Hotel Chocolat Valentine's Day Chocolate Heart

  

 The lovely people at Hotel Chocolat asked if I would like to review one of their range of Valentine's Day chocolates and gave me a few options. They have a fabulous range this year, including boxed chocolates, a goody bag, champagne and truffles sets, and a new range of toiletries including luxury bath oils if the woman in your life is on a diet! I couldn't resist this one, called Open Your Heart To Me.

It costs £26 and for that you get six chocolate truffles - two each of passion fruit truffle, caramel praline and strawberry and rose truffle. But best of all, the heart shaped box it comes in is made of chocolate, so you can eat that too!

It comes very attractively packaged in a pink gift box with a black ribbon. I was also impressed by the outer packaging; if you order this online it will surely survive the delivery process in perfect condition.

 I shared this with my boyfriend and his mum, as it arrived the day before she was coming over to dinner and I thought it would be good to get her opinion too. The truffles were exquisite - particularly the passion fruit in my opinion. My only complaint is that there was only six!

The chocolate shell is very thick - a good inch at the outer edges I would say, and thinner in the middle. It was a little like eating an Easter egg, where you have eaten the treats inside and then eat the shell of the egg (at least, I always do it that way around!) - but it was a much better quality chocolate than a cheap Easter egg. My boyfriend particularly liked being able to break off part of the shell and leave plenty until the next day. I think this is a lovely idea as it looks a bit different from your average box of chocolates, and would make a great Valentine's gift or treat to share with your loved ones - or to indulge in yourself!

Thanks to Hotel Chocolat, who sent me this product to review. All opinions are my own.

Salmon with Hotel Chocolat Cocoa Mayonnaise

Hotel Chocolat very kindly sent me two products to review - the Cocoa Mayo from their Cocoa Cuisine range, and the Squirrels Stash, below. The Squirrels Stash consists of five chocolates that look like acorns and nuts, which I think is really cute. They are filled with praline, nuts and caramel truffle - and didn't last very long! They are the perfect size for an indulgent treat and would make a lovely little gift - the pack is priced at £5 which at £1 a chocolate is not cheap but they are really good quality and I do recommend these.

The Cocoa Mayo was very interesting and I was excited to try it after previously having tried the Cocoa Pesto and chocolate pasta. When I opened the jar I found the mayo in quite a lot of oil, which was fine once I stirred it. The mayo had a wonderfully tangy (I think slightly vinegary) taste at first, and then you notice the little cocoa nibs, and then finally the aftertaste is chocolate.

I decided to follow this recipe for salmon with a Creole crust that Hotel Chocolat has on its website linked to the cocoa mayonnaise. I love salmon and it seemed like a good way to try out the mayo. I scaled down the recipe but will give the ingredients here to serve 4.

You need:
2 slices bread
2 tbsp chopped fresh coriander
1 garlic clove
1 tsp lime juice
1 tsp grated lime zest
1 tsp Cajun seasoning
115g Hotel Chocolat Cocoa Mayonnaise
4 skinless salmon fillets
salt, pepper

Preheat oven to 200C. Tear up the bread and place in a food processor along with the coriander, crushed garlic clove, lime juice and zest and Cajun seasoning and pulse until you have breadcrumbs.

In a small bowl, mix the spiced breadcrumb mixture with the cocoa mayonnaise.

Spread onto the salmon fillets.

Bake in the oven for about 15 minutes until the salmon is cooked and the cocoa breadcrumb mixture is crispy.

I thought this tasted really nice and the cocoa crust would also work really well on a pork chop for instance; I wonder if you could also use it for stuffing in chicken. I think I might have to try that as well! The Cocoa Mayonnaise costs £8 for a 180g jar so it's not something I would use every day but it definitely makes a nice twist - now all I have to do is try it in a sandwich!

Disclaimer: I was sent the chocolates and Cocoa Mayonnaise by Hotel Chocolat. I was not asked to try out any particular recipe or to write a positive review; all opinions are my own.

Alphabakes Roundup - Q

It looks like the letter Q really had some of you stumped! Or perhaps like both me and my co-host Ros you were away on holiday in September and didn't have time to bake. It means there were fewer eligible entries for the great prize we had on offer as well, so scroll to the end to see who won the Hotel Chocolat giveaway!

Jacqueline kicked off the entries this month with a Queen of Puddings: a traditional British dessert with a milk and breadcrumb base, spread with jam then topped with meringue which is then cooked in the oven.

Elizabeth from Law Students Cookbook has taken the ingredients of s’mores – an American campfire snack consisting of graham crackers (digestive biscuits) and marshmallows, added banana – and turned it into bread! Her Banana S’More Quick Bread looks delicious and Elizabeth says it wasn’t too sweet.

Eira from Cook Books Galore says she enjoyed the chance to make something savoury, and sent us these Herb, Shallot and Cheese Quichettes. They are individual mini quiches baked in a puff pastry case and use herbs from Eira’s own garden.

 

I also made a Queen of Puddings, but as I don’t like jam I decided to substitute curd – and found a jar of lime curd in the supermarket which I’d never eaten before. It was delicious and not hard to make at all.

 I also don’t like quiche normally as there is too much egg, so I was intrigued when I found a recipe in a weight loss magazine for a smoked salmon and dill quiche that combined egg and soft cheese in the filling. It gave the quiche a lovely flavor and meant it wasn’t too ‘eggy’.

A lovely fruity entry here from Elizabeth of Elizabeth’s Kitchen Diary  and an ingredient I hadn’t thought of – she made this Apple Cardamom Cake with Quince Frosting. Elizabeth says she hadn’t tried quince before so didn’t know what flavor to expect – see for yourself what she thinks. This is a great autumn bake.

Here’s another smoked salmon quiche, but this time with fennel and spinach, from Jean of Baking in Franglais. She says quiche is a great way to use up leftovers and she managed to avoid the infamous soggy bottom!

The Q ingredient in these Mini Bakewell Cheesecakes, from Laura of I’d Much Rather Bake Than

, is something I love- Quark. It’s a sort of curd cheese, that I first ate when I lived in Germany – it is popular there as a simple dessert sweetened with sugar and lemon juice. Quark is a very versatile ingredient though and I use it a lot these days as it’s free on Slimming World, in both sweet and savoury dishes. These cheesecakes look delicious and thanks to Laura for hopefully introducing some of you to a new ingredient!

 

My co-host Ros from The More Than Occasional Baker is off on holiday so only made one thing for this month’s challenge rather than her usual two or three! She has treated us to this Leek, Mushroom and Gruyere Quiche – the first time she has made quiche and she says pastry isn’t really her thing. I think this has turned out really well!

Clare thought of something that hadn’t occurred to me beginning with the letter Q, and made flapjacks using Quaker Oats – great idea! I love flapjacks but sometimes find they start to crumble when I slice them – these look like they held together really well.

Johanna from Green Gourmet Giraffe made these Quince and Walnut Garibaldi Biscuits, which were inspired by the TV show “Call the Midwife”; these biscuits were considered post-war treats, but I think they still taste good today!

  

A second entry from Jean at Baking in Franglais – and another outing for quince. She’s made these Quick Quince and Coconut Tartlets and funnily enough – given the previous entry- uses a 1940s cookbook for the recipe. Jean even used her mum’s bun tin to bake them in, which she says must be about 60 years old!

Silverbeet is an ingredient I didn’t think I was familiar with  - Mel atSharky Oven Gloves, who lives in New Zealand, has used it to make this Silverbeet and Feta Quiche. But according to Google, those of us in the UK would know it by the name of Swiss chard. Whatever it’s called, her quiche looks very tasty.

I was hoping someone would come up with a bake using quinoa and Sue from MainlyBaking did not let me down! She sent in this Quinoa and Hazelnut Cake; she says there were several stages and the cake took quite a long time to make but it wasn’t difficult. She added a chocolate fudge frosting – can I have a slice please?

A delicious savoury option from Fiona at Sweet Thing You Make My Heart Sing: she made these Quince and Camembert Flatbreads. I love cheese and something sharp to accompany it – in fact I’m sure I’ve seen quince jelly on a cheeseboard before – so these flatbreads are a great way to combine the two flavours.

Finally this month another Q idea from Vohn at Vohn’s Vittles – who I think might be a first time Alphabaker as well, so welcome! Here are some delicious Quesadillas – a toasted tortilla with melted cheese inside, though you  can add pretty much whatever filling you like. Vohn has used chilli, spring onions, tomato, coriander and prawns, which sounds fantastic. 

And the winner of these delicious salted caramel chocolate canapes from Hotel Chocolat is...

 
Jean of Baking in Franglais. Jean, please give us your (UK) address and the prize will be on its way! 

I can't wait to find out which letter we are baking with in October.... there aren't many left in the alphabet to choose from! Ros at The More Than Occasional Baker will have the announcement on October 1st.