Merry Christmas everyone! Did Santa bring you everything you wished for? I hope so!I recently found this cocoa made by Monbana, a French chocolatier, whose dark chocolate I tried awhile back. There were two types of cocoa at the shop where I found these--a caramel and a cinnamon. On Monbana's website, they also note a gingerbread cocoa which sounded interesting along with other flavors.
On Saturday for breakfast, I mixed two packets of the caramel one with 2 cups of milk and also added one cup of brewed coffee. It is a 33% cacao with sugar, vanillin. With the coffee added to it, it is a nice balance. I think without the coffee it would be a little too sweet.
It also went well with our stollen.Recently, I tried a chocolate by Perugina. It is made in Italy from their Nero line--a 48% cacao with chili peppers in it. The chocolate starts off sweet and creamy and then the chilies give you "a wake-up call" as the chocolate disappears on your tongue...delicious!
Our breakfast this morning was lavender scones, yogurt with yuzu (citron) jam and the cinnamon cocoa. The lavender scones were easy to make. I used the simple scone recipe (here) and added a pinch of culinary lavender which I ran a knife through. The cinnamon cocoa didn't dissolve as nicely as the caramel one, but it still tasted great. These lavender scones reminded me of the mix that I bought from Ali'i Kula Lavender earlier this year--this is also where I bought the culinary lavender from.
In Japan, often when you cut open an apple it will look like this. Don't worry it isn't rotten, in fact it will probably be the sweetest apple you will ever taste. These transparent areas are the natural sugars. I once heard that farmers inject their fruit with the sugars, but I now think that they are cultivated this way.Hope you are enjoying the day!
Hi Kat!
ReplyDeleteMerry Christmas!! I love your chocolates, your food, fruit, and scones too. Finally, the mad rush is over...I can breathe a sigh of relief to know that as far as cookies are concerned, I don't have to worry about them until next year.
Now as I try to ease myself back into the blogging scene, I hope to catch up on a few things that everyone has been up to. Thank you SO MUCH for the postcard! It was one of those "bad days" at work and receiving your note in the mail made my work week. Auguri and Buon Natale, or as they say in Hawaii, Mele Kalikimaka!!!!
Hi Rowena!
ReplyDeleteGlad to hear that the "cookie factory" is now on vacation! whew! that was a LOT of cookies. Also glad to hear that I was able to brighten your day as your blog posts often brighten mine.
Merry Christmas!
Kat
Merry Christmas Kat!
ReplyDeleteYour yoghurt with yuzu jam is my inspiration for breakfast tomorrow. Instead of yuzu, I will be adding mango jam instead. ^_^
mmm, mango jam, that sounds great Kurogoma! I recently started using all kind of fruit jams in my plain yogurt!
ReplyDeleteHappy Holidays!
Kat
Merry Christmas, Kat! Sounds like you had a lovely, chocolatey day!
ReplyDeleteMerry Christmas, Ivonne! I do love chocolatey days!
ReplyDeleteTake care.
Kat