has made this term less common.

milk chocolate: eating chocolate made with milk, often less than 30% cacao, but sometimes as much as 60%. In the United States, milk chocolate must contain at least 10% chocolate and 12% whole milk to be labeled "milk chocolate."

white chocolate: a cocoa butter product with no cocoa or chocolate liquor. White chocolate must be made with at least 20% cocoa butter to be labeled as "white chocolate" in the United States. Prior to 2002, the labeling rules were different, and some supposed white chocolate products were made entirely with other vegetable oils.

Chocolate: Comfort Food

"Chocolate is deceptive," the girl said, flipping her long blonde hair. "You think it's going to make you feel better, but it doesn't."

Her friend disagreed. "Chocolate is about s'mores when you're camping as a kid," he said dreamily, "and chocolate chip cookies your mom made for you. It has to make you feel better."

Actually, there are chemicals involved. Phenylethylamine, a chemical related to amphetamines which the brain naturally produces when you're in love, is one of the components of chocolate. Similar to adrenaline, dopamine, and serotonin, phenylethemine creates general feelings of well-being.

Theobromine is another chemical found in chocolate. Theobromine is a stimulant, like caffeine, but without the effects on the central nervous system that can make some people jittery. Chocolate merely makes people feel more awake and alive.

Anandamide is another chemical found in chocolate, and in the brains of people who are experiencing pleasure. It also seems to have an effect on working memory, which may or may not be comforting.

Tryptophan, an amino acid which relaxes people, is the last of the elements of chocolate that has effects on mood. That chocolate-covered biscotti and the cup of fragrant hot cocoa thus relax and stimulate you, give you pleasure, and make you feel like you're in love.

Part of the comfort of chocolate may be about your associations with chocolate, but part of it is the natural feel-good chemicals.

Plan a Wine and Chocolate Party

We often think of pairing wine and cheese for a party, but you can kick it up a notch with a wine and chocolate party. For a girls' night out or a sophisticated couples' evening, the wine and chocolate party is new, luxurious -- and simple to carry off.

Here are a few pointers for a successful wine and chocolate party:

• Display wines and chocolates in order from the lightest to the darkest. Numbered cards or labels for wines and chocolates allow easy discussion later. Include Sweetique Eggs, which have a blend of milk and dark chocolates, midway along the continuum.
  
• Pair sweeter wines with sweeter chocolates to avoid taste conflict. In general, the wine should be sweeter than the chocolate it is paired with.
• Consider including filled chocolates, spiced chocolates, and other variations on the theme.
• A plate of water crackers will help refresh palates between tastings. A small knife or two on the tables lets guests slice off a bit of chocolate, or you can cut chocolates into small pieces ahead of time.
  
• Set out paper and pencils for note-taking. Serious wine-tasters like a flavor wheel to help organize their thoughts, and there's one for chocolate, too.
  
• Taste wines by swirling a bit in the glass to release the aroma, and then sipping. A breath while tasting the wine will allow the fullest appreciation of the flavors.
• Taste chocolate by allowing a bit to melt on the tongue.
• Have an object or conclusion for the tastings. Score pairings, vote for favorites, or have everyone suggest new pairings of wines and chocolates.
• Once the serious tasting part of the evening is finished, encourage guests to enjoy a bit more of their favorites with conversation
  

5 Things Wine and Chocolate Have in Common

1. The flavors of cacao from different sources are as different as those of wine grapes from different regions, according to Prof. Dr. Reinhard Lieberei of the Hamburg Institute for Applied Botany. Thus, the flavors of chocolates made from cocoa derived from different regions are as varied as those of different varieties of wines.
2. Both wine and cocoa are products of fermentation.
3. Both are good sources of flavonoids -- the polyphenolic compounds that fight against the free radicals which seem to be such a large factor in age-related health problems. Both wine and chocolate have been demonstrated to have beneficial effects for the heart.
   
4. Quality differences among both wines and chocolates are extreme. The health effects and the sensual pleasures of both depend entirely on their quality. Smaller amounts of fine wine and chocolate are better -- for your pocket book, your health, and your satisfaction -- than larger amounts of poorer quality wine or chocolate.
5. Both wine and chocolate have complex flavors. Enjoy them slowly to get the full effect.

Try pairing milk chocolate with Zinfandel or dark chocolate with Cabernet Sauvignon for a luxurious end to a meal.

Chocolate for Heart Attack Survivors

Recent research has showed that chocolate can lower blood pressure and improve blood flow. Now, new research from a team led by Imre Janszky of the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm finds that heart attack survivors who eat chocolate a couple of times a week have three times the survival rate of those who don't eat chocolate.

Smaller amounts of chocolate were beneficial, too, but not to the same degree.

Researchers in this eight-year study found no benefit from eating sweets in general, but chocolate had impressive results. "Our findings support increasing evidence that chocolate is a rich source of beneficial bioactive compounds," the researchers reported in September issue of the Journal of Internal Medicine.

The recommendation: if you're going to eat dessert, make it chocolate.