The Chocolate Rooms by Choc Amor

This week a beautiful new chocolate shop opened in a the quaint West Lancashire of Tarleton, but what it signifies to me is the amazing foodie journey that Paul and Jacqui the owners has been on. Paul decided just over 12 months ago to become a chocolatier and took the life changing gamble to become an artisan producer of amazing chocolate confections. The first time I met Paul was on a cold snowy day in Chorley at their small farmers market, his passion for great chocolate immediately shone through as we chomped on his fantastic wares.

Now an award winning chocolatier (Great Taste 2013), Paul and  the team at Choc Amor has opened The Chocolate Rooms, a venue where all can enjoy great chocolate, coffee and cake ! you can actually experience much more as the team are keen also to showcase other great local artisan food producers on their coffee shop menu too and for you to purchase and take away.

Choc Amor already have an outlet at Botany Bay in Chorley and you can find out more about this on an earlier post here, but the Chocolate Rooms are something else.

The Chocolate Rooms are in a sensitively converted old agricultural building, here you'll find easy parking and a warm chocolately welcome, their is also a viewing facility so you can watch Lancashire's own "Willy Wonka" at work, creating the delectable creations which you can purchase in the shop. You can also book parties for both adults and children, which of course feature chocolate and hands on chocolate classes are also planned too (might have to try one of those).

The cakes are all handmade on the premises and will hopefully feature the chocolate scones that I experienced on our visit (amazing when filled with black forest jam and cream !) plus other chocolately cakes alongside traditional favourites. Great teas and coffees and of course hot chocolate and a savouries menu to offset all that sweetness.

You can find The Chocolate Rooms just of the A59 in Tarleton village, just pop PR4 6UP in your sat nav. Its well worth a visit (or more in my case) to sample and purchase this handmade, small batch artisan chocolate.

The Rooms will be open Tuesday to Friday 9-5ish, Saturday 10-5 and Sunday 10-4. Closed Mondays. Tarleton is on the A59 between Southport and Preston. 

You can also find Choc Amor on Facebook and twitter too.

Fluffy puff puffs - gourmet marshmallow review and giveaway !

Recently I received a small box in the post and was intrigued as to its contents, it was a light as air. I was pleasantly surprised as to its contents having agreed to the review I had forgotten that I was expecting a delivery from Fluffy puff puffs, the Gourmet marshmallow company. I was sent four flavours to sample, now I'm not a real fan of commercial marshmallows, the pink and white one's you see in the shops as I don't think they taste of any thing, well that's were Fluffy Puff Puffs differ. 

Our sample pack contained

• Lime Punch
• Love currant & white chocolate
• Raspberry & white chocolate
• Sugar & spice

You could really taste the flavours in the mallows, berry, chocolate, spices, unlike other commercially produced mallows which are full of rubbish , these are totally different, due to their being no preservatives in them, so they only have a relatively short shelf life of 6-8 weeks and the texture is also so very different too. There are loads of other flavours available plus seasonal variations, here are just a few to tempt you

• Key lime and ginger pie
• Salted caramel
• Dark chocolate peanut butter drizzle

Made using the finest ingredients, including Belgium chocolate, these mallows are artisanal, gourmet, decadent and above all very delicious.

Luckily for you Fluffy Puff Puffs are  allowing one of you to taste their delicious mallows too. The prize will feature two flavours, white chocolate peanut butter drizzle and the new Raspberry mallow.

How do I enter the Giveaway?

• Simply follow the instructions on the Rafflecopter widget below. 
• To be in with a chance of winning you must complete ALL the required fields. 
• All entries will be checked and verified before a winner is announced.
• You can increase your chances of winning by Tweeting on a daily basis.
• Rafflecopter will pick a random winner.
• The competition runs from 10/06/13 to 30/6/13 .
• If you win, you MUST send me your delivery details before 12pm on 01/07/13, or the prize will be passed to the next person drawn.
• Please see the Terms and Conditions on the Rafflecopter widget for the rules and more information.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

                            


                                                         

No knead bread

I was reading an article last week in the Saturday Times about essential kit in a foodies kitchen, needless to say our kitchen contains quite a few of the items quoted, it also mentioned about having a recipe for "no knead bread" which reminded me this was something I have been  planning to give a try for along time, the original no knead recipe was first published in 2006, I think in the New York Times. The internet is littered with recipes all much the same so I am going with the classic. So here we are a week later and our first foray into no knead baking is cooling in the kitchen.

The idea is that rather than knead the dough to activate the gluten, time does the hard work for you something that is lacking from many modern bakes, you are aiming for an artisan holey style loaf not a fine crumb structure, the resultant bake is rustic and humble. I like it and its ideal to serve as bruschetta, with oils and vinegars and along side salads.

The mix should also be able to cope with substituting different flours, so next time I might have an experiment. I'll let you know how I get on.

Ingredients

• 3 cups bread flour
• 1 tsp of dried yeast ( quantities vary and this will depend on whether you are using dried or instant acting yeast)
• 1 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 1/2 cups water
• You are also going to need a large cooking pot with a lid, I used my cast iron Le Crueset, but you can use Pyrex, etc.

Method

• Mix all the above in a bowl with a wooden spoon, try not to be precious as soon as its mixed leave it alone. Cover with film ( I use a shower cap) and leave for 12 - 18 hours or so in the kitchen.
• Return to your dough and see that it has risen and nice a bubbly.
• Turn onto a heavily floured surface or tea towel and using well floured hands or a scraper form into a rough ball, don't worry the dough will be very sticky and loose.
• I then placed mine in a baking parchment lined proving basket ( or use a bowl) for about 30 minutes
• Meanwhile preheat your oven to 230C / 450f , once up to temperature then place your baking pot with lid to preheat for about 30 minutes
• Now place your dough with baking parchment in the pot and replace lid, put in oven and bake for 30 minutes with the lid on, remove lid and then bake for a further 15 - 30 minutes until golden brown.
• Remove bread from oven and allow to cool on a wire rack.

Next time I might allow the dough to have a longer second rise ( up to 2 hours) as per the classic method and also may be reduce the quantity of yeast initially added.