Monthly Archives: November 2010

Trader Joe’s Chocolate Sunflower Seed Drops. And Birds.

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When I was younger, I used to spend a week at the coast every January with my family and three grandparents. Well, by “coast” I mean cabins a fifteen-minute drive from the beach, but I figure that if you can smell salt in the air occasionally, then you can say you’re at the coast.

The cabin resort we stayed at was populated by wild kangaroos and a myriad native birds, including King Parrots, Crimson Rosellas, Lorikeets, Sulphur Crested Cockatoos, tiny little flitting palm-sized winged creatures, and… ducks. Which probably weren’t native, but were definitely greedy little blighters anyway.

Wayfaring Chocolate feeding the birds

Lookee me go! I actually remember this photo being taken. There was a fourth bird on the cabin roof that clearly wanted some seed action too, so I was keeping a careful eye on it…

One day I might tell you the story of how I single-handedly tamed the entire population of birds at Mandeni, but for now I’ll leave you with one simple fact:

Of the multi-ingredient seed mix with which I single-handedly tamed and fed the entire population of birds at Mandeni, the sunflower seeds were always the first to be eaten. No matter what kind of bird was perched on my hand, it would always dig through the mix in search of sunflower seeds.

And now I understand why.

Trader Joe’s Chocolate Sunflower Seed Drops

Trader Joe's Chocolate Sunflower Seed DropsSubtitled “Candy Coated Chocolate Covered Sunflower Seeds”, these quarter-of-my-pinky-nail-sized tiny chocolate sunflower seeds could also go by the name of “Mmmmm. MmmmMMMM. MMMM”, or perhaps “Please, sir, can I have some more?”

I can’t really do a detailed review of these delicious morsels in the usual Wayfaring Chocolate style, as there wasn’t enough chocolate involved for me to be able to chart its flavour progression. (The chocolate was more of a petticoat between the candy shell and sunflower seed.)

What I can describe is this: when a multitude of these chocolate sunflower seed drops make their way into your unsuspecting mouth of hopefulness*, you’ll first taste sweetness, then a deep, almost earthy quality that you’ll soon recognise as the nutty savouriness of sunflower seeds, then a milky, creamy chocolate lightness that brings everything together into a scrumptious whole that is more than the sum of its parts.

Trader Joe's Chocolate Sunflower Seed DropsI simply. absolutely. truly. love these. In fact, I love these candy coated chocolate covered sunflower seeds enough to have played around with punctuation in the previous sentence, mere days after I ranted about incorrect apostrophe usage. I love these Trader Joe’s treats with their blend of roasted, nutty, sweet, crunchy, silky, buttery, chocolate-y, snack-like, treat-like, naughty-but-nice flavours so much that it almost makes me cry to know that nothing similar exists in Australia, and that there’s no way I can recreate these in my own kitchen.

Unless I melted together some chocolate, sunflower seeds, and demerara sugar? Maybe that would taste the same?

No, probably not.

Sigh.

* Don’t you have a Mouth of Hopefulness? You should. They make everything tastier.

Chocolate Caramel Slice. And Friends.

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Chocolate Caramel Slice

There were two chocolate caramel slice story paths I could have taken for this blog post.

For example, I could have told you about how my primary school best friend used to come over to play twice a week after school, and how my mum would most often serve us a super-fresh baguette with butter for afternoon tea. Every now and again, though, she’d treat us to a chocolate caramel slice from our local cafe, which was the acme of chocolate caramel slice deliciousness. The base was, well, your standard base, but the caramel was four times thicker and deeper in flavour than any other cafe’s caramel slice, and the chocolate on top was more like a ganache in its soft richness.

I lived for those chocolate caramel slice afternoons. In retrospect, my best friend was lucky I liked her so much, otherwise I would’ve stolen her half without a modicum of guilt.

Chocolate Caramel Slice

The other story I could’ve told you was how I made the chocolate caramel slice pictured throughout this post for my friend Em’s birthday party. I could’ve told you about how I met Em when we both worked at the same bookstore, and how she drew me out of my self-imposed-misery-shell in Year 11 and taught me that it’s not only okay, but necessary, to be silly and giggly sometimes. I could’ve told you about how Em literally ran away with the circus, and about how glad I am that she came back instead of getting impregnated by a fire-eating, baton-twirling, lion-taming midget. (Not that I have anything against fire-eating, baton-twirling, lion-taming midgets. I hear those guys are super fun.)

Chocolate Caramel Slice

But you know what?

Neither of those stories adequately conveys how scrumptious this particular chocolate caramel slice was. Or how surprised I am that such a sweet, rich, unctuous-yet-crumbly-yet-silky treat isn’t more well-known, or as frequently made, throughout the world as it is in Australia.

Or how much tastier my home-made version is than the Gü Millionaire’s Flapjack which inspired me to make it, or how I’m planning to make a vegan version soon with nuttelex and soy sweetened condensed milk. And with double the amount of chocolate on top.

Because even though this particular slice was all kinds of yummy, you can never have too much chocolate.

Chocolate Caramel Slice

Chocolate Caramel Slice

  • 1 cup self raising flour
  • 1 cup brown sugar
  • 1 cup desiccated coconut
  • 125g butter, melted
  • 400g can sweetened condensed milk
  • 2 tbsp golden syrup
  • 30g butter, extra
  • 1 cup (150g) dark chocolate, melted
  • 30g butter, even more extra-y.
  1. Preheat oven to 180°C. Line an 18cm x 28cm lamington tin with baking paper.
  2. In a medium bowl, combine the self-raising flour, brown sugar, coconut, and melted butter. Press evenly into the prepared pan and bake for 10 minutes.
  3. While the base is baking, combine the sweetened condensed milk, golden syrup, and (the first lot of) extra butter in a small/medium saucepan. Stir over medium heat until almost boiling, stirring constantly (about 5 minutes).  Reduce heat to low and cook for another 5 minutes, until the caramel has darkened and thickened a little.
  4. Pour the caramel over the base and bake for another 10 minutes. Cool.
  5. Melt the dark chocolate and last 30g of butter together, spread over the base and leave to set. Can be refrigerated to help the setting process. Cut into pieces, then gobble gobble gobble.

Oooh! I can only imagine how good this would be if I added a layer of peanut butter somewhere…

The Curious Chocolatier Milk Chocolate with Lime and Coconut

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Shame on me.

About a million years ago (I didn’t stop taking maths in Year 12 for nothing), I told you about the time I went to the Bus Depot markets, was generously given the four newest Curious Chocolatier chocolate bars, and then found myself face-planting in the gravel for the privilege.

I quickly reviewed and raved about The Curious Chocolatier’s Milk Chocolate with Banana and Honey Roasted Peanuts… and then I went radio silent on that particular chocolate front.

Please don’t think this means that the other flavours aren’t up to snuff. They’re totally snuff. (Wait, what?)

The Curious Chocolatier Milk Chocolate with Lime and Coconut

The Curious Chocolatier Milk Chocolate with Lime and Coconut

I’m currently trying to relearn my childhood appreciation for coconut. What better way to help this task along than with chocolate? And, moreover, chocolate crafted by The Curious Chocolatier, whose innovative flavour combinations I’m coming to respect more and more?

Firstly, I love the packaging of this chocolate. Yay green! Secondly, the ingredients list is simple and decipherable, clearly stating that the milk chocolate is a respectable 34%, the coconut is flaked, and the lime flavour comes from lime oil. Tick, tick, tick, in my book.

(Okay, I have to link to something entirely irrelevant now. For anyone even mildly interested in Harry Potter, you should probably watch “The Mysterious Ticking Noise” by the Potter Puppet Pals. Like, now.)

The Curious Chocolatier Milk Chocolate with Lime and Coconut

The aroma of this chocolate is, in a [made-up] word, fan-diddly-tastic. It smells like Key Lime Pie, but with chocolate; there’s a fresh lime zing and a cocoa-based caramel sweetness that I found myself hoping-against-hope would translate into the taste.

After all, you put the lime in the coconut. Or whatever that lyric is.

When I took my first bite of this bar, I noticed the same caramel notes to the milk chocolate as I’d found in the aforementioned peanut banana chocolate, yet there was also a subtle freshness from the lime that made the chocolate a little less sweet. This is, of course, a good thing in my book.

The Curious Chocolatier Milk Chocolate with Lime and Coconut

The lime oil reminded me more of fragrant kaffir limes than bitter lime zest, but it was never an overpowering flavour. The lime is a subtle note playing at the edges of your consciousness, teasing you with complexity whilst your mind is focused on the milk chocolate’s creaminess and the coconut’s textural crunch.

Like the lime, the coconut in this bar is subtle. The toasted flakes are crispy without being burnt, and thankfully don’t get caught in your teeth or throat like desiccated coconut can.

The Curious Chocolatier Milk Chocolate with Lime and Coconut

The word I kept returning to in my tasting notes for this chocolate was “subtlety”. The milk chocolate’s sweetness, the lime oil’s fragrance, and the coconut’s nutty richness each seemed to be playing the role of quiet achiever rather than schoolyard bully, linking hands to play Ring a Ring o’ Rosy* harmoniously instead of standing apart to boss everyone else around during a game of Cops and Robbers.

Or, in less metaphorical Hannah-just-went-away-with-the-fairies-back-to-primary-school language, this Milk Chocolate with Lime and Coconut is a lovely, fresh, zingy, coconut-y, creamy and refreshing chocolate creation.

* Without the plague reference, of course.

My Ultimate Pleasure (In Poem Form) With Magnum Temptation

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Wayfaring Chocolate at the Eiffel Tower

This post was sponsored by Nuffnang

When pondering my ultimate pleasure,
Some obvious things come to mind:
Being bought rubies by Pablo Neruda
Or owing Johnny Depp kisses in kind.

Then of course there’s the dream of escaping
To a loft in Paris, by the Seine,
Every day dedicated to pastries,
‘Til I’ve honed my dessert acumen.

Another fantasy of which I’ve been thinking
Is to own a pet pug made of gold,
Not only will its wrinkles be sparkly
But in summer, it’ll be cool to hold.

Pug in Florence, Italy

But all of these dreams are so mainstream,
I bet you’ve had all of them too,
It’s normal to want Magnums and chocolate
Raining down on us, both me and you.

So what is my indulgent fantasy?
My desire, so secretly burning?
It combines laughter and sweetness and travelling,
It’s something for which I’ve been yearning.

Wayfaring Chocolate at Floriade

If I could make the world come to a standstill,
And refashion it with my own hands,
I’d create teleporting between countries
And bring friends here from faraway lands.

We all have people whom we love,
Living so far away that we ache.
Relatives, partners, and blog-friends
Teleporting is all it would take.

And so, for my ultimate pleasure,
(Although I would like Magnums and a pet pug)
I’m yearning to rally my loved ones, and
Give each one sweets and a big hug.

Now, wonderful readers (whom I wish I could teleport here and share ice cream and laughter with), how would you like the chance to win $1000, courtesy of Magnum and their new Temptation ice cream range? Here’s what to do if the idea of winning $1000 sounds tasty to you…

  1. Play Magnum’s new online dice game, above, aiming for a high score.
  2. Leave a comment on this post listing both your highest score and and your answer to this question: “What will you indulge in with $1000?” Be creative! The reader comment that Magnum deems most creative, across all blogs taking part, will win $1000.
  3. Make sure you include, in your comment, a way to be contacted (email, blog url, twitter, etc). The competition runs until midday December 14th, and the winner will be announced on December 17th.
  4. Open to Australian residents only (sorry other-country folk). See here for full Terms and Conditions.

Personally, I think it would be awesome if the winner of the $1000 was one of you. So go on! Be creative! Hurrah!

Coffee Oatmeal Chia Pudding with Kaya

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I recently mentioned that my current favourite thing to eat is my Coffee Oatmeal Pudding. I gave a vague description of how to make it, and was then quite surprised by how many of you expressed interest in the dish in your comments.

Part of the reason I’d chosen to only mention the Coffee Oatmeal Pudding in passing was that it is slightly – no, entirely – unphotogenic.

You see, it looks like this:

Coffee Oatmeal Chia Pudding

I tried to think of ways to make it prettier for the blog. Desiccated coconut on top? No, that might look like dandruff. Molasses drizzled over in a spiderweb fashion? No. This recipe certainly doesn’t need more brown.

And then it hit me. The perfect topping for this bowl of wonderment. A topping which had been given to me by my friend Helen of Grab Your Fork fame.

Kaya

In case you can’t remember back far enough, a few months ago I had dinner at My’s Vietnamese with Helen, and she gave me the most magnificent goodie bag designed to both fit with and expand my culinary horizons. In this bag was (drum roll please) kaya. Kaya, that pandan coconut custard jam-like condiment that I’d heard so much about on the blogosphere.

Helen and I had talked about how kaya’s proper application is between two pieces of toast with thick slabs of butter, but I’d forewarned her that I’d most likely be using it on oatmeal.

Coffee Oatmeal Chia Pudding with Kaya

Ta-daa! To be honest, I’d been so dedicated to hoarding the kaya (that way, I’d have it forever) that I had refused to open it until this day.

My Coffee Oatmeal Chia Pudding, however, proved just the incentive I needed to finally crack open the jar.

Coffee Oatmeal Chia Pudding with Kaya

Oh my. I’m actually not the biggest fan of coconut, but this kaya thing is amazing. I think it’s the pandan that I’m in love with, as there’s an ambrosial, vanilla-like-but-more-fragrant-than-vanilla subtle sweetness to kaya that I not only haven’t tasted before but now can’t get enough of.

More to the point, the kaya’s green colour sets off the Coffee Oatmeal Chia Pudding aesthetically while its unctuous, rich, coconut pandan sweetness sings in harmony with the pudding’s creamy coffee flavour.

So I decided I had to give you the recipe, for real this time.

Coffee Oatmeal Chia Pudding with Kaya

Coffee Oatmeal Pudding with [optional] Kaya

Serves 1. And is all good-for-you ‘n’ stuff. Woot.

  • 1/3 cup rolled oats (I’m currently using Macro’s 5-Grain Porridge which, from memory, is rolled oats, spelt, triticale, rice, and barley or rye)
  • 1/2 cup soy milk
  • 1/2 cup water
  • 1 tb (15ml) chia seeds
  • 1 – 2 tsps instant coffee (or a shot of espresso, if you’re classier than I am)
  • generous dash/es of ground cinnamon and/or cardamom
  • sugar to taste
  • kaya to taste (optional, and not vegan. Other garnishes I’m planning to use once my kaya runs out are peanut butter, almond butter, tahini, maple syrup, chocolate, honey, black sesame seeds, raspberry jam, and tapenade. Okay, the last one was a lie.)
  1. In a small saucepan, combine the oats, soy milk, water, chia seeds, coffee, and spices over medium-high heat. Bring to the boil, then reduce heat to medium-low and simmer for about 5 minutes.
  2. Stir in the sugar, then pour into your serving bowl. You could, of course, eat the oatmeal now, but I prefer to put it in the fridge to cool so that the chia seeds work their magic and turn the oatmeal into what I call oatmeal pudding. Then whenever you can’t resist the siren call of oats and sugar and coffee and creaminess any longer (what, don’t oats try to seduce you on a regular basis?), pull the bowl out of the fridge and put a heaping spoonful or drizzle of your garnishes on top.
  3. Say it with me now: om nom nom.