Winter Hot Chocolate is a classic cocoa mix
with a touch of vanilla. Photo courtesy Lake
Champlain Chocolates.

“Can we bring some gourmet cocoa?” we suggested. “Sure,” he responded.

That’s why we love food gifts. They can readily be consumed by the recipient, his guests or his family members.

And you don’t have to go far to find something good. Any upscale supermarket has gourmet chocolate bars, fine olive oil and gourmet hot chocolate.

We passed by all of them at Whole Foods yesterday, including these gifty hot chocolate canisters from Lake Champlain Chocolates (also available directly from Lake Champlain Chocolates). They’re just $10.50 for a festively-designed one-pound canister (one pound makes approximately 21 eight-ounce servings). You can package the gifts with some handmade marshmallows in the confections section.

Fair trade certification allows farmers to receive higher prices than they would in the conventional market. It means that the farmers are paid a fair price for their product and are not exploited by middlemen who pay them less than their crop is worth.

Read more about Fair Trade.

From adding flavors—banana, cinnamon, chai, hot spices, mint—to liqueurs, we’ve got 25 ways to make an already delicious cup of cocoa even more memorable.

Check ‘em out.
 
THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN COCOA & HOT
CHOCOLATE

December 12th is National Cocoa Day. What’s the difference between cocoa and hot chocolate?

Most people use the terms interchangeably, but they’re actually different.

Cocoa is a drink made from cocoa powder.

Hot chocolate is a drink made from actual chocolate, usually ground or shaved into small bits. Chocolate has more cocoa butter than cocoa powder, so it makes a richer drink, all things being equal (the same type of milk, e.g.).

To make any cup of cocoa or hot chocolate richer, you can:

 
Visit our Cocoa Section for brand reviews, recipes and more about man’s favorite chocolate drink.

Or take our Cocoa Trivia Quiz.
  

Baked Brie in pastry with dried cranberries,
honey and almonds. Photo and recipe
courtesy Zabars.com.

Here’s a recipe to serve with your favorite bubbly. It’s a favorite of Olga Dominguez, cheese buyer at Zabar’s in New York City.

For the holidays use dried cranberries; for Valentine’s Day substitute dried cherries or strawberries.

This party-size recipe uses a standard 17-inch wheel of Brie. If your celebration will be more intimate buy a Baby Brie, which at 8.8 ounces, serves up to four. (In theory, with a portion size of one ounce, it should serve eight—but we don’t know eight people with that much restraint).

Brie (typically a double-crème cheese, although some like the Rouge et Noir brand are even richer triple-crèmes) is one of America’s top-selling cheeses.

Other best sellers include Cheddar, cream cheese, mozzarella and Parmigiano Reggiano.

Ingredients

 
Preparation

Keep the Brie refrigerated and cold until ready to slice.

1. PREHEAT oven to 350°F.

2. CUT the Brie in half horizontally with a sharp knife, creating a top and a bottom.

3. SPRINKLE the cranberries, half the honey and half of the almonds in the center of the bottom half of the cheese, to within two inches of the edge. Cover with the top half and press down the edges. (When you press down, the fillings will spread close to the edge.)

4. OPEN the crescent roll container and prepare to wrap the Brie with the pastry. Lay the triangle crescent dough pieces on a work surface to form a sheet, overlapping the edges slightly. Press to bond together. Place the Brie in the center of the sheet and wrap the edges around the wheel until the entire surface is covered. Overlap and press the crescent dough close to the edges so that the Brie and fillings will not run out.

5. PLACE on a nonstick cookie sheet with a lip (just in case the cheese does run). Pour the remaining honey in the top center of the wrapped Brie and sprinkle with the remaining almond slices.

6. BAKE for 30 to 40 minutes, or until golden brown and bubbly. Serve immediately.

 
Serving Suggestions

Double- and triple-creme cheeses have a distinctive texture (very creamy) and flavor (buttery). Extra cream is added before the curd is formed, creating the heavenly richness.
 
 
DOUBLE CRÈME CHEESES

According to Cheese Primer by Steven Jenkins, the first double-crème cheese was made in Normandy in 1850 by a cheesemaker whose name has been lost to history. He was a short man of Swiss extraction, and called his cheese Petit-Suisse (possibly his nickname!).

By law, a French double-crème cheese has between 60% and 75% butterfat. Note that this is the percentage of fat in the dry matter of the cheese. Most double- and triple-crèmes have about 50% moisture, so a Brie that has 60% butterfat in the dry matter is actually 31% total fat.

Decorate your Brie for a party. Photo courtesy WisDairy.com.

Double-crème examples include:

 
 
TRIPLE CRÈME CHEESES

Like the first double-crème, the first triple-crème cheese was also made in Normandy (France’s dairy heartland), 75 years after Petit-Suisse was introduced. Called Le Magnum, it was made by the Dubuc family and was the ancestor of Brillat-Savarin*. By law, French triple-crème cheeses must have a butterfat content of 75% or more.

Pick up this luscious Brillat-Savarin, a triple-crème cheese, at Whole Foods Markets (photo © Whole Foods Market).

A Brillat-Savarin with 75% butterfat in the dry matter actually has 39% total fat.

 
________________

*The cheese was named for the French epicure (and also a lawyer and politician) Brillat-Savarin, who famously said, “Tell me what you eat and I will tell you what you are.”

HOW TO SERVE A DOUBLE-CREME OR TRIPLE CRÈME CHEESE

You can go from basic (fruit) to gourmet (truffles):

Fresh Fruits

Grapes, mango, raspberries or strawberries are the best matches.

Truffles

This is a quick recipe using refrigerated cookie dough and a container of frosting. You can of course use your own homemade recipes. You can also use gingerbread cookie dough like Pillsbury Create ‘n Bake.

Just shape the cookie dough into a triangular log, and slice for fun reindeer cookies ready in a flash.

Prep time 40 minutes, total time 55 minutes
 
RECIPE: REINDEER SUGAR COOKIES

Ingredients For 32 Cookies

1. BREAK UP cookie dough in a large bowl. Stir or knead in the flour until well blended. Reshape into a triangle-shaped log. If it’s too soft to cut into slices, refrigerate up to 30 minutes.

2. PREHEAT oven to 350°F. With a thin sharp knife, cut dough into 32 (1/4-inch) triangular slices. On an ungreased cookie sheets, place slices 2 inches apart.

3. BAKE 7 to 11 minutes or until set. Cool 1 minute; remove from cookie sheets to cooling rack. Cool completely, about 15 minutes.

4. FROST cookies. For antlers, place 2 pretzel twists on each triangle near the corners. Lightly press 2 chocolate chips into each cookie for eyes and press in 1 halved gumdrop for nose. Store cookies between sheets of waxed paper in tightly covered container.

Yes, the recipe will still work if you use a yellow onion instead of a red onion; but using the right onion for that recipe will produce the flavor that the recipe writer intended.

Here are tips from Katie Waldeck, one of our favorite food writers. They are adapted from her original article on Care2.com.

TYPE OF ONIONS & HOW TO USE THEM

Red Onions

Red onions tend to be pungent and spicy for most of the year; the fresh summer red onions are much more mild. They are best used raw. If you find the taste too sharp, soak the sliced onions in water for 30 to 60 minutes (this works for any type of onion).

The most colorful onion, the red onion. Photo courtesy Burpee.com.

Sweet Onions

Sweet onions tend to be larger, with thinner skin. Familiar varieties include Maui onions, Texas sweet onions, Vidalia onions and Walla Walla onions. The sweetness is largely due to the low-sulfur soil in which they are grown. Sweet onions have minimal pungency and can be eaten without fear of “onion breath.” However, they break down quickly in cooking and aren’t very complex in flavor, so they should not be used in place of yellow onions. Unlike other varieties, sweet onions spoil quickly and should be stored in the fridge.

Use Them For: gratins, grilled/roasted vegetables, onion rings and any raw uses (see uses for Red Onions, above).

This “standard” onion is usually the least expensive variety. If the recipe doesn’t specify a type of onion, a yellow onion is your best bet. Yellow onions have a complex and spicy flavor, but they have more sulfur than other onion varieties, so they’re much more pungent and tear-inducing and can be overly assertive for eating raw. They are particularly hardy and keep for a longer time than other varieties.

Use Them For: Dishes that cook for a long time on low heat: sauces, soup, stews, stocks, risotto, sautéed onions.

White Onions

Sharper than yellow onions, crisp and clean in flavor, white onions can be used both raw and cooked. Cook them as you would yellow onions, serve them raw as you would red onions. White onions have a slightly shorter storage life than yellow onions.

Use Them For: Mexican food (including chili), white sauces and for the raw uses above.
 
STORING & SLICING ONIONS

Onions should be stored in a cool, dry place away from light, with the exception of the more fragile sweet onions, which should be stored in the fridge.

Here are seven ways to slice onions.