Kerstin’s Chocolate Blog

We will be having a special sale for newsletter subscribers on Aug 20th and 21st. If you are not yet a subscriber, please join our mailing list by clicking here.

As we head into Fall, we’ll be making some changes to our hours of operation:

Beginning September 2nd, the Shop will be open Thursday through Saturday for all your chocolate needs. As we head into December, we will once again extend Shop hours to allow ample time to find the perfect gift for all those chocolate lovers in your life.

The new change in hours will give Kerstin a chance to focus on new creations in the back, so expect lots of new, exciting chocolate in the Shop come Fall. We are also heading into our greatest Holiday collection ever, so keep an eye out for details.

Hope to see you in the Fall for some great chocolate!

Generally speaking, when we encourage patrons to try new things in the shop, they’re pretty receptive – and really, why not? Hand anyone a little chunk of chocolate to nibble on and they’re almost certain to like it, or at least appreciate the attempt.

The only glaring exception is white chocolate. This is not to say that we don’t get a lot of customers who adore the stuff – we do. Nor is it to say that we haven’t converted a fair chunk of former white chocolate-haters – we have; most are floored when they taste the different kinds we have in the shop, from our own Chocophilia ‘Lemon Dream’ and ‘Roses Are Red’ bars to the absolutely fantastic Amedei ‘Pistacchi’ bar. But it is perhaps the most polarizing chocolate we carry, and there are many who just can’t get behind it.

Still, if any of you reading out there are thinking of giving it another chance, be sure to consider the following:

Read the rest of this entry »

We will be closing down Kerstin’s Chocolates for a week this month, from August 24th to the 28th. Thanks for understanding!

It’s no secret that heat and chocolate don’t mix. Here at Kerstin’s, the warm, late-summer weather can definitely pose problems in the kitchen. Of course, we have air conditioning, not only to ensure that the quality of our chocolate is top-notch, but also to provide a respite from the swelter for all of our customers.

But what to do when it’s time to go home for the day, when you have to step first into the sun, and then into a house that’s been baking in it for hours? The answer, friends, is tea.

Read the rest of this entry »

If the shop smells even more delicious to you today, it’s because we’ve been doing some baking! Our rich, chewy cocoa cookies are fresh out of the oven.

They are best enjoyed, in our opinion, with a scoop (or two) of 80% Valrhona gelato and a smattering of cocoa nibs. What says summer better than an ice cream sandwich?

Here’s how we do it at the shop:

Chewy Cocoa Cookies

adapted from Alice Medrich

140g (1 cup) all-purpose flour

1/4 tsp. baking soda

1/8 tsp. salt

57g (4 tbsp.) unsalted butter

133g (2/3 cup) granulated sugar

73g (1/3 cup) light brown sugar

48g (7 tbsp.) good quality unsweetened cocoa powder (we use Valrhona)

90g (1/3 cup) full-fat plain yogurt

1 tsp. vanilla extract

Preheat the oven to 350°F.

In a small bowl, combine the flour, baking soda and salt and stir to mix.

Melt the butter, either in a bowl in the microwave or in a saucepan on the stovetop. Add the sugars to the butter, stir to mix, then add the cocoa and stir to mix. The mixture will be somewhat thick and pasty. Add the yogurt and vanilla and stir to mix thoroughly. Lastly, add the flour mixture and stir just to combine.

Drop the dough by tablespoons onto a baking sheet and bake for about 10 minutes, until the tops of the cookies have cracked slightly and look set.

Makes about 15 medium-sized cookies

Sarah of ‘Girls and Bicycles‘ road her bike over to the Shop with some friends this past Friday to check things out. You can find her post, with tons of great photos and thoughts, here.

After a couple months of searching and testing, we have found an excellent iced drinking chocolate recipe to serve up at the Shop this summer. And after getting together with Cafe Leva to create some 80% Valrhona chocolate gelato, we have one of the best ice cream sandwiches in the City.

Yesterday we invited our newsletter subscribers down to the Shop for samples, and we hope you made it out. If not, both of these items will be available starting Tuesday. See you soon!

This past Saturday evening on 104th was quite lovely - after a day full of Al Fresco festivities, a bunch of Edmontonians gathered outdoors at 10pm to watch Juliette Binoche and Johnny Depp in ‘Chocolat’ . We had bars, creme fraiche and bacon brittle peanut butter truffles, and frozen dark drinking chocolate on hand to complement the title of the film.

We hope you made it out to the show, but if not, stop by the Shop to try our summer creations listed above - hickory smoked bacon, peanuts and chocolate are an amazing combo, while the creamy creme fraiche truffle has a hint of bright tartness that is perfect for increasingly warm days.

We are still working on our frozen drinking chocolate recipe to offer in the Shop, but here’s a recipe you can try at home:

Frozen Drinking Chocolate

Adapted from a recipe by Serendipity 3

Makes 1 Serving

1/2 ounce dark or milk chocolate (try your favourite bar, or the Valrhona Caraibe 64% is lovely here)

2 teaspoons of Kerstin’s Dark Drinking Chocolate

1 1/2 tablespoons sugar (reduce a little if you’re going to use milk chocolate)

1 1/2 cups whole milk

3 cups ice

Whipped cream for serving (optional)

Directions:

Chop the chocolate into small pieces. Place it in the top of a double boiler over simmering water, stirring until melted. Add the drinking chocolate mix and sugar. Stir until completely melted. Remove from heat and slowly add ½ cup of milk until smooth. Cool to room temperature.

In a blender, place the remaining cup of milk, the room-temperature chocolate mixture and the ice. Blend on high speed until smooth. Serve in your glass of choice with whipped cream if desired… and maybe a sprinkling of some Cocoa Nib Caviar.

Enjoy!

Big news: We will have a booth at the 104th St. Block party tomorrow. At the booth, we will be testing out our new summer creation: Frozen Dark Drinking chocolate. We will also have truffles and bars! The weather is going to be great, and the movie of the night will be “Chocolat”, so if you love chocolate, come out and enjoy the event with us!

Boxes of Chocolate Covered Bacon on Display.

Making the Chocolate Covered Bacon

Father’s Day falls on June 20th this year, and to celebrate Dad’s this year we are bringing back our very popular Chocolate Covered Bacon again. Once again we are using locally made Bacon, this year from the Sandy Lane team on the West End. The chocolate we use is the same Venezuela 49% Dark Milk chocolate that we use for our Fleur de Sel bar, and we even put a few grains of sea salt on the outside!

Just to make things interesting, we also have created some original confections to make Dad’s extra happy. As you can see in the photo on right, we have some Pina Colada White Chocolate Golf Balls, which pair very well with the bacon.

Bacon Brittle Peanut Butter Truffles covered in chopped peanuts.

Bacon Brittle Peanut Butter Cups

We also wanted to try to incorporate Bacon in other ways this year, so we made Bacon Brittle, and then we created some cups and truffles that include Bacon Brittle Bits and Peanut Butter. What a combination! The Bacon Brittle paired very well with the Peanut Butter and the chocolate.

Finally, if your Dad wants to have something to nibble on while he watches the game, why not give him some of our new organic dark chocolate covered almonds make by Taza. They are delicious and healthy too.  The chocolate covered bacon was really popular last year, so come in soon and don’t miss out!

Taza Organic Chocolate Covered Almonds

New sign at the front of the shop.

We have some new signs on the street, so look out for these next time you are walking down Jasper Ave!

New sign on Jasper Ave!

A few people have been coming into the store and have asked when the next Chocolate Making class is. It is set for June 17. We have about 2-3 spots left so call the store or come on in and sign up! Classes are $85.00/person

Claudio Corallo is a genius, and this video proves it! A British TV crew travel to Sao Tome and document how Claudio and his family grow and process the beans. I found this video fascinating, and I hope you do too.

I’ve been doing some tests with meringues to create an ice cream sandwich for the summer.   I want to make something light and that’s why I chose a meringue based cookie as opposed to a chocolate chip cookie or an oatmeal cookie.  In the first test I used pure melted chocolate which I folded into the meringue at the stiff peak stage.  The taste was delicious but it looked bad and with all that expensive chocolate, the cost would be too high.  I tried another one the other day and used cocoa powder this time but the meringue collapsed and it tasted super sweet.  The search for the perfect meringue recipe continues.

In the meantime, Leva made a batch of gelato for us using the Valrhona Guanaja 80% we gave them.  So good!  The chocolate really added a certain depth that I’ve never tasted before in chocolate ice cream.  Super chocolatey with a nice acidity and a long finish.  Who would have thought that ice cream could have a long finish!

As many of you know, we have been carrying Madecasse chocolate from Madagascar for a while. It is fantastic in many ways. Watch below to learn about where the chocolate is made, and get a peek inside the factory!

Absolutely! Francois Pralus’s 100% sugar free chocolate has just arrived at our store - straight from France! According to the American Medical Association, “Today’s findings are interesting because they suggest it takes only a 6.3 gram serving of dark chocolate per day - only 30 calories worth - to lower blood pressure.” (That’s about a square a day.) So enjoy an intense and decadent chocolate experience - without the guilt!

Study for your own personal interest or for chocolate education:

http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20070704/dark_chocolate_070704/20070704/

We will have a table at this very cool event called “The Over the Top Fashion Swap” taking place on May 29th at the Winspear. We think the concept is great, and the event will be great too. Tickets are $18. Find out more by clicking above!

Photo by Christopher Thrall for Metro Edmonton

Our local Edmonton daily free paper, Metro News, had an article in it today about Kerstin’s Chocolates. Writer Christopher Thrall said some very nice things! To quote: “It is amazing what a difference it makes to buy Kerstin’s over Cadbury.” and “The care and hand-picked ingredients add so much weight and power that gluttony seems gauche.” as well as “Pot of Gold just doesn’t cut it any more.”

Check out the full article on the Metro News website.

We were also mentioned in May/June issue of The Tomato in the Pantry Section. (the articles in The Tomato are online!). They wrote about the Amedei chocolates from Italy that we carry in the shop. If you haven’t tried the Amedei bars yet, you are missing out!

We have introduced a flavour in our bark bouquets - just in time for the summer! We are featuring our Green Tea bark in our bark bouquets. In each individually wrapped bouquet includes our Green Tea bark, our very own Chai Crunch bark, and also our Dark chocolate bark with pistachios and dried cherries. Our bark bouquets are beautifully hand wrapped and make amazing gifts for any chocolate lover. Now you can have your tea, and eat it too!

We’ve been working on some new things in the Shop lately, so here’s a peek at some of our newest creations now out in the shop:

Packages of milk, white and dark Mendiants are now sitting pretty next to the Meltaways. Flavours are fleur de sel, vanilla bean and fruit and nut.

Outside of our Mothers’ Day collection, we also have two brand new truffles out - Pistachio Gianduja and Hazelnut Gianduja. These are rich and intense truffles, with the smoothness of the ganache provided by the ground nuts themselves.

Finally, we are now selling the Michel Cluizel nougat mushrooms in singles out of the truffle case, so you can purchase just one to munch on… or this entire plate.

Happy Mother’s Day to all those moms out there! Have a great weekend.

Kerstin was featured in this month’s Merge Magazine. Read the article!

Are you still looking for a great gift that will show Mom how grateful you are for all of her efforts?  Why not give her some very delicious and original chocolates that she will enjoy and appreciate.

Our Mother’s Day Ganache Collection includes five new ganaches that are guaranteed to inspire her senses. Here’s what we are offering:

Stimulate: Thyme and Honey (top photo)

Refresh: Mint and Lemon

Soothe: Thai Basil and Yuzu fruit

Relax  : Lavender

Harmonize: Rose and Raspberry (bottom photo)

(The 8 piece box to the right is $12.)

We also have our ever popular Bark Bouquets available for Mother’s Day.  These contain 3 sheets (one dark, one milk and one white chocolate) and are great for sharing.
The Mother’s Day Bark Bouquets contain the following 3 flavors:

* Chai Crunch (chai milk chocolate with caramelized rice crispies)
* Vanilla Spice (white chocolate with vanilla beans and pink and green peppercorns)
* Dark and Stormy (Chocolate from Madagascar with praline nuts and apricots)

Finally, we have many assorted gift bags and gift totes (see picture below) that contain a variety of Kerstin’s chocolates as well as a other great chocolates that we sell in the shop.

Between May 6th and May 8th, enter our Mother’s Day raffle at Kerstin’s Chocolates for a chance to win 2 spots in one of our chocolate making class for you and your Mom! Come into the shop, fill in a ballot and cross your fingers!

We’ve got some great new bars in the shop right now, as well as some old favourites…

The popular Zotter bars have returned in fun new flavours, like Olive and Lemon, Candied Ginger, and Celery, Truffle and Port Wine. The Strawberry and ever popular Bacon versions are out as well.

There are more dark-milk Bonnat bars for those of you (like me!) who crave a rich, flavourful milk chocolate once in awhile. Java and Surabaya are on the shelves right now.

Madécasse also sent us a great new flavoured bar - sea salt and cacao nib. A big hit of sea salt with the crunch of cacao nibs, sitting in their 63% chocolate. Amazing!

Bags of Francois Pralus’ multi-coloured potatoes are also back! Not to ruin the surprise, but these are actually hazelnut praline wrapped with a chocolate shell, not potatoes. But they are incredibly fun and yummy.

Look for Mothers’ Day items coming soon!