As part of this class, we focused on different types of crust to differentiate the uses of pate brisee or puff pastry. Then onto fillings with vanilla custard, coffee chocolate filling and lemon curd. We’re not planning on opening a bakery, but the technical and hands-on knowledge definitely gives us an edge over the competition!

A good looking Chocolate Eclair

For women: rosewater-infused, dark chocolate-covered truffles… topped with edible rose petals

For men: bean-to-bar dark chocolate confections

Knipschildt Rosewater Dark Truffles

Cacao Atlanta Bean-To-Bar chocolate Truffles

With the help of great weekend weather, Savorique also led two chocolate tours through the Flatiron and SoHo neighborhoods (pictures here). The groups were led from Gnosis chocolate to Chocolat Moderne and L.A. Burdick on Saturday, with a discussion around vegan chocolate and the visit of a Chelsea chocolate factory before settling down with a satisfying cup of hot chocolate. On Sunday, the group started at a downtown chocolate/coffee/wine bar before visiting the kitchen of Roni-Sue in the Essex Market. After  a walk to Bond St. Chocolate, we passed by Vosges in SoHo and visited newly opened and very creative Xocolatti.

We look forward to doing even better next year. Stay tuned by getting on the mailing list, facebook, or twitter!

Chocolate Weekend NYC Poster at Vosges Soho

New York is a gourmet town and New Yorkers are passionate about their chocolate. People today want to know where their food comes from, and chocolate is no exception. Consumers are more aware of independent producers, savvy about sourcing, and interested in local production.

Chocolate Weekend NYC

With more chocolate brands popping up around the city, CHOCOLATE WEEKEND NYC is a fun way to discover and enjoy the chocolate scene, from a factory tour in Brooklyn to hearing the secrets from a chef in Gramercy. What could be better than strolling around the city on a crisp fall day sampling hot chocolate? Get more information and print your itinerary at CHOCOLATEWEEKENDNYC.com.

Madecasse Sea Salt Bar

We at Savorique are very conscious of this fact, since our core mission is to carry less processed and more nutritious foods. This map from Slate Magazine illustrates the access problem very well in a graphical manner. It shows the ‘food deserts’, or places where there is no supermarket in range that would carry a decent choice of options. People living there have to rely on the local fast-food or grocery store for their daily meals.

Society sometimes blames a lack of willpower, or knowledge about healthy eating. And there are certainly local, cultural and family habits that are difficult to change. But at this point the media and the public sector has done a really good job at putting the issue to the forefront. We should now also look at the private sector, namely the big and small supermarkets, to expand to the areas where the variety of their offering would be very much welcome by the communities who need it.

Counties with no supermarket within a mile

Here we are specifically sharing two comprehensive French macaron recipes. They give a few important details about the process which you won’t find on all recipes out there in the cyber space. Pay close attention to the macaronnage step on both this 11 min video below and the link from the BakeItOff blog after the video.

Best French Macarons Recipe

The BakeItOff blog post on the macaron recipe is very instructive because it carefully illustrates each step of the process with good photos of the result you should get.

You have no more excuses to fail!

Fika Chocolate Sculptures

It’s just our good luck that FIKA has a glimmering new flagship location in the Financial District, not far from Stone Street.  Though coffee and sweets are certainly the inspiration for FIKA, the chocolate, and the master chocolatier who crafts it, is second-to-none- from here to Sweden.

Håkan Mårtensson, one of the world’s most creative chocolate sculpting visionaries has been happy to call New York home these last few years. Brought over from Sweden, Mårtensson has been sculpting chocolate statues and figures with a dreamlike frenzy. We have found nowhere in NYC where you can watch, or gawk as we do, a master craft and sculpt his vivid imagination into life-like chocolate figurines, faces, and designs (there is even a window in the back for us voyeurs to peak in and watch the chocolatier hard at work).

Indeed the coffee, sandwiches, and chocolate gawking are reason enough to visit- but there’s more. Just recently, we met up with Mårtensson and he introduced us to his newest collection of bon bons: The Four Elements- Earth, Wind, Fire, and Water.

At the moment, there is nothing quite like the Four Elements- four chocolate bonbons seamlessly crafted to be consumed in one sitting. Each are in half-spherical in shape with a glistening and artful exterior design meant to capture the essence of Earth, Wind, Fire, or Water.

Below is a brief description of each.

Mårtennson just so happens to be a master of chocolate subtlety, ensuring that our taste buds experience different flavors, textures, and pings of spice within one bon bon. This is no small feat, for many a chocolatier, this simply doesn’t exist in their arsenal.

Earth does indeed have “earthy” tones, the star ingredients being gianduja and pop rocks- which in other pieces can be overwhelming. Not here. The deployment of pop rocks can prove gimmicky in some pieces, but Mårtensson’s steady hand delivers a true winner.

Wind- quite possibly the most “fun” piece out of the four consists of small doses of frangelico and amaretto. The combination feels light and airy  on the tongue- think of a refreshing breeze on a cool spring afternoon.

Fire. Ah. For those who fear a little spice in their chocolate. Fear not. The kick of cinnamon and tabasco gently tickles the back of the throat seconds after the bon bon dissolves in your mouth.

Water- Almost every shop we walk into these days has some combination of sea salt and caramel- but not quite like this. The liquid caramel and gentle use of sea salt freshens the palate and has proved quite addicting.

Stop by FIKA at 66 Pearl Street and treat yourself to some coffee and chocolate.

professorchocolate.com for more fun blogs and chances to purchase our book, The Ultimate Guide to Finding Chocolate in NYC By Rob Monahan and Neill Alleva.

This fact the cocoa industry chooses to hide and has broken international agreements not to import beans from West African countries that support slave labor. The exporters buy children as young as 7 years old to cut down the cocoa pods with machetes and harvest the beans.

These children are smuggled into the Ivory Coast by human traffickers with the promise that they will make money for their needy families in nearby countries. These families never see their children again. Human traffickers make about $230 euros per child. Their corrupt government has covered up this issue since cocoa is their leading export.

How sad it is that American children receive “Blood Chocolate” to celebrate a Holy day at the expense of children their own age. If you give chocolate for Easter, do not give any chocolate made by Hershey, MM Mars, Godiva, Cadbury, Nestle, Kraft or any generic or brand drug store chocolate. Look for the Fair Trade label or Direct Trade that is described on the label.

Exotic Chocolate Tasting approves of the following sources: Savorique has fine chocolates that are slave free, also you can find them at Food Emporium, Fairway, Whole Foods and health food stores. Even local chocolatiers buy bulk chocolate to re-melt it down and mold into those cute bunnies. They may not even know that the bean source is from West Africa, where in the Ivory Coast alone 12,000 children are enslaved.

Be an informed and caring consumer by knowing where your chocolate and other foods like coffee and tea come from. More info is on my site at Exotic Chocolate Tasting and Stop Chocolate  Slavery.