CHOCOLATE & CHEESE PAIRING for Valentine's Day or Any Time!

A Chocolate & Cheese Pairing is a terrific way to celebrate Valentine's Day! It's easy to put together, romantic, and a great tasty way to spend time with your sweetheart. Thanks to the California Milk Advisory Board for this post on Chocolate and Real California Cheese Pairings. Use this post as a guide, but substitute what you love or what you'd like to try. I'd like to hear which chocolate and cheeses you pair. I had Cowgirl Creamery Triple Brie & Taza 70% Stoneground Chocolate the other night (photo). Happy Valentine's Day!  

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Rich, bold, decadent – Chocolate and Cheese is a savory-sweet love connection is sure to make your foodie heart race. Creating the perfect pair is easy with these dating guidelines. Foods with similar flavor profiles go together best. For darker chocolates, choose a more complex, aged cheese while sweet milk chocolates work best with buttery cheeses, such as Brie. Bright, fruity chocolates are perfect with sharper cheeses and nuttier chocolates find a perfect pair in high butterfat cheeses. Want to spice things up a bit? Try pairing spicy chocolates with sharp cheeses – the intensities play off each other beautifully!

· Pair a dark chocolate with more the 80% cacoa with a delicious true Blue cheese
· Indulge in burnt caramel chocolates with a beer-soaked table cheese
· Pair a Bordeaux-style chocolate with a creamy triple crème Brie
· Treat yourself to chocolate candied orange peel and an aged Cheddar

Take the pairing up a notch with help from “Pair Savvy” a smart phone app that helps you pair the myriad of delicious California cheese varieties with the wine and beers you enjoy. The user-friendly application is free for download on most smart phones: pairsavvy.realcaliforniamilk.com.

RED VELVET HEART SHAPED BUNDT CAKE for Valentine's Day

I blogged about Red Velvet Pancakes the other day. They would be perfect for Valentine's Day brunch or dinner. Just the name Red Velvet screams Valentine's Day! To really make the most of the holiday, consider making this Red Velvet Bundt Cake in a heart-shaped bundt pan. Of course, if you don't have a heart bundt cake pan, you can use any bundt pan. Following are two great Red Velvet Bundt Cake recipes. One is even heart healthy because it's made with beets. Both are delicious.

Most red velvet cakes use red dye. If you're not making the Beet Red Velvet Bundt Cake, you'll need to use red food dye, the kind in the little bottles, if you want to get that really red color (even the Wilton's red paste doesn't quite do it). The first cake uses lots of real beet juice and the color comes very close to a true red. The cake is yummy. Most red velvet cakes I've made call for buttermilk and/or vinegar in them, so the second is perfect in taste. As always, the quality of the chocolate or cocoa will really make the difference!

This Beet Red Velvet Cake is more like a vegetable cake --i.e. a carrot cake or zucchini cake. 
(Adapted from Diana Rattray --Southern Food at About.com)

1. RED VELVET BEET CAKE

Ingredients:
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 - 1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1- 1/2 cups sugar
3/4 cup cocoa powder (use regular not Dutch Process)
3 large eggs, beaten
1 cup plus 2 Tbsp vegetable oil, Canola or corn oil
1-1/2 cups grated cooked beets
2 tsp pure vanilla
powdered sugar, optional

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350°
Combine flour, soda, salt, sugar and cocoa in bowl; set aside.
In mixing bowl, combine eggs and oil. Beat in vanilla and continue beating until well blended. Slowly beat in dry ingredients until well mixed; stir in beets.
Pour into greased and floured bundt cake pan. Bake at 350° for 25 to 35 minutes, or until cake bounces back when touched lightly with finger.
Cool in pan on a rack. Frost cooled cake or dust with powdered sugar.

2. RED VELVET BUNDT CAKE

Ingredients
1/2 cup shortening
3 Tbsp cocoa
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/2 tsp baking powder
2 eggs
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup buttermilk
1 tsp baking soda
2 cups cake flour
1 tsp vinegar
red food color ("2 whiskey glasses full")
1 tsp vanilla

Directions
Mix cocoa with red food coloring to make a paste.
Cream shortening, sugar, and eggs. Add cocoa paste and beat well. Add flour and baking powder and stir in buttermilk a little at a time. Add salt and vanilla. Add baking soda and vinegar by hand; do not mix too much.
Pour into greased and floured Bundt Pan (or mini-bundt cake pan) Bake at 350 degrees for 40 minutes.

Greek Yogurt Chocolate Bundt Cake: National Yogurt Day!

Today is Yogurt Day. I use Greek Yogurt in baking because it gives a bit of a tangy flavor to cakes, muffins, and breads. I often substitute Greek Yogurt for sour cream in recipes. You'll love this Greek Yogurt Chocolate Bundt Cake.

Greek Yogurt is not necessarily from Greece. Greek yogurt refers to a yogurt making process. It differs from regular yogurt in that the whey is strained off in the process. Consequently it contains less sugar, fewer carbs, and a lot more protein. Real old fashioned Greek yogurt is made with goat's milk, while much American Greek-style yogurt is made from cow's milk. You can try either in the following recipe. As always, choose a good quality Greek yogurt, as you would a good cocoa.

Greek Yogurt Chocolate Bundt Cake

Ingredients
1 cup unsalted butter, plus more for bundt pan
1 cup water
1/3 cup DARK cocoa powder
1 tsp salt
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp instant espresso powder
1  3/4 cups granulated sugar
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
2 large eggs
1/2 cup plain Greek Yogurt
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
Optional: Confectioners Sugar for sprinkling

Directions
Preheat oven to 350°F. Butter and flour a 10- or 12-cup Bundt pan.
Put butter, water, cocoa powder, espresso powder, and salt in small saucepan. Cook over medium heat, stirring frequently, until butter has just melted and mixture is combined. Set aside.
Whisk together flour, sugar, and baking soda in large mixing bowl. Add half butter mixture and whisk to combine. Add remaining butter mixture, and whisk until combined. Add eggs, one at a time, whisking well after each addition. Whisk in Greek yogurt and vanilla.
Pour batter into prepared pan and spread evenly.
Bake 40 to 45 minutes, or until toothpick inserted into center comes out clean.
Cool cake in pan for 15 minutes.
Invert cake onto wire rack and cool completely.
Optional: Sprinkle with confectioners sugar.

CHOCOLATE FONDUE with a TWIST: 2 Recipes for Fondue Day. Save for Valentine's Day!

Today is National Fondue Day! How perfect, especially Chocolate Fondue, for Valentine's Day. Fondue is so retro and romantic! Who doesn't like to dip things in chocolate? So pull up two chairs at that mid-century table you found at the Flea Market, and enjoy!

A few tips: You can make everything ahead of time: cut up the fruit, put out the marshmallows, and other dippers. Be sure and have lots of napkins on hand, it can get messy. Fondue pots are readily available at most kitchen stores and many hardware stores, and online, of course. Or.. search the attic or ask your mother. You're bound to find one -- maybe even one that's never been used!

Here are two easy Chocolate Fondue Recipes--with a Twist!

CHOCOLATE CARAMEL FONDUE

Ingredients
1 can (14 ounces) sweetened condensed milk
1 jar Recchiuti burnt caramel sauce (I'm partial to this sauce)*
3 ounces extra dark chocolate (75% cacao), chopped
Assorted fresh fruit

Directions
Combine condensed milk, caramel sauce, and chocolate in saucepan. Cook over low heat until chocolate is melted.
Put in fondue pot and keep warm.

Serve fresh fruit--strawberries, bananas, pineapple, oranges for dipping!

More suggested dippers: marshmallows, pound cake, pretzels, biscotti

EASY CHOCOLATE BOOZY FONDUE
Adapted from Rachael Ray

Ingredients
3/4 cup heavy whipping cream
12-15 ounces dark chocolate bars, chopped
2 Tbsp Amaretto or Kirsch
1/2 cup chopped hazelnuts

Directions
Heat 1/2 cup cream in heavy saucepan over moderate heat until cream comes to low boil.
Remove pan from heat and add chocolate.
Let chocolate stand in hot cream 3 to 5 minutes to soften, then whisk chocolate together with cream. Stir in liqueur and chopped nuts and transfer to fondue pot.

Dip fruit and other goodies as above. Use fondue forks, skewers, or seafood forks