From The Blog

Homemade Chocolate Hazelnut Spread

May 17, 2019 by Karen Solomon

OK. So I am a fiend for nuts and chocolate of any kind, and when it comes to chocolate and hazelnuts, even more so. I remember the first time I ever tasted brand name Nutella: I was on a school trip to Epcot Center in Disneyworld sometime in middle school and I bought a small packet of it in the little French village. (I know, I know…the stuff is actually Italian, but you’ll have to talk to Walt about the reorg on European food.) It was SO GOOD. Like, really good. I’m pretty sure I didn’t even eat it on bread or anything; it’s quite possible I just squeezed the entire contents of it into my mouth, then went back and tried to squeeze out some more.

Fast forward to my college years and I became a Riot Grrl and completely engrossed in the DIY aesthetic of everything. I was making my own zines, cutting and duct taping my own clothes, and starting to make my own food (beyond instant Lipton Noodles & Sauce from a pouch). I began making my own condiments like ketchup and mustard and mayonnaise, and odd as it may sound, doing so felt like a very revolutionary act. I loved not being held to the confines of Kraft and ConAgra, and I loved the control that being in the kitchen and stocking my shelves gave me.

This passion and food lust led to a career as a food writer and cookbook author, and that afforded me the luxury of being able to make more food my own way. I would find a product at the store, look at all the junk on the ingredient label, and then take pride and pleasure in recreating that recipe in my own kitchen with real food. Nutella, known in Italy as gianduja, and known in North America as chocolate hazelnut spread, was eventually checked off my list.

When Bloom, the chocolate salon inside our 16th Street Factory, was doing its friends and family meals, I tasted Lisa’s bruleed brioche with her take on a homemade “Nutella”. It’s sublimely creamy and entirely decadent. And on the sticks of crisp, sweet, enriched bread, it’s an exercise in rich. For chocolate enthusiasts and anyone with a sweet tooth, it is exceptional.

In our book, Making Chocolate From Bean to S’more, Lisa and the kitchen team stuff this cream inside cookies, which seems like a dessert lover’s dessert. Meredyth was the first to think about making the chocolate hazelnut cream in a melanger, the stone-wheeled grinder that we use to make chocolate. I’m sure this is what gets our in-house version so super creamy; more so than most of us could accomplish at home.

For those of us who don’t own our own melanger, we still have options; a food processor will also do the job. I have a version of the recipe in one of my cookbooks, but lately I’ve been making it even more simply and delicious.

I weigh the hazelnuts, toast them, and remove the skin; this is essential, as the skin is really bitter. While the nuts are still warm, I put them into the food processor with an equal weight of our Chef’s Chocolate. I blend it thoroughly, then add some salt and about ¼ cup good-quality extra virgin olive oil. Then I blend it for a long, long time—five minutes, at least—until it’s super smooth and liquidy. Once it’s scraped into a jar and refrigerated, the texture firms and it becomes quite smooth and spreadable, particularly once it hits warm toast. Try it also spread onto fruit or simply eaten from a spoon :>.

For the real deal, though, follow our kitchen’s recipe below. Enjoy!

Chocolate Hazelnut Spread

from Making Chocolate: Bean to Bar to S’more

Yield: About 2 cups

Ingredients:

1 cup / 140 grams / 5 ounces blanched hazelnuts
3/4 cup / 212 grams / 7 1/2 ounces melted 70% chocolate (Karen’s note: Chef’s Chocolate works great here)
1/2 cup / 100 grams / 3 1/2 ounces sugar
1/2 teaspoon / 2 grams kosher salt

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350°F (176.7°C). Spread the hazelnuts in a single layer on a baking sheet and toast them in the oven for 8 to 10 minutes, until golden brown. Cool completely, then chop the nuts coarsely.

In a heavy-duty food processor, combine the hazelnuts, chocolate, sugar, and salt, blending them until completely smooth. The longer the mixture is processed, the smoother it will be; we recommend blending for at least 5 minutes on high speed. Enjoy on toast or waffles, or spread it on your favorite slices of fruit. The mixture can be stored in an airtight container or jar at room temperature for several weeks.

NOTE: At Dandelion, we make our version with a mini melanger. If you have one at home, simply add all the ingredients to the stone grinder, and let it grind for at least 30 minutes.

Chocolate 301: Our Trip to Belize in 2019

May 8, 2019 by The Dandelion Team

Rebecca and Renee wrote this blog post together, and they were fortunate enough to attend our annual guest trip to Belize that we offer each February (just one of the many perks in working for a chocolate company—in addition to all of the chocolate you care to eat). This trip is one of many that we’ve taken as a team: Greg visited in 2013, and Molly had a look a year later, but this is the first for Renee and Rebecca. Renee is a chocolate maker at our Valencia Street factory. Rebecca was formerly the manager of the Valencia Street café, but she just became the Director of the Chocolate Experiences team. Warning: their travelogue will make you want to pack your bags.

Hello Dandelion Friends! This February we had the opportunity to attend a Chocolate 301 cocoa trip: an interactive, hands-on, seven-day exploration into the world of cacao in the southern tip of Belize. Along with Greg, our Bean Sourcerer, and 11 chocolate aficionados from across North America, we stayed at the very scenic Chaab’il B’e Lodge in Punta Gorda. We ate amazing chocolate-infused meals and washed them down with local cacao rum and Coke prepared by lodge owners, Sheila and Rusty.

Diving right into the jungles of Belize, we spent our first day touring Eladio’s farm where we learned about the gospel of cacao, and the harmony between man and earth that helps synthesize healthy plant growth. As he led us through his farm, Eladio would stop to pick what appeared to be random plants and teach us about the benefits they have on the body, as well as how they contribute to the growth of the entire ecostructure. We ate hearts of palm, sugar cane, cacao, and corn right out of the ground! It was a wild jump into the deep end of Belize. He stopped to cut open a cacao pod and said, “now we look for faces.” As Eladio explained it, the faces that can be identified in the raw pod give us insight into all of the animals and creatures that love to eat them! I found Stitch. What faces do you see?

After our long trek through Eladio’s wild farm, we finished the day with a delicious, home-cooked Belizean meal and a lesson on making traditional Mayan drinking chocolate.

Another day, we went to Xibun Reserve, a former Hershey plantation of 1100 acres that has been revamped and is now growing cacao and citrus. It is HUGE. We spent a bumpy couple of hours riding through the orange groves and rows of cacao trees in the back of a tractor. We got to see firsthand as the farmers split the cacao pods and harvested the wet beans. It was mind-blowing to see how easily and quickly they got the pods open because they are so thick! We also hopped down from our iron chariot to walk around through the trees, enjoying the variety of colors that each pod produced. The trees were full of beautiful flowers and budding cacao pods. Seeing the difference in how the cacao trees were kept at Xibun and at Eladio’s was really interesting. Xibun had very well-kept, neat rows of trees that were in stark contrast to the wild jungle of Eladio’s farm. Even as we rode around the tractor at Xibun, one side was all cacao—and then we’d turn around and see all citrus. It was surreal.

On Valentine’s Day we went to Maya Mountain Fermentary. The name may sound familiar to some of you who may have tried our Maya Mountain, Belize chocolate bars—feel free to learn more about how Elman developed this bar’s flavor profile. Maya Mountain is an organization, not a co-op, from where we source our delicious Belizean beans. They collect wet beans from farmers around Belize and ferment the beans at their location in Punta Gorda. This experience took the term “hands on” to a whole new level! We got to actually stick our hands in the gooey fermentation boxes to see how much heat they produce! We also got to taste the beans at different stages of fermentation and drying. The flavor of the nibs changed significantly from one to four days of fermentation, as well as at different stages of drying. Truly in her element, Renee got right to work, showing the team how we sort beans and explaining what we look for in this process. We learned what their quality manager looks for when they sort before packaging and sending beans to the chocolate makers. She then showed us what she looks for when she grades beans. She could look at a cut test and see how far along fermentation had occurred. We then tasted a wide selection of chocolate made with Maya Mountain beans from other makers. As a chocolate maker, this is one of Renee’s favorite things to do. One origin can taste so vastly different depending on the maker, but there remains a consistent character from the terroir that is discernible in each bar from the same origin.

On our last day, we went to Copal Tree Lodge where we walked around their beautiful garden and made chocolate with their chocolate maker. It was amazing to learn about their process and see that one chocolate maker takes ownership of every step! He gave us beans to taste from different times in the roast. We could taste the flavors evolving. Then we got to winnow the freshly roasted beans. It was very therapeutic, like raking a zen garden. After this, the chocolate maker showed off his skills and hand-tempered a large batch of chocolate right in front of us for us to pour into molds. To remove air bubbles from the bars in our factory, we rely primarily on a vibrating table. At Copal Tree, they rely on the more rudimentary system of slamming the chocolate mold against a table to remove air bubbles—a very satisfying alternative. It was incredible to see such a large batch of chocolate hand-tempered with such ease. He didn’t even need a thermometer; he could just feel the change in viscosity and knew when it was ready!

This doesn’t even scratch the surface on what happened on the trip. There was so much more that can’t be captured with words or pictures. It was really refreshing to be around so many people who are passionate about chocolate; not just the customers, but also the farmers, fermenters, and other makers. It was so eye-opening to see how much goes into making a treat that the world enjoys. 10/10 would go back on this trip! Without question, it is worth every drop of bug repellant, sweat, and slathering of sunscreen!

To Belize with Love and Chocolate,

Renee and Rebecca

PS: Want to learn more about what life is like in Belize? Maya moved there to deepen her work in chocolate, and our friend Madeline shares her story of living there for several months.

Red Velvet Beet Cake Recipe

April 15, 2019 by Lisa Vega

from Lisa Vega, Dandelion Chocolate Executive Pastry Chef and co-author of Making Chocolate: From Bean to Bar to S’more

RECOMMENDED CHOCOLATE PROFILE: earthy, savory, funky

We developed this cake—our version of classic red velvet—to complement the earthy, funky, sometimes grassy flavor profile of our Liberian chocolate. Some of us think it tastes like caramel and cinnamon; others taste iron shavings and a freshly mowed lawn. This chocolate is a customer favorite, and it earned a Good Food Award in 2014, which seems to be how our most polarizing chocolates work. Either way, we like the way the vegetal sweetness of the roasted beets plays off the chocolate, and the striking contrast of vibrant red against the shining, jet-black ganache layers.

YIELD: one 8-inch 4-layer cake

INGREDIENTS:

Cake
672 grams / 1½ pounds medium red beets
5 large eggs at room temperature
2¾ cups / 570 grams / 20 ounces sugar
½ teaspoon / 2 grams kosher salt
2¼ cups / 226 grams / 8 ounces cake flour, sifted
5 tablespoons / 36 grams / 1¼ ounces ground chocolate, chef’s chocolate, or 70% chocolate finely ground in a spice grinder
butter for the pan

Chocolate Caramel Ganache
2¾ cups / 412 grams / 14 ounces ground chocolate, chef’s chocolate, or chopped 70% chocolate
¾ cup / 150 grams / 5½ ounces sugar
2 cups / 450 grams / 16 ounces heavy cream

DIRECTIONS:

Make the cake
Prepare the beets: Preheat the oven to 350°F (176.7°C). Wrap each beet in foil, and roast the beets for about 1 hour, until a knife pokes easily through the entire flesh. Allow the beets to cool in the foil, and then carefully peel each beet, discarding the skins. In a blender, puree the cooked beets on high speed with 3 tablespoons water until very smooth, a minute or two. Measure out 2 cups plus 2 tablespoons (480 grams / 17 ounces) of the puree, and set it aside. (Reserve the remaining puree for another use.)

Spray or butter two 8-inch round cake pans, line them with parchment, and grease again. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, whisk the eggs, sugar, and salt on high speed until the mixture becomes pale in color and falls back on itself in ribbons when the whisk is removed, 4 to 6 minutes. Fold in the beet puree until the batter is streaked with color but not completely incorporated. This will prevent the beaten eggs from deflating too much as you mix the batter.

Sift together the cake flour and finely ground chocolate, then fold them into the batter until just combined. Divide the mixture evenly between the prepared cake pans.

Bake the cakes for 25 to 30 minutes, until a cake tester inserted in the center comes out clean. Allow the cakes to cool completely on a wire rack, and refrigerate or freeze them before slicing the cakes in half horizontally (using a serrated knife) to make 4 cake rounds.

Make the ganache:
Place the chocolate in a large bowl and set aside. Heat the sugar over medium-low heat in a dry heavy-duty saucepan. Watch it carefully—the sugar on the bottom will begin to melt. When you see the edges begin to brown, use a heatproof spatula to drag the sugar toward the center to prevent any burning, and continue to stir occasionally until the sugar is completely melted and has turned a medium amber color.

Remove the pan from the heat and immediately start pouring the cream into the caramel in a small, steady stream, while whisking constantly. The caramel will bubble violently and may even seize up slightly, and that’s okay. Continue to whisk, and put the pan back on high heat. As you bring the caramel liquid to a boil, any seized sugar chunks that may remain should dissolve. Once the liquid reaches a rolling boil, immediately pour it over the chocolate. Let the hot cream sit undisturbed on top of the chocolate for 30 seconds. Then use a whisk to stir slowly at first and then more vigorously as the chocolate and cream combine and the mixture thickens. The ganache should appear shiny and thick, but still be liquid enough to pour. Allow the ganache to fully cool and thicken before assembling the cake.

Using a large offset spatula, spread a thin layer of ganache evenly on top of each cake layer, and layer one on top of another to create a 4-layer cake. Before cutting it, allow the cake to set in the refrigerator, uncovered, for about an hour. The cake will keep in an airtight container at room temperature for several days, or in the refrigerator for up to 1 week.

Chocolate Almond Figs with Chocolate Labne Crémeux & Port Wine Sauce Recipe

April 15, 2019 by Karen Solomon

Chocolate Almond Figs with Chocolate Labne Crémeux & Port Wine Sauce

from Chef Rose Johnson of Private Chefs of the SF Bay

Chef Andrea Lawson Gray is a longtime friend of ours in the SF Bay Area food world; she even participated in our very first 12 Nights of Chocolate. She’s also the founder of Private Chefs of the SF Bay, and she brings us this recipe via one of the chefs in the co-op, Rose Johnson. This chef collective does private catering and dinner parties, and they’ve been kind enough to make ours their chocolate of choice for all of their cooking and baking. Karen S. tried this recipe with our Kokoa Kamili, Tanzania Chef’s Chocolate and thought that the tropical notes went really well with the tangy wine and labneh.

YIELD: two to four servings

INGREDIENTS:

Figs:
10-12 dried figs
2 oz. ground chocolate, chef’s chocolate, or 70% chocolate, finely chopped
10-12 whole almonds, toasted

Crémeux:
½ cup labne or thick Greek yogurt
2 oz. ground chocolate, chef’s chocolate, or 70% chocolate, finely chopped

Port Wine Sauce:
½ cup Port wine
2 Tbs. heavy cream

METHOD:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

Cut or snip the stems from the dried figs. Use a small paring knife or spoon handle to gently open the figs at the stem end and create a small pocket. Stuff the fig with the chocolate, and top it with a toasted almond.

Place the figs upright and snugly together in a heatproof ramekin, or make one from aluminum foil. Roast the figs until they soften and the chocolate melts, approximately 10-12 minutes.

To make the crémeux, melt the chocolate in a bain marie or in the microwave (stirring at 20-second intervals) until melted. Fold the melted chocolate into the labne. Refrigerate until ready to serve.

Now it’s time to make the sauce. In a small saucepan, combine the Port with the cream and reduce it over medium heat until it’s as thick and syrupy as honey. Pay attention, as it will thicken up fast!

To assemble the dish, spoon some of the sauce onto a plate, then top with the figs. Place a dollop of the crémeux beside each fig, and serve. Be careful; the chocolate inside the fig may be very hot.

Chocolate Mochi Muffins Recipe

April 10, 2019 by Karen Solomon

I used to live and work in Kamiyama-cho on the island of Shikoku in Japan. I watched rice grow from every window of my tiny apartment. I taught English in four elementary schools and two middle schools, and in addition to leading an adult English conversation group with the inspiring farmers of my rural community, I also sang in the town choir. I learned a lot in Japan, including a love of taiko drumming, a deepened sense of obsession for Hello Kitty, and an appreciation for food that feels uniquely Japanese. It was at this point in my life that I fell in love with mochi in all forms. I still dream about a particular mochi stuffed with fresh strawberries and whipped cream that I once at in an Osaka train station.

Lately, and here in the SF Bay Area, that mochi love continues. Hawaiian ono mochi rich with butter? Bring it. But the colorful, flavorful hybrid mochi muffins of Third Culture Bakery in Berkeley inspired me to incorporate our chef’s chocolate (also known as ground chocolate) and single-origin cocoa nibs into this decadent treat.

The texture is quite different than a regular muffin; dense, chewy, and rich. The flavor is chocolatey, nutty, and not too sweet, making them perfect for breakfast. Since it’s rice flour, these are also gluten-free.

This recipe was adapted from Snixxy Kitchen.

Chocolate Mochi Muffins

Makes: 2 dozen muffins, Time: Under 2 hours

INGREDIENTS

1/4 cup extra virgin coconut oil, melted, plus more for greasing the pans
1/4 cup unsalted butter, melted and cooled
4 cups mochiko sweet rice flour
2 ½ cups dark brown sugar
4 teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons kosher salt
4 large eggs, room temperature
3 cups whole milk
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
2 cups Kokoa Kamili, Tanzania chef’s chocolate or ground chocolate
½ cup Kokoa Kamili, Tanzania cocoa nibs (optional)

INSTRUCTIONS

Preheat the oven to 350°F and center the oven rack.
Grease the sides and the top of two 12-cup muffin tins with the coconut oil.
In a medium mixing bowl, whisk together the sweet rice flour, dark brown sugar, baking powder, and salt.
In a stand mixer or in a large mixing bowl, beat the eggs, then thoroughly blend in the coconut oil and the butter. Stream in the milk and the vanilla.
Add a tablespoon or so of the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix with a hand mixer until completely combined. In four batches, thoroughly combine the dry ingredients into the wet, making sure the ingredients are thoroughly combined.
Stir the ground chocolate into the batter.
Divide the batter among the prepared muffin cups, filling each cup almost all the way to the top.
Sprinkle the tops of the muffins with the cocoa nibs, if using.
Bake both tins together 40-50 minutes until the top is lightly brown and the muffin springs back when poked with a finger. Insert a toothpick into the thickest part of a muffin and make sure it comes out clean of raw batter.
Let the muffins cool in the pan for 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
Enjoy immediately. Store the muffins in an airtight container, or wrap them well and freeze for at least three months.