Forget the bread, crackers and fruit: Who knew that plain chocolate, chocolate truffles and chocolate-covered caramels—the latter two with prominent dairy and buttery notes—pair so well with cheese?

We know that chocolate cheesecake, and a chocolate ganache topping on regular cheesecake, are delicious. So how about serving a piece of cheese with a piece of chocolate?

If you love both cheese and chocolate, you can have a party that pairs both, for Valentine’s Day or any special occasion. You can pair almost any cheese, from a sweet mascarpone to a mushroomy Brie to a tangy blue. You can also add toasted nuts and a libation of choice. But start with some guidance from the experts.

When deciding on pairings, contrast textures in the cheese and chocolate. For example, try a soft, creamy cheese with a simple dark chocolate square, or a hard, crumbly cheese drizzled with chocolate ganache.

Lake Champlain Chocolates offers these insights:

Cheese and chocolate? Absolutely! Photo courtesy DallmanConfections.com.

 
RealCaliforniaMilk.com suggests pairing:

 
Vermont Creamery likes these pairings:

You can download an extensive party guide from the Wisconsin Milk Marketing Board, but here are the highlights:

Brooklyn chocolatiers the Mast brothers, known for their small batch, artisan chocolate bars, joined up with Jasper Hill Farm to develop a milk chocolate trio that showcases the flavors of cow’s, sheep’s, and goat’s milks.

It’s a rare experience to see how a chocolate bar made with other animal milks compare with the familiar cow’s milk used in all conventional milk chocolate. Here’s your chance! These particular bars are made with semisweet 60% cacao that has naturally nutty notes. But what you’ll also find is that:

 
Jasper Hill Farm has created a Cheese & Chocolate Gift Box that pairs this unique chocolate trio with two chocolate-loving cheeses. Each gift box contains the three 2.5-ounce chocolate bars plus:

 
The gift box is $62.00 at JasperHillFarm.Shop.com. You can order any time and specify your preferred delivery date.
  

You don’t have to give chocolate or cupcakes on Valentine’s Day. In fact, some people may prefer a less conventional gift. Think outside the [chocolate] box.

As a smaller gift to bring to pals at the office, we particularly like red berry jam. You can go for a pricey artisan brand, or look for an organic brand like Santa Cruz Organic Seedless Red Raspberry Fruit Spread.

We love raspberry jam, but not the seeds. So we were very happy to discover Santa Cruz Organic’s Seedless Red Raspberry Fruit Spread. Not only is it seedless, it’s thick and lush with raspberry flavor. As a fruit spread, it’s also lower in sugar than most raspberry jams (and 40 calories per tablespoon). You taste the fruit, not the cloying sugar. (Here’s the difference between fruit spreads, jam, preserves, etc.)

The fruit spreads are also made in Apricot, Blackberry Pomegranate, Concord Grape, Mango and Strawberry. In addition to being certified USDA Organic and Non-GMO, the line is certified kosher by OU. Look for it at natural food markets or online.

 
KETCHUP FOR YOUR VALENTINE?

A quality jar of strawberry or raspberry jam says “Be My Valentine.” Photo by Elvira Kalviste | THE NIBBLE.

On the savory side, look for something red and spicy. It could be a jar of artisan arrabiata pasta sauce, or something as much fun as sriracha ketchup.

Lee Kum Kee, maker of terrific soy sauce, has added Sriracha Chili Ketchup to its line. It gives the ketchup lover another dimension of flavor and heat on burgers and fries, and in spreads and dips. We think it’s a great “guy gift.”

Look for it in the Asian products aisle at your supermarket, at Asian markets or online.
 
For a more generous gift, a bottle of red wine is always welcome, or a pink rosé.

Personally, we’d like a jar of red caviar.

First the sweet: a fun idea from Stacy’s Pita Chips, delicious with a snack, coffee/tea break or for dessert with ice cream.

RECIPE: VALENTINE PITA CHIPS

Ingredients

 
Preparation

1. MELT chocolate.

2. DIP pita chips into melted chocolate. Set on wax paper.

3. SPRINKLE with Valentine decorating hearts (LINK) before chocolate sets.

Similar in flavor and texture to Carr’s Water Biscuits, they’re packed with personality and ready to be topped or eaten plain with soup.

 
Whatever you choose, garnish it with something red: a radish slice, half of a cherry tomato, strip of bell pepper or pimento—even a berry.

Savory sesame heart-shaped crackers. Photo courtesy Valley Lahvosh.

Pâtissier François Payard has chosen beautiful packaging for his Valentine confections. We’ve selected two to highlight. Both can be shipped nationwide.

“Kiss Me” Chocolates

Eighteen luscious lips are packaged in a container so lovely, you could use it as an evening clutch.

Half of the chocolates are milk chocolate filled with caramel and fleur de sel, enrobed in Valrhona’s 40% Jivara Milk Chocolate.

The other half are gancache-filled dark chocolate, Valrhona’s 66% Caraibe. The ganache is infused with freshly puréed passion fruit and mango.

The two flavors are a contrast in deliciousness: creamy caramel versus tangy fruit. A gift of Kiss Me Chocolates should earn you many actual kisses in return.

“Sweet Love” Macaron Collection

Pull the ribbon on the drawer of the box, and pull out 12 elegant macarons. There are four each in:

 
ABOUT CHEF PAYARD

Born and trained in France (he’s a third-generation pastry chef), Payard moved to New York in 1990 as Pastry Chef at the four-star Le Bernardin restaurant, and subsequently at the four-star Restaurant Daniel. He was named Pastry Chef of the Yearin 1995, by the James Beard Foundation.

Now the proprietor of five bakeries/bakery-cafés in New York City, he also sells selected products online.

Discover more at Payard.com.

[1] Nutella crepes: easy to make! You can purchase crepes, fill them with Nutella, and optionally add sliced strawberries and whipped cream (photo © Linda Roisum | Pixabay).

[2] From breakfast through dessert, there are many ways to use Nutella (photo © Mikael Stenberg | Unsplash).

[3] Nutella whip: Blend a spoonful of Nutella into 1/3 cup heavy whipping cream and top a glass of cold milk. For an extra splurge, first rim the glass with fudge sauce, and add a garnish with a wafer cookie Here’s a video (photo © Sweet Portfolio | Tik Tok). You can also top a cup of coffee with the Nutella whip.

Typically, holidays are official proclamations by a city, state, or the federal government (here’s how it works). But in the wild frontier of the Internet, World Nutella Day became a viral hit.

The history of Nutella follows. Elsewhere on The Nibble:

> The year’s 69 chocolate holidays.

> The year’s 12 nut butter holidays.
 
 
THE HISTORY OF NUTELLA

Nutella hazelnut spread, in its earliest form, was created in the 1940s by Pietro Ferrero, who began as a pastry maker with a small shop in Dogliani, a town in the Piedmont region of northwestern Italy.

At the time, there was very little chocolate; cocoa beans were in short supply due to World War II (1939-1945) rationing. To stretch his chocolate supply, Mr. Ferrero used hazelnuts, which are plentiful in Piedmont.

The spread is a combination of roasted hazelnuts, sugar, skim milk and a touch of cocoa. It is an all-natural product with no artificial colors or preservatives.

The original product was called Giandujot, after the Italian term gianduja (john-DOO-ya), referring to a filling for chocolates made of ganache mixed with hazelnuts.

Made by the Ferrero Company of Italy, the original product was called Giandujot (john-DOO-yote), after the Italian term gianduja (john-DOO-ya).

Gianduja is a filling for chocolate bonbons made of chocolate and cream, a.k.a. ganache, mixed with hazelnuts.

Giandujot was later developed into the spread we now know as Nutella®. The Ferrero Company officially introduced Nutella to the market in 1964.

Nutella became so popular that it engendered similar products. They can’t be called Nutella, of course; but the recipe below was used with Bonne Maman’s Hazelnut Chocolate Spread.

Giandujot was later developed into the spread we now know as Nutella. The Ferrero company officially introduced Nutella to the market in 1964.

Nutella was first imported to the U.S. more than 25 years ago by Ferrero U.S.A., Inc. Its popularity has grown steadily.
 
 
HOW WILL YOU ENJOY NUTELLA TODAY?

Enjoy a Nutella sandwich, put Nutella on a pancake or waffle, roll it in a crêpe, and eat it from the jar with a spoon. Add it to your favorite cookie, cake, or brownie recipe. Fill “jelly” donuts with Nutella. Make a Nutella milkshake.

Add it to coffee or hot chocolate.

Or, try these less conventional Nutella recipes: