Siegel is the creator and owner of Charles Chocolates, an Emeryville CA, manufacturer of quality, “super-premium” chocolate and other confections made with natural and organic ingredients.  He is on a mission to spread his love and knowledge of chocolate to his customers, home cooks and anyone else who’s interested all about using, enjoying and creating with chocolate, kind of like a chocolate Johnny Appleseed or a Willy Wonka without the attitude.

For several Saturday afternoons earlier this summer, Chuck taught a series of five, five-hour classes on chocolate candy making at Charles Chocolates’ facility. I was lucky enough to be invited to participate in one class.  The next round of these classes begins on August 24th.

Participants were ushered into the production kitchen filled with stainless steel tables, shelves and shelves of ingredients, chocolate tempering machines, production line equipment and more. Once dressed in chocolate colored Charles Chocolates t-shirts (to protect our clothes) and black hair nets (to protect the chocolates), we were ready to begin.

Siegel began as a chocolate amateur ,teaching himself how to make truffles.  That later blossomed into a confection business that introduced such treats as giant, nut-covered caramel dipped apples and gourmet s’mores.  After a brief stint in the dot.com world, Siegel returned to candy making, launching Charles Chocolates in 2004. He quickly outgrew his first two production facilities and moved into his 8,700 square-foot present site in 2007.

Echoing his own early experience, truffle making is what Siegel started us on that day, making a ganache using a tasty 65 percent bittersweet chocolate and Straus heavy whipping cream, refrigerating it until cold, cutting it in pieces, rolling it in melted bittersweet chocolate with our hands and then coating it in cocoa. Then, of course, to be popped into our mouths.  The truffles were smooth and wonderful and rich. 

Along with the recipe for this truffle and variations, Siegel gave us hands-on experience working with chocolate and lots of his tips and tricks. Among the advice he dispensed, along with the recipe (which you can see here along with a photo), he shared:  

• Do not use ultra pasteurized cream in your ganache, it will get bitter fast when boiled.
• The type of chocolate you use affects your recipe – chocolate is available from all over the world; try it and match up the flavor to your recipe. (The company uses different chocolates for different confections, primarily El Rey, Valrhona, E. Guittard and Cocoberry.  Cocoberry is from France and Siegel prefers it for its white chocolate.)
• Decorate different types of truffles differently so you will know what you are biting into
• When making flavored truffles, remember “always want to make it all about the truffle.”  Be sure not to choose ingredients that would overwhelm the chocolate or would be overwhelmed by the chocolate.

Nothing escaped his kindly notice.  His goal was to make sure we could make Charles Chocolates as good at home as he could in his facility.  He moved among us, gently telling us how to best stir the pot and how to whisk to blend ingredients or use the immersion blender to make sure we got it right.  My notes are filled with details, such as how much headspace to leave on filled chocolates, when and how to add flavors, temperatures, boiling and melting techniques and more.  It seemed at times he was anxious to share everything he knew about working with chocolate with us.  He was warm, funny and, well, sweet, at one point sharing a story about his children’s disappointment when the chocolate tempering machine he had been using at home was brought back to the commercial kitchen.  

In addition to Siegel’s untempered bittersweet chocolate truffles, we made several kinds of hot chocolate, including a caramel flavored one, an impromptu frozen chocolate granita he was experimenting with to sell on site and an apricot jam ganache in chocolate shells, using chocolate that was tempered for us in shell molds, chilling that and then piping in the molds and then back the molds with more chocolate and setting them in the fridge to set.

Can’t make it to the next series of classes?  I bet Chuck will be offering them again.  That’s just the way he is.  Or you can experience Charles Chocolates in a variety of other ways: 

• You can buy Charles Chocolates at more than 1,000 retail outlets in the U.S. and they are available online.
• You can visit Charles Chocolates in Emeryville near San Francisco and take a factory tour and see the Chocolate Bar, a viewing room of the whole production process.  There is also a store (open daily 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.) that offers some only on-site offerings such as chocolate beverages and possibly, one day, the chocolate granita Siegel was perfecting during our class.
• You can try Charles Chocolates recipes at home, several of them are posted on the company’s website.
• You can sign up for the company’s free newsletter with recipes, new product announcements and subscriber-only specials.

For other articles on Sugar Savvy about Charles Chocolates products, click here and here. 

My next encounter was a media tour of Charles’ facilities and a private sampling of its tea-infused chocolates. If that was not wonderful enough, Charles made sure I was smitten by sending me home with a goodie bag full of its wonderful candies.

Now it is Valentine’s Day and Charles Chocolates has me swooning with its gorgeous and delicious candy. Heart shaped, washed in metallic hues and available in a red velvet or edible chocolate box they are the kind of candies and presentation that lead you to expect to find a diamond ring in the box. There wasn’t a diamond, but there are plump dark chocolate hearts filled with either passion fruit, raspberry or mint mojito ganache. The candies are beautiful and almost bling themselves, what with some sporting a dark silver tint and others washed in gold. But as good as they look, they taste even better.

The fillings are rich and creamy and a bit on the firm side which works well since the dark chocolate shell shatters a bit when you bite into it. Each flavor was balanced and wonderful; I couldn’t pick a favorite. The passion fruit showed up the citrus tones in the chocolate, the raspberry was plumy and jammy and the mint mojito had such a fresh, clean, mint taste that it has spoiled all other mint-chocolate combinations for me. In addition to the box Charles sent me, they have several other Valentine’s Day combinations available, some with additional styles of chocolate. To find a retailer near you for this holiday, use this retail locator.

While these candies are available seasonally in their Valentine’s finery, they are available year round in other assortments. The website also features other confections, including fruit pates, candy bars, the tea-infused chocolates, and handmade marmalades. My favorite for a Valentine’s Day is a gift that keeps giving — a Chocolate of the Month Club.

One product I tried is Bubble Yum with Genuine Chocolate Flavor.  This bubble gum, which is made by the Hershey Company, is just 25 calories per piece and fat and sodium free. 

It comes in a package of 10 pieces, each individually wrapped.  A cocoa aroma hits you as soon as you rip into the foil package and before your unwrap any of the roughly 1x¾ inch pieces of gum.  Although the gum looks more like a very deep brown eraser than it does a square of Hershey’s chocolate, the first bite is surprisingly chocolately.  It reminded me of a chocolate pudding cup, the kind you find in the grocery on the shelves, not the refrigerator case.  It tasted more like cocoa than chocolate, but with some artificial notes.  After not too many chews, however, the chocolate taste is all but gone and you are left with rubbery brown bubble gum, great for bubbles, not so great for flavor.

To be honest, I’m not much of a bubble gum person, so once the chocolate was gone, so was the gum from my mouth.  I was attracted to the candy for its chocolate possibilities.   I still haven’t finished my pack and I’m not likely to, but the gum might have more appeal to those who are regular gum chewers or who would like to blow chocolate-colored bubbles.

Ingredients:  Among the ingredients listed on my package of Chocolate Bubble Yum are sugar, gum base, corn syrup, high fructose corn syrup, natural and artificial flavors, cocoa processed with alkali, soy lecithin, salt, and artificial colors.

Here is an overview of some of the seasonal treats See’s offers by mail order and in its stores.  For more on See’s Candies and a taste of Sugar Savvy’s reviews of their year round offerings, click through The Chocolate Box category on the site.

The white chocolate covered egg nog truffles feature See’s premium chocolate inside each oval and are decorated with green and red wreaths. 

See’s sells six-ounce boxes of miniature, foil-wrapped chocolate snowmen.  Or go for the traditional – chocolate Santas.  Each is 5.5 ounces of milk chocolate.  The colorful foil wrapper shows Santa in all his glory, carrying gifts, including a box of See’s Candy.  Speaking of boxes of See’s Candy, the company is offering several ’specially decorated boxes and tins for Christmas, as well as its regular packaging and a silver box for Chanukah.

Also for Chanukah, they are offering a blue box filled with gelt, the gold foil-covered chocolate coins used for playing the traditional dreidel game.

See’s offers candy canes in several of its gift assortments, as well as its “climber canes,” each .75 ounce confection topped with an icing Santa or snowman.

It’s not too late to sample some of the company’s fall specialties too, including a pecan pie truffle and autumn themed gift boxes.

Don’t know what to get for your sugar savvy friends or relatives?  There is always a See’s gift card.  And while you are on the site, sign up to win See’s “Twelve Months of Treats” contest. 

——————–

Photo: See’s Candy

But things have changed. I spotted the brand in my local Whole Foods and checked on the website. Mashti Malone’s all-natural, Persian-inspired products are now available a bit more widely at least on the West Coast of the U.S., and the company has mail order capability, so I thought it was okay to tell you about my passion for Mashti Malone’s Lavender Ice Cream, Turkish Coffee Ice Cream, Saffron Rosewater Ice Cream with Pistachio, and my favorite food I ingested at the show that year – Rose Sorbet with Sour Cherry.

The Rose Sorbet with Sour Cherry is a soft, pale mauve with a haunting floral perfume and taste. Thin strands of sour cherry (or faloudeh – shredded rice flour strands flavored with sour cherry) add an even more exotic note and a bit of drama and texture to the palate. While the sorbet is sweet it is not overly so, but the flavor and scent do make it an intense mouthful – I felt like I was eating frozen poetry.

At the food show, Mashti Malone’s was serving the ice creams and sorbets in different combinations to highlight how well the different flavors interact, coming up with some haunting mixes. The rose sorbet was delicious with both the Creamy Mango and Saffron Rosewater ice creams but I think its delicate yet intense flavor is best matched with a good vanilla ice cream or in small servings by itself.

In addition to the flavors above, Mashti Malone’s also offers Pomegranate Sorbet, Creamy Rosewater Ice Cream, Non-Dairy Rosewater Ice Cream, Orange Blossom Ice Cream, and Ginger Rosewater Ice Cream. The company is also planning to introduce a new flavor – Herbal Snow – soon.

I look forward to trying them all.

————————–

About the photo: My cup of Rose Sorbet with Sour Cherry and Rosewater Saffron Ice Cream

Check out these resources and links for when you are looking for a sweet diversion from your usual time on line.

Sweets magazine “fun” page with candy wallpapers and links to candy games

Another sweet distraction is Wrigley’s Candystand with games, puzzles, and contests with prizes. Think you know your candy bars? Think you could identify them by their cross sections? If so, check out “Name That Candy Bar” from the Science Museum of Minnesota.

If you want the chocolate all over your face to be makeup instead of the real thing, check out Chocolate Zoom’s overview of chocolate-themed cosmetics.

Want to learn more about the history, growing, processing and other aspects of “The Sweet Lure of Chocolate?” Check out the on-line Exploratorium Magazine feature. Or learn how to conduct a chocolate tasting at home.

There are a number of Halloween themed sites with games and activities for kids. One packed with fun treats is Hershey’s Trick or Treats. Concerned about the calories in your kids’ favorite treats? Have them try Kid’s Health’s special Halloween game. Kids drag pieces of candy to the pumpkin’s mouth to see just how quickly the calories add up.

Take an online tour to see how your favorite sweet treat is made:

• Lollipops
• Fudge
• Jelly Beans
• Caramel and Chocolate Candies
• Candy Canes
• Hershey’s Chocolate

Candy can be art. Learn about Amezaiku, the Japanese art of candy sculpting, and see some of the amazingly detailed examples of miniature taffy figurines. Check out the Mexican art of decorated sugar skulls (part of the Day of the Dead celebration). Or view a jelly bean art gallery.

Do you have a favorite on-line candy-themed treat to share? Leave details in the comments section.

Photo Credit: Jelly bean mosaic from Jelly Belly

The company, founded by Chef Jean-Marc Gorce and food marketing whiz Casimira Tobilla, and its truffles have been featured on the Food Network and local and national magazines and newspapers.

I had been to the San Francisco location years before the one in Oakland opened and was thrilled when the couple expanded their business to my neighborhood. The store is light and airy with plenty of French/European accents. In addition to the truffles, the Oakland store, which is more of a cafe, offers espresso, coffee and tea drinks and a few flavors of exotic ice cream. Best of all, every beverage purchase entitles you to a free truffle. That’s something the Starbucks (literally) around the corner can’t offer!

XOX’s truffles are small, but that just means you can pack a lot of truffles, and flavors, into your bag, box or baton, depending on how many of the hand-packed treats you purchase. How small? There are about 80 truffles to the pound. That makes one or two seem like a harmless mid-day treat and a small box a very welcome hostess gift.

If you are visiting the Bay area, taste the truffles at XOX locations at 754 Columbus Avenue, San Francisco, CA or at 6126 La Salle Avenue, Oakland, CA 94611. (Hours of each location are on the “contact us” page of the website.) Visit the website for other businesses that feature XOX products or to have truffles sent directly from XOX.

It was hot, muggy and steamy on the streets of New York during my recent visit. How did I keep my cool and enjoy a treat without suffering a chocolate meltdown? Why, I just indulged in a refreshing chocolate Italian ice. 

Italian ices are well known on the East Coast, especially in the Mid-Atlantic states.  They are smoother than granitas, softer than sorbets and just generally different.  They are also incredibly refreshing. While I ate Italian ices throughout my youth and as an adult on periodic visits back East, I really didn’t know much about them. I did a quick web search on the history and differences but I have to say I was left a bit confused about the difference between an Italian ice and an Italian water ice.  Some sources use both terms interchangeably, others say there is a difference.  An Italian ice is flavored, then frozen and shaved for serving.  An Italian water ice is plain ice that is flavored after it has been shaved into soft, snowy mounds, except when it is not and then it is the same as an Italian ice.  Regional differences among Italian immigrants and American cities probably account for the differences in technique and nomenclature. 

Italian immigrants to this county brought with them a long tradition of frozen desserts including granita (made by freezing water, fruit juices or other flavoring ingredients and sugar in a pan and periodically flaking and scraping the ice as it forms to break up the ice crystals) and sorbet (made by freezing similar ingredients in a ice cream freezer). Commercial Italian ice makers proudly list their flavors made from natural fruit and other flavors. Lemon and cherry are traditional flavors but modern tastes range from melon to mango, chocolate to green tea.  What they don’t list is how they make their treat.  Food historians say it started as frozen blocks of sweetened fruit flavors shaved into small, white pleated paper cups. As the ice melted, eaters could squeeze the cup to get the last of their ice.  While the pleated cup is still the traditional method of serving Italian ice, nowadays more and more vendors are serving the treat in sturdier disposable bowls with spoons.

My chocolate ice was delicious, with a clean, dark chocolate taste.  Although it was made without any milk products it was incredibly rich but without being heavy.  It was the perfect summertime treat.

Here is a recipe for a chocolate ice I adapted from a cookbook I picked up in a used bookstore.  The Complete Book of Homemade Ice Cream by Carolyn Anderson was published in 1972.  (The book is no longer in print but used copies are available on the web in the U.S., Canada and the U.K). It isn’t an “authentic” chocolate Italian ice recipe, but it is close, especially if you serve it before hardening it in the freezer.

Chocolate Ice
yields 1/2 gallon

2 cups sugar
5 cups water
1 cup cocoa
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Boil the sugar and water together for five minutes and then remove from heat.  Immediately add the cocoa and cinnamon. Mix well.  Let it cool a bit and then refrigerate until cold.

Freeze in an ice cream freezer as per manufacturer’s instructions.  Serve straight from the ice cream maker container for a softer ice or place in the freezer for a few hours to harden the ice.  Another option is to pour the chilled chocolate ice mixture into ice cube trays and freeze.  Before serving, process ice cubes in small batches in a blender or food processor until chocolate ice mixture is thoroughly broken up but not yet slushy.

To make the best iced coffee ever, add a few of the Chocolate Ice ice cubes to your favorite cold java.  Add in milk and sugar to taste and top with whipped cream and a drizzle of chocolate syrup. 

First, it’s summertime and See’s Candies wants you to enjoy your chocolates just the way its factories in California made them even if you are having a heat wave. That’s why chocolate candy ordered from the company’s website or catalog will have special packaging through October. The company packs chocolate candies with ice packs in an insulated foam box inside its shipping boxes and uses expedited service. The service costs a bit extra, but See’s won’t ship chocolates without the packaging from Spring through Fall.

Next, See’s often customizes its offerings for holidays and seasons. Right now the website is featuring plenty of red, white and blue to celebrate the Fourth of July. For some sweet ways to celebrate your independence, how about some of See’s milk chocolate balls wrapped in patriotic stars and stripes; a bag of sour star-shaped chews in red (sour cherry), white (sour lemon) and blue (sour berry); boxes of assorted chocolates inside colorful Fourth of July sleeves; or maybe specially decorated red, white and blue cherry flavored candy canes.

Now is also the only time of year to order See’s Summer Variety Box with white chocolate covered truffles in fruit flavors such as lime and apple pie, cashew brittle and other warm weather favorites.

One of See’s new offerings can’t be eaten but still might sweeten any See’s gift you might send. See’s is now offering personalized greeting cards that can be added on to any offering at checkout. Add a special thought or even your own photo to one of See’s greeting cards for an extra $2.95.

Photo Credits: See’s Candies

I can still recall my first bite into the company’s Peanut Ginger Chocolate Candy. My initial thought was that it was like an adult Butterfinger, with that same peanut-y, flaky, crisp, interior, but with strong notes of candied ginger and a wonderful dark chocolate covering. I was hooked. I had a new favorite. Then I tried the Cabernet Truffle. The same wonderful dark chocolate but this time with a juicy, almost jam-like Cabernet-flavored ganache filling. No overt Asian notes in this offering, but the candy’s flavors were well balanced and delightful. I guess I had two new favorites.

L’Estasi Dolce also makes other flavors including a champagne truffle, lemongrass ginger truffle and flavored caramel corn. I know I should try all those, too, but every time I have the opportunity I find it hard to pass up the Peanut Ginger or the Cabernet.

Photos to come.