I'm on a journey to explore the world of American craft chocolate
On Sending My Dad Chocolate, or "Gotcha!"
A few weeks ago I sent my dad some delicious craft chocolate in the mail: a salty bar from Patric, a milk chocolate bar from Fruition Chocolate, and a single-origin Tanzanian bar from Askinosie Chocolate. He’s a huge food lover and wannabe chef, and I thought he’d enjoy nibbling these tasting bars.
Then he left me a voicemail. “Thanks for the chocolate. I used it to make cookies, and they were delicious!”
WHAT?! The inner snob in me freaked out. The idea of cutting up PERFECT BARS intended to be eaten by themselves and throwing them in cookie batter — you wouldn’t be able to taste how good the chocolate is. In a future story on Chocolate Noise, I’ll have a recipe for chocolate-chocolate cookies that showcases the chocolate itself, and Fruition’s Bryan Graham recently told me he made chocolate-chip cookies with his chocolate too. So it can be done!
Shawn Askinosie making a late-night batch of cookies with single-origin chocolate. Image courtesy Shawn Askinosie.
But my dad tends to put golden raisins in everything and then burn the f$%k out of it, so I shuddered at the thought of his baking experiment.
When I finally called him back, he giggled like a five-year-old. “Of course I didn’t make cookies,” he said. “I’ve been tasting the chocolate like it’s wine, taking a small bite at a time.
“But that’s what you get for not answering your phone.”
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What do you think? Do you use bean-to-bar chocolate in recipes, or do you prefer to eat it by itself?
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