Caramel Cups

I'm all about the caramel!  Chocolate and caramel- not cake, not pie, sometimes not even cookies make me happy, but for me caramel can turn a bad day around. These caramel cups are made with sunflower butter (from sunflower seeds) and a new addition to the Sun Cup product line. The caramel is the perfect thickness not to thick not to thin.  I just wish they were dairy free, but otherwise they are perfect.

Endangered Species Chocolate

Endangered Species Chocolate is a pretty readily available product; I've seen the bars in a variety of states and stores, plus their bars are certified gluten free (you'll find a symbol on their packaging). They have your typical chocolate fruit combinations, but then they have some others that are less common, like dark chocolate and blueberry. The blueberry is very mellow on the back end and gets more prominent if you let the chocolate sit on your tongue. It's a bittersweet chocolate, which given my need for sweets, isn't something I would normally go for, but it curbed my chocolate craving.

They also make a chocolate covered hazelnut toffee that is one of my new favorites.

What's your favorite chocolate?

Chocolate Sensory Overload

If you "like" chocolate as much as I do, and by like I mean crave, dream about, and eat with every meal, -oh, and not allergic to dairy, than the ferry building in San Francisco can be a great place to go and blow a boat load of money on chocolate bars. There's a place called Recchiuti Confections, and they have some of the most gourmet chocolates I've ever seen. I really wanted the caramel lovers box for $30+ but instead I treated myself to just 1 fleur de sel- a sea salt caramel for $1.25. HEAVEN!

Of course, there was also Scharffen Berger with some mighty tasty options.

And last but not least, I almost, almost came home with this, but my husband didn't think it was too funny.

New Vosges

Chocolate find of the week is 2 new flavors of Vosges Chocolate Bars. They are both creamy, smooth, and delicious. I've always been someone who's liked toffee and caramel in chocolate, ice cream, or cookies, so these two bars were right up my alley.

Chocolate!

This week's chocolate acquisition is Equal Exchange Chocolate.  Simply put the caramel was lacking for me, but on a plus it is made from 97% organic fair trade products.

Dairy Free Chocolate

I am a chocolate addict, so whenever I see a new chocolate bar I have to try it. Even though I'm not dairy free I still had to try this raspberry chocolate bar. The Dream line is sister to the Rice, Soy, and Coconut Dream lines and part of the Hain Celestial Group. For a dairy free chocolate bar I think it was mildly creamy, which is generally impressive for a dairy free product, but it did not melt in my mouth as smoothly or as quickly as I would have liked. Overall it was good, but forgettable.

Cat on Chocolate?

I have previously posted about New Tree not once but twice, so no more words are needed.  Enjoy the video and check out the special guest.

Sulpice Chocolate

I LOVE chocolate. What girl doesn't?. Recently I tried a new brand: Sulpice. It's not sold many places near me, but you can purchase it off their website. Let's start with cost shall we...well at $7.50 a bar (3.25 OZ) it's not the most expensive chocolate bar I've come across, but it's certainly not something I'd buy on a regular basis. And it's not exactly allergen-friendly. It's gluten free, but it does contain dairy, and can contain soy, and nuts, plus food coloring.

Homemade Almond Joys

Would the average person attempt to make their own almond joys when they could just buy one? Probably not, but then I'm a little not and making your own eliminates cross contamination issues for those of us with food allergies- and depending on what type of chocolate you choose to use, it's dairy free too!

Now mine ended up being way larger than anticipated, not bite size, but more the size of a giant peanut butter cup. Next time, and there will be a next time, I'm going to use my mini muffin tin pan, but this time I used a regular muffin pan lined with cupcake liners. Super simple! I snagged the recipe off a paleo-diet website I was referred to by a friend.

Now for taste- AMAZING! I wish I could have captured the eye-popping, food-pleasure noises my husband made when he first tried this.

Sofella Chocolate Cake

Last year I discovered a gluten free cake mix called Sofella and my previous post can be read here. Almost a year has past and I got a chance to try it again. The cake is still AWESOME! And now they have an all purpose mix too. Try it for yourself. Enough said. :-)

New Tree Update

Previously I wrote up a post about NewTree Chocolate, and since then I have more information about the gluten free status of their products. Here is a communication directly from the company:

Hi Debbie,

The following flavors are gluten-free, however, they are made in a facility that contains gluten:

Dark Cocoa
Lavender
Ginger
Cinnamon
Apricot

Everything else either contains gluten or trace amounts. Please let me know if you need further information.
Thanks!

Rachel H.
Office Administrator

Candy Pizza

Pizza can be so much more than sauce, cheese, and pepperoni, and in fact, it can even be dessert. When I was a kid my mom would make candy pizza, even though when I asked her for the recipe she only vaguely recalled making it. She made a lot of specialty treats, so no doubt she wouldn't remember all of them. Anyhow, I used the original recipe as inspiration, and then kind of went on the fly from there.

I made my favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe (or you could use a boxed cookie mix), but instead of making small rounds for cookies, you'll want to get out a pie plate, or my preferred preference, a spring-form pan, and pour all the dough into the pan. Depending on the size of the pan, you may want to reserve some of the dough and make a few cookies after. In any case, the dough probably shouldn't surpass your knuckle, or it won't bake right. You'll want to bake the cookie for roughly 30-35 minutes, until it's a big soft cookie. Take it out, let it cool, and prep your favorite "sweet" toppings.

You'll need a replacement for pasta sauce, so fudge sauce seems like the obvious sauce. Make sure you pick up a gluten free jar- I used Fudge is my Life brand. Spread on the fudge sauce, and then pick out some sweet toppings. I made this for Halloween, so I used candy corn, marshmallows, and peanut M & M's, but you can use whatever you want. I even sprinkled on some minced nuts. Get creative. This super sweet treat makes a fun presentation and is always a hit with the younger crowd.

Fudge is my Life

What an awesome company name: Fudge is my Life. This is chocolate sauce re innovated; chocolate sauce on steroids. Thick and creamy, spreadable, and perfect to lick straight off a spoon. It does contain dairy, and it isn't tested for it's gluten free status, but it is made locally- San Francisco, and all the ingredients are sourced to be gluten free.

Fudge is my Life offers 5 fabulous flavors flavors: Dark Chocolate, Mint, and Mocha. Those all sound like a typical chocolate sauce flavor you'd find from those $2.99 ice cream topping options that contain corn syrup, and fake flavor, but these guys offer a much more all natural ingredient list: Cream, Brown Sugar, Cocoa Powder, Sugar, Butter, Honey and Salt.

They also offer 2 more specialized flavors: ginger chocolate and orange chocolate- WOW. Everyone at my work loves ginger, so of course this is a hit, and then the orange, well, have you ever had a chocolate orange that you would find at the drugstore during the holidays? Amazing! And for all of you who need inspiration, not only can you heat this up in the microwave and use it as an ice cream topping, you can also use it to drizzle over brownies or cake straight, use it to make frosting, or combine it with milk and make hot chocolate or milkshakes.

New Tree Chocolate

As a self-proclaimed chocolate connoisseur I could not help myself when I ran across a new brand of chocolate that is labeled gluten free: New Tree. I decided to try out the Cocoon: Cinnamon Milk Chocolate. Made in Belgium, and picked up at Walmart of all places, this bar is super creamy if you let it sit on your tongue for a minute. The cinnamon is mild but blends with the chocolate well. It would be great melted and made into a warm cup of hot chocolate.

Dairy Free Chocolate Chips

I'm so very happy that my body and dairy agree, because if I had to give up my love of cheese completely I would be so depressed. However, I do like to try out dairy free products so I can tell people how closely they resemble their dairy containing comparison. I've seen Enjoy Life gluten free, dairy free chocolate chips most places, but recently stumbled upon Tropical Source gluten free, dairy free chocolate chips.
These chocolate chips seem to be comparable to dairy-containing semi-sweet chocolate chips; not milk chocolate. They are firm, but seem to melt nicely on the tongue. I really didn't notice too much of a difference, and either could my friends.

Wolloomoooloo Bar

Salty Chocolate seems to be an in thing right now in the land of gourmet chocolate, and seeing how I had previously had both a salty chocolate, and the Bacon Bar, from this company, it was must to try out the Wolloomooloo Bar from Vosges Chocolate. This bar has salted macadamia nuts, coconut, and hemp seeds, all wrapped into a nice little milk chocolate square.

Mike and I decided to caught our first reactions on tape, so here's the latest GFree TV episode:

Fruit Infused Chocolate

A little over a month ago I discovered The salty dog bar from B.T. McElrath, a chocolatier based out of Minnesota. I enjoyed the Salty Dog so much, that I wanted to try out another flavor option from this company, especially since after speaking to the company on the phone, I was reassured that all their bars are gluten free.

This time I tried the Passion Fruit and Tangerine Bar, which is a swirly blend of white and dark chocolate infused with fruity goodness. These bars are not meant to be quickly eaten, but rather savored, slowly chewed, and swirled in your mouth. If you chew this like regular chocolate you'll probably not notice the fruity hint. The fruit flavor is very very mild and is most noticeable on the back end. And there's something about this brand of chocolate: I don't feel the erge to eat the whole bar like I do with lower end chocolate. Overall, I'd give this bar a 6 out of 10 for my overall enjoyment; didn't love it as much as the Salty Dog, but still very pleasurable.

The Shasta Bar

I couldn't help myself...I love trying new chocolate, so while in Shasta we bought the Mount Shasta Milk Chocolate Bar, and it was yummy. Plus I was doing a charity thing, as 100% of the proceeds of these bars go towards maintaining hiking trails in the area.

GF Essentials Chocolate Cake

Who doesn't love chocolate cake, I mean really? Gluten Free Essentials is pretty much run by two grandmas, one of which who has Celiac Disease. They offer everything from basic flour blends to cakes and cookie mixes, to side dish mixes. On this episode we try out their extreme chocolate cake mix.

Gluten Free Chocolate with Bacon

I love chocolate, and I love bacon, (although I went through a period of time that I won't eat it) but do I love them together? I sure do! A few months ago I was in Whole Foods and saw some fancy bacon chocolate and thought to myself, "hmm, that's interesting." However, as time passed I continued to think about that mysterious chocolate, and eventually I caved. I bought it. $2 for a 5 OZ piece. About a week after I tried it, I learned that according to the Fancy Food Show that was held recently, bacon is a current food trend. And it's going to be showing up in all types of products. I was iffy about the chocolate and ended up liking it, but how will my taste buds feel about bacon flavored ice cream? I'm let you know when I can get my hands on some.

For now, do I dare say I have a new expensive addiction? Fancy chocolate is on the rise, and I think Vosges Haut-Chocolate is one of the leaders of the pack. Check out Mike and my initial reactions to their Bacon Bar: