July: Baking

July 4th weekend and a coffee marble cake. A bit of a bust as the two batters mainly melded into one and the coffee flavour was just not strong enough. Not a repeat.

Coffee and tea

Looks like instant coffee in the US is going the way of instant coffee overseas with pre-mixed sugar and milk. Fortunately these new Starbucks flavours don't include the milk yet. Very fragrant. Good when made into coffee agar.

Tea bags are interesting for their packaging. Tea's nothing spectacular.

Frey Coffee and White Blueberry Chocolate

Coffee shards enhance the coffee flavour in this coffee bar. Balance of coffee and sugar is just right.

The blueberry bar is overwhelmingly sweet with crunchy bits of berry buried within.

Coffee cream chocolate

Very reminiscent of the Kaffee Sahne Chocolate. Small high pieces are very moreish and just the right size for a snack. Very nice. Purchased from Aldi.

Weekend Baking: Espresso Biscotti

Inaugurated my new toaster oven with this espresso biscotti recipe. Very easy to make. Substituted cardamom for cinnamon and overdid it. Next time will have to experiment with other add ins, as this tastes fine but looks pretty boring. But the toaster oven works great and I now have a whole jar of biscotti for the new year!

Starbucks Via

I let myself be talked into buying this three-pack of the new Starbucks Via Italian Roast. Very nicely packaged in a paper pouch. Very strong just like Starbucks' in-house coffee. A little too much so for my taste but the remaining two packets will be very handy for travelling. Just saw a blog posting recommending it for baking instead of instant espresso. Hmmm...

Snacking through Frankfurt and Cologne

A short 4-day trip over the Memorial Day weekend to Germany resulted in these snacks. The first, courtesy of KLM, was your basic chocolate biscuit. The espresso bar was rich, smooth and creamy. Lots of bratwurst and gelato eaten on this trip but no TNTs as I was on a budget.

More Hotel Chocolat truffles

These espresso truffles were probably the most enjoyable truffles from Hotel Chocolat purchased. Strong coffee flavour in the ganache enhanced by the coffee bean flakes scattered on the outside.
Boozy truffles were just that. Very strong alcohol flavour. Not being super-familiar with different drinks, unfortunately I couldn't tell the difference between them. Probably best appreciated by someone who can.

Chocolate espresso cake

My version of cheater's cake includes instant coffee and chips of Lindt dark chocolate instead of the cocoa powder. Nuked for 1 minute 20 seconds, this was moist and so easy to make. The chocolate didn't melt entirely so added a nice contrast to the cake. Excellent. Will definitely be making this again. Way better than those muffins (probably due to the added sugar and fat), but we'll have to see how it keeps.

Weekend Baking: Coffee muffin

Nothing exciting for all the baking mavens but exciting for me as this is my first foray into baking with this basic muffin recipe. Modified by using water instead of milk as I have no milk and adding a teaspoon of instant coffee. Very easy and looks like a good base recipe I can modify. Very light and fluffy texture with not much coffee flavour.
As with all microwave muffins, this became a tad dry after a few days but some yoghurt and raspberries turned it into a yummy dessert.

Kaffee Sahne Chocolate

A cheapie bar with a white chocolate topping on a coffee flavoured milk chocolate base turned out to be surprisingly good. The milky sweetness actually complimented the strong coffee flavour well

Villars Noir Cafe

Very smooth, rich dark coffee taste, with nibs just the right size to add crunch without bulk. Very moreish.

Vosges Creole Bar

A mild bar (70% cacao) with the cocoa nibs giving a satisfying crunch. Pleasant, not bitter. Worth trying but not something I love.

Feodora Espresso

Just got back from Germany with a huge haul of chocolates so I'll be writing these up over the next few months.

This German brand is not one I've seen in stores in the US or even much online. Their 75% cacao espresso bar is the only one of their products I got. It is glossy and dark, with a fairly strong aroma. While only 3% the coffee flavour is clearly discernable. Some sugar, but not a sweet bar at all. Unlike other makers no lecithin and they seem to be using real vanilla, not vanillin. My bar's ingredient listing doesn't include the "natural orange flavoring" listed in the German Deli page though. Extremely smooth, this is one of the better coffee bars I've tried. This was also relatively inexpensive ie ~ 1.5 Euros. Makes me wish I'd bought some of their other bars to try.

Galler Cafe Noir

Galler Cafe Noir

Four square slabs make up this elegantly packaged 70 gram bar, which is the perfect size and shape for slipping into a handbag. The glossy dark chocolate encloses a smooth, creamy richly-flavoured coffee praline. The dark chocolate and strong coffee flavour make this more palatable and less cloyingly rich than Galler's other coffee bars, which were a bit too much for my taste. Excellent.

Gubor Poccino Espressini

These tiny sticks contain liquid espresso within a sugar and chocolate shell similar to Pocket Coffee. The sticks look a little less elegant than Pocket Coffee, and contain way less coffee by definition. Interesting.

Bernard Castelain Tradition 71% Bar and Castelain Cafe Dark Chocolate

Castelain Tradition 71% Bar

My first impression of this bar was its surprising sweetness. In retrospect I don't think it is sweeter than the El Rey or E. Guittard bars I've tried. Not bitter or acidic. Good for times when I'm not in the mood for a really dark, complex chocolate.

Castelain Cafe Dark Chocolate

Slightly less smooth than the plain Castelain Tradition, but the coffee is fine enough not to be grainy. Good though not strong coffee flavour. My personal preference is for a stronger coffee flavour such as Green and Black's Espresso.

Two small bites

These Delhaize Espresso praline and Jacques praline croquante bars were consumed whilst on a much-anticipated holiday in Belgium and the Netherlands.

Both were surprisingly cheap and excellent. The praline in the espresso bar was smooth and the coffee flavour good, though I would have preferred it to be still stronger. This grocery store house brand bar was obviously meant to mimic the more upscale Galler bars. Having tried the Galler bars in the past, I the praline filling in those richer, to the point of being slightly too rich for me, so the Delhaize bar was in this regard preferable. The Jacques (Callebaut) bar was sweeter with a crunchy praline filling. I just wish I bought more Jacques chocolate.

Ferrero Pocket Coffee

A cult favourite for many, a thin crystallized sugar case encloses liquid espresso and is itself enrobed with chocolate. The bitterness of the coffee is cut by the sweetness of the chocolate and sugar. A great way to get a quick hit of coffee surreptitiously. Only available in winter as the sugar does melt with time, moisture and temperature and the coffee seeps through.

Green and Black Espresso

My first sample of Green & Black's organic chocolate, their Espresso bar is surprisingly smooth for a bar with 67% cocoa. There is no graininess from the coffee and the espresso flavour is strongly evident. My only complaint would be the hint of sourness that comes through. This would make an interesting hot chocolate.