Chocolate University Online Blog
You have the freedom in selecting the way you make your chocolate brittle. In this particular recipe, we will be using semi-sweet chocolate, but you can always opt for white, milk, or dark chocolate. It’s all up to your liking, or the one you plan on giving it to. Especially now that it’s December already, you can make some of these to give as a holiday gift.
But don’t stop here, you can modify the recipe by using other dried fruits and nuts available in your kitchen or fridge. And always keep in mind, the quality of the chocolate brittle will be as good as the quality of the chocolate you will be using, so see to it that you use quality chocolate!
Chocolate Brittle
• 1 pound butter
• 1 pound sugar
• 1 pound almonds
• 1 pound walnuts, finely chopped
• 1 pound semi-sweet chocolate
• 1 cup whole walnuts
In a saucepan cook butter & sugar, boiling 5 minutes. Stir in almonds and cook 10-20 minutes or until nuts begin to pop & turn brown. Pour into a shallow pan & let cool. Melt chocolate & pour over mixture in pan. Sprinkle with finely chopped walnuts. After mixture hardens, turn over and sprinkle bottom side with walnuts. Break candy into pieces. |
Better yet, get some other chocolate recipes from the previous posts and try to make all you can. Then put them together in gift baskets to give away to your friends and loved ones. This is one surefire way of making their Christmas merry!
Categories: chocolate recipes
Tags: chocolate dessert, chocolate gifts, Christmas, holidays
By the time American Pilgrims celebrated their first Thanksgiving, cacao was largely unknown outside of Meso-America. The unfortunate side-effect of this timing is that chocolate would not have been present at that original Thanksgiving dinner.  Therefore, it’s not part of the American traditional Thanksgiving meal. 
Well, I guess it doesn’t really matter. In the grand scheme, today is a day to stop and give thanks for the many blessings we have received. Chocolate is still one of those blessings. And so are you!
Chocolate University Online has always been dedicated to the love of chocolate, helping everyone who comes this way to learn some new nugget of information about our favorite food. Since you are here reading this, you must find value in this. So I am thankful for you.
As much as I love chocolate, sharing information is useless unless someone is present to receive. So whether you just stop by for a bit of chocolate insight from time to time, or you’re a current CUO student or alumnus, thanks for showing up. It’s for you that I am here.
Have a great Thanksgiving Day! And, if you’ve worked chocolate into your Thanksgiving traditions, how about posting a comment below for all of us.
Categories: chocolate education, fine foods & beverages, fun chocolate facts
Tags: holidays, Thanksgiving
Wow, it’s November already. As we’re beginning the approach on the upcoming holiday season it’s time to start thinking about great holiday recipes to share with guests.
Pecan pie is one of those desserts that is popularly served at Thanksgiving and Christmas meals. It is also considered a specialty of Southern U.S. cuisine.
Pecan pie is typically made of corn syrup and pecan nuts, but you’re on my website and that means you expect chocolate. So here’s a chocolate pecan pie recipe for you to enjoy. And, this one is quite simple to make.
Toll House Pecan Chocolate Pie
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1/2 cup brown sugar, firmly packed
• 3/4 cup butter or margarine, softened
• 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips (6 oz. package)
• 1 cup pecans, chopped
• 1 unbaked 9-inch pie shell
Beat eggs until foamy. Blend flour, sugar, and brown sugar into eggs. Add butter or margarine. Stir in chocolate chips and pecans. Pour into the unbaked pie shell. Bake for one hour at 325°. |
Enjoy!
Categories: chocolate recipes
Tags: chocolate dessert, Christmas, holidays, pecans, Thanksgiving
It’s nothing different from the regular white milk, only cocoa-flavored! It has the same nine essential nutrients but with a taste children dearly love. To have a healthier celebration of Halloween this year, the California Milk Processor Board (CMPB) which created ‘Got Milk?’ is encouraging families across all California to make chocolate milk the treat of choice on Oct. 31, instead of the usual unhealthy counterparts. Got Milk?, by the way, is an American advertising campaign encouraging the use of cow’s milk. The campaign has been recognized as of great help in milk sales in California.
A little piece of candy here and there may not be harmful, but an average Jack-O-Lantern bucket pretty much holds about 250 pieces of candy, which altogether approximately totals 9,000 calories and have about three pounds of sugar. Imagine that going into your system. Even for adults, it’s a heck of a lot!
“Adding chocolate to milk doesn’t take away its unique combination of vital nutrients necessary for optimal growth and development,” says Ashley Rosales, a registered dietitian with the Dairy Council of California. “Kids only get nutrients from foods they eat, and giving them chocolate milk is a fun and tasty way to ensure they receive calcium, vitamin D and potassium, which many children lack in their diets.”
The said campaign is just one of the many ways to keep proper nutrition in mind as childhood obesity is on the rise. A research in the April 2008 issue of the Journal of the American Dietetic Association has shown that children who consume milk, even flavored milk like chocolate, get more nutrients and have a healthier diet overall, in comparison to those who don’t.
Go trick-or-treating with Got Milk? on Halloween for free chocolate milk, Got Milk? items and a whole lot of fun for the young and the young-at-heart:
- ANAHEIM
Anaheim Fall Festival and Halloween Parade
Oct. 29, 2011, 4 p.m. to 8 p.m.
Downtown Anaheim Center Promenade
205 Center Street Promenade, Anaheim
- OCEANSIDE
11th Annual Dia de Los Muertos & Halloween Festival
Oct. 30, 2011, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Mission San Luis Rey
4050 Mission Ave., Oceanside
- OAKLAND
2011 Fruitvale Dia de Los Muertos and Halloween Festival
Oct. 30, 2011, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Fruitvale Village
Along 12th St. between 33rd and 37th Ave. in Oakland
Categories: chocolate in the news
Tags: chocolate drinks, chocolate holidays, chocolate milk, Halloween, holidays
I know it is absolutely nowhere near Easter, but it just feels right to share this info on the spur of the moment. C’mon now, cut me some slack! 
For starters, Easter is known as the most sacred Christian holiday of the year. Jesus Christ’s resurrection after his crucifixion is celebrated on Easter Day or Easter Sunday.
Did you know that ninety million chocolate Easter bunnies are produced each year? No child’s Easter basket is ever complete without a chocolate Easter bunny or two. But how did Easter get mixed up with a rabbit? Where did that come in?
No one knows for sure but rumor has it that this is so because rabbits are well known for their enthusiastic breeding habits, making them a common symbol of fertility.
Another legend points the Easter bunnies to the Goddess of Fertility, Eostre, for whom the term “Easter” was derived. The legend says that Eostre found a wounded bird in a snowy forest one winter. In order for the bird to survive the cold, she turned it into a rabbit. But the transformation was unfinished, because the rabbit continued laying eggs. As a thank you, every spring, the rabbit decorated her eggs and presented them to Eostre.
Or maybe because rabbits are known for their high-energy mating schedule and it was just intended as an Easter inside joke, but who knows? People started creating rabbit-shaped pastries and cakes by the beginning of the 19th century, and later on came up with Chocolate Bunnies!
Whether to eat the ears first, or the tail or the feet, it’s all up to you. But most of the Easter bunnies lose their ears before the other parts of their body. Chocolate bunnies have evolved into creations that are milk, dark or white chocolate.
And there you have it, the origin of chocolate Easter eggs, bunnies, and all of those spectacular chocolate stuff that chocophiles cannot live without! Life without it is just downright boring, especially at Easter, which is, yes I know, and I’m saying it again, nowhere near.
Categories: fun chocolate facts
Tags: chocolate bunny, chocolate celebrations, chocolate holidays, Easter bunnies, holidays
Did you know that in Mexico, chocolate is used to make offerings during the Day of the Dead festival? This particular fiesta acts as a commemoration to pay tribute and honor all the deceased members of the family. Chocolate and sweets are important components of the festival. People give each other skulls made of chocolate or sugar. The Day of the Dead fete is celebrated throughout the country on the 1st and 2nd of November.
As morose as it may sound, it is in fact a cheerful occasion where departed loved ones are reminisced. Some families even construct altars dedicated to the dead relatives. The altars are filled with flowers, candles, wooden skulls and photos of the dead. The families celebrate and bring to mind the deceased members by eating the favorite foods of those passed. The specific foods that are specially eaten in this celebration are pan de muerto which is a skull-shaped bread and Calabaza en Tacha which is a dessert made with sweet pumpkin, cinnamon, and piloncillo, dark sugar cones.
Other families visit and get together at cemeteries where their relatives are buried. The grave sites are wonderfully bedecked with candles and cempasúchil flower. This orange marigold was the specific flower that the Aztecs, who were the first ones to be associated with chocolate, used to remember their dead. Some families also bring toys for dead children and even bottles of alcoholic liquor to adults.
Each place in Mexico has its own unique cultural style of celebrating. Merriments take place throughout Mexico and they celebrate in high spirits, but the liveliest ones are in Patzcuaro, Oaxaca, Chiapas and San Andres Mixquic which is a small town in Mexico City.
People in Mexico usually perform dances wearing wooden skull masks called calacas. Chocolate and sugar skulls are also made in some parts of the country and the name of the dead person are engraved on the forehead of the skull, a friend or a family member will then eat these.
When the Spaniards invaded Mexico, they deemed this practice as profane and barbaric as the Spaniards viewed death as the end of life. Nonetheless, to the Aztecs, Mayans and old civilizations in Mexico, death is just a continuation of life.
The Spaniards tried to cease the tradition but in vain. However, it is possibly no coincidence that the Day of the Dead festival is celebrated on November 1st which is All Saint’s Day, and November 2nd, All Soul’s day.
Try booking a trip to Mexico on the Day of the Dead festival just to try it for taste!
Categories: fun chocolate facts
Tags: aztecs, chocolate celebrations, chocolate holidays, holidays, mayans
This week kicks off the Chinese New Year – Feb. 3, 2011 – or year 4708 according to the Chinese calendar.
Giving gifts of chocolate is not a major part of the Chinese New Year, but it is a growing activity.
Traditionally, red envelopes or red packets filled with money are passed out during the celebrations. These days, you may find chocolate coins in addition to cash inside the packets.
Small gifts of food or sweets are exchanged between friends or relatives when visiting their homes. Chocolate candies or cakes are becoming popular gifts during these visits.
 Firecrackers are symbolic of the Chinese New Year. I did not find it surprising to see these Chocolate Firecrackers for sale online. These are red metal tubes shaped as firecrackers with tiny chocolate candies inside.
From what I’ve read they look much better than they taste since the chocolates are made with a “chocolate cocoa substitute”!
Categories: chocolate in the news
Tags: Chinese New Year, chocolate gifts, holidays
These peppermint patties may be the perfect ending to a holiday meal! Be sure to temper the chocolate to give a finish and snap to your creation.
Chocolate Covered Peppermint Patties
• 3/4 cup sweetened condensed milk
• 1 1/2 teaspoons peppermint extract
• 4 cups powdered sugar
• 3 cups semisweet chocolate, chopped
Combine sweetened condensed milk and peppermint extract. Beat in powdered sugar, a little at a time, to make a stiff dough that is not sticky. Form into 1 inch balls and put on waxed paper. Chill for one hour. Flatten with bottom of glass to form patties. Let patties dry at room temperature for one hour, flip them over, then let dry another hour.
Melt and temper chocolate. Dip patties one at a time into chocolate with a fork. Tap off the excess and let harden on wax paper. |
Enjoy!
Categories: chocolate recipes
Tags: chocolate dessert, dark chocolate, holidays, peppermint
In my experience, either you love egg nog or you don’t. There aren’t too many people who are on the fence about it, but maybe chocolate egg nog could push you over to the lovin’ it side for good!
Easy Chocolate Egg Nog
• 4 cups dairy eggnog, chilled
• 2 cups cold milk
• 1/3 cup favorite chocolate syrup
• Dash of ground nutmeg
Combine eggnog, milk, syrup, and nutmeg in a large pitcher and mix well. |
It doesn’t get much easier than starting with an egg nog base that someone else made. If you prefer to start from scratch and take all the glory, this second recipe is for you…
Homemade Chocolate Egg Nog
• 6 eggs
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 3 cups milk
• 6 ounces dark chocolate, chopped
• 2/3 cup heavy cream
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 tablespoon nutmeg
Put chopped chocolate into a medium sized bowl and set aside.
Whisk together the eggs and sugar. Whisk in the milk and then pour into a saucepan. Heat the egg mixture over medium-low heat. Be careful to heat slowly and stir often. (Don’t heat over 160F or eggs and milk will curdle.)
Pour about ½ cup of the hot egg and milk mixture over the chopped chocolate and let stand; meanwhile quickly pour cream into the remaining egg/milk mixture.
Whisk the chocolate mixture, until smooth and slowly add the egg/milk/cream mixture to the chocolate mixture.
Whisk in vanilla and nutmeg. Add whiskey or Bourbon if desired. Chill for several hours, even overnight. Serve cold. |
Enjoy!
Categories: chocolate recipes
Tags: chocolate drinks, dark chocolate, holidays
‘Tis the season – to be tired!
I know the holidays can be stressful and exhausting. Even if you aren’t in charge of preparing for the parties and family gatherings, you may find yourself having to do something unexpected that requires a tremendous amount of your time and energy.
One of two things usually happens to me in times of stress as it pertains to food; overeat or forget to eat. Neither extreme is healthy, and neither condition will do anything to keep a body going.
Here’s some good news… eating chocolate can help!
Chocolate increases your levels of serotonin, helping to boost your mood and energy level. It may also increase your ability to remember things because of naturally occurring epicatechin. Epicatechin helps to improve blood flow to the brain, which in turn improves focus and clarity.
Chocolate, along with other “brain food,” should be part of your survival snack kit.
Sprinkle chopped up chocolate pieces into yogurt. Yogurt helps prevent fatigue while boosting your get-up-and-go. Add some oatmeal, too, and get a complex carbohydrate which is ideal as a stable source of energy.
Need something to calm your nerves and lower stress? Combine chocolate with nuts like almonds and seeds such as sunflower. These can help lower blood pressure and balance mood. The omega fatty acids also play an important role in brain health.
I don’t know about you, but when it comes to my brain, I can use all the help I can get, and with chocolate as part of the prescription, it’s a big win!
Categories: chocolate education
Tags: chocolate science, epicatechin, functional chocolate, holidays, serotonin
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