Chocolate is a decadent gift at any time of year, but during the holidays you want the confection to look as good as it tastes. After all, it’s got to keep up with a seasonal focus on appearance and be every bit as good as packages wrapped and ribboned to sparkly perfection, outdoor lighting displays that are the pride of a neighborhood, and the outfit carefully chosen for a holiday party.

Three local chocolatiers have this covered. Though each has a different take on their approach to chocolate and none could be mistaken for any other. All are visually stunning and perfect for hostess and teacher gifts,adding sparkle to a dessert tray, or a treat after a long day of holiday shopping and errands.

Robin’s Chocolates

Robin Autorino found her love of chocolate as she studied patisserie in France and worked at Flagstaff House, Brown Palace Hotel, and the Dushanbe Tea House. Chocolate-making was not her first choice of a career. In fact, for many years she believed she was allergic to it. Eventually, she learned she could tolerate most varieties of higher-grade, cleaner versions. That discovery fueled one of the basic premises of how she works today  – using the best ingredients possible including French Valrohna chocolate.

Today, she operates Robin’s Chocolates out of a kitchen and retail space on Airport Road in Longmont. Her classical training works with her choice of ingredients to ensure a strong, rich flavor profile such as holiday selection of figgy pudding or hot buttered rum. “If you bite into the Raspberry heart, you know it’s raspberry. That’s always been my emphasis for all of my flavors. You know what they are,” she said.

Autorino also takes her time to be sure that the look of each chocolate is exactly how she envisions it. Often, this requires what she describes as painstaking airbrushing. It’s not easy, but she feels it’s worth it to achieve the right presentation to go along with her flavors.

Stam Chocolate. Photo: Deborah Cameron

Stam Chocolate

At this time of year, stepping into Stam Chocolate’s retail space on Lafayette’s S. Public Road is like entering a holiday special. An array of chocolates in a case span two-thirds of the length of the retailer’s showroom and towers of multi-sized foil-wrapped Santas, advent calendars, and chocolate reindeer complete the look and make for one of a kind holiday gifts.

These chocolates can be purchased in Colorado, but they come from Belgium, where they’re shipped to the location. The same family has been making milk and dark chocolate confections for more than two centuries in a traditional Belgian style.

As Matthew Brundridge, owner of Stam’s Colorado location said, “Today, the great, great, great, great, great grandson of Jacobus Stam makes our chocolate. Through depressions, recessions, world wars, and global pandemics, we have an uninterrupted line of confectioners doing what they can to make the world a sweeter place.”

Piece, Love and Chocolate. Photo: Deborah Cameron

Piece, Love and Chocolate

This Pearl Street destination offers a chocolate-themed refuge from the rigors of holiday shopping and events. It also offers a wide range of things chocolate – from a gift-worthy cake that’s sold whole or by the slice, to a range of drinks.

“Everything we make must speak chocolate first,” said owner Greg Amorese. “We produce somewhere around 50 different types of truffles and take extreme care with them. For example, with our Mayan spice truffle, we roast our own blend of three types of chilis, or for our port and fig truffle we make a ‘pate fruit’ that’s layered into the truffle.”

But the flavors of its chocolates are matched by their distinct representations of Boulder — there are chocolates that show off the Avery Brewing A and the CU Buffalo, for instance. That’s what earned it a spot on its list.

The post Chocolate Holiday Gifts 101: Three Chefs Make Chocolates that Look as Good as Everything Else Does this Season | Foodie appeared first on Yellow Scene Magazine.

Courtesy of Nanga Chocolate

According to Aztec legend, the deity Quetzacoatl angered his fellow gods by sharing a divine secret with mortals – the cultivation and craft of chocolate. This story implies the grand importance of this ingredient throughout history, so much as to make it sacred. The idea has remnants in culture today. Part of its scientific name, theobroma, literally translates from Greek as “food of the gods,” and Boulder county has no shortage of artisans who make chocolate that will definitely take you to heaven.

Chocolate is derived from the beans of trees found in tropical climates, such as those in Central America, Africa, the Caribbean, and Indonesia. And the region matters, according to Rebecca Moses, Cocoa Alchemist at Piece, Love & Chocolate in Boulder: “some are considered a little bit more sour, whereas some are more earthy. Some of them, to me, even taste like olives.”

Photo by Jennifer Pappas

Fortuna Chocolate cofounder, Sienna Trapp Bowie, explained that these flavor subtleties form in cultivation. “You need a lot of humidity, but you also need a kind of layering,” she noted. “You need some undergrowth and you need some overgrowth to really get a nice flavor of the cacao.” Sienna also described the symbiosis involved in the supply chain: “It’s a collaboration between professionals. Between growers, fermenters, and then roasters, and chocolatiers at the end of the chain.”

Following harvest, the cacao beans follow a trajectory akin to that of coffee cherries in that it varies between operations, and according to Sienna, “there’s politics in every step.” Some farms are part of collectives that help them ferment, dry, roast, shell, grind, and export the product—a difficult part of its journey. “It can be the gnarliest part of the process,” Sienna shared. “When we finally get the cacao here, it’s a major success.”

Sienna claims that the artistry of chocolate hasn’t been passed down as it should be: “we’re losing these really awesome skills of harvesting, cultivation, and fermentation.” For this reason, Fortuna sources cacao through close relationships with farmers in Central America and hopes to foster this knowledge. They also perform their own roasting, and have even won an award for their innovative approach.

But chocolate can take many paths. For example Nelson Schwab, founder of the Lafayette-based Nanga Chocolate, buys “finished chocolate” from a manufacturer in Italy. Then he then transforms it. Coming from a background blending pastry and holistic nutrition (and a gig as Shine’s head chef), Nelson plays up chocolate’s culinary side by adding superfoods like turmeric, matcha green tea, and maca root. “It takes a little bit of education,” he admitted about his method. “The whole concept is that you can eat healthier without compromising any of the indulgent experience.”

Photo by Jennifer Pappas

Tempering is also an important, and quite technical, part of the processing. It’s a crystal development that gives chocolate its snap, texture, and keeps it solid at room temperature. “That’s a molecular process basically,” Sienna said. “It gets very scientific.”  Rebecca also explained that tempering can be different on any given day: “It becomes this process of feeling and working with the chocolate.”

Finally, each chocolatier has their own unique way of shaping chocolate into its finished form, whether it’s premium sipping chocolate topped with coconut cream from Fortuna, five spice chocolate-covered almonds by Nanga, or Piece Love & Chocolate’s signature truffles. Rebecca described the nuanced layers that need to be observed in their creation: “As far as the chemistry goes, you can’t outbalance fat content and water content… The second layer is flavor content.”

She also explained that making truffles can be a three day process, but it’s all worth it because these individuals love the process—the art of it. As Sienna put it, “Everyone around here would love to just do what we do and give it away for free.” But obviously, that’s not the way things work. So go forth, buy chocolate, and enjoy it with a new awareness of the incredible work that goes into every bite. I know I will.   

Photo by Jennifer Pappas

The post Sampler Plate: Following Chocolate From Tree To Truffle appeared first on Yellow Scene Magazine.

Openings/Closings

Happy closed its doors and reopened as simply The Bitter Bar. According to a release, the bar will serve the same cocktails by the same mixologists, with the addition of “delicious, straight forward, American bar food and decadent, intelligent, well-made desserts.” /Azitra, an Indian restaurant, opened at FlatIron Crossing in Broomfield. /Your Place or Vine, a wine bar offering wines by the glass, craft beers and Mediterranean-inspired small plates opened in Prospect, Longmont. /Another small plates restaurant, Riffs Urban Fare, opened in Boulder in the former Book End Café space on the Pearl Street Mall. /Minglewood opened in east Boulder. The owners describe it as high-end deli during the day and a bar at night.

News

Colorado brewers made a great showing at the Great American Beer Festival, including a win for Upslope Pumpkin Ale, by Upslope Brewing of Boulder. /Café Aion was included in Esquire’s “Where to Eat in Colorado Right Now,” list. /Owners of The Kitchen were lauded by Entrepreneur magazine for their leadership in the farm-to-table movement. /Visit Denver announced that Denver Restaurant Week will remain two weeks long, with the 2012 dates of Feb. 25–March 9.

Best of the Month

Not so much eats as drinks—the Fire in the Sky and Seedy Southpaw cocktails at Amaro in Boulder impressed. Order alongside an excellent cheese or salumi platter, or order up some braised Long Farm pork shoulder with polenta. /Killer crispy tacos at Agave in Boulder. Really, anything with their tortillas is good. /Mouthwatering lamb sag and vegetable biryani at Flavor of India in Longmont. Super-juicy turkey burger at Larkburger in Arvada. /Caramel custard frozen yogurt with a fresh grind of sea salt at Smart Cow in Arvada. /And choco-bliss with a cup of drinking chocolate at Piece, Love and Chocolate in Boulder.

Events

Restaurants are accepting reservations for First Bite Boulder, Nov. 11–19. /Café Aion is offering two more Sunday night wine dinners Nov. 13 and Dec. 18 featuring five courses of tapas paired with wines from Spain, Morocco and the Mediterranean. /Zoe Ma Ma in Boulder will offer the Lucky 8 Dinner, a special eight-course meal limited to eight guests on a monthly basis. The next dinner is November 12.

Have food news? Have a dish pick? Email editorial@yellowscene.com.

The post Eatery News Nov. ’11 appeared first on Yellow Scene Magazine.

It’s about this time of year that we begin craving stuffing, pumpkin pie and all the temptations and trimmings of the holiday table. Admit it, you’ve been caught nuzzling a box of Stove Top in the middle of aisle 6, and you nearly bought—gasp!—canned cranberries during your last trip to the grocery store. But before you are tempted by the fruit of another, here are seven recipes—four from Boulder County chefs and three from local food bloggers—that will fill your family festivities with homemade deliciousness, big bellies and little in the way of leftovers. Bon appétit.

Braised Lamb Shank by Dakota Soifer, Café Aion

Latkes with Beet Relish by Robin Bar-On, Pickled Lemon

Chocolate Pumpkin Cake by Juanita Edwards, The Rib House

Chocolate Pecan Pie by Paul Roberts, Two Dog Diner

plus Food Blogger’s Recipes for brussels sprouts, cranberry salsa and butternut squash with applesauce and sausage

The post Joy of Cooking appeared first on Yellow Scene Magazine.

Pecan pie is a long-time American classic; its origin has been traced back to the 1,700s, when the French settled in the area now known as New Orleans. Today, it’s the reason you need to unzip your pants after a Thanksgiving meal. Two Dog Diner owner Paul Roberts was nice enough to share his chocolate pecan pie recipe. It is a favorite of customers at the cool Prospect diner and also happens to be an old family recipe.

Filling Ingredients

• 1/2 C light corn syrup

• 1/2 C dark brown sugar

• 1/2 C sugar

• 1 tsp pure vanilla

• 4 large eggs

• 2-1/2 to 3 C fancy pecans halves

• 3/4 to 1 C dark, semi-sweet chocolate chips

• 1 recipe basic pie dough

Instructions

1. Pre-heat oven to 375 degrees. Put corn syrup, sugars, vanilla and eggs in a bowl. Mix.

2. Roll out pie dough and carefully put in a 9-inch pie pan. Add chocolate chips to bottom of unbaked pie shell. Top chocolate with pecans. Add egg/sugar mixture and bake for 45 min. Check at that time; if the filling is still a little loose, cook for 15 more minutes. Cool for at least two to three hours before serving.

Pie Dough Ingredients

• 2 C flour

• 3/4 tsp salt

• 1-1/2 tsp sugar

• 1 C + 2 T unsalted butter, cold & diced

• 3–5 T ice water

Instructions

1. In a medium bowl combine flour, salt and sugar. Using a pastry cutter or two butter knives, cut in butter until mixture is the size of small peas. Sprinkle ice water and mix until mixture comes together.

2. Form into 2 or 3 disks, wrap in plastic and refrigerate for at least half hour.

3. Roll out on lightly floured surface 1/2–1/4 inch thick fit into pie pan. Flute the edges.

The post Chocolate Pecan Pie appeared first on Yellow Scene Magazine.

Owner Merry Ann Webb’s mother, Juanita Edwards, makes all the cakes served up at The Rib House. At 81, she’s still going strong. Her cakes are rich, moist and a favorite of those who enjoy savory sweet cake after a meal of ribs and brisket. They are so coveted Webb couldn’t divulge the recipes for the cakes served in-house. Never fear, Edwards offered a family favorite: Her holiday chocolate pumpkin cake will put smiles on the faces of your holiday party guests with subtle spices of the season and a to-die-for dose of gooey chocolate goodness. (It sure put smiles on our faces when she snuck us a slice!)

Cake Ingredients

• 1-1/2 C flour

• 2/3 C cocoa

• 2 tsp baking powder

• 1 tsp baking soda

• 1/2 tsp salt

• 1/2 C buttermilk

• 1 C pumpkin puree

• 2 tsp vanilla extract

• 3/4 C butter, softened

• 1 C dark brown sugar

• 1 C granulated sugar

• 3 large eggs

• 1 egg yolk

Instructions

1. Line the bottoms of two 8-inch cake pans with parchment paper and lightly butter them.

2. Sift the flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt together. Stir the buttermilk, pumpkin and vanilla extract together in a small bowl. Using an electric mixer, beat the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs and yolk, one at a time. Reduce mixer speed to low and alternately beat in the flour and buttermilk mixtures in thirds.

3. Pour the batter into the prepared pans. Bake until a tester, inserted in the center, comes out clean, about 35 minutes. Cool layers completely before icing.

Icing Ingredients

• 6 oz cream cheese, softened

• 1-1/2 C confectioners’ sugar

• 2-1/4 tsp cocoa

• 1/4 tsp cinnamon

• 3/4 tsp vanilla

• 1-1/2 C heavy cream

• 3/4 cup confectioners’ sugar

• 1/4 tsp orange food coloring

Instructions

1. Beat softened cream cheese using a mixer on medium-high speed until fluffy. Add the 1-1/2 cups confectioners’ sugar, cocoa, cinnamon, and vanilla and beat on low speed until well combined. In a separate bowl, beat heavy cream with the 3/4 cup confectioners’ sugar and orange food coloring on medium-high to soft peaks.

2. Gently fold the whipped cream into the cream cheese mixture until well combined. Spread 1 cup frosting between the two layers and use the remaining frosting to ice the top and sides of the cake. Chill 30 minutes and proceed to glaze.

Glaze Ingredients

4 oz bittersweet chocolate, chopped

1 T unsalted butter, cold

3 T corn syrup

1/2 C heavy cream

Instructions

1. Place bittersweet chocolate, butter and corn syrup in a heatproof bowl. Bring cream to a boil, pour over chocolate. Let sit for 3 minutes. Gently stir, with a whisk, until smooth. Let sit for 3–5 minutes until thickened slightly. Pour glaze onto the center of the frosted cake. Smooth out to the edges to allow the glaze to drip over the sides.

The post Mom’s Chocolate Pumpkin Cake appeared first on Yellow Scene Magazine.

Creepy Cupcakes
by Genny Fetherson
Piece, Love and Chocolates
805 Pearl St., Boulder, 303.449.4804
Both designs can be made from any cupcake base, with a favorite chocolate frosting and white frosting. The ghost cupcakes are made by using white fondant, which can be easily found at any major craft store in the cake decorating aisle.

Also needed:
1/4 cup of chocolate, melted and put into a small zip-lock bag with the very tip of a corner cut off (a white chocolate bag is optional)
Black jellybeans
Chocolate sprinkles
Mini chocolate chips
Large marshmallows

For spider web cupcake:
Frost the cupcake with white frosting, making the surface fairly smooth. With melted chocolate, make a spiral design starting in the center of the cupcake and circling outward. Immediately draw a toothpick through the pattern, moving from the center to the outer edge. You can make a spider by using a black jellybean (or coffee bean). We covered ours in chocolate and rolled it in sprinkles (to make him hairy!). If you want, make eyes on the spider by using melted white chocolate and legs using dark chocolate.

For ghost cupcake:
Frost the cupcake with either chocolate or white frosting. Place a large marshmallow just behind the center of the cupcake. Roll fondant on a clean, smooth surface (use a bit of vegetable shortening to keep the fondant from sticking). Cut into 4-inch circles. Carefully place one over the marshmallow and sculpt it to create the head and flying body. Add eyes by quickly melting the bottom of a mini chocolate chip and placing it on the ghost’s face, or putting melted chocolate on the bottom of chip to use as glue.

Pulled Candy

by Robin Autorino

Robin Chocolates

237 Collyer St., Longmont, 720.204.8003

Ingredients: (makes about 2 pounds)

2 cups sugar

2 cups corn syrup (honey can be substituted for a very tasty option)

1 tsp. salt

1 tsp. extract (your choice; lemon, peppermint, raspberry, almond, anise, etc.)

3 drops food color (totally not needed if you don’t want colors)

Directions:

1. In a large saucepan over medium heat, combine sugar, corn syrup and salt. Stir until sugar is dissolved. With a damp pastry brush, wipe down the sides of the pan.

2. Stop stirring, raise heat to high and cook until the temperature reaches 290 F.

3. Pour syrup onto a marble slab or heatproof, non-stick surface, sprayed with nonstick spray. Using a bench scraper, fold the edges of sugar mass in toward the center.

4. While the candy is hot, add extract and color. Don’t worry if the color is not even, when you start to pull, it will smooth out.

5. When the candy is cool enough to handle, wearing latex gloves—sprayed with nonstick spray—pick up enough candy that you can pull but not so much that it’s hard to handle, start pulling the candy into a rope. Once the rope is formed, fold in half and pull again. Continue this for approximately 10 to 15 minutes or until the candy is opaque and very difficult to pull.

6. Pull into a long rope and cut (spray the scissors) into half-inch pieces.

7. Wrap each piece in wax paper. The candy will keep for 2-3 weeks in a tightly covered container. Do not refrigerate.

The post Kid-Friendly Spooky Recipes appeared first on Yellow Scene Magazine.

Everyone knows that great things can come in small packages, and when it comes to the nuanced perfection of a really good piece of chocolate, the old adage couldn’t be more apt.

Robin Autorino started making chocolates as a hobby when she was a single mom trying to entertain her son. Eventually, she decided to leave her corporate job and become a chef. Her journey took her to the pastry kitchens of well-respected restaurants around the Front Range. But her passion for chocolate eventually drew her away from those kitchens and into her own.

Since she started Robin Chocolates with a single store selling her confections, the business has grown by leaps and bounds. Now found in high-end gift shops and gourmet kitchen stores across the region, her chocolates have become a sensation for those in the know.

We definitely wanted to provide Autorino with a challenge, but not something completely off the wall. She teased that if we gave her trout, we’d have to eat it.
While certainly a traditional herb, rosemary isn’t usually paired with chocolate.
“I’ve seen a few other people use it,” Autorino said, “but I don’t really like it, so I’d never tried it before.” It’s never a good sign to hear that your chef doesn’t like to eat the ingredient they’ve been cooking with, but she was quick to add, “But I actually like what I’ve made!”

Relieved, we took a bite. Enrobed in a dainty dark chocolate shell, a smooth, perfectly balanced caramel oozed out onto the tongue. The rosemary takes a moment to register, almost more like a smell than a taste; once there, it’s unmistakable but not at all overwhelming.

Rosemary is not the only flavor that comes through. Notes of lemon and honey complement and round out the flavor, creating a truly unique and refreshing taste. And like all of her other candies, the geometric shapes and delicate airbrushing make these caramels as gorgeous to look at as they are to taste.
Robin’s rosemary lemon caramel is likely not the sort of candy you eat by the handful. It’s a perfect example of a treat to be savored slowly, carefully, and examined every bite of the way.

The rosemary lemon caramel is available now. For information, and retail locations visit robinchocolates.com.

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