Chocolate sauce
polycounter lvl 18
Well, I've just discovered some rather disturbing information regarding chocolate sauce.
While many people may believe it goes very well with ice cream or other desserts, I believe that mocha sauce, or even butterscotch sauce may be a better alternative.
Neither of these sauces seem to get much mass-market recognition, yet they are infinitely more tasty and sooooo sweet and delicious.
What are your favourite desserts? Personally I'd skip main meals and just eat ice cream, cakes and various sauces instead of "real" food. However, I have to say that whipped cream is best avoided, it just adds unnecessary mass and lack-of-flavour to an otherwise fine dessert (such as apple pie).
Does chocolate sauce go well with apple pies? What are good combinations of dessert and topping?
Discuss!
While many people may believe it goes very well with ice cream or other desserts, I believe that mocha sauce, or even butterscotch sauce may be a better alternative.
Neither of these sauces seem to get much mass-market recognition, yet they are infinitely more tasty and sooooo sweet and delicious.
What are your favourite desserts? Personally I'd skip main meals and just eat ice cream, cakes and various sauces instead of "real" food. However, I have to say that whipped cream is best avoided, it just adds unnecessary mass and lack-of-flavour to an otherwise fine dessert (such as apple pie).
Does chocolate sauce go well with apple pies? What are good combinations of dessert and topping?
Discuss!
Replies
Personally I hate chocolate in any form except straight up chocolate bars or hot (actually cold) chocolate and even there I prefer non-chocolate chocolate (i.e. white chocolate). Chocolate sauce or ice cream is an atrocity to me.
I don't eat desserts nowadays, I'm full enough after the main course. Apparently that's a general trend, my mother says all of the Kindergarten children don't want dessert anymore.
We here in the Netherlands eat a lot of yoghurt type deserts and a thing called "vla". Which has the same type of pourable texture and comes in a lot of different flavours and kinds.
I never say no to a good cheese-cake though.
Furthermore, the church wants me to commit to just ONE dessert. I should just eat one, and only when I'm intending to make another (which I can't eat). I feel I should have the freedom to eat as many desserts as I see fit! Why does the church care so much about my eating habits?
I prefer a nice pint of http://www.haagen-dazs.com/segicd.do?productId=125 with out any bloody Chocolate sauce.
You aren't supposed to eat frosting straight out of the can, smear it on something and it'll be much better.
I'm currently on a peach cobbler bender, the stuff is great and comes with its own sauce.
personally, i can't stand chocolate-flavoured anything. It's usually like eating an overbearing opinion - all chemically, rich and sets your teeth on edge. Yuk.
then again, i grew up thinking that all chocolate was supposed to taste like Cadbury's Dairy Milk ... how wrong i was. I had some American chocolate recently : i would have laughed out loud had i not been gagging
edit - damn this UBB code! Damn you all to hell!. What was so wrong with HTML anyway?
Agreed with RWolf here, ice cream and hot apple pie is a ridiculously good combination. Although chocolate sauce on that ice cream might also work, if used sparingly...
but true chocolate comes from belgium. Man, those belgium truffles.. the taste.. the melting.. *drools*
on the subject of sauces I would hesitantly say butterscotch over choc, but I'd prefer a little double cream (not whipped though). Man I'm getting fatter just thinking about this stuff. Stop it Mop!
Anyone find frosting on cakes to be a little too overwhelmingly sweet?
I prefer a nice pint of http://www.haagen-dazs.com/segicd.do?productId=125 with out any bloody Chocolate sauce.
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oh most definitely, i cannot stand cake because of the frosting, which is why i only eve have pie for my birthday. you can never go wrong with pie. unless it's raspberry then it's just horrible.
Agreed with RWolf here, ice cream and hot apple pie is a ridiculously good combination. Although chocolate sauce on that ice cream might also work, if used sparingly...
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Is that a popular combination over on yon isle upon which you live? While I know it's an imported recipe (like virtually all food here), there is the old line about something being "as American as apple pie." I rather assumed the delicious delight that is apple pie with ice cream was known in the UK but not particularly common.
In an effort to be chocolately correct and avoid offending anyone, I shall refrain from discussing any aspect of chocolate, sauces or otherwise. And I apologize in advance, just in case.
I have also discovered Carvel's Rainbow-Chip cake mix ice-cream and found it to be superior in several respects to all other breeds & species of available frozen dairy deserts. It does in fact bear a more than passing resemblance to the flavor of cake mix, only your mother won't tell you you'll "get worms" from eating it in said "batter" state. Moreover nor are you required to lick it delicately from an electric beater!
The major drawback I've discovered to this incredible confection is that its lifespan is rather woefully limited. After consuming a portion and slumbering in the freezer for even just 1 night, it looses much of its lustre and vigor, becoming a pale shadow of its former delicious self.
http://itsjustchocolate.com (nsfw)
Wow, did it get hot in here or is it just my genitalia becoming engorged with blood?
Blah blah blah. Anyone who's anyone nowadays knows that chocolate sauce for eating is yesterday's news. What's "now" and "hip" with today's kids is chocolate sauce for the purposes of sex and foreplay!!
http://itsjustchocolate.com (nsfw)
Wow, did it get hot in here or is it just my genitalia becoming engorged with blood?
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i hope im not the only one who clicked the link, expecting something hot : /
i hope im not the only one who clicked the link, expecting something hot : /
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No....no you were not. (nsfw), indeed.
Nana's apple cobbler with a scoop of vanilla bean on the side, for me. No sauces of any kind on my desserts...at least none of which I can think of at the moment.
joolz: brilliant post
and btw nutella > anything else
I liked that chocalate sauce that hardens into a shell on top of icecream, back when I liked ice cream that is. Caramel(or Carmel as I like to spell it) is pretty damn good as well.
"Hershey's milk chocalate is chocalate to me."
Well that's rather fascinating. Hersheys is about the most disgusting thing Ive ever tasted. The first time I tasted it I spat it out thinking there was surely something wrong with it. American chocolate is generally considered to be crap outside of America.
p.s how we doing Paul? ;-P
I have to agree that American chocolate is a poor shadow of it's former European self. It's been diluted and polluted so much it doesn't know what it is!
And dammit stop talking about it. Visions of giant Toblerone bars, their scaleable triangles taunting me... German chocolate, Swiss, Italian, English... all have venerable chocolate traditions. It's true that Hershey's is a unpalatable knockoff by comparison, stop rubbing it in!
( I'm rubbing it in 'cos I so want to see John Warners statement become true. I would crack up so goddam hard If this became a flame war
daz i'm personaly offended by your insinuation about north american culture.
i know you said US.. common.. i'm tryin here..
John: I'm wouldn't even be convinced canananada even existed except it keeps crying to the WTO that we aren't buying enough of it's shit.
Well, I shall not dispute a) your size or even b) the fact that you are from a larger country ( superior is too subjective to argue unfortunately ). Nor even will I doubt the fact that you've tasted Toblerone. ( indeed not a bad little piece of confectionary by any means ) I have however the superior experience of currently living in said 'larger superior' country ( for these past 5 years now ) and of living in my country of origin which is the United Kingdom ( the land of far superior chocolate dont you know? ).
That foresight and experience that I have over you, means that I have had considerable direct comparitive tastings of chocolate between their UK and US counterparts. ( For example the aforementined 'Snickers' ). Furthermore, those tastings have been acommpanied by companions who are also expatriots and made the same subsequent 'eeeurgh, fuck, jeez. Shit <spitting sounds>. What the fuck do they put in this shit?' ( I'll get to that later ) comments as I did upon first tasting Hersheys. I absolutely doubt sir, that you have ever side by side tried a 'Galaxy' bar and a 'Hersheys' bar of chocolate. From experience ( one that you will never have since you are an American and of course travelling beyond your borders would be...well, what's the point..am I right? ) I can assure you with the utmost confidence that a chunk of the galaxy bar will go down with that silky 'melt in your mouth' smoothness that only a good milk chocolate bar can provide ( milk being the key here. Hersheys executives made the notable decision at some point that substituting it for copious amounts of animal fat would go unnoticed. To be fair, If you've never tasted good European milk chocolate, this is probably true ).
A subsequent equivalent bite of a Hersheys however, provides a bitter taste and texture ( and oddly, not to mention smell ) that is much further away from silky smooth milk chocolate, and is in actual fact far more reminiscent of well....cat vomit. There are many things I love about Uncle Sam, but chocolate sure as hell aint one of 'em. You gotta face the reality of it I'm afraid my friend. I know it's harsh, but chocolate making sure as hell aint your forte. This might require a vote actually, but I am confident of ultimate victory.
Oh, and in addendum, I had briefly forgotten where you live; you obviously have Ghirardelli chocolate at hand if you so choose, Hershey isn't the only American chocolate you're apt to find. Comparing any other nation's products to Hershey, what I would consider to be the lowest common denominator of domestic chocolate, seems a bit askew when I'm sure you must have been exposed to better American chocolate than that. I'm not saying any one nation's chocolate is better or worse than another, but the Hershey comparison is a bit stacked in Britain's favor...
Ghirardelli is indeed the mutz nutz. But it *IS* the exception to the general rule
Lo, a shockingly relevant article! Of course, I already knew Americans have generally poor taste
Krispy Kremes should be illegal, I remeber the day last year when they first came to this part of Canada....
also on the subject of regional variations, it recently came to my attention how American coke has quite a different taste/aftertaste than Mexican coke, because Mexican coca cola is still made with real sugar, and American coke production plants were switched over to corn syrup a while ago. i loooooove vanilla coke, but i've always thought that coke starts to taste a little nasty after a while. and the corn syrup is what's responsible!
i remember on my big road trip, i was in southern texas... close enough to the border for some of the convenience stores to be carrying mexican goods. i distinctly recall seeing Mexican coke sitting right next to the american coke, but i didn't think anything of it!
ok so now i sound obsessed with mexican coke, but if you ask me it's worth a trip across the border (and yes i know i can order some online, but that's not very sporting now, is it?)
Actually I just said hersheys is the standard by which I judge all european chocalate disgusting, bitter, crap I'd be upset to find on the bottom of my shoe let alone on my plate. To be fair I'm a supertaster and so hate all bitter chocalates as I can actually taste them. To continue to be fair I hate europe with a burning passion so even if you somehow managed to convince me of their superior chocolate making abilities(which you haven't) I'd still burn the continent to the bedrock if given the chance.
"A Hershey Bar" on the other hand, tastes like raw sewage mixed with bird shit. You may wonder how I know that, and the answer is simple, I've swum in the sea off Great Britain, and if you remove the fishy saltyness it would be like liquid Hersheybar.
Don't feel bad though Americans, that your national favorite candy (so the advertising would have everyone believe) tastes like a used nappy/diaper, you still have the best Hamburgers in the world, and that's got to count for something, right?
Oh, and you can get Cadbury's Dairy Milk here made by Hershey's, it's actually pretty comparable to the real thing - I was shocked and amazed let me tell you.
http://www.haagen-dazs.com/
http://www.ghirardelli.com/
All american chocolate makers. I have had the benefit of both european and american chocolate, and they both taste delicious. I personally don't like Hersheys very much, but the above three manufacturers make chocolate that I believe can hang with any other countries best. Delicious.
everything pretty much tastes of the disinfectant they use in the convinience stores anyway.
Chocolate is made using cocoa, and the best cocoa comes from south america, (so does the best coffee (Colombian specifically) and not from starbucks), where the cocoa plant originates, and not to be confused with the coca plant from which cocaine is produced, of which the south americans (Colombians specifically) are also the best at producing. The three main areas of cocoa production in the world are S. America, Ivory coast in Africa and South East Asia. Of these three regions. Of the three regions, the best cocoa beans still come from south america, as the plants are in thier native environment and also at thier native altitude. Factors that affect the quality of the cocoa are roasting and particle size of the ground cocoa. Most of the worlds chocolate is produced using alkalised cocoa liquor (look it up on google I cannae be arsed to explain all the detail), that has had its PH increased from 5 to around 8 (a processed invented by a dutchman Van Houten (father of famous dutch chocolate brand))which makes the flavour better, and gives a better consistency but makes it smell not so nice and requires more processing and 'deoderzing'.
Modern Chocolate has many factors to take into account. firstly shelf life, chocolate made for tropical climates tend to include more hydrogenated vegtable oil, and less milk butter, which melts at a higher temperature and gives chocolate a much better 'durability'. This makes it also taste like sugar coated HDPE. Economic cost, seeing as nestle and hersheys are such poor companies and are having trouble feeding thier families, they reduce the content of Cocoa (which is the most expensive ingredient) and to make up for the lack of cocoa the content of sugar and vegetable fat is greatly increased. Typically a bar of cadbury milk chocolate contains about 20% cocoa solids, 20% milk solids and vegetable fat while a higher quality bar (green and Blacks) would contain 34% cocoa and 27% milk solids and no vegetable fat. The higer the content of cocoa also increases the bitterness of the chocolate, and some may say they dislike bitter chocolate, but thats just the way it is.
Ive tried a chocolate drink made from colombian cocoa, and it was bitter and actually a bit fruity, which is something i never associated with a chocolate drink. I like it though its really rich and as far as satisfying a chocolate craving its like bieng shitfaced on chocolate.
My favourite choclate makers are Lindt, Cote d Or, Geldof, and sometimes Godiva. Pricey, but worth it. Yum. I am by no means a chocolate expert, but of all the brands I've tasted those are my favourites. I think the Lindt 70% Pure Choocolate bar is a good comprimise between bitterness & sweetness. The 99% Pure stuff tastes like you've stuffed a spoonfull of cocoa powder in your mouth. Bleh.
Oh yeah, chocolate sauce all the way.
Cheers
Steve