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I've posted this in the NY forum already, but I thought I might get a different response from my fellow coffee-heads -- perhaps there's an online or mail-order source if not a NY-area source?: Does anyone know where I can get my hands on some Ghirardelli chocolate syrup? Not the powder, not the candies. The syrup. My favorite coffee shop uses it to make the most wonderful mochaccinos I've ever had...I need to get some of this for my own personal stash. It's on the Ghirardelli website here, but says that it's only available to the trade. Any suggestions? Thanks! [edited to add in link that didn't transfer]

Does anyone know where I can get my hands on some Ghirardelli chocolate syrup? Not the powder, not the candies. The syrup. My favorite coffee shop uses it to make the most wonderful mochaccinos I've ever had...I need to get some of this for my own personal stash. It's on the Ghirardelli website here, but says that it's only available to the trade. Any suggestions? Thanks!

Saw this in the store the other day and decided to try it, a bock beer with real chocolate as an ingredient. Basically a good but not great beer. I thought the chocolate taste was too strong. Reccomend this as no more than a dessert beer. I also those that it was way overpriced at $16/bomber sized bottle.

These are just about my favorite kind of assorted chocolates. My absolute favorites are the following: Hazelnut praline and buttercrunch in marbleized ivory. Chocolate cream and hazelnut praline in milk chocolate. Hazelnut praline with biscuit pieces in ivory, decorated with candied sugar. Dark chocolate truffle dusted with cocoa, sugar and cinnamon. Lemon ganache in a milk chocolate shell. Their newest one is "Noix Macadamia" which is hazelnut praline with ground nougatine and shortbread biscuit, topped with macadamia nut and enrobed in milk chocolate. What are yours? Soba

anybody have any leads on how to get bernachon chocolates here in the us other than calling them directly and trying to decipher an order with my poor french?

Well, I attempted to make Alice Medrich's Bittersweet Chocolate Ice Cream last night, and my chocolate wouldn't melt. I'm so pissed off - I had to throw the whole thing in the garbage. I followed the directions exactly - it said to heat the custard to 175-180 F, then pour over the chopped chocolate, and mix till melted. The chocolate didn't blend completely and left lots of specks after stirring for several minutes, and of course the mixture didn't become thick. This specks were not hard lumps, but they were still specks and stayed separated from the cream mixture, leaving the texture thin. I checked my candy thermometer for accuracy and it is indeed 100 % accurate. So what the *%_^*_$^)!!&(* happened? Is 175-180F not hot enough a temperature to melt chocolate?! I've used this method before with scalded cream and it usually works - can't figure out why it didn't this time. After stirring for awhile with no results, I tried to heat it a little over a double boiler and it still didn't blend. I used one of Medrich's variations (she includes several at the end of the original recipe, which I omitted here), and did 6 oz of 70% bittersweet chocolate with 1/2 cup sugar instead of the 3 1/2 oz unsweetened chocolate with 3/4 cup sugar. Note: my chocolate was at room temperature, and I chopped it into very small pieces so it wasn't overly coarse. Here's the recipe: BITTERSWEET CHOCOLATE ICE CREAM Makes about 3 1/2 cups INGREDIENTS: 3 1/2 oz. unsweetened chocolate, coarsely chopped 1 1/2 c. heavy cream 1 1/2 c. whole milk 3/4 c. granulated sugar 1/8 tsp. salt 4 large egg yolks 1 tsp. pure vanilla extract Set a strainer over a medium bowl near the stove. Put the chocolate in a medium bowl next to it. In a 1 1/2 qt - 2 qt. saucepan, bring the cream, milk, sugar and salt to a simmer over medium heat. Meanwhile, in a third medium bowl, whisk the yolks just to combine them. Whisking constantly, pour the hot cream mixture slowly over the yolks. Scrape the mixture back into the saucepan and cook over mdium heat, stirring constantly with a silicone spatula or a wooden spoon, until the mixture thickens slightly and registers between 175 and 180 degrees F. Strain the mixture into the waiting bowl to remove any bits of cooked egg. Stir in the vanilla. Pour just enough of the hot cream mixture over the chocolate to cover it. Stir until the chocolate is melted and the mixture is thick and smooth. Gradually add the rest of the cream mixture, stirring until perfectly blended and smooth. Cover and refrigerate until chilled. Freeze according to the instructions for your ice-cream maker.

I would like to send a gift of caramels to a friend but am not sure it is feasible. I am planning on freezing them and then shipping the caramels overnight. Fed Ex won't do it so I guess I am stuck with UPS. I can't be the first person to do this, can I? Is this absurd? Can I do it? How? Help!

I hope this is the right forum for this inquiry - I've never posted here before! My daughter is turning three on November 12, and we are having a big party on the 14th. The party will be for both adult family and all of her friends. The theme is Halloween Redux, and everyone will be in costumes. All of the decor will be Halloween, and the activities will be Halloween-related as well (painting mini-pumpkins, etc.). When I asked Dylan what kind of cake she wanted, she said she wants a hot pink chocolate cake. She has clarified that the hot pink is referring to the frosting (or crossing, as she says). Here is what I'm wondering: What is the best chocolate cake recipe for 3 year olds? I want something moist but not fudgy. They are all likely used to cake mix cakes, which I refuse to do, but I don't want to fall on my sword - I want them to actually eat it. How can I decorate it? Hot pink isn't exactly "Halloween'y". Luckily, Dyl's costume is a hot pink (see a theme here?) butterfly, so I'm thinking I can coordinate? What shape is best? My friend offered to lend me her round cake pan, which makes a giant half dome. I think that might be hard to cut. I am leaning towards a sheet cake, as that will be easy to cut and serve out to the little ones. A layer cake seems too large for 3 year olds. We'll probably have about 10 kids and 10 - 15 adults. Thanks all!

Last night, I dined at a fine local establishment. My companions ordered coffee at the end of the meal, and the server brought out a lovely small tray with lump white sugar, lump brown sugar, the usual Sweet 'n Low and Equal packets, and a lot of little dark things described as "chocolate-covered licorice lentils". This was a first for me. Seemed like a nice idea, but how common is it? Or anything like it?

I was at a store that sold olives and I saw a package that looked like olives but it said they were "chocolate olives". I thought they might be chocolate covered olives or chocolate stuffed olives. That sounded pretty disgusting to me so I figured I had better investigate further. They ended up being chocolate covered almonds that looked very much like olives. They looked like this: Chocolate "olives" I tried putting one on a cocktail fork in a chocolate martini that was made with Ketel One Vodka with a splash of clear Creme de Cacao. It looked just like a regular martini. Pretty cool. It needed to be consumed relatively quickly though as the liquid melted the chocolate olive after a little while.

Hi Kathy, I haven't tried any of these myself, but thought you might want to have a look: Coconut Chocolate Rolls Chocolate Burfee Chocolate Samosa. //Scroll down to page 10 When you said molé, it occured to me that perhaps you could add some dark chocolate to rajma - not sure if it'll work though. Episure, any thoughts? Let me know how it goes. Suman

I was told I'd have better luck posting this here - sorry for any duplication. _______________________ I'm trying to develop a drink for the cold months but I can't seem to get past first base. Perhaps this a moronic question, but what temperature should a hot milk shake be? My idea which I tried and like - is to make a spicy hot chocolate and chocolate milk shake separately. The milk shake is made with just enough milk so it blends somewhat smoothly, i.e., about 3 oz. of milk and 6 oz. of ice cream (as well as chocolate syrup.) The hot chocolate was about 7 ounces, so the yield totaled about 16 oz. I first poured the hot chocloate in the glass and then added the shake. So it was hot on bottom and cold on top when served. Is this what is meant when people refer to hot chocolate shake? Someone (Holly?) came up with the following.... A black and white shake with marshmellow fluff on top or mixed in. If she's reading this, can you expand on the recipe? Thanks.

Made a chocolate buttercream 10 whole eggs + 1 1/2 c sugar +1.5 lbs BS chcolate + 18 tab butter. BUT, mistakenly added 2 tab water to egg & sugar mix. Results: 1.egg & sugar didn't thicken as well as usual 2.final mix is less thick than usual...somewhere between glaze and usual buttercream Am now refridgerating mix to see if it thickens. Two questions: a.Do I need to re-whip [fluff] the buttercream because I refridgerated it? b.If it's still too thin, can I add something to thicken it---more chocolate or egg?--and how do I proceed with this. Thanks

I have recently started a chocolate business and one of the things that is puzzling me most is chopping chocolate. I am having a hard time keeping up. I sometimes spend a couple of hours on chopping the 11 lb. blocks of chocolate (a bunch of them) by hand a week- knife and/or chipper. Besides the time it takes, it's really wearing on my wrists. I have seen the chocolate cutter from Chocovision, but does this cut the chocolate into small pieces? Are there any other pieces of equipment out there that would work that I don't know about? Thanks for any input!

Unfortunately Espai Sucre was closed, but I did manage to get to, taste, buy and bring back chocolate from Oriol Balaguer's Estudi Xocolada and Cacao Sampaka. Estudi Xocolada is an artisanal producer of exquisitely fine chocolate in a number of varieties. Unlike the other places, it does not serve its chocolate products on site, but we did have an interesting discussion with the pastry chef (not Oriol Balaguer), who offered us samples of chocolates with pop rocks inside. This was some of the most incredible and fun chocolate I have ever eaten. The chocolate was dramy pure dark chocolate, but the pop rocks gave an incredible mouth sensation to go along with the flavor of the chocolate. We bought chocolates and a dessert book (in English) by Balaguer. Cacao Sampaka is located off the Ramblas Catalunya and has a small cafe in adition to the retail Chocolate shop. They have an incredible array of flavors and styles. I sampled the black truffle, which was amazing. I'll report back as I sample some of the others we came home with.

I inherited this on the job. Chef wants me to use it up in my mini pastry's this week-BUT I only make pastries they keep in their freezer 'ready to eat'. I can do palmiers and spreading a ganche between two. But I really should get more creative....unforunately my mind isn't co-operating with me. Any creative ideas for using up chocolate puff pastry dough in a ready to eat stored in the freezer mini pastry? Also any baking tips using this....same temp and handling as reg. puff pastry?

Im trying to find coverture chocolate on the West Coast (OR, WA, CA) or somewhere online. Can anyone help me? Thanks!

I can't get past the bitterness of it to even attempt to enjoy the flavor. I keep trying it (in hopes that I'll find some I may like (has worked with many other foods I thought I dind't like)), but no luck so far. Anyone else?

Dear eGullet, The things I'm willing to do for you sometimes... its astonishing, and perhaps a bit pathetic. A few years ago I would have walked right by something like Z-Carb without a second thought. Damn you eGullet! This is really a case of being willing to "take one for the team", I think. Part of this is intellectual curiousity, part the fact that I'm currently on a diet (but NOT a low-carb diet), and part a sickness brought on by one too many nights sitting in front of my computer debating the high and low points of Marshmallow Peeps with Fat Guy. I just have an irresistible urge to try things, and if they are good rave, and if they aren't... snark. We've spoken at length about Splenda on the boards, and its frequent use in soda, and lo and behold today--while shopping for breath mints in my local Seven Dash Eleven I stumble upon: and So Splenda has made its way to fake chocolate now. The names, and the packaging, are somewhat discouraging. There's a big potential market with Splenda to market it to people who are simply trying to cut down on sugar, without pressing all of those buttons that the hard-core Adkins crowd relies on. The point is... Splenda is the first artificial sweetener with a fighting chance of drawing in mainstream "eaters", because chemically its the most similar to "real" sugar. When its pigeonholed as some kind of Adkins specialty thing... it means that they can charge more for it, but they sacrifice mass appeal. In total, I bought four bars--two of each brand. "At Last" features the scrumtuous sounding "Chocolate Truffle" and "Chocolate Almond", and Z-Carb the lovely "Gourmet Milk Chocolate Bar with Almonds" and "Gourmet Milk Chocolate Bar with Peanut Butter". I'm willing to risk tossing my cookies with one of these a day. How bad can it be?

For Halloween, I did a few trays of eyeballs: peanut butter eyeballs coated in white chocolate and decorated. Well, I'm still a bit weak in my chocolate tempering and I didn't have time for practicing, so I chose the white candy melts. The taste was decent and the audience was kids, so I wasn't worried on that end. More importantly, the color was genuinely white, not the pale yellow of white chocolate. What really sucked is that it was like dipping the balls into pudding. It was horrible to work with. Now the dilemma: I already received a request for the peanut butter balls for Christmas, decorated to look like snowmen (cool idea...wish I thought of it). But I don't want to use the candy melts. And I don't want yellow "snow" (gross!). Is there whiter white chocolate? I've only tried out a couple brands, Ghirardelli and Callebaut to be specific. The Callebaut is whiter than the Ghirardelli, but still yellowish compared to the candy melts. Or is there a way to whiten white chocolate? I thought as a worst case, I could experiment thinning the candy melts with corn syrup, but I'm not too keen on that idea either. Thanks!

I'm looking for one Most appreciated if you can help. Thanks!

I'm looking for ideas for a chocolate desert! I'd like something that is quick but still tasty and MUST be more'ish seen anything on line??

I am looking to purchase a tempering machine. Something small to do up to 10 lbs. What do you recommend? What is the ACMC like and any suggestions on where to buy in Toronto area to save on shipping or other places are welcome too. Is $950 Canadian a good price? Thanks Rookie - Mary

If you saw this movie (Johnny Depp was in it) do you remember how wonderful the hot chocolate was supposed to be? I thought the owner of the chocolate shop said the secret was a little chili pepper. Is there really such a drink? Anyone have a recipe?

Oh, how I love bacon, and one day on a whim I decided to try some chocolate at the same time as some hot bacon off the pan and was instantly transported. So I am wondering if it would be possible to incorporate the rich bacony taste into a chocolate cake. Use bacon grease in a chocolate butter cake? Or actual bits of bacon perhaps? I'm imagining a down-home rich Southern chocolate-bacon cake with a mocha frosting. I just don't know how to pull it off. I'm (obviously) an amateur baker- my husband thinks this idea is insane......