Simple, scaleable, and delicious. This chocolate fudge recipe comes from a book I can no longer recall but I can remember the recipe by heart. If 2 pounds of fudge is not enough simply double the recipe and you should have more than enough for yourself, family, and friends.

Recipe for Fudge

• 6 oz – Evaporated milk
• 1 & 3/4 cups sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon salt.
• 1 1/2 cups marshmallows
• 1 1/2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
• 1 teaspoons- vanilla extract

Optional

• 2/3 cup chopped walnuts

Directions

1. Combine evaporated milk with sugar and salt
2. Bring to boil, reduce heat, simmer for 5 minutes
3. Remove from heat and add remaining ingredients
4. Stir until marshmallows melt
5. Pour mixture into buttered square pan (9inches)
6. Cool.

Makes 2 pounds.

It just doesn’t get any easier than that.  What are you waiting for? Go toss this together and enjoy some chocolate fudge!

Got a variation?  Let us hear it.  Always neat to know how you are doing it.

If you think this is good, try our chocolate fudge sauce.  While it can be eaten straight out of the jar, heating it up makes for an awesome topper or dipping!

Back at the beginning of the New Year we asked everyone what their favorite chocolate was.  We had been working over the Winter months developing some new chocolate products based on our market feedback and wanted to hear from you.

The results were:

• 45% Dark Chocolate
• 34% Milk Chocolate
• 11% White Chocolate
• 9% Semi-Sweet Chocolate

It rings true for what we see requested and talked about as well. Interestingly enough we’ve started to see some subdivisions since we have a Tcho 68% Dark Chocolate Truffle box which competes with a 60% dark chocolate offering.  For some the darker the better, others just want a quality dark chocolate.  Do you find yourself with diverse likings of chocolate?

As a family and being around so many types of chocolates I find it fascinating how the same product has different appeals during different times of the day. Dark chocolate make my head tingle (in a good way), sometimes I just want the salty butter hit of a white chocolate.  Other times I feel more texture oriented and the caramel like milk chocolate just calls out.  Everything has a time and place.

Favorite Chocolate in the Moment?

People ask what is our favorite and I feel like there needs to be more context for it.  What is your favorite chocolate for after work, or before bed, on the porch after a rain.  I can give more if I am given a more subjective frame to work in.  How about you?

Let’s try a few.. What is your favorite chocolate for these moments?

• Sunny spring afternoon, outside.
• A quick snack before your work day is done.
• A quiet moment to yourself when all might be still.

Let us know what you think and we’ll let you know ours.  Share your own moment and chocolate too!

Free Chocolate? Seriously?

This just gets better, we’ll pick from the responses next week and award someone with a sampler box of their choosing.  All you have to do is leave a comment on here or our facebook fan page (keep it with the post for ease of tracking) telling us a moment (from ours or your own) and what kind of chocolate best fits it.

Now that’s easy.. Writing this has gotten me hungry for a grapefruit truffle.  Interesting.

What is white chocolate, and why should you care?

What is white chocolate again?

As chocolate fans (a family of fans) we thought white chocolate was just a simple byproduct of processing chocolate. For the uninitiated you take cocoa beans, roast and then grind them into what is known as a chocolate liquor. That liquor is then pressed, which releases the cocoa butter from the cocoa solids. Maybe a little simplified here but that’s the overall idea. Cocoa butter is then purified, given some milk, sugar, possibly the addition of some flavors–a good white chocolate might even be caramelized to bring some of the trace chocolate hints back.

Do you have White Chocolate Truffles?

Being at the farmers markets has us in front of lots and lots of people with different tastes. About one out of twenty asked if we had anything white chocolate oriented. We always took this in stride but internally didn’t really believe white chocolate belonged in our line up. That was only because we had never found a white chocolate that blew our socks off.

Sourcing Good White Chocolate

With the help of some chocolate peers I began sampling some higher quality white chocolates and was amazed to find a number that were just beautiful. A good white chocolate should be subtle, buttery, hints of caramel and vanilla, and smooth. Many off the shelf products are really lacking with strong metallic like flavors or very flat notes. Unappealing to say the least.

After a number of trials Chef Bill Dietz and I came up with one to turn into a truffle. His first unveiling to the family melted our hearts and palates. It was still a little too soft I remember him saying but even at this point you could have covered a bumper in this confection and I’d have been happy to eat it.

Over the next few weeks Bill continued to refine his recipe getting the right amount of butter and cream, with a hint of salt building what we have today. Thinking about it now makes my mouth water.

A Tasty White Chocolate Truffle

A great body, terrific mouth feel–coating but not heavy. As it melts in your mouth (and does so quickly) you note vanilla and subtle caramels. The salt you pick up on allows for a contrast of these shifting flavors and textures. Swallowing this delight with a smile you are left with a finish that is clean and memorable.

We are sorry to any we have chided in the past about white chocolate. We have learned our lesson with chocolate products. If you don’t like it, more than likely it is because the ingredients were not of a high enough standard. We are proud to add this to our lineup and hope you will indulge in a box of your own soon.

While the winter has been long, and cold, and seeming to never lighten up it has been good for our chocolate shipments. However, now that the seasonal clock is edging closer to warm we all have to start watching weather forecasts for areas we are shipping to–judging whether or not extra protection is needed to keep our delicates safe.

While many of our local customers let us do their shipping to friends and family for them we have many that want to do it themselves so they can add other things to the mix.

Shipping Chocolate, the rules

Quick rule of thumb; chocolate solids usually melt closer to body temperature (80′s+) while ganaches like to melt at room temperature (70′s). If you are doing something special research your melting points so you can be on top of how much cooling might be necessary.

Keep it Cold

Something that is cold to start will stay colder longer. Why waste your cooling energy on making something cold. Keep it refrigerated until the time you need to pack.

Material Needs

• A box that is at least 2-3x the size of the gift you are sending.
  
  Space allows for crunch room by bad shipping agents as well as keeping heat farther away from the chocolate in your package.

• Bubble-wrap mylar
  
  It’s a mylar (silver-colored) coated bubble-wrap that works great as heat deflection and insulator while keeping the product snug.

• Cold packs
  
  Your transit time and heat through travel is going to dictate the size and amount of these. Usually with a small box (9 X 6.5 X 4) might only need one 2-4oz packet. Remember if your package gets there and the pack is just exhausted you’ve done your job. The contents happily traveled at somewhere in the 50′-60′ range. Putting this little pack in a ziplock or wrapping it in some newspaper will help insure it doesn’t sweat on your package. I would highly suggest USPS Priority or UPS 3 Day select for most summer deliveries, next day for those in places with scorching temperatures.

• Additional packing material
  
  Kraft paper, bubble wrap, it doesn’t really matter here. You just want something to pack comfortably to create stability inside your box.

Packaging Chocolate

Let’s bring it all together. You have your box of chocolates and now a menagerie of items around you for building a shipping container that will go anywhere.

Under best circumstances you will want to do these steps right before you go to your shipping agent. Also find out when the final pickups of the day are with your carrier so you can be there right before they pickup. This all allows for the longest duration of keeping cold during transit.

1. Build your box
2. Tape all the seams (to slow air ala heat exchange)
3. Measure enough mylar wrap for the bottom of your package (one more level of shielding)
4. Pull the chocolate box out of it’s cold storage
5. Wrap (or ziplock) ice pack
6. Stack chocolate box with ice pack and pull enough mylar out to fully wrap, cut
7. Package chocolates like you would a gift, make sure the ends are tucked and taped. Here you’ve got a nice cold core
8. Add padding materials to the bottom of the box
9. Add chocolate package
10. Fill in gaps of packing material
11. Add a mylar shield to the top of the package
12. Close the package, tape/seal the edges
13. Ship!

With this much preparation your gift should be received in beautiful condition and ready to devour. This works for us and we’ve sent chocolate from South Florida to Southern California during August.

Got a packing tip? Let us know! While it took us months of test shipments to happy family around the country we’re always learning!

Family Birthdays

Each year our children get their choice of dessert for their birthday.

A Chocolate Bundt Cake for One

This past November, Jason (our son-in-law) became the first one to indulge in our Chocolate Bundt Cake with Caramel and Chocolate Sauces for his birthday celebration.  Melinda loves to surprise people so she hid the treasure deep in the trunk of their car as they traveled to Florida for a friend’s wedding.  They shared with friends who gathered from all over the country and we were awakened at 2 a.m. with a text message – thanks for the “Awesome Gift”.  We smiled and went back to sleep.

A Boston Cream Pie for Another

A year ago Melinda, our oldest daughter who lives in Myrtle Beach decided she wanted a Boston Cream Pie.  This really isn’t a pie at all but a different sort of cake.  Bill thought it would be tricky driving 3 ½ hours to Myrtle Beach with it so he decided to bring it to her in parts.  Then part of the celebration was her putting it together herself.  This is such a fun thing parents can do it with their kids we decided to share it with you.

This is an old New England Recipe that uses powdered sugar on top.  We use our own chocolate fudge sauce on top (sorry it’s still a secret) which you can pick up from us, dust with cocoa enriched powdered sugar, or make a quick chocolate glaze (we’ll give you that one..but don’t go sharing it hehe!)

Boston Cream Pie Recipe

• ½ cup butter or margarine
• 2 ½ sifted cake flour
• 3 teaspoons baking powder
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 1 ½ cups granulated sugar
• ¾ cup plus 2 tablespoons milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 eggs

• Cream Filling
• Confectioner’s sugar or Chocolate Glaze

Making a Boston Cream Pie

1. Stir butter just to soften
2. Combine flour, baking powder, salt, and sugar and add to butter
3. Add ¾ cup milk and the vanilla.
4. Mix until dry ingredients are dampened.
5. Beat for 2 minutes at low speed.
6. Add eggs and remaining milk.
7. Beat for 1 minute longer.
8. Pour into 2 -9 inch layer cake pans
9. Bake in preheated oven at 375 degree F for 20 to 25 minutes.
10. Turn out on cake racks, cool, and put together with Cream Filling
11. Sprinkle with confectioners’ sugar or top with chocolate glaze.

Cream Filling Recipe

• 1/2 cup sugar
• 2 ½ Tablespoons cornstarch
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 1½ cups milk
• 2 egg yolks, beaten
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Making Cream Filling

1. In a heavy saucepan mix sugar, cornstarch, and salt.
2. Add ½ cup milk, and stir until smooth.
3. Add remaining milk, and cook over low heat, stirring constantly, until smooth and thickened.
4. Stir mixture into egg yolks.
5. Pour back into saucepan, and cook for 2 minutes longer, stirring constantly.
6. Cool, and add vanilla.

If you want to keep it easy and be done, top with some confectioners sugar (or confectioner sugar mixed with cocoa powder!)

A chocolate fudge sauce is also a great way to enjoy it but the time making a fudge sauce may be more hassle at this point.  If you don’t have any of ours a last ditch quick and easy idea is to make a fast chocolate glaze for it.

Quick Chocolate Glaze Recipe

• 1 cup whipping cream
• 8oz semi-sweet (50-55%) chocolate chips or broken chocolate
• 2 tbs unsalted butter

Making Chocolate Glaze

1. Cut the butter into chunks and let come to room temp.
2. Put chocolate into medium sized bowl
3. Heat whipping cream in small sauce pan to near boiling (but not boiling)
4. Pour hot cream over chocolate and stir until smooth.
5. Stir in butter completely.
6. Pour over cake.

There are lots of old family variants of these recipes, do you have one to share?