If you haven’t been to one of our Tasting Parties, and you haven’t heard about them…well, let’s let someone who’s had one tell you about them. These are two comments from our guest book:

We talk about chocolate. You learn where chocolate comes from, how it’s made, why it’s good. And why it’s good for you. And then we go through at least a half dozen different confections and we’ll tell you how we made them and what inspired them. We’ve also got some special treats planned for the evening…

The night is all about independence. If you have it, celebrate it 7-9 p.m. on February 14, at Kakao Maplewood, 7272 Manchester. Cost is $12 per person. Call 314.645.4446 to make your reservation.

For the next week, both Kakao locations are collecting new, unwrapped gifts for families of the developmentally disabled in the city. We urge you to help us help people who really need a hand this holiday season.

Thanks!

Truthfully, we’ve been thinking about it for awhile now, getting staffed up to make and serve our chocolates, buying our holiday packaging and preparing our new products. And now we’re ready to start showing them off.

One of the special things about Kakao is that we only sell things that we make, or the ingredients we use to make them, like the Traveling Tea we use in some of our truffles. We’re adding a few new things to that list starting today.

First off are the all-natural candy canes and lollies made by Hammonds in Denver. We’ve been using their candy cane pieces for our bark for a couple of years now, and we’re excited to now offer hard candies in holiday shapes and flavors that include mint, cinnamon, butterscotch, nutmeg, pomegranate and strawberry. And all-natural, of course.

Next we have some great savory sea salts from Bella Cucina in Atlanta. We’ve been using the Citrus and Fennel to top our Anise Caramels, and we’re also selling Peperoncini & Pimenton, Tuscan Rose & Peppercorn, and Rosemary and Lavender. These salts are great as a garnish on salads or foccacia breadm or with olive oil for dipping.

And one more — one that’s so special it’s not something we use in the shop. This is panforte, a rich cake made with figs, walnuts, honey and spices — all natural, of course — that we’ve imported from Italy. It’s really spectacular, which is why we’re offering it to you!

Of course we’ve got our gift baskets, truffle boxes, and lots of other confections that will make you the favorite gift-giver. And everything is available at both Kakao Maplewood and Kakao on Jefferson.

But please note — since we don’t use any artificial preservatives, some of our confections have a limited shelf  life. Which means that if you’re going to buy truffles, caramels or marshmallow pies for Christmas, it would be best to wait until after the first of December to buy them.

See you soon!

Some people will bring flowers, some will bring wine, and the people who really want to be invited back again will arrive bearing gifts of chocolate.

We’ve got some great ideas for you to make your hostess (or host!) want to invite you over more often. We can do Kakao gift baskets or bags ranging from $5 to $50 with assortments of caramels, truffles, barks and other confections — you just pick it out and we’ll package it up extra special for you.

Or, you might want to pair the roasted turkey with a chocolate turkey! We have white chocolate, dark chocolate and milk chocolate turkeys for $25, but we’ve only got a few of them (we’re making as many as we can!). Imagine this beauty as your holiday table centerpiece, at least until you’re ready to start on dessert…

We also have some new Kakao hot chocolate mugs, complete with hot chocolate in all our flavors: regular dark, mint, chai, Mexican (with cinnamon and chili peppers), and extra creamy milk. The mug — $10, with hot chocolate mix – has a spoon that fits in the handle so you can be sure not to ever leave any chocolate on the bottom of the mug!

Of course we have our popular sea salt caramels, and some great new gift boxes, with either eight ($16) or 16 ($32) caramels — and you can pick out whichever flavors you want.

And of course we’re also working on new flavors of chocolates and confections. One that we’re really excited about is our Sage and Brown Butter truffle, topped with a pine nut. We’ve also got some great pates de fruits made in the flavors of your favorite Thanksgiving pies: cherry, apple and pumpkin.

You’ll find us at both shops: Kakao Maplewood, 7272 Manchester, is open 10 – 7 Monday through Friday, and noon – 5 on Sundays, and Kakao on Jefferson is open 10 – 7 Tuesday through Saturday. You’ll also find us at the Maplewood Winter Market at Schlafly Bottleworks on Saturday, November 19, from 9 to 1. See you soon!

Kakao is participating in the  Glennon Promotion from October 28 to November 6. You simply buy a card for $50 — at participating merchants — and then show it at any of 225+ participating stores, and get 20% off your purchase.

ALL of the $50 goes to the Cardinal Glennon Medical Center, plus it’s tax deductible. The 20% discount is donated by the merchants to you.

So you can get 20% off some sea salt caramels, or truffles, or assorted barks. Everything in the store, really. (Sorry, no special orders!)

And while you’re visiting Kakao, you can visit some of our neighbors who are also participating.

Kakao Maplewood, 7272 Manchester

• Airedale Antics, 7316 Manchester
• Boogaloo, 7344 Manchester
• Femme Boutique, 7270 Manchester (buy cards here!)
• Tigerlily Gifts, 7328 Manchester
• St. Louis Closet Co., 2626 S. Big Bend

More than 225 merchants are participating, so won’t have a problem using your card all over the St. Louis region. And thanks!

We’ve been at it again, combining chocolate with Asian Flavors in our last Peculiar Pairing of the year. All of these confections are available in both shops, so come in and give them a try while they last!

In the words of the confectioners who created them:

Miso Truffles – Kate

Miso is a fermented paste of rice and soybean. The confection I made for this peculiar pairing is a combination of ingredients that are sometimes included in traditional miso dish. I steeped ginger, lemongrass, and seaweed in the cream before making the ganache, and then I mixed in a mild yellow miso after I mixed the hot cream into the milk chocolate. The confection is has a somewhat salty taste, as miso is used to salt and season Asian dishes.

Black Garlic and Sesame Truffle - Margaret

Some time ago, a customer asked me if we ever did anything with chocolate and garlic. “I’m not sure that it would be any good,” she said, “but I love them both!”

I had to agree, and I wanted to try it. I talked to a few people who grimaced at the thought, but I couldn’t help but think it could be delicious.

I poked around online and came across black garlic. Black garlic is touted as a Korean delicacy, made by aging and fermenting garlic for at least a month. It was described as sweeter and milder than regular garlic; I thought it would mix well with chocolate, and I knew I had my Asian flavor.

Indeed, black garlic is much mellower than regular roasted garlic – in my first attempt at the ganache the garlic flavor was barely distinguishable. I didn’t want to make a truffle that contained garlic but didn’t taste like it (what’s the point of that?!), so in my second attempt I doubled the amount of black garlic and let it infuse overnight in the cream. I also added a few cloves of regular roasted garlic to give it a little more dimension. I made the ganache with semisweet chocolate, dipped it in bittersweet chocolate, and topped it with toasted sesame seeds.

This pairing seemed peculiar at first, but I found it to be a regular savory-sweet dream.

Kurogoma, Kinako, & Matcha Melts- Jenny

The Japanese have often been described as having the unique ability to take something foreign and make it completely their own (and in many cases, better). It is no surprise that their love for seasonality and regional variety have crossed over into the absorbed foreign confectionery traditions.

Take the ordinary Kit Kat bar. If you stop by the corner store in Tokyo, you will come across unexpected flavors like crème brulee, sakura, red bean, chestnut, Yubari melon, plum soda, sweet potato, or Hokkaido roasted corn. Such diversity in even “gas station” chocolate varieties is not only expected but anticipated.

When thinking about what I wanted to do for this pairing, I immediately recalled the chocolate meltaways I had in Japan; they are individually packaged, cube-sized blocks made of velvety chocolate, often coated in cocoa powder, which “gently melt in your mouth like a snowflake” (I should mention that the quote is straight from Meiji’s MeltyKiss branding.) The cool, melting sensation seems mysterious, but the secret to this irresistible confection is simple—coconut fat.

I am excited to introduce three of my favorite flavors commonly used in traditional Japanese sweets—kurogoma (black sesame), kinako (soy bean powder), and matcha (green tea). The kurogoma melt is made with semisweet coated in cocoa powder; kinako with bittersweet in kinako powder; and matcha in milk chocolate with matcha coating. Enjoy!

One Night in Bangkok Brittle – Shannon

Earlier this summer, I got a new ice cream cookbook because while I like to make candy, what I really love is ice cream. The book was written by a rock star in the ice cream world who uses a bunch of really crazy flavors in her products, kind of like what we do here at Kakao.

Anyhoo, one of the recipes featured Thai flavors and when I saw that, I thought, “Huh, I bet I could use those same flavors in a brittle.” In terms of chemistry, you have a little more leeway in confections than you do with ice cream, so that gave me a wider range of ingredients to draw from. I took our standard brittle recipe, but instead of bacon or chipotle powder, I used Thai flavors, including peanuts, fish sauce, curry paste and cayenne.

Wasabi Truffles - Brian

Because real wasabi is extremely difficult to get in the U.S., the green paste we so often enjoy at sushi restaurants is really a mixture of horseradish, mustard and food coloring. Nearly as difficult to procure is this “Western wasabi” without food coloring – but we found some.

This wasabi truffle isn’t designed to give you the “nasal rush” that a spoonful of wasabi can, but more to give the taste of how chocolate and wasabi can work together. You’ll find that you can taste the spice, and a little of the heat, but you’ll also experience a distinctively different chocolate taste.

Asian Fruit Punch Marshmallows - Jess

I’ve been looking forward to this Peculiar Pairing all summer.  Asian flavors are usually what I revert back to using when I can’t think of anything to make at home. On my trip to Vietnam, I was amazed by all of the new fruit and vegetables that were introduced to me.  The rambutan was unlike any fruit I’d ever seen!  I find it interesting that lots of South East Asian fruits have a slightly sweet and refreshing start and more of a vegetable finish.

I feel like these Asian Fruit Punch Marshmallows have the same effect.  I pureed fresh rambutan, dragon fruit, mangosteen, and lychee for the base and bloom of the fruit marshmallow. Three of the four fruits were very mild in flavor, but very refreshing. The mangosteen was definitely my favorite of the fruits. It was slightly sour and really balanced out the flavor of all the fruits mixed together. I sandwiched semisweet chocolate in between two pillows of the marshmallows.

Of course it would be fun to compete, but I know I’m not anywhere close to that level. No, I’d want to be a judge. Or better yet, one of the people who get to eat the food, the people who’s time to eat starts when the chefs’ time to cook and prepare and plate has run out. Those people get to enjoy some amazing food, made under some special challenge or constraint, prepared by some of the best chefs in the business.

Now’s your chance. (And check out a special offer for Kakao fans below.)

On Monday, September 19, you’ll have the opportunity to sample food created by five teams comprising some of the best chefs in town and a team of children from the Discovering Options after-school program. Each team has been planning, creating and testing their dishes — which are all culinarily elevated versions of familiar children’s meals like spaghetti, hot dogs and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.

Kakao has been supporting Discovering Options for as long as we’ve been in business. Discovering Options helps at-risk children in St. Louis Public Schools through mentoring and comprehensive after school programs that encourage family involvement.

In short, they make a big difference for a lot of kids.

In addition to the Iron Kids competition and samples of the chef/kid creations, you’ll also get appetizers provided by Home Wine Kitchen (the hot new restaurant down the street from Kakao Maplewood), wine samples from Chaumette Vineyard & Winery, cheese samplings from Whole Foods Market and food-themed live and silent auctions. And a Build A Bark station with Kakao Chocolate.

The event will be held on Monday, September 19 from 5:30 to 9:30 p.m. at Third Degree Glass Factory, 5200 Delmar in St. Louis. Tickets are $100, and you can purchase them online at www.discoveringoptions.org/event.php. 

As a special for Kakao fans, if you buy the tickets through either of our shops, we’ll give you a 25-piece box of truffles as a thank you. For each ticket you purchase. That’s $39 worth of chocolate, which brings your ticket price down to $61. Which is a pretty great deal to sample some of the most creative food around.

We’ve got a few of most of these available for purchase at the Maplewood shop, while they last. Best to let the confectioners who made them describe them:

Cocoa Nibs and Corn – Brian

The ancient Mayans first discovered chocolate, and would grind the nutty nibs into a smooth paste and add it to water. Since they didn’t have sugar as we know it – that was an Old World ingredient that originally came from southeast Asia – they would often drink it plain, a bitter drink they still thought was good enough to be a gift from God. Sometimes, though, they added other ingredients to the mix, and one of those ingredients was corn, which happens to have a fair amount of sugar.

For my confection, I went really old school and pureed cocoa nibs – unprocessed chocolate – with cooked sweet corn. To take the bitter edge off a bit, I added some honey, a sweetener that was available to the Mayans.

Brown Butter Divinity with Edamame and
Cocoa Nibs – Jess

I found some edamame at the Maplewood Farmer’s Market that I really wanted to attempt to incorporate into a confection.

At first I tried a brown butter edamame marshmallow.  Typically adding fat to marshmallows completely deflates them, and the brown butter did just that.  I ended up with a very soft greasy marshmallow that tasted really good, but I had difficulty imagining a final product.

I kept looking for recipes for marshmallow or confections that are similar and I came up with Divinity.  It’s a very popular sweet confection that lots of people make at home.  It should have a similar consistency to fudge, and usually has nuts or something else crunchy mixed in.  I blanched and removed the soy beans from the pods, browned the butter, and toasted the cocoa nibs.  Once the Divinity was finished mixing, I just hand mixed the rest in, and spooned it out.  The brown butter and cocoa nibs add depth to this traditional very sweet candy.  The edamame is truthfully, more for the weird factor, but also add a nice squishy texture.  Enjoy!

Butternut Squash Cremosa – Brian

Butternut squash is a wonderful vegetable that tastes just like its name – buttered squash with a nutty flavor.
I love the sweetness, and knew it would work well with just about any type of chocolate.

For this creation, I added pureed butternut squash to my cremosa, a rich dessert that’s not quite a pudding and not quite a custard. Made with egg yolks, cream, and milk chocolate, cremosa is the feminine word for   in Italian.

Chocolate-Dipped Sundried Tomatoes  - Margaret

For this peculiar pairing I wanted to be able to identify the vegetable element in the confection, and alter the veggies as little as possible. I immediately thought of chocolate-covered sundried tomatoes.

I experimented with different types of tomatoes and chocolate and decided on oil-packed tomatoes dipped in semi-sweet chocolate. I topped them with a little smoked sea salt to give the flavor an extra dimension. On the second batch I couldn’t resist topping some with bacon bits instead because, hey, bacon is smoky and salty, right?

Honeydew and Mint Marshmallows – Kate

I made these from a local honeydew melon with fresh local mint. I really wanted to do something that was on the sweet side, and I knew I wanted to use local produce that is at the peak of its season. Melon and mint are a great combination, so I pureed a very ripe honeydew melon, and steeped the fresh mint in the puree to give it the mint flavor. The marshmallows themselves are softer and fluffier than a regular marshmallow because I also experimented with cooling my base sugar mixture before mixing in the gelatin.

Callisons – Jenny

One of the traditional specialties of the Aix-en-Provence region in southern France, calissons can easily be spotted by their pretty almond shape, pristine royal icing top, and orange marzipan-like center made of candied fruit and almonds. While there are a variety of flavors that are sold—lavender, chocolate, prune, and violet to name a few—these variations are not labeled Calisson d’Aix , which are made only from cavaillon melon, almonds grown in Provence, and orange peel.

I love the soft, slightly chewy texture and subtle sweetness of the confection, not to mention that it actually replaces the host in holy communion on September 1^st in Provence, and has been attributed to protecting previous residents from the plague. With the confection hard to come by in the States, and primarily machine manufactured in France, I was eager to try my hand at making it from scratch using the freshest local produce. It can be made by hand, right?

I had great difficulty finding a workable recipe, not to mention scoring a local cavaillon melon, which seem to be more akin to cantaloupe. With the knowledge that calissons are made of 40% almonds and 60% fruit and syrup, I had a good starting point and did not stray from the basics by using jams or cream as binders. I began by candying local honeydew and honeykiss melons, and making candied lemon peel in a simple syrup over a two-day period. Since wafer paper is not sold locally—the closest thing that I could find were hosts from the Catholic Supply—I decided to incorporate a paperthin layer of bittersweet chocolate as a base for the thick fruit and almond paste.  I created one batch in the more traditional fashion with candied honeykiss melon topped in royal icing, and the other made with honey dew topped in bittersweet. And voila, You have the calisson!

Parisian Macaron with Sweet Corn Marshmallow
and Chile – Shannon

I grew up in a small town in Nebraska which was pretty much surrounded by corn fields. Here in the “big city” we have a Starbucks on practically every corner, but in Nebraska, at least in late summer, we have corn stands on practically every corner. Everyone has their favorite spot. (Hint: If you’re headed to eastern Nebraska this summer, my mom swears by the guy who sells loads of corn out of the back of his pickup parked out on Cornhusker Highway and yes, that’s really the name of the road.) If you grow up in Nebraska, you learn to love corn. Corn, steak and Cornhusker football. The holy trinity of life in Nebraska.

When this month’s peculiar pairing was announced, I knew right away that I wanted to use corn. I love these little French cookies called macaron, so I turned the corn into marshmallows and used them as the filling for the cookie. Chile and corn are a natural pairing, so I finished it with a little Anaheim chile powder. The corn came from a farm about 100 miles east of here, over in Illinois. It’s not as good as Nebraska corn, but it’ll do.

It also means it’s time of the year when Kakao partners with the St. Louis Office for Developmental Disability Resources, a publicly funded agency that supports community-based services for developmentally disabled people who want to stay in their homes and community. These agencies provide a variety of services ranging from life and job skills coaching to learning how to get along with others.

Last year I learned about DDR when I overheard one of their counselors working with a client. The client was distracted and the counselor really needed to work hard to keep her focused on their work. I was so impressed I followed up to see how I could help.

For the next couple of weeks, Kakao on Jefferson is collecting school supplies for families of the developmentally disabled in the city. So, if you bring some new school supplies (with receipt) in to Kakao on Jefferson in the next two weeks (by Saturday, August 20), we’ll give you the equivalent amount of chocolate. Free.

Yes, we’ll give you the equivalent amount of chocolate, rounded to the nearest dollar.

But the school supplies have to be new, and you have to give us the receipt. Crayons, kid scissors, pocket folders, #2 pencils, glue sticks, notebooks, markers, highlighters, 12-inch rulers, blue/black/red pens, colored pencils, backpacks and supply boxes. And note that because the DDR is in St. Louis City, this offer is only for Kakao on Jefferson.

We’re open Tuesday – Saturday from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. We hope to see you soon.

We at Kakao and the Office for Developmental Disability Resources thank you for your support.

We had a great time last week introducing our Chocolate and Beer Confections for our July Peculiar Pairings. Evan Benn of the Post-Dispatch was our guest pourer, and gave us all an in-depth look at each of the beers used in the confections. And the proceeds of the night went to Operation Food Search!

Without further ado, here are the confections, in the words of the confectioner who created them!

Gummy Beers - Brian

In thinking about fruit-flavored candy, I thought of something that never make but refer to all the time at Kakao: we often describe our pate de fruit candies as “distant cousins of the gummy bear.”

I wondered what would happen if we made gummy candy with beer, and the answer was obvious: gummy beers!

I used two different fruity beers, so you can taste the difference between a Great Divide Wile Raspberry Ale and the much darker Cherry Stout from Bells.

Beer Marshmallows with Delirium Tremens – Shannon

Earlier this summer, I took a trip to Europe and spent a few days in Belgium. When I first got to Brussels, I thought, “Wow, what a coincidence, here we are walking right down the street with all the chocolate shops.” Then I realized that every street in Brussels is lined with chocolate shops. And if they’re not lined with chocolate shops, they’re lined with pubs. Brussels is pretty much beer and chocolate heaven.

So I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to use a Belgian beer in my confection tonight. One of the challenging aspects of this Peculiar Pairing is getting the taste of beer into the confection, without sacrificing the integrity of either, and I think I achieved that goal with these. I’ve made these marshmallows before, for an event we did last spring with Schlafly at the St. Louis Art Museum. Here I used Delirium Tremens, a Belgian strong ale. I coated them with a little cocoa powder, to add just a touch of chocolate flavor.

Beer Brittle with Schlafly APA and AIPA - Margaret
For this peculiar pairing, I cheated a bit. I decided to try a beer brittle, which doesn’t actually contain any chocolate, but I thought it could be an interesting new confection, seeing as how Kakao had already dabbled in beer and chocolate combinations in the past.

First, I used pepitas (pumpkin seeds) in place of other nuts because I was looking for a flavor that wouldn’t compete too much with the beer, and I liked the idea of a nut-free brittle for those with allergies.

I tried several types of beer, trying to find one that would stand out in the brittle. First I used a stout, which didn’t result in much flavor, so I tried the Schlafly APA. This worked well, but I was looking for a more pronounced hop flavor in the brittle. After speaking with the experts at Schlafly, I made a batch using their new A IPA, and also added a drop of orange oil, which they said would help bring out the hop flavor in the end.

I am presenting both versions, for the tasters to decide just which one they like best!

Cinder Toffee with Stone Smoke Porter and Semisweet Chocolate - Jess

When I was thinking about the Beer and Chocolate pairing, I originally had no idea what to do, but I finally decided to experiment with a cinder toffee. It is, after all, one of my favorite things to make in the shop. It’s a tricky confection that only works when it wants to; usually it works best on a day with zero humidity. So of course I decided to make it in the middle of summer in St. Louis! This is one of the most gratifying things to make, in my opinion, because the end result is so far from the initial ingredients. What starts as sugar and baking soda, ends as a puffy, molten, golden crag.

The next decision was which beer to use. I knew most porters went well with chocolate, and that I’d either be dipping my confection in semisweet or bittersweet chocolate. I really wanted to use a beer from Stone Brewery, since I visited the brewery outside of San Diego in 2006, and loved the philosophy of the company. They have similar attitudes towards their product as we do at Kakao, using all-natural ingredients, and they are proud to make a phenomenal product even if it’s unique to what’s out there. I decided on the Stone Smoke Porter, even though it’s tough to get around here. It replaces over half of the sugar in the recipe, and adds to the deep molasses-y flavor. Normally this confection is sweeter and is dipped in 72% chocolate. Since I removed a lot of the sugar, I dipped the cinder toffee in 61% chocolate to maintain some sweetness.