Dandelion Honey

I remember reading about dandelion honey a couple of years ago on a blog, but couldn't remember which one. I saw it again last year on someone else's blog but again couldn't remember where. After enquiring via Twitter, I found out one of the blogs I'd seen it on was Elizabeth's Kitchen, but by then it was too late and I'd already cobbled together a recipe from several I found online. This mixture of dandelions, sugar and lemon juice is purportedly meant to taste like honey. Well that was a claim that had to be tried to be believed.

Our plot was covered in a riot of glorious yellow dandelions. They were clean, organic and I didn't want them to seed all over the vegetable beds. I love getting these unintended additional crops from the plot. We've had quite a few nettles and wild garlic so far this year, but that is as far as our foraging has gone. All of the instructions I saw said to pick out the dandelion petals and use these on their own or it would make the colour a rather mushy brown and would make the honey taste bitter. There was no way I was going to do that which would have taken hours, so I used the whole flower head and hoped for the best.

This is how I made:

Dandelion Honey

• Simmered 350g of dandelion heads and a sliced organic lemon in 1 litre of water for 20 minutes in a covered pan. Poured into a glass bowl and left covered to steep overnight.
• Poured through a sieve extracting the liquid by pressing down with a spoon to make about 750ml.
• Simmered this in a pan with 750g cardamom sugar (golden caster) for about 45 minutes when the mixture became syrupy and dripped slowly off a spoon.
• Poured into two warm sterilised glass jars and left to cool.

Astonishingly, this wonder not only had the consistency of runny honey, but it really did taste like it too. Despite leaving the green bits on, it didn't taste bitter and the colour was still golden rather than muddy. I've used it in several recipes already including this Figgy Bread. Now I know how simple it is, I shall be making this again next year.

Dandelion is a wonderful herb. I often dig up the roots to make dandelion coffee. The leaves of the wild dandelion, I find too bitter, but some are happy to use them as salad leaves. There are myriad health benefits, but it is best know as a cleansing spring tonic. I am submitting this to Karen's Herbs on Saturday over at Lavender and Lovage but which is hosted this month by Anneli at Delicieux.

Not only made from scratch as it is, but also picked from scratch, I am submitting this to Javelin Warrior's Made with Love Mondays.

As dandelions are in full season this month, I am entering this honey into Simple and in Season with Ren of Fabulicious Food.

Mooving up the Professional Ladder and a Giveaway #29

It was Jac of Tinned Tomatoes that first alerted me to MOO business cards. I was so impressed by her wonderful photographs that I had to order some myself. Unlike any other cards I've seen, you can have a different picture on the back of each one if you like, which makes them not only fun but a walking gallery of your favourite blog photos. When I'm asked for a business card, not that I am very often, I can offer up several and ask the recipient to take their pick. It's nice to get a few oohs and aghhs and watch while the all important decision is made. It offers a completely new dimension to a standard business card.

It took me a while to venture onto the MOO website as I thought it might be a rather complicated and time consuming process. But eventually I overcame my suspicions and duly ordered a pack of fifty standard size cards made using recycled paper. I needn't have worried, the process was really easy. I was able to design my cards and choose the pictures in several stages as the design could be saved at any time and edited later. I chose two each of twenty five of my blog photos for the backs and on the front I used a section of my blog header photograph as a logo of sorts. The real difficulty was deciding whether to go for mini cards or the standard credit card size which fits easily into purses and wallets. The latter won out.

When the parcel arrived, I tore it open with indecent haste. I was thrilled with the results. To have a physical representation of my photographs was a first for me and I was impressed with just how good they looked. They are more expensive than cards I've bought before, but so much better - they look and feel classy. It was also good to have all my social media contact details together in one place.

No sooner had the cards arrived then I was regretting not having bought more - after all I wanted to hang on to one of each of my designs, Gollum fashion and that left only twenty five of my preciousses. As it happened, I spotted a giveaway over at Kavey Eats a couple of months later for a pack of MOO business cards. Amazingly, I won and like Gollum reunited with the ring, I was bouncing up and down with delight - thank you Kavey. I was able to recreate my favourite pictures and add some new ones as well. Another pack of fifty was soon winging its way towards me. These were somewhat different to my first batch as they were printed on standard paper, which is sourced from sustainable forests but is not recycled. The cards were thicker and slightly shinier.

The cards come in a handy holder with a "mine" and "theirs" tab to hold cards you are going to giveaway (maybe) and cards you collect. The top slides on and off easily and the whole thing is very properly made from recycled materials. My photographs don't do the cards justice, the images are crisp and clear and a lot lighter than they look here. Mini cards, postcards, stickers and labels are also available and I am sorely tempted to add to my collection.

Giveaway

MOO have kindly offered a pack of 50 classic business cards to one lucky Chocolate Log Blog reader from anywhere.

To be in with a chance of winning these fabulous cards, please fill in the Rafflecopter below. You will need to leave a comment on this post which then gives you additional chances to enter if you so wish. Rafflecopter will pick a winner at random from the entries received. Please give me some way of identifying you in the comment section as I will be verifying the validity of entries and will always check back to the comments to ensure that part has been done. Any automated entries will be disqualified. This giveaway is open worldwide, but you do need to be 18 or over to enter. Winners will need to respond within 7 days of being contacted. Failure to do this may result in another winner being picked.

Prizes are offered and provided by MOO and Chocolate Log Blog accepts no responsibility for the acts or defaults of said third party.

If you need some help using Rafflecopter, here's a quick clip to show you how.

Closing date is Wednesday 19 June 2013

You might also want to take a look at my giveaway page to see if there is anything else you would like to enter.

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Mango and Chocolate Cake #BakeBrave - We Should Cocoa #33

This month's We Should Cocoa is being hosted by Shaheen (see my post on Hunky Dorys) and seeing as she is also known as MangoCheeks, it came as no surprise that she chose mango as the special ingredient. I recently made a mango and chocolate combination so I know the two flavours go well together - Mexican chocolate pudding with chilli lime mango slices. The mango mendiants I once made were also very successful. Now, I adore mangoes, but I do hate preparing them and am often put off buying them because of this. Luckily, I had a tin of mango puree that I bought from an international shop in Plymouth a couple of years ago in order to make mango kulfi. It was well past its sell by date, but I couldn't see that it was likely to have gone off and luckily it hadn't.

My initial thought was to make a chocolate and mango ripple ice-cream, which I think could look and taste really good, but our freezer is currently stuffed to the gunnels and I couldn't squeeze anything else in. I had to think again. OK, how about a chocolate and mango cake?

It's World Baking Day today where we are all being encouraged to #Bake Brave and bake something that is just outside our comfort zone. There are 100 recipes on the website starting at level "I bake and cross my fingers" and ending at level "I bake therefore I am". My bake is at #16 and are these violet and rose fairy cakes. I'm not baking one of the 100 on the website, although there are many I find very tempting, but I'm setting my own challenge of #BakeBrave by making up a completely new cake as I need to include mango and I'm hoping it will turn out well.

It seemed a bit too obvious to make a chocolate cake and fill it with mango, so I decided to do it the other way around and have chocolate playing second fiddle to the mango by making a mango cake filled with chocolate. I was really excited at the thought of having a mango flavoured orange coloured sponge. I thought cardamom and coconut would add a little depth and work well with the mango flavour, so I included coconut flour and cardamom sugar to the bake.

So to the chocolate filling. My first thought was to fill the cake with a coconut chocolate ganache to compliment the coconut in the sponge. I was going to do this by whipping coconut cream and melted dark chocolate together. But before I made a start on this, I spotted an opened jar of milk chocolate sauce which really needed to be used up and as I cannot bare waste, I thought I ought to use that instead.

This is how I made

Mango, Cardamom, Coconut Chocolate Cream Cake

• Sieved 200g flour (half wholemeal spelt, half white) into a bowl followed by 25g coconut flour, 1 rounded tsp baking powder and 1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda.
• Creamed 125g unsalted butter with 125g cardamom sugar until light and fluffy.
• Beat in two large duck eggs (3 hens eggs), one by one.
• Stirred ⅓ of the flour into the egg mixture.
• Stirred 100g mango puree in.
• Repeated this process until all of the flour was used up and 300g mango puree had been used in total.
• Divided the mixture between two 20cm (8") cake moulds and baked at 180C for 22 minutes.
• Turned out on racks to cool.
• Spread both cakes with a thick layer of chocolate sauce whilst warm so that it would soak into the sponge.
• Left to cool completely.
• Whipped 100ml double cream until peaks formed.
• Sandwiched the two cakes together with the cream and dusted the top with icing sugar.

I have an idea in my head when I start baking of what the finished bake is going to look like. I'm invariably disappointed and usually even more disappointed with my photographs. This cake wasn't quite what I was expecting, but I did like the marbling effect produced by the chocolate sauce running down the sides and soaking into the sponge. Luckily, the taste doesn't usually disappoint and this cake was just as good as I imagined it would be: a faint hint of coconut, just the right amount of chocolate so as not to overwhelm and a light but moist sponge with a delicious well balanced mango flavour. It had a beautiful warm orange colour which conjured up the tropics which was something I was also hoping for - an excellent antidote to the very untropical weather we've been having recently. I was really pleased with it and myself. 

I shall be making this cake again for sure and next time I will try the coconut chocolate ganache as I'd originally intended.

The very talented Shaheen of Allotment 2 Kitchen is hosting We Should Cocoa this month and has chosen that most sunshiny of fruits mango.

#BakeBrave for World Baking Day today 19th May

Calendar Cakes with Laura Loves Cakes and Dolly Bakes is #BakeBrave this month, so this post ties in very nicely.

With a very out of date tin of mango puree and jar of chocolate sauce, both in need of using up, I am submitting this to Credit Crunch Munch with Helen of Fuss Free Flavours and Camilla of Fab Food 4 All, but hosted this month by Janice of Farmersgirl Kitchen.

Everything's Hunky Dory in Newport

I've been following Shaheen's blog, Allotment2Kitchen, for a few years now. I first knew her as MangoCheeks when she was living in Glasgow with her productive allotment and creative vegetarian cooking. Somehow, despite having a full time job, she managed to blog almost daily. She now has less time for blogging because she is running a vegetarian cafe in Newport and is having plenty of practice in putting her creative culinary skills to even better use. The cafe is Hunky Dorys - if ever you are in the vicinity of Newport, I strongly recommend you hunt it out.

Back in April when we were in that neck of the woods for my cousin's wedding, I was hoping we would find a bit of time to slip away and pay Shaheen and Hunky Dorys a visit. Luckily we did and a had a quick tour of Newport into the bargain. We slipped off after breakfast on Satruday morning and arrived in Newport bright and early, too early for Hunky Dorys, which didn't open until 10:00. This actually worked out really well as we had a chance to explore the city. The highlight for us was an impressive mural of the Chartists in an underground passage in the town centre. We were rather horrified to learn later from Shaheen that it was going to be knocked down to make way for a new shopping centre. Apparently feelings in the city were running high as a demonstration to protest against its demolition was going to be held later that day.

So to Hunky Dorys. I knew the food was going to be good, but had little idea what else to expect. I was delighted with what we found, we both were in fact. I now have serious cafe envy and wish we had something like it closer to home. The style was informal and friendly with wooden tables and chairs, cushions if you wanted them and various blackboards listing the scrumptious fare on offer - now that's what I call a proper vegetarian cafe. Breakfast and lunch are served as well as coffee and cake of course. I was impressed by the wide selection of speciality teas which included some particularly unusual ones. The menu changes regularly, so customers don't have a chance to get bored and vegans have plenty to choose from. Some of the fresh produce is home grown adding resonance to the name Allotment 2 Kitchen, or in this case Allotment 2 Cafe. I would have been very happy to stay for lunch as there were several things that sounded specially appetising and Shaheen's pies in particular are legendary. She has recently written a post about the first one she made, garlic mushroom parsley pies. My photographs, sadly do not to it justice, but they are the best I have.

Having ordered our cake and cups of chilli and ginkgo tea respectively, we sat down to soak up the ambience. Cakes? Yes, even after a massive breakfast at the hotel, we could not resist the array of tempting treats laid out before us.  CT went for a strawberry chocolate cake and I had an Oreo chocolate one - both vegan and both absolutely delicious. We were soon joined by Shaheen, who managed to spare us a few minutes from her busy cooking schedule for an impromptu chat. CT thought she was absolutely gorgeous (which she was), so I had to remind him she was already taken. Corroboration came in the form of her husband D, who I was really pleased to meet as he is often mentioned on the Allotment 2 Kitchen blog. After a longer chin wag than she'd intended, Shaheen had to get back to ensuring her customers had something to eat for lunch, D had to go into town and we had a wedding to attend. It was with some regret that we had to leave so soon. It was a joy to meet Shaheen and finally get to see her excellent cafe. We both wish her every success with it.

Shaheen is hosting this month's We Should Cocoa and has chosen a particularly appropriate ingredient - do take a look.

Marzipan Macaroons or Kransekake

I do love a good macaroon, so when I was hunting around for a K for this month's Alpha Bakes, I was delighted to find these kransekake (otherwise known as marzipan macaroons) in Scandilicious Baking by Signe Johansen. Until I found this recipe, I had no idea that almond macaroons were a Scandinavian speciality. I've always thought of them as very British, that is until the sophisticated Parisian macaron came along and swept all before it. Luckily, rustic macaroons are much more my style, I say that as I'd never have the patience to create the elegant structures beloved by the French. If you'd like tips on how to make the perfect macaron, hop over to Jill's blog, Mad About Macarons.

Anyway, I digress. These macaroons contain marzipan as well as almonds and can be finished off in any number of ways. I chose to use a chocolate drizzle; the only thing that can improve macaroons or marzipan in my book, is chocolate. The bitterness of dark chocolate helps to counteract the sweetness of the macaroon resulting in a nicely balanced biscuit.

This is how I made:

Kransekake

• Melted 50g unsalted butter in a pan and left to cool.
• Roughly chopped 200g marzipan.
• Whizzed 100g whole almonds in a food processor with the marzipan and 100g golden icing sugar until the almonds were more or less ground, but with some larger chunks still intact,
• Broke 3 duck egg whites into a bowl and whisked briefly with a pinch of salt and a scant teaspoon of vanilla extract.
• Whisked in the melted butter.
• Stirred in the almond mixture. At this point I realised my mixture was too wet - I had used duck eggs rather than the medium hens eggs stated. So I added 50g ground almonds.
• Placed in the fridge to chill for a couple of hours.
• Placed large teaspoonfuls on two lined baking trays - I made 20 but as the recipe stated 40-50, I suspect the macaroons were meant to be a lot smaller than I made them.
• Baked at 200C for 7 minutes until just golden.
• Much to my annoyance, the biscuits had all merged into each other, although it was my own fault for not leaving the suggested space in between each one - something I never seem to learn. So I took out a cutter and used this to shape the macaroons into presentable rounds, then left on a rack to cool.
• I reckon from the amount of offcuts I had, I could have easily made another five or six biscuits.
• Melted 30g dark chocolate and drizzled it over the macaroons.

Apart from my spacing disaster and ending up with two very large biscuits which I then had to rescue, I was very pleased with these macaroons. The end result looked perfectly respectable. I shall definitely make them again and take more care next time with both size and spacing. They were chewy, flavoursome and the larger pieces of nut gave added texture.

Don't forget it's World Baking Day this coming Sunday 19th May, so have a look at the website and #BakeBrave

It is Coeliac Awareness Week starting today (13th-19th May) and these biscuits are perfect for anyone unable to eat wheat or gluten as long as the marzipan and chocolate are properly gluten free. Some products may contain traces of gluten if they come from factories where gluten is used, so it is always worth checking the packaging. For more information on gluten free baking, pay a visit to Katie's blog Apple and Spice.

I am sending these marzipan macaroons off to Caroline Makes who has chosen K for this month's AlphaBakes and K is for Kranskake. This monthly challenge is hosted alternately by Ros of The More Than Occasional Baker.

I am also including these in that monthly groaning table of goodies which is Teatime Treats. Karen of Lavender and Lovage has chosen the biscuit tin and cookie jar as this month's theme and my macaroons filled up my biscuit tin very nicely. The challenge is alternately hosted by Kate of What Kate Baked.

Classic French, the monthly challenge from Jen of Blue Kitchen Bakes is macarons this month. Guest hosted by Victoria of A Kick at the Pantry Door, I think I might be winging it with these Scandinavian macaroons, but a girl has got to try.

The Pink Whisk Guide to Cake Making - Review and Giveaway #28

I'm sure most of you will know Ruth Clemens as the highly accomplished finalist in the first series of The Great British Bake Off on BBC television three years ago. I expect most of you will be familiar with her engaging and informative blog The Pink Whisk. But did you know that she has published not one, but two print books as well as several e-books? The Busy Girl's Guide to Cake Decorating which I have to confess I have not seen, came first. I was, however, recently sent a copy of her second book, The Pink Whisk Guide to Cake Making to review. Published by David & Charles it is priced at £12.99 and is available in most book shops as well as from The Pink Whisk's very own online shop.

I have been following The Pink Whisk blog since its inception back in 2010 and have found it interesting, thorough and informative. I've tried a few of Ruth's recipes in the past and they have worked really well every time; she is not a 'fling it all together and hope for the best' type of girl. She has her readers very much in mind when writing and delivers well researched, practised and reliable recipes. This approach carries through to her book. In the introduction Ruth explains how she made 25 versions of her golden syrup cake before she was satisfied enough to include this recipe in her book - see what I mean about thorough?

Aimed primarily at the novice or unconfident baker, this 127 page step-by-step guide leads the reader gently but smartly through the art of making cakes. There is a guide to equipment, a comprehensive guide to basic ingredients and a few pages of techniques such as how to tell when a cake is properly baked, how to line a tin and how to rescue your cake when it looks as though it's gone wrong. The main part of the book contains the recipes and is divided between the three main methods of creation: creaming, whisking and melting. Top tips are given throughout and whilst the reader is given explicit technical instructions to follow, they are also encouraged to be adventurous and play with different flavours. Although there are only 28 recipes in total, they are by no means standard fare. Ruth has come up with a diversity of types and flavours and there are bakes here to interest the more experienced cook as well as the beginner. The rhubarb and custard bombe sounds particularly fun and quite a technical challenge as well - it's rhubarb season at the moment .....

As you'd expect from the pink whisk, pink is the dominant colour of the book with either text or pages in pink with flourishes of pastel blue which gives a bit of contrast. There are plenty of pictures to give an idea of what the final bake should look like, something that is lacking in most cookbooks these days. Many of the recipes have photos to accompany the step-by-step instructions. These recipes are then followed by something similar, so the same method can be used - a nifty way of providing interest without having to photograph every step again. Once a Victoria sponge has been mastered, for example, a whole world of combinations is opened up.

The banana and cardamom chocolate brownie cake grabbed my attention and I fully intended to make it. But when I was ready to start baking, I realised I didn't have any bananas. I did, however have some fudge made by my aunt and given to me at Christmas, so I rapidly changed track and turned my hand to Ruth's choc chip and fudge Madeira cake. I made a few adjustments of course - I just can't help myself (sorry Ruth!). For a start, I decided to make this as a traybake rather than a loaf cake.

This is how I made

Choc Chip and Fudge Madeira Squares

• Creamed 150g unsalted butter with 150g vanilla sugar (caster) until very light & fluffy.
• Beat in 2 duck eggs.
• Sifted in 180g flour (half wholemeal spelt, half white) and 3/4 tsp baking powder.
• Added 60g dark chocolate buttons and 50g chopped fudge.
• Spooned into an 8" (20 cm) sq cake mould and baked at 180C for 25 minutes, when it was risen, golden and an inserted skewer came out clean.
• Melted 25g dark chocolate and drizzled it very inelegantly over the top of the cake.
• Scattered 25g chopped fudge over the top.
• Allowed to cool then cut into 12 rectangles.

I had complete confidence in Ruth and knew this cake would turn out well and it did. It rose well, cut well, looked good and tasted good. It was not as sweet as I thought it might be, which I take to be a bonus. It's a real crowd pleaser that I suspect would go down well at any cake sale. That banana and cardamom chocolate brownie cake is definitely on my radar.

Giveaway

David & Charles have kindly offered a copy of this excellent book to two lucky Chocolate Log Blog readers.

To be in with a chance of winning one of the books, please fill in the Rafflecopter below. You will need to leave a comment on this post which then gives you additional chances to enter if you so wish. Rafflecopter will pick a winner at random from the entries received. Please give me some way of identifying you in the comment section as I will be verifying the validity of entries and will always check back to the comments to ensure that part has been done. Any automated entries will be disqualified. This giveaway is only open to those with a UK postal address. You need to be 18 or over to enter. Winners will need to respond within 7 days of being contacted. Failure to do this may result in another winner being picked.

Prizes are offered and provided by David & Charles and Chocolate Log Blog accepts no responsibility for the acts or defaults of said third party.

If you need some help using Rafflecopter, here's a quick clip to show you how.

Closing date is Saturday 8 June 2013

You might also want to take a look at my giveaway page to see if there is anything else you would like to enter.

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Figgy Bread Roll - Random Recipes # 28

Dom has tasked us with randomly picking a bread recipe this month. Since I've started baking the odd yeasty loaf or two as an aside to my regular rye sourdough, I was quite excited by this challenge. The recent success I had with bagels spurred me on and as soon as I found out what the challenge was, I started randomising immediately, then dashed off to the bakers to buy some yeast with a big smile on my face. I've started using fresh yeast again recently because I'm wary of the "improvers" listed in the ingredients of dried yeast. As most of my cookbooks have a bread recipe or two in them, I decided to use Eat Your Books again to select my recipe from. Once I'd got my random number I simply counted down the list until I hit number 69 (of 88) and just hoped it wouldn't be one of my books with no bread recipes to be found. It wasn't. I picked Gaia's Kitchen by Julia Ponsonby, one of my favourite vegetarian cookbooks. Despite the favour I have shown it over the years, evinced by its rather tatty appearance, I'd never made one of her bread recipes. I counted them out and she had six. Another random number gave me Figgy Bread Roll, which amazingly gave me the very recipe I'd been eyeing up AND there was absolutely no cheating involved.

Although Dom asked us to stick to the recipe religiously, I couldn't do it - I had to get chocolate in after all. I did make the bread dough more or less as written, but changed the filling significantly. I had a Spanish fig and almond round that had somehow got pushed to the back of a cupboard a rather long time ago and was definitely in need of using. I therefore forwent the use of the other dried fruits and nuts in the recipe and used the whole round instead. I was also keen to take this opportunity to use the dandelion honey I made recently - recipe to follow in a future post.

This is how I made:

Figgy Bread Roll

• Weighed 450g of wholemeal spelt and placed it in a bowl.
• Added 1/2 tsp of Himalayan pink salt, 1 tsp ground cinnamon and 1 tbsp cardamom sugar (golden caster).
• Stirred together and made a well in the centre.
• Dissolved 1/2 oz fresh yeast in 300 ml warm water and poured this into the flour.
• Mixed together until all incorporated then covered with a plastic bag and left in a warm place to rise for 1/2 an hour.
• Kneaded for a few minutes, then rolled out onto floured surface into a rectangle about 10" by 6" and about 1 cm thick.

Meanwhile

• Chopped 500g of a dried figs and almonds (probably around 400g figs and 100g almonds).
• Added 1 tbsp cocoa, 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon and 6 tbsp of dandelion honey and stirred to combine.

• Spread this over the rectangle leaving a good cm clear all around.
• Rolled up the dough lengthways and sealed the sides.
• Placed on a lined baking tray seem side down.
• Left to rise for another 30 minutes.
• Brushed with milk then sprinkled 1 tbsp sesame seeds over the top.
• Baked in centre of oven at 180C for 30 minutes.

The scent of sweet cinnamon wafting through the house as this loaf baked was indescribably good. The bread slathered with butter was better than good. It stayed sweetly and spicily scented for the several days it took to eat it - it was rather a large loaf. 

Thanks to Dom of Belleau Kitchen for this wonderful loaf. It was simple to make requiring virtually no kneading and was not only light in texture, but delicious too. Hooray for  Random Recipes.

As this loaf entailed using up a very old fig almond round given as a present and using homemade dandelion honey rather than real honey and malt extract, I am submitting this to Credit Crunch Munch which is being guest hosted by Janice of Farmersgirl Kitchen. Camilla of Fab Food 4 All and Helen of Fuss Free Flavours are the usual suspects.

Kokopelli's Chocolate - a Review

Eating good quality chocolates made by an artisan producer is a privilege and one that I have been fortunate enough to enjoy on the odd occasion. I recently had the pleasure of receiving a box of Kokopelli's artisan handmade fresh chocolates. I've been following the story of Kokopelli's Chocolate since its founder Steph Saffer entered one of my We Should Cocoa challenges, the blackcurrant one, back in July last year. The business has been going from strength to strength since then. As well as selling her chocolates from her online shop, Steph also sells at various markets in London and holds workshops and hen party events - chocolate over some stripper would do it for me any day.

Kokopelli is an ancient Native American deity. Depicted as a hump backed flute player, he travels around spreading joy and fertility as he goes. This cheeky and creative character is an apt symbol for Steph's imaganative and joyful chocolates. She explains: "some say he originated in Olmec society, the first people to discover the revered cocoa bean and produce chocolate".

The box arrived well packaged and in perfect condition. With its distinctive livery, turquoise, brown and gold, the box looks good and invites further investigation. Tied with a brown ribbon, I thought it looked particularly stylish. After taking a quick peek inside, I inhaled deeply and breathed in the rich aroma of chocolate. It is not until I have done this that I feel I can sit back and admire the chocolates within, which I duly did. Nestled in the brown and gold packaging, sat some beautiful shiny chocolates made using one of the best couvertures available, Valrhona. Then it was time for the camera. Despite my eagerness to consume, I derive a perverse pleasure in delayed gratification - so much of the enjoyment is in the anticipation. After all, these are not chocolates to scoff in order to assuage a sugar craving, they are chocolates to linger over and savour.

I was not disappointed: the flavours were interesting and punchy. None of them were too sweet and like all good quality fresh chocolates, the flavours lingered on the palate long  after the chocolate has disappeared.

Peanut Butter Praline - although the sea salt caramel beckoned, I was so intrigued by the peanut butter praline, that I just had to try this one first. No mistaking the peanut butter here, it tasted of Whole Earth peanuts without the vast quantities of sugar and salt found in so many brands - these tasted freshly roasted. The dark chocolate casing was just what was needed to support the robust flavour.

Raspberry & Black Pepper - there is a real mix of flavours and sensations going on here: tart fruity raspberries, with hint of heat and spice from the pepper and then the bitterness of dark chocolate. CT found the pepper helped ground the sweetness of the fruit.

Sea Salt Caramel - beautiful to behold; in the shape of a cocoa bean and dusted with gold, this could be resisted no longer. Sadly there was only one in the box. Oh, how I love salted caramel. Covered in dark chocolate, this one had a touch of salt that really brought out the caramel flavour without overwhelming it as some salted caramels do. I would have preferred the caramel to be a little more liquid and a higher proportion of caramel to chocolate, but those are minor quibbles - it was totally delicious.

Ginger Triangle - a smooth chocolate truffle heavily flavoured with ginger, this had a thin coating of milk chocolate - my idea of heaven and I think my favourite so far. CT agreed, an indulgent pleasure. I can imagine eating several of these and kidding myself they are good for me - it's the ginger you see. Although sweeter than some, it left a very pleasant heat in the mouth. This is definitely one for ginger lovers.

Roasted Hazelnut - the thin coating of white chocolate was just right. White chocolate is very sweet and can be overpowering in excess. The hazelnut praline was full of texture, smooth in parts but also with a slight crunch and yes, it really did taste of roasted hazelnuts. I don't normally associate white chocolate with nuts, but this combination worked very well.

Lime - a smooth ganache with a thin coating of dark chocolate, CT described this as deliciously sour. I found it a bit overpowering and it had a slightly drying feel in the mouth. Not, I hasten to add, that I would have refused a second one.

Sesame & Honey - covered in thin dark chocolate this one was reminiscent of halva, but not so sweet or gritty and with a milder taste. Both CT and I thoroughly approved of this one, finding it rich and filling, but in a very pleasant way.

Earl Grey - a smooth truffle filling, covered in a thin coating of milk chocolate, this was sweeter than some of the others. The fruity notes with sour overtones in the chocolate offset the sweetness, however. This would go very nicely with a cup of Earl Grey, the warm tea volatilising all those lovely flavourful molecules.

It's been great to finally try Steph's chocolates, I've thoroughly enjoyed the experience. I wish her every success with Kokopelli's Chocolate. If you'd like to find out more, there is a great 10 minute documentary video on the Kokopelli Chocolate site.