The cacao bean contains about 54% cocoa butter, a natural fat. Until the early 1800's hot cocoa had a greasy layer of fat that floated on top, and other foods made with chocolate were difficult to d...
Every cook has that small repertoire of recipes they turn to over and over again. We have a small, well-proven handful of chocolate recipes that never let us down. From no-fail chocolate cake to hom...
Chocolate inspires the most gorgeous confectionery art - we have seen some truly amazing chocolate sculptures and we are in awe of the confectioners who have the patience and skill to craft somethin...
Mort Rosenblum begins his book Chocolate with a quote from Brillat-Savarin: "Nine of every ten persons say they love chocolate. The tenth lies." This book digs deep into the worldwide love of and obse...
Among life's simple and sublime pleasures, hot chocolate chip cookies, fresh from the oven, rank high. But what makes the perfect chocolate chip cookie? For us, it's thin and chewy, with ripples of ...
One of our favorite easy ways to make a simple dessert just a little extra special is chocolate curls. They are very, very easy, and curls and shavings add a pretty touch. Pictures and show-how belo...
Lisa Yockelson has graciously been our guest expert this week on all things baking and chocolate. She is the author of many baking books, including the wonderfully rich and detailed ChocolateChocolate...
We've been big fans of our sister home sites' Friday photography feature. Each Friday they post a photograph (often taken by a reader) around a certain theme. This year's theme was Through My Window...
I've mostly been cowering on the sidelines as Faith expertly guides us through this Bittersweet-themed month of desserts, but last night I couldn't help myself. This blender mousse is so easy to make...
What's chocolate ganache? You've probably seen scads of references to it in recipes and food writing. It's the basic tool of the chocolate baker and confectioner: cream and chocolate. Here are just ...
"The processing of our food is profoundly disgusting, and the accumulation of packaging fills a giant barrel at my school every day."
That's a quote from 5th-grader Aden Kahr of Olympia, Washington...
If you're one to melt chocolate in a double boiler, take a look at this Double-Wall Pot ($16, Fresh Finds). The stainless steel 1-quart pot has an outer insulating “water jacket;” pour water in ...
Lisa Yockelson has graciously been our guest expert this week on all things baking and chocolate. She is the author of many baking books, including the wonderfully rich and detailed ChocolateChocolate...
When it's cold and bleak outside, one of Bill Grangers cookbooks is a summery tonic. All the Australian sunlight, open kitchens, and bright food bring a little taste of warmth.
Another taste of warm...
In the world of baking chocolate there are some big, well-known names that are often seen in recipes and baking books: Valhrona, Scharffen Berger, El Rey.
But these are not usually available at the...
It's Chocolate Week! What's chili doing here? Well, this is Cincinnati chili - a blend of cinnamon, hot pepper, cumin, and, yes, chocolate. It's not a gimmick or a mole-wannabe. Cincy chili is rich ...
Chloé Doutre-Roussel doesn't make chocolate. She eats it - about a pound a day.
She's a chocolate muse extraordinaire - a tester, taster, and passionate devotee of all things cacao. How doe...
Gift: Two copies of Lisa Yockelson's ChocolateChocolate with signed bookplate and a goodie bag of baking chocolate products from Scharffen Berger
Shop: ChocolateChocolate available through Amazon f...
In the middle of all the chocolate and baking madness, the thing we are enjoying most right now are sweet, sweet clementines. We love how their thin jackets just pop off to reveal child-size slices ...
Lisa Yockelson, author of the rich chocolate encyclopedia ChocolateChocolate is our guest expert this week on all things baking and chocolate. Ever wondered if those cocoa percentages in baking cho...
We were feeling a little over-market-bagged there for a while. String bags, canvas bags, market baskets ... you name it, we've tried it a few times and then packed it away with all its other market ba...
Melting chocolate is a common baker's task; we need to melt chocolate for glazes, icings, and coating things like our peanut butter Buckeyes. How do you melt chocolate in your kitchen?
Take our sur...
If you spend a lot time shaving chocolate to decorate and garnish your cakes, or to sweeten up your cookies, this little chocolate mill might come in handy. It looks like a one-use tool, but it's no...
Modern chocolate making is an arcane art, full of secret technology and hard-won expertise. The basics, though, are transparent and open to anyone. John Scharffenberger of Scharffen Berger Chocolate...
Of all the wine regions in the world, Bordeaux is the only one that is simultaneously accessible and out of reach; terrible and wonderful; haughty and pedestrian.
While upper level bottles cost hund...
Raise your hand if you have over-the-hill spice jars in your kitchen, their senility evidenced by a layer of dust on the cap, or a price that makes you feel old (when did they ever use a font like tha...
Chocolate has had some classy advertising. There are beautiful poster prints for sale on eBay, with lush, romantic images used to sell chocolate over the last hundred years; we would like to hang o...
Lisa Yockelson, author of the rich chocolate encyclopedia ChocolateChocolate is our guest expert this week on all things baking and chocolate. Here's a question about getting that lusciously glossy ...
One of the things we like about our friends over at Serious Eats is their willingness to try anything and report back fearlessly, no trembling or trepidation. So, OK, you can argue that eating stuff...
Induction cooking is a fascinating idea, and ever since we answered this reader question on What Is Induction Cooking? we've wanted to try out an induction cooktop. We just saw this new model, and i...
Do you know what a slice is? It's not a piece, or a slab, or a chunk. A slice is much more than that. ...
If you bake with cocoa you have probably noticed recipes that call for either Dutch-processed or natural (non-Dutch-processed) cocoa powder. What is Dutch process cocoa powder, and how will it affec...
Here's another good question for Lisa Yockelson, our guest expert this week on all things baking and chocolate. Lisa is the author of the rich chocolate encyclopedia ChocolateChocolate, a treasure tr...
The January Jumpstart Project is in full swing at our sister home sites and we're keeping a close eye on kitchen-related project and contest entries. We were inspired by this bright and economical b...
We were just reminded that today is National Pie Day, and since we are still trying to find the perfect chocolate pie we rounded up a few recipes on our must-try list.
From left, Chocolate Cream P...
Are you Baking Bittersweet this week? To inspire you, here are some of our best baked chocolate recipes. We're partial to those prune and chocolate chunk cookies ourselves, with a big glass of milk....
From the New York Times' Dining Section...
• At Last, a $20,000 Cup of Coffee: The title here is misleading - really, the $20,000 is all for the machine - a new siphon bar. We are coffee geek...
Ice cream in January? Are we crazy? Yes, we know that it's in the low teens outside and although the sun is shining here, it's still very, very cold outside. So ice cream may seem utterly unseasonal...
Chocolate has a reputation for being addictive, and even though it has yet to be classed with heroin and nicotine, there are people out there who need their fix every single day. Are you one of thos...
It keeps happening: discoveries like the one reported on the front page of today's New York Times (High Mercury Levels Are Found in Tuna Sushi) keep telling us that eating tuna just isn't a great idea...
We're excited to have Lisa Yockelson as a guest expert this week; she is answering your questions on baking with chocolate. Lisa is the author of the rich chocolate encyclopedia ChocolateChocolate, ...
We are looking at a few key steps in the process of getting cacao beans from this (gooey fleshy beans) to this.
The task of converting beans to chocolate is a process shrouded in secrecy. Chocolat...
The people spoke, and they decided on Julia Child and Alex Prud'Homme's My Life in France as the first Kitchn book club choice.
This week your assignment is to get a copy and begin reading the first...
Will No-Knead Bread ever die? We don't think so. Here is yet another variation from Jessica at Su Good Sweets: Chocolate No-Knead Bread.
We are thinking of this toasted, with something yummy on it...
Colin Gasko of Rogue Chocolatier makes artisan chocolate from beans to bar in a factory the size of your bedroom. We just saw Gasko in a feature on the new Gourmet website, and we couldn't have been...
Today Whole Foods announced plans to be plastic bag free by Earth Day this April. Earlier this month, New York City Council passed a bill requiring large stores to collect and recycle plastic bags th...
Chocolate fondue, that classic dessert of the 70s, has had a renaissance with fancy pots from high-end stores like Sur La Table and Williams-Sonoma. It's offered on restaurant dessert menus and huge...
These vintage Ghirardelli cocoa tins are old and have that patina of age, but they are unopened and still have cocoa inside! We don't recommend baking with this antique cocoa, but the tins would loo...
The third of the First Ladies of Cheese whom I met at the Fancy Food Show in San Diego last week was the Paula Lambert, esteemed in the craft of mozzarella-making.
Never will you meet someone so pos...
We're excited to have Lisa Yockelson as a guest expert this week, answering your questions on baking with chocolate. Lisa is the author of the rich chocolate encyclopedia ChocolateChocolate, a treasur...
Loren in Brooklyn sent us this lovely kitchen still life. She says:
I like to try and create a still life in my little space above the sink....this month's is a cornucopia of winter; even the ched...
Cacao [ka KOW] n. the seeds and the tree, Theobroma cacao, from which cocoa, cocoa butter, and chocolate are made.
The word cacao is thought to come from the Aztec word cacahuatl, which means "bitte...
"A glottally thickening wodge of chocolate chip and cocoa..." is how Nigella Lawson describes her chocolate gingerbread. It's an old-fashioned English gingerbread, moist and damp, cut into slabs as op...
Last week we looked at baking, leading into our Bittersweet Baking Contest. This week the spotlight belongs to chocolate.
Chocolate was once considered valuable enough to be the currency of entire...
Bittersweet Baking Contest Update: We are extending the submission deadline for the contest to the end of this week. We're a little slow coming off the long weekend and wanted to give opportunity for ...
Congratulations to readers sdb and ronnifox who were both chosen at random to win a SideSwipe Mixer Blade attachment for their tilt-head KitchenAid stand mixer in our Thursday Giveaway.
Check back o...
Today is a holiday for us (and for many of you) in honor of Martin Luther King, Jr. Here's a quote from a great article about Dr. King. We linked to it last year and find that it is worth rereading:...
We love the worn-in, hearty look of Jamie Oliver's new show, Jamie At Home. The camera lingers on generous glugs of olive oil and crazing lines in old ceramic jugs while Jamie smokes fish and yanks ho...
Big baking plans this weekend? Are you entering our Bittersweet Baking Contest?
(To All Open Threads)...
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