Normally at Christmas in our house, there’s a lot of chocolate flying about – from the ordinary box of Celebrations to the must-have selection box of Fererro Rocher (the normal ones are my favourite), but when Chocolat Chocolat gave me the opportunity to try out their Custom Bars, I couldn’t resist. These would make perfect presents and go nicely in my tum…
My 3 customised bars – see below to see what’s in / on them.
Chocolat Chocolat is an independent chocolatier in Cambridge, which is famous for its handmade sheet chocolate made in a unique French Style, brought over from France by owner, Isabelle. As well as selling delicious chocolates in the shop and online, they also do chocolate making and tasting courses.
I made 3 100g bars in total (one to experiment with, one for me and one just in case it all went wrong). You can do everything on the website, firstly choosing your chocolate base (dark 70%, dark 55%, milk 34%, caramel 34%, white 28%). Once chosen Chocolat Chocolat helpfully gives you the option to show suggested combinations for your base. Every time, I opted to choose from everything, regardless how well it went together (after all, who ever though bacon and jam would be so tasty?). This is where it gets fun! There are over 60 ‘things’ to add to your bar from fruit, nuts, sweets, spices herbs and flowers to silver and gold flakes. If you’re buying for a kid then you’ve got to add some popping candy. And if you’re creating a festive Christmas bar, the Spekuloos sounds perfect. Did I mention that with each custom bar you get THREE TOPPINGS?
If you’re feeling extra crazy, you can also add wording to the top. At the moment there doesn’t seem any functionality to add your own (I imagine this could get quite tricky, especially if someone decided they wanted an essay on there) so there are 3 standard options – I love you, Happy Birthday and Thank You. Once ordered, the bars didn’t take long to arrive, several days in fact.
The bad news is I’m currently going through a phase where I’ve got a real craving for chocolate (maybe it’s because it’s coming up to that time of the month where I just want to eat everything) so it’s really hard to keep these for Christmas.
My Chocolat Chocolat Custom Bars
Bar 01 – Dark Chocolate base (55%)with rose petals, coconut and silver flakes. I have no idea who this is for and it’s so pretty, I may just look at it like I do with all the high-heeled shoes I have in the house.
Bar 02 – Caramel Chocolate base with Amaretti biscuit, gold flakes and an I LOVE YOU across the front. This is for Tom. I wanted to eat this so much I actually tried to give it to him before Christmas but he weirdly developed a modicum of self-control and asked me to save it. Pfft.
Bar 03 – Dark Chocolate base (70%) with praline, cocoa nibs and sea salt. This one is for me. I was going to save it for Christmas but I’m not sure I can resist…
So it turns out that in the interest of writing this blog post, I should try one of the bars. It also turns out that I have no self-control…
Mmm! Bar 03 doesn’t contain dairy so it’s perfect for me. And it’s vegan too (who’s doing Veganuary next year?) It’s rich and there’s a generous helping of salt without it being overpowering. The cocoa nibs and the praline add to the crunch but don’t add much to the flavours. Having said that, it wouldn’t stop me from adding them on another chocolate bar…
It’s really quite fun making these and even more exciting getting them through the post! Now all I have to do is wait until Christmas so I can try the other two bars…
More Information
How much? 3 Custom Bars cost £14.95
Make your own: http://www.chocolatchocolat.co.uk/
Perfect as: a special but affordable gift for those with a sweet tooth
Order by 4pm 21st December with Special Delivery to get your bars before Christmas
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