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Latest Blog Review

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Joni Eats a Chocolate Covered Tarantula

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We review 3 Trade Aid Chocolates

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More Chocolate!! Ordered from The Chocolate Bar....one bar we cant wait to try. Who has eaten Gold leaf before? https://www.instagram.com/p/CXe8eQ6Pw3q/?utm_medium=tumblr

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Walkers had nicer chocolate. Frys had a firmer jelly with a stronger rose flavor. https://www.instagram.com/p/CXbmsopvF2a/?utm_medium=tumblr

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Our only Gazette Rosette winner for Nov 2021

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Nestle Quality Street Chocolate Assortment

Nestle Quality Street is an assortment of 11 different Milk and Dark chocolates and toffees. 450g pouch or 435g without wraps.  Bought at New World for $9.99.

THE PURPLE ONE This was a chocolate caramel chocolate that we think had a nut flavor too, possibly hazel.  It tasted sweet with the slight nut flavor. It was quite nice. TOFFEE FINGER This was a hard but chewable toffee covered in chocolate.  You can taste the toffee, but not really the chocolate.  The toffee is chewy, stick to your teeth stuff.  If you like toffee, you will like it. THE  GREEN TRIANGLE This is a hazelnut praline.  It is sweet with a slight chocolate taste.  You can taste the hazelnut praline.  Pleasant, a bit overly sweet. TOFFEE PENNY This is just a toffee.  No chocolate on this one.  A bit boring. MILK CHOC BLOCK This is a solid milk chocolate, quite hard.  The flavor of sweetness comes through, with a faint chocolate flavor.  This was a bit boring too. ORANGE CHOC CRUNCH This has crunchy bits with a mild orange flavor.  Orange flavor is an artificial flavor. This didn't have much chocolate flavor. CARAMEL SWIRL Caramel is nice, quite sweet.  There is a very faint chocolate taste.  We are quite fond of runny caramel choccies. COCONUT ECLAIR This is chewy.  The coconut has a medium strength flavor.  If you like coconut, this is quite nice. STRAWBERRY DELIGHT Strawberry fondant taste, with a dark chocolate flavor coming through underneath.  It is an artificial strawberry flavor, but not unpleasant.  It is very sweet. FUDGE You can certainly taste the fudge is which nice.  It is soft chewy.  There is also a faint chocolate taste.  This one is nice. ORANGE CREME This is the same flavor as the Orange Crunch but in a creme filling form.  It is very sweet. FINAL THOUGHTS The different colours and shapes of all the choccies does bring you joy. The flavors were a bit artificial in the strawberry and orange.  We didn't think the Toffee Penny needed to be in there, especially as you had the Toffee Finger. JOHANANS TOP 3 1. Caramel Swirl 2. Fudge 3. The Green Triangle Least favorite was the Orange Crunch JONIS TOP 3 1. Fudge 2. Caramel Swirl 3. Strawberry Delight Least favorite was the Toffee Penny

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Tropical Chocolate Bars or Bites

This is an easy Tropical Chocolate recipe for bites or bars, that you can tweak for your own  tastes.  These are non bake and will set like chocolate.  It's your choice whether you want to make them bars or bites.

My Ingredients: ​2x 250g white chocolate blocks 1x 250g block of dark chocolate Other Ingredients - you will not use the full pack amounts of these. Tweak the amounts to your taste. Rockmelon fruit jerky Mango fruit jerky Mixed citrus peel Passionfruit curd Coconut Ice Brandy Snaps or Baskets Other options: Crystalized ginger, dried pineapples. Dried bananas instead of Brandy snaps or baskets is also nice. RECIPE Chop up brandy snaps or baskets to little crunchy bits.  These will stay crunchy so don't make them too big. I chopped up 2 brandy baskets. Melt dark chocolate.  I do it in the microwave for 1 minute 30 seconds, then stir, then another 20 seconds.  Add brandy bits to melted chocolate.   Line a tray with baking paper and pour and spread out the dark chocolate and brandy bits as a bottom layer.  Chill in fridge while doing the next step.

Chop up dried fruits.  Mine are the rockmelon and mango.  I chopped up most of the packets. Melt white chocolate and mix in rockmelon and mango. Then pour and spread out over dark chocolate layer. Dollop a few teaspoons of Passionfruit curd over white chocolate and swirl in.

Quarter the coconut ice and sprinkle them on top.  Press them in slightly. Sprinkle over citrus peel.  I don't like too much, just a bit of tanginess to contrast with the sweetness, but if you want more, add more. I finally drizzle over a little bit more dark chocolate and swirl again, but it looks nice without doing this too.   Chill in fridge until just set.  Bring out and slice into bars or bites.  Put back in chiller to set for a little while more, and then you can leave out and store in pretty Masu boxes or in cookie tins.

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Yummy Homemade Chocolate Dip

This chocolate dip is chocolatey and delicious.  It holds onto the fruit nicely and it wont set, so you don't have to keep reheating it.  It also uses coconut  cream instead of dairy cream. HOMEMADE CHOCOLATE DIP RECIPE 150g Dark Chocolate 1Tb Butter 1/2 C Icing Sugar 2/3 C Coconut Cream Melt 150g chocolate with 1Tb butter in 1 minute bursts in the microwave, stirring in between, until melted.  Add Coconut Cream and Icing sugar.  Mix and you're all ready to go. Get your yummies together and choc dip away.

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More Supermarket Vegan Chocolate

Last month, we were saying we couldn't find another Supermarket Vegan branded chocolate apart from Sweet William. This month  Vegan Kit Kat hit our shores and lo and behold in our little Four Square store on the corner, we found a vegan brand called Pico. Heres what we thought of them.

Nestle Vegan Kit Kat, made in the UK. 41.5g bar of 4 wafer fingers 67% vegan chocolate Sugars per 20.8g serving size is 7.1g The aroma is cocoa.  It does taste like dark chocolate and Kitkat wafers.  Nice flavor and not too sweet.  The aftertaste is a slight dark chocolate bitterness with a slight sweetness.   This tastes like a Kitkat, which is a lot to do with the wafer as much as the chocolate. It was fine we thought, just like what a Kitkat would taste like to us.

Pico Salted Caramel - Vegan and Organic 80g block Made in Switzerland Sugars in 20g serving size is 10.2g Cocoa Solids 52% Caramel bits 10% Bought at Four Square for $5.99 The aroma is dark chocolate and there is a slight melt in the mouth. It has a distinctive dark chocolate taste with salt. The cacao beans are sourced from Ecuador, the Dominion Republic and Peru.  It reminded us a little of the Green and Blacks slightly fruity, tangy chocolate.  We wondered if the beans were from the same area. We don't really taste the caramel. The aftertaste is chocolate with a hint of salt. We liked it.  This is a nice vegan chocolate. These were both dark chocolates.  With a  certain cocoa percentage , a lot of darks would also be dairy free. We are still on the hunt for a nice vegan milk chocolate.  If you have any recommendations let us know.

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Dark Chocolate Fudge

BY JONI - THE HOME BAKER I have a Whittakers recipe book.  It is the prettiest cook book I own.  Their trademark gold foil that wraps their chocolate is on the first and last pages.

Inside this recipe book is a recipe for Dark Chocolate Fudge I wanted to try.   You  can try it too!  Here is the link to it online: https://www.whittakers.co.nz/en_WW/recipes/rich-dark-chocolate-fudge/

This is the first time I've used the microwave to make fudge.  I think if I made it again, I would do traditional stove top, as I am used to judging when a fudge is ready this way.  When I followed the recipe, I don't think I heated it enough, or maybe I didn't beat it enough, because after a  couple of hours in the fridge, it wasn't setting as hard as I like it. So here is my tweaks: Once all the ingredients are in, I added another 1/4 C cocoa and 3/4 C icing sugar and reheated it for 2 more minutes in the microwave.  Then I got out the wooden spoon and beat it till I had biceps like Rambo. I still wasn't convinced it would set, but within a couple of hours in the fridge, it was ready. This fudge is YUM!! It makes a good amount too.  The family loves it.  It is solid, but easy to bite into.  It is creamy and chocolatey to eat.   It is nicer than any chocolate fudge I have bought from a shop. This recipe with a little tweaking gets a tick from us.

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Cadbury Dairy Milk with Pascall Clinkers

SPECIAL EDITION Bought at Pak n Save for $2.99 170g block Clinkers candy pieces 8% Cocoa Solids 27% Milk Solids 24% Sugars per 25g serving size is 14.5g Made in Tasmania Australia We don't always buy these novelty type blocks, but Joni remembers Clinkers with fondness.  If you have never tried them, they are like a hard Eskimo lolly with a bit more fruity flavor punch, covered in chocolate.  They have different fruit flavors, and you didn't know what flavor you would get until you bit into them. In New Zealand you can't find them in the supermarkets anymore, but I did find you could buy them online from the Remarkable Sweet Shop NZ. It smells like Clinkers and it tastes like a mix of different flavored Clinkers.  The Clinkers add a nice crunch and the balance of Clinkers and chocolate is quite good.  The aftertaste? CLINKERS! ​ This block was actually a bit of fun.  Don't buy it for a serious chocolate tasting experience, but for  the yummy Clinker bits, and a bit of nostalgic fondness.