 We have long wanted to improve the chocolate squares we serve with coffees in our shops, and I’m sure our customers will be delighted to know that we’ve reached agreement with Valrhona to serve their little chocolates in our packaging.
We have a choice in terms of which chocolate we use, so feedback please!!!
I’ve posted various hot chocolate recipes, and this is what we’ve settled on for a hot chocolate with a huge cocoa hit and a drink that’s not too sweet. This cocoa is thick and luscious, and it’s going down a storm in the shops. It’s for real chocoholics only…
Murphys Extreme Cocoa
125Â g cocoa (unsweetened)
800 ml milk
225Â gm sugar
1 teasp. natural vanilla essence
1. Mix the cocoa and sugar.
2. Add the milk in small parts, stirring to create a paste, then diluting the paste until the milk and cocoa mix are combined. Add the vanilla essence.
3. Pour into a saucepan and place the over medium heat, stirring all the time until it reaches 60-65C.
4. Garnish with grated chocolate and/or whipped cream and enjoy!
Six servings.
Notes:
1. If you find it too strong, you can always dilute it with more milk, but then again if you do find it too strong, this is probably the wrong recipe for you!
2. The amount of sugar will vary depending on the chocolate. Obviously you can add more if you want it sweeter.
3. You can freeze any excess and thaw it later when you want to drink it…
Technorati tags: hot chocolate, cocoa, hot, recipe
 In case people still needed an excuse to eat good chocolate or drink cocoa, there is more out on the health benefits of cocoa. Professor Norman K. Hollenberg from Harvard Medical School spent years studying the Kuna people in Panama and found that cancer, diabetes, stroke and heart failure were reduced by 10% in people who drink up to 40 cups (!) of cocoa a week. It seems that there is a very beneficial chemical in cocoa called “epicatechin.” Chocoholics rejoice! Bottoms up!
Technorati tags: chocolate, cocoa, Kuna, epicatechin, health
 I do love this business! Easter is still a ways away - we are not even into Lent, but this morning, when I went into our Killarney shop for a staff meeting, there was a full array of chocolate Easter products on display.
These were Lorge chocolates, and Benoit Lorge himself was on hand to explain his line to us and to supervise tasting. Not a bad way to start the day!
His Easter eggs are huge, and he has them available filled with chocolate pralines and unfilled. The prices seem quite reasonable given the size and decoration (€10-30), and I’m sure they will be a success.
Lent might seem even longer this year!
 Today I ventured into our closed Dingle shop to pilfer some coffee beans (it’s been a terrible shock to the system having the shop closed, since I became quite used to rolling out of bed in the morning and heading to the shop to warm up the espresso machine and make a latte to kickstart the day) when I found the Max Brenner chocolates still on the counter - a gift brought from New York by a customer.
Max Brenner is an Israeli company (the name is a composite of the two original owners), has branches in Australia and other parts of the globe as well, and I’m told they do a mean hot chocolate in their cafes. It would seem from the packaging that there is as much emphasis on marketing as on chocolate, but it seems to be working. There are photos of one of the NY shops and one of the original owners here.
I know I don’t get about often enough and that I’ve been away from New York City too long when it takes the great Lady K to bring back samples from the latest NY chocolate shops, and I haven’t even heard of them!
I guess it’s another excuse to go travelling again. New York? Then again, I’ve always wanted to go to Israel. Well, one can dream…
Technorati tags: chocolate, shop, hot, Max Brenner, Israel, New York
 One of the nice things about the off-season is that it allows a bit of time for experimentation and play. My brother showed up with these chocolate macaroons that he has been testing, and boy are they tasty! He has outdone himself. I think they could be a great addition to our baked goods. I’ll try to get the recipe off him…
 The Irish Times kindly printed the following article of mine in a Virtual Ireland Supplement featuring examples of blogging, along with pieces from Slugger O’Toole, Damien Blake, Sinead Gleeson and Grandad…
With the rain and darkness of the Kerry winter upon us, I have been thinking a lot about chocolate, that magical concoction of comfort.
Chocolate, or xocoatl, meaning “bitter water,� originated in Central America as a drink enhanced with chilli peppers and other spices. Made by crushing the cocoa plant’s seeds, it was revered in ancient Mayan culture and was integral to religious and royal ceremonies. Later, the Aztecs grew to love it, and chocolate became a huge part of their economy. They even used cocoa beans as currency. In Aztec mythology, the first cocoa tree came from paradise, carried down on the beam of the morning star by the god Quetzalcoatl.
That’s a story I can get behind. Give me an intense 70% cocoa bar or a velvety hot chocolate as you might find on Ile Saint-Louis in Paris, and the angels start singing. The same goes for high quality chocolate truffles that melt in the mouth or a luxurious, genache-covered cake such as our baker Wiebke’s Sachertorte. When we’re making our chocolate ice cream and mixing in dark Valrhona, I grab a spoon. It’s not just quality control. I love chocolate.
My brother suffers the same affliction, which is half the reason we started Murphys Ice Cream (ice cream, of course, being the other half). Ordering chocolate samples was our first item of business after incorporation, and it’s no wonder. My mother’s a chocolate addict. Her own mother retired to Switzerland (where chocolate has “national dish� status) and brought us bags of the stuff when she visited. Even my father will happily pack away a generous amount when no one is looking too closely.
Strangely, chocolate does not seduce everyone. Columbus was not a fan, so maybe we’re fortunate to have it at all. When he became fully aware of chocolate on his fourth voyage, he dismissed it. Cortés had more sense, however, and he brought it back to Spain in 1528, after conquering Mexico’s supreme chocoholic, Montezuma.
With the addition of sugar, drinking chocolate became the rage in the European courts and then in Paris cafes. In 1657, the first chocolate shop opened in London. Even the clergy took to it, and the Vatican proclaimed about chocolate in 1662: “Liquidum non frangit jejunum� – liquid chocolate doesn’t count as breaking the fast. That’s something to remember with Lent just a few months away.
It was 1857 before the British chocolatier, J. S. Fry, developed solid eating chocolate; filled chocolates were only invented by the Swiss in 1913. Well into the 20th Century, chocolate was still primarily a beverage.
With that in mind, I have been thinking of widening the range of hot chocolates in our Dingle and Killarney shops (we already have three variations). It’s time to bring out the spices and play. Perhaps some Mayan warmth, in the form of thick, steaming chocolate with a little bite of chilli pepper, will prove the perfect antidote to a blustery winter’s day in Kerry…
(Sources: Chocolate Month Club, Field Museum)
We have decided to bring some good quality cooking chocolate into our shops because it is so hard to find in Kerry. We’ve started with two types of Valrhona baking chocolate.
A big part of our philosophy in terms of making ice cream or anything else is that good ingredients will make a good product.
I know that is a bit of a cliche, but it is true. All the cooking technique in the world wont cover inferior ingredients.
Especially for home cooking and baking, it won’t cost you that much more to source high quality ingredients, and the difference in the final product will be immense.
So if you’re setting out to bake some brownies or make chocolates, chocolate sauce, hot chocolate, or anything else of a chocolate persuasion, please use good chocolate as a starting point!
Technorati tags: chocolate, valrhona, baking, ice cream, cooking
 Today Colm from the Skelligs Chocolate Co. came into our Killarney shop to do a tasting. It’s never any harm to do such a thing, and I certainly got in my few nibbles. I had to leave to come back to Dingle, but hopefully our customers there tasted a good bit of chocolate!
We will try to stock more of his chocolates across both shops coming up to Christmas, as part of our Irish chocolate range, and we suggest anyone heading out on the Ring of Kerry check out their factory shop in Ballinskelligs…
 There was great excitement in the shop yesterday as three new Valrhona chocolate bars arrived to add to our collection. Needless to say, we had to rip open one of each immediately to sample (i.e. devour)!
The bars are so new they are only on the news section of the Valrhona website, and they widen the range nicely.
They are: 
Araguani: We have used this chocolate for baking for some time, but it’s new as a retail bar. It’s not as subtle as the Caraibe or Guanaja, but it carries a bitterness that is great for cooking and a straightforward chocolate hit…
Abinao: At 85% cocoa, this bar is a chocolate explosion.
Tanariva: A milk chocolate to complement the Jivara, Tanariva has less cocoa content and strong hints of caramel. Although it’s complex and high quality, it’s a good option for people with simpler and sweeter tastes.
Technorati tags: chocolate, valrhona, abinao, araguani, tanariva
Kieran Murphy is a chocoholic ice cream man (a director of Murphys Ice Cream) living in Dingle, Co. Kerry, Ireland.
Please ask if you wish to use text or images.
Copyright (c) Kieran Murphy 2006-2008.
