Chocolates, good wine can help wow your sweetheart
Ditch that humdrum box of assorted chocolates. Instead, wow your valentine with an experience that engages all of the senses, and doesn’t sacrifice the sweets.
Bev Shaffer, director of the Mustard Seed Market’s Cook Schools in Akron, Ohio, believes that chocolate goes with every day of the year, especially a day to celebrate love.
But she said stretching the boundaries of chocolate through tasting varieties other than the milk chocolate most people are used to is a great way to experience the treat.
“Engage your senses,” Shaffer said.
Look at the texture, smell the chocolate, feel it, and let it melt in your mouth, she said.
“Smell is 90 percent of taste,” she said.
Cheap chocolate, she said, will smell of sugar and vanilla, while a better quality chocolate will have a woody, spicy or floral smell.
“If you notice the sugar right away, chances are there’s too much sugar in it,” Shaffer said, noting that excess sugar is sometimes used to hide inferior cocoa beans used in the chocolate.
Shaffer recently offered a class called “Chocolate Upon Chocolate Upon Chocolate” at the Festival of Food and Wines at Lakeview Golf Resort and Spa in Morgantown, W.Va.
The smoother the texture, the more fat in the chocolate, Shaffer said, and that makes it taste all that much better. The higher the cocoa content, the better and more bitter the chocolate will be.
And if the chocolate snaps without too much effort, Shaffer said that means there is a good mix of cocoa and butter.
Shaffer said there is a right and wrong way to taste chocolate. Put a small piece on the tongue, break it into small chunks and let them melt. With good chocolate, the flavor will linger for several minutes, she said.
“I’d tell you that you’d eat less that way, but I’d be lying,” Shaffer said.
The rules also apply to white chocolate, Shaffer said, noting that a good white will list cocoa butter as an ingredient on the label.
Bonnie Hiltner of Canton, Ohio, who attended the class, said she and her husband, Eric, have chocolate every day.
“Cocktail hour is sacrosanct in our house,” said Bonnie Hiltner.
She also attended the wine appreciation class hosted by Vincent Saguto Jr. of Click Wine Group.
Saguto’s class featured Fat Bastard wines – one of the top selling French wine brands in the United States.
His class gave pragmatic advice about enjoying wines at their proper temperatures, and from their proper glasses.
For example, a chardonnay never should be served too cold. That, he said, masks the taste. Generally, a white should be refrigerated about 30 minutes before it’s served, and if it comes directly out of the fridge, allow it to set for about 10 minutes.
Otherwise, the cold will accent the bitterness, he said.
Serving a pino noir in a smaller glass is better, Saguto said, because a bigger glass lets too much air get to the wine.
As for reds, he said that pouring them into a decanter before serving lets them breathe, and subsequently taste better. To prove that point, he poured samples of a red directly from the bottle and from a plastic pitcher. The one poured from the pitcher should taste better, he said.
“It doesn’t matter what the price (of the decanter) is,” Saguto said.
But while Saguto explained the recommendations, he stressed that they were just that.
“No one’s going to tell you that you’re wrong for liking it a certain way,” he said.
Smooth and Silky Fudge Sauce
4 oz bittersweet chocolate, coarsely chopped
1 1/3 cups confectioners sugar, sifted
1/3 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
¾ cup half and half
In a medium saucepan, combine chocolate and putter. Let them soften over low heat, stirring until the mixture is blended. Whisk in the sugar and half and half and cook, whisking over medium heat until the mixture comes to a boil. Reduce the heat to low and cook, whisking often, for about 5 minutes. Remove the saucepan from the heat and whisk in the vanilla. Cool to room temperature and use immediately or store, cooled and covered in the refrigerator.