Chocolate and Animal Crackers: National Animal Crackers Day!

Today is National Animal Crackers Day. The original animal crackers of my childhood didn't have a lot of flavor, but even now when I think of them I remember zoo and circus visits and the unique taste. These trips were always exciting, and animal crackers were an important part of the experience, as that was the only time I ate them.  I remember the red cardboard boxes with pictures of animals in cages (sad now, but I didn't think about that then) and little flat strings to carry your box.

Today there are many different brands of animal crackers--vegan, chocolate, chocolate covered, covered with icing and sprinkles and so many more. There's the original Barnum's Animal Crackers, and I really like Barbara's (all natural) Snackimals Double Chocolate and Snackimals Chocolate Chip.

Want to dress up your store bought Animal Crackers today to celebrate National Animal Cracker Day? Dip the animal crackers in Chocolate:

Chocolate Dipped Animal Crackers/Muddy Boots

Melt a good dark chocolate in top of double boiler over simmering water or in the microwave.
Dip animals and let cool on waxed paper.
You can either dip most of the animal (and use forks or special dipping tools) or just dip the feet as I did with the Walker Scottie Dogs with Muddy Boots. I like Trader Joe's Animal Crackers for chocolate dipping.

Want to get fancier? Healthy Happy Life (Lunchboxbunch.com) has a Chocolate-Covered Vegan Animal Cookies post with great photos and recipes.

There's even a Website devoted to Animal Crackers: www.animalcrackers.net/  Here you'll find a variety of recipes for animal crackers  such as Homemade Animal Crackers, Oatmeal Animal Crackers, Classic Animal Crackers, Cheese Animal Crackers, Chocolate Animal Crackers, and many others. Animal Crackers have been a snack since the mid nineteenth century. Today they are made by numerous well known companies, such as Keebler, Nabisco, or the Stauffer Biscuit Company. Although store bought varieties can be great, you might want to try some homemade animal crackers.

COCOA ANIMAL CRACKERS: 
Recipe adapted from AnimalCrackers.net

Ingredients:
1/3 Cup of Unsweetened Cocoa Powder
1 Cup of Organic Toasted Rolled Quick Oats
1/2 Cup Softened Real Butter
1 1/2 Cups All Purpose Baking Flour
1/2 Teaspoon Baking Soda
1/2 Cup of Granulated Sugar
1/2 Teaspoon of Kosher Salt
3/4 Cup of Cold Whole Milk

Directions:
Preheat  oven to 350 degrees.
In Blender, mix organic toasted rolled quick oats, with flour, unsweetened cocoa powder, sugar, baking soda, and kosher salt.
Pulse until base mixture is completely ground up into delicate powder, and color and texture are even and consistent.
Pour this mixture into mixing bowl, and vigorously stir in cold whole milk and softened real butter. Stir until dough becomes stiff, adding any extra milk if you need to.
Roll animal cracker dough into ball on clean flat surface, then flatten it out into a quarter of an inch thickness.
Using animal cracker or cookie cutters, make as many shapes as you can with the dough.
Place your finished shapes on lightly greased baking sheet. Cook for ten to fifteen minutes, or until crackers are crisp.
Cool on wire wrack for half an hour.

Waiter, there's an Animal Cracker in my soup! Animal Crackers make a great starch for soups and stews.  Last year I posted a recipe for a great Chicken Mole Polano made with Animal Crackers.  Or try this recipe for White Chocolate Mole with Animal Crackers.

Want a sweet chocolate soup with Animal Crackers? O. K., this is more of a dessert. This recipe was originally found on the Hershey's Cocoa Box.

CHOCOLATE SOUP WITH ANIMAL CRACKERS

Ingredients
3/4 cups half-and-half
1 Tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp Madagascar vanilla extract
2 tsp cocoa
1 egg yolk

Directions:
Heat half-and-half. Pour into bowl, leaving about 1/4 cup in saucepan or cup.
Add sugar, vanilla, cocoa to pan and mix until it is a syrup. Add egg yolk and stir over low heat. Gradually stir in preheated half-and-half. Stir until blended and thick. Pour into bowl.
Top with animal crackers.

Here's a link to several other Cocoa Soup recipes. All go well with Animal Crackers!

Enjoy this video clip of Shirley Temple singing Animal Crackers in my Soup!

Dying for Chocolate Bracelet: Pattie Tierney

My worlds collide again. Pattie Tierney is a food blogger and mystery reader. She's been a guest here on DyingforChocolate.com with some killer chocolate recipes. Recently I posted the following on MysteryFanfare.com, my crime fiction blog, but I knew people who read this chocolate blog would also be interested in Pattie and this bracelet, in particular, so I'm reposting here.

Pattie Tierney has a passion for travel, dining, photography, and mysteries, and writes about them all. She has published in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Personal Journaling Magazine, The Diarist's Journal, and Ink & Ruminations. Her art has appeared in The Rubber Stamper, Signatures: The Art Journal Collection, ATCs: An Anthology of Artist Trading Cards, Somerset Studio and Stamper's Sampler magazines.

Her Agatha Christie Mystery Charm Bracelet was featured in the holiday gift guide of BUST magazine's December 2006 issue as one of the "must have" gifts for the year. In 2007 her "Methods of Murder" charm bracelet and Agatha Christie Typewriter Pin were both included in the Mystery Gift Guide of Mystery Scene Magazine. Pregnancy Magazine featured her Jane Austen bracelet in their 2008 Valentine issue. Her Clue Game Piece Bracelet was featured on the online site iVillage.com in November 2009 as one of 7 Cool Products Made from Board Games. Tierney has designed jewelry for various organizations including USA Today, Sisters in Crime, Short Mystery Fiction Society, Forensic U and the St. Charles Public Library system.

The former editor of The Baker Street Chronicle, a Sherlock Holmes journal, her current project, Recipes To Die For, is a mystery cookbook full of recipes from actors, authors, and readers who perform in, write, or read mystery stories.

Pattie Tierney:

I once read an article on Marilyn Monroe that quoted her as saying that she wore no jewelry because she didn't want to wear anything that might detract from her beauty. Of course, Marilyn Monroe was 36 when she died. Had she lived, she'd been two months away from celebrating her 86th birthday. My guess is that, unless she chose to nip, tuck, Botox, and lipo, she'd have bagged, sagged, and dragged with the rest of us. And, like the rest of us, she'd have adorned her body with some pretty dynamic baubles to divert attention from the, um, baggage, saggage, and draggage.

Unlike Marilyn, I've always been a jewelry wearer, but as I got older I wanted jewelry that represented the "me" that I know I am rather than a reflection of someone else. Herein lay the problem: I am a mystery fan. And, as I found out after many hours of tireless search, no one makes mystery jewelry.

Armed with no more than an idea, desire, and a bit of chutzpah, I bought a book on jewelry making, a package of assorted jewelry-making tools, a collection of beads and findings, charm bracelet chain, and a handful of charms, some culled from broken bits of jewelry that had been taking up space in my jewelry box. I had absolutely no idea what I was doing, but had an image in my mind as to what I'd hoped would be the end result.

The task was slightly more daunting than I'd imagined, but I love a challenge and in little less than a month I had created my first piece of mystery jewelry, a "Murder and Mayhem" bracelet devoted to Agatha Christie. It sold the day it listed. It was a good feeling to know that I was not alone. That, out there, somewhere, was at least one other formerly frustrated mystery fan looking for jewelry. The benefit of a mystery focus is that inspiration can be found everywhere. From Dame Agatha to Sherlock Holmes, Nancy Drew to Trixie Belden, Nero Wolfe to Charlie Chan, I was making bracelets as fast as you can say, "It was a dark and stormy night." Then, I thought, why not make a "Dark and Stormy" bracelet? How about a city bracelet like "Sherlock's London?" Characters, authors, even "Methods of Murder" have all found their way to becoming bracelets.

My latest creation, inspired by none other than Janet Rudolph and recently released is called (what else?), "Dying for Chocolate" and features murder weapons, poison labels, antique chocolate labels and beads in colors of milk and dark chocolate. Dastardly and delicious!

Order the Dying for Chocolate bracelet: Don't be distraught if the etsy shop says it's sold. Pattie will make one for you.
See more jewelry designs at Pattie's Etsy Shop
Visit her paper goods and mystery gifts shop 
Follow Pattie Tierney on Twitter @pattietierney
Pattie's Food blog: Olla-Podrida 

Death and Taxes Truffles

April 15: Tax Day. "The only things certain in life are Death and Taxes." This quotation is usually attributed to Benjamin Franklin, who wrote in a 1789 letter that “Our new Constitution is now established, and has an appearance that promises permanency; but in this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes.” However, The Yale Book of Quotations quotes “‘Tis impossible to be sure of any thing but Death and Taxes,” from Christopher Bullock, The Cobler of Preston (1716). The YBQ also quotes “Death and Taxes, they are certain,” from Edward Ward, The Dancing Devils (1724). No matter who said it, it's true. And, just in time for Tax Day 2012, Socola Chocolate has created a truffle to mark the day: THE INEVITABLE EDIBLE Truffle. Perfect for Tax Day.  It's a dark chocolate truffle made with Santa Rosa's Moonlight Brewing Company's Death & Taxes stout.

Socola is a San Francisco artisan chocolate company, the brain child of sisters Wendy and Susan Lieu. Their truffles feature flavors from burnt caramel with sea salt to sriracha (Sriracha Flying Rooster Chocolate Truffles--my favorite!).

After meeting with Moonlight brewer Brian Hunt at the Fancy Food Show in January, the Lieu sisters developed a truffle that features the regional favorite Death and Taxes. The Inevitable Edible has a smooth center robed with dark chocolate. The  beer flavor in Death and Taxes is subtle. I tasted this Incredible Edible at the San Francisco International Chocolate Salon. Excellent. If you need a stronger beer flavor to get you through tax day, try their Guinness Truffle.

A little history of the Lieu sisters from their website:
Wendy, the older of the two sisters and is Sôcôla’s chief Chocolatier. A pastry school graduate, Wendy began experimenting with Klutz's Cookbook for Kids at age nine and with truffles recipes at age nineteen. She holds a degree in managerial economics from UC Davis and works as a consultant in San Francisco, but chocolate is where the heart is: mostly self-taught, she finds that her thoughts wander frequently now to new truffle recipes, and she’s even begun dreaming up ganache concoctions in her sleep.

By contrast, Susan couldn’t tell the difference between teaspoons and tablespoons as a child, and her early attempts at friendship bread (referred to as the Great Salt Incident of ’95) tasted like the Dead Sea. Her talents lie outside the kitchen, as a fundraiser, activist, and saleswoman. A Harvard graduate with a degree in Social Studies, Susan feels most at home when she’s stirring up fervor in people—whether for sustainable farming methods in Vietnam, international relief for refugees in Africa, or for her and Wendy’s chocolates.

When Wendy began experimenting with chocolate recipes in 2001, she never intended for the truffles to be anything other than Christmas gifts, but her friends and family members kept asking where they could find more of them. One neighbor suggested that she try marketing and selling the chocolates, which inspired Susan to begin promoting. Weeks later, Wendy and Susan (then nineteen and sixteen years old) were featured on KSRO 1350's Pat Thurston Show. They chatted excitedly about their chocolates, took in callers, and raffled truffles, and audiences throughout Sonoma County fell in love—with the girls no less than with the truffles.

Sôcôla Chocolates can be found  Bi-Rite Market, some Whole Foods Markets, Chocolate Covered, online at their website, and at many specialty chocolate shops.

Salted Chocolate Pecan Toffee

I love Pecans. They're filled with anti-oxidants, and they taste great. Add chocolate and toffee, and you have a winner. So since today is National Pecan Day (as opposed to Pecan Pie Day or Pecan Sandie Day), celebrate.

Several years ago I found a fabulous recipe in Sunset Magazine, December 2007, for Salted Chocolate Pecan Toffee. I've been a subscriber to Sunset for more years than some of you have been around, and they really test their recipes. This is a no-fail recipe that I've tweaked only slightly, and you'll love the results. Remember to buy the freshest pecans and the best chocolate. If you have a pecan tree, that's even better! And, as always, experiment with different chocolate.

Too much work? Make Margaret Maron's Chocolate Covered Fried Pecans.

SALTED CHOCOLATE PECAN TOFFEE

Ingredients
2 cups pecan halves
3 1/2 cups sugar
1 1/2 cups sweet butter
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon Madegascar vanilla extract
12 ounces DARK chocolate (70-85% cacao, fair-trade, organic)
2 teaspoons fleur de sel or coarse sea salt

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 350°. Place pecans on rimmed baking sheet and cook, stirring occasionally, until toasted, about 8 minutes. When cool enough to handle, chop roughly. Divide into 2 batches; chop 1 batch finely. Set both batches aside.
2. Put sugar, butter, salt, and 3/4 cup water in 4-qt. saucepan over medium heat. When butter and sugar are melted, increase heat to medium-high and cook, stirring occasionally, until mixture is deep golden brown and measures 310° on a candy thermometer, about 20 minutes. Remove from heat and carefully stir in vanilla (mixture bubbles up) and finely chopped pecans. Pour into a 10x15 rimmed baking sheet. Let toffee cool until set, at least 30 minutes.
3. Chop chocolate and put in a medium metal bowl. Fill an 8x10 frying pan with 1/2 in. of water and bring to a boil. Take off heat and put bowl of chocolate in the water. Let sit about 5 minutes. Stir chocolate until melted. Pour over toffee, and with knife or spatula, spread evenly. Sprinkle chocolate with roughly chopped pecans. Let sit 20 minutes, or until chocolate is cool but still a bit soft. Sprinkle with fleur de sel. Chill until set, about 1 hour.
4. To remove, gently twist pan to release toffee, then chop or break into chunks. Store in airtight container.

A warning from Sunset, and it's true.. be careful!
Use caution when working with sugar syrup, as it can cause severe burns. Set out your baking sheet so it's ready to use, and keep ice water nearby to cool any burns.