Food: Chocolate: A Love Story

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Chocolate: A Love Story
Wednesday, June 01, 2005

I love chocolate and I always have. Like many people, my obsession with chocolate began when I was a child. Now, my mother was not the type to stock the house with sugary snacks and other junk, so a chocolate dessert was a very special thing indeed. I remember my mother's thirtieth birthday (I was four at the time) and the chocolate cake, loaded with candles, that seemed to be the center of the celebration. Ah, chocolate. It left an impression on me, that's for sure. And with that as my first chocolate memory, I began my lifelong love affair with chocolate.

Once I was old enough to go trick or treating, my favorite candy quickly became the Three Musketeers Bar. Why? Because it was just a fluffy, whipped chocolaty bar coated with milk chocolate. No nuts, caramel, nougat, krispies or peanut butter. Just plain, unadulterated chocolate. It's still my favorite, although a plain Dove milk chocolate bar is a close second.

When I became a Girl Scout, we went on a hiking trip to a camp site and that was where I had my first s'more. If you were ever a Brownie or a Girl Scout (or a kid for that matter), you know what s'mores are-- a blissful treat that consists of toasted marshmallows and melted chocolate, sandwiched between two graham crackers. The chocolate melts just so from the hot marshmallows and the whole thing just dissolves in your mouth. Absolutely delectable!

Since my mom didn't buy us many prepackaged treats, my sisters and I got into the habit of making things from scratch. We always had eggs, sugar, vanilla and flour in the house, after all. But once in a while Mom would buy Hershey's cocoa to make hot chocolate with. Another delight! There's nothing like homemade hot cocoa, cooked on the stove until it's just perfect, then topped with a dollop of marshmallow cream. Yum! But anyway, with the cocoa and some sugar and some corn syrup, I could also make homemade fudge. Talk about chocolate! It was like chocolate coated sugar. My teeth hurt just thinking about it. But at the time it was heaven.

Another chocolate favorite of mine when I was growing up? How about plain old chocolate pudding. Not the instant kind (which tastes like chemicals, in my opinion), but the kind that you cook painstakingly on the stove and then put in the refrigerator to firm it up. It takes hours to get it right but it's worth the wait. My favorite part is the hard layer at the top, which you plunge your spoon through to get to the creamy pudding.

My mother used to work at a restaurant and once in a while she'd bring us home a treat from the vending machine-- a jumbo box of Junior Mints. If you've never had them, Junior Mints are a creamy mint candy coated with chocolate. The mint flavor is not as intense as the mint in York Peppermint Patties. Just the perfect combo of mint and chocolate. An absolute delight!

Although I'm not much of a donut person, I used to work for a large company that treated their employees to a monthly "Donut Day". Now free food is free food, no matter what type of diet I happen to be on at the time, so I'd indulge in the monthly donut day. I tried the glazed and the cream filled and both were okay-- well, not so much. I finally settled upon a chocolate cake donut. It had a very light glaze which made it very moist indeed. Dipped in a glass of skim milk, it was another chocolate treat that I could surely get used to. And I did get used to it-- once a month, like clock work.

And how about chocolate mousse? Now that's a tricky one. I've tried to make it from scratch, but it's kind of difficult. There's a packaged European mousse mix that you can whip together with some milk and it's actually very good. Nothing like a parfait dish full of some whipped chocolate mousse when you're feeling blue.

And then there's chocolate chip cookies. Now who doesn't love them? The Toll House recipe is the best, hands down. There are just some days when nothing compares to a plate of chocolate chip cookies hot out of the oven. For an extra treat, I sometimes try a little scoop of vanilla or chocolate ice cream sandwiched between two warm cookies. It's like I've died and gone to heaven.

When I met my husband ten years ago, he ate a package of Tastykakes with his lunch every day. If you're not familiar with Tastykakes, they are a popular snack cake from the Philadelphia area. The cupcakes come two in a pack-- chocolate cake with chocolate icing (you can get them with butter cream icing, too). My husband was a Tastykake chocolate cupcake a-holic. So I started to indulge, but I soon realized that I simply could not justify eating a package of Tastykakes very day.

Later, after I kicked the Tastykake habit and I went through my Slim Fast diet phase, I always chose the Chocolate Royale shakes. How could I not? They actually tasted like a chocolate shake! Even today, I sometimes have one for breakfast just for old times sake.

I admit that it wasn't that hard for me to quit the Tastykakes cold turkey, because honestly, I've never really been a cake person. I'm the type that can eat the icing straight out of the bowl (or plastic tub) and leave the cake behind. And I often do.

Which brings me to flourless chocolate cakes. Now they are the best. Not cakey, but more of a creamy, fudge-like texture. So decadent and rich. Any good restaurant will have a flourless chocolate cake offering on their menu. Order a piece next time, but get ready to share it with your dining partner because it will be rich beyond belief.

I'd say my all time favorite chocolate dessert recipe was given to me by my friend Wendy about five years ago. It's called "Death by Chocolate" and it's an ultra chocolaty concoction of brownies, chocolate mousse, whipped cream and chocolate covered toffee bits, layered in a trifle dish. Two layers of each usually does it-- sending you into chocolate oblivion for a very long, long, time.

These days, my husband has kicked his daily chocolate cupcake habit, but he still has a chocolate tooth. The substitute? Just a piece of dark chocolate every day. One of our favorite health food authors, Dr. Andrew Weil, suggests that a small bit of chocolate each day can be healthy for you, provided it is good quality chocolate made with at least 70 percent cocoa solids. So we've found these little gems at our favorite health food stores. They're dark chocolate, some with as much as 88 percent cocoa solids, and they come in a variety of flavors. I like the chocolate mint the best. Just a small bite a day will do you. It does it for us.

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