Sweet school holidays are here!

And the interstate Chocolate Box family is visting Melbourne. How lucky to land in town just in time for the Melbourne Show!  But before the rides, the wood chopping and those bossy sheep dogs we needed a serious sugar hit.

Azlan & Huxley - great-grandchildren of The Chocolate Box & its most enthusiastic taste testers.

We found The Chocolate Box stall in the 'Tastes of Victoria' pavilion.  Our cousin Rebecca was selling fantastic fabric bags filled with 200g Milk Chocolate Raspberry Jellies, 200g Milk Chocolate Coated Pretzels, 480g bag of Coconut Rough and 300g Chocolate Honeycomb for $25 per showbag or 2 for $45.  We took two, and headed for the roller coaster!...

The show ends tomorrow but don't worry if you can't stomach the rides and want to go straight to the chocolate.  Show bags are on sale online all week.

Our Big Bags Sale starts this weekend. Pre-order online for our Monday start ..

Hello there chocolate lovers (you know who you are!),

Our biggest sale of the year starts on Monday 6th June (2011). You can find all of your favourite 1kg size bags at our store or online, for $10 off each bag. This year we are including our 1kg Dark Couverture and 1kg Chocolate Rocks, in addition to some of your other favourites including Milk, Dark and White Chocolate Raspberry Jellies, Chocolate Coated Fruit and Nut Mixture, Cocoa Dusted Macadamias, Chocolate Coated Toffee Coated Macadamias, Chocolate Coated Licorice, Chocolate Coated Raspberry Licorice... and just a few more.

We have also included a few more savings on our licorice bags, chocolate gift cards and Belgian La Boite Assortment.

Best wishes,
The Chocolate Box

Willies Venezuelan72

Willie's Wonky Chocolate Factory screens on ABC TV1 at 11.00 am Saturday 4 June. Watch the show, then have a look at the chocolate, here.

Nut Free Flat Bunnies for Easter (Sunday April 4)

If you are a food watcher looking for a chocolate product this Easter, have a look at our flat rabbit twin pack. It is cholesterol free, nut free, dairy free, gluten free and has no artificial flavours, colours or preservatives. It comes wrapped in a clear bag with ribbon and a swingtag.

Ingredients: Raw Cane sugar, Cocoa Butter (21%), Soy Flour (20%), Cocoa Mass (11%), Inulin (from Chicory), Emulsifiers (Soy Lecithin, E476), Natural Vanilla Flavour. May contain traces of nuts.

Christmas Cranberries and Chocolate Coated Nuts

Cranberries and Christmas go together like Rudolf and his his red nose, Santa and his sack, Bing Crosby and a White Christmas.

The cranberries here are real dried fruit, packed with delicious cranberry flavour, and enrobed in super fine dark chocolate.

We think it's an irresistible combination. Check it out on our website, here.

If you like our Chocolate Cranberries, you might also like these products:
Chocolate Almonds, Vienna Almonds, Cinnamon Almonds
Chocolate Hazelnuts
Chocolate Sultanas
Chocolate Fruit & Nut
Chocolate Ginger
Chocolate Orange Straws

Christmas Plum Pudding

Christmas Plum pudding is a delightful dark dessert made of dried fruit and other ingredients and soaked in brandy, and cooked. Since our puddings come pre-cooked, they just need to be warmed up - and here is how.

First, the calico covering of the pudding needs to be removed and the Plum Pudding in it's pouch can either be simmered in a saucepan of water for one hour or placed, with pouch, in a microwave (1000W), for 2 minutes on high, rested for 2 minutes, then cooked for a further 2 minutes. (Yes, only 6 minutes altogether!) Be careful when opening the pouch from the microwave, a jet of steam might come out.

Traditionally, people might choose to decorate their pudding with a sprig of holly, or douse it with brandy and (well, I could tell you, but check out these ideas instead).

Here are some fun serving suggestions for your Plum Puddings:

1. Slice the serves of plum pudding thinly. Drizzle over some warmed maple or golden syrup (only a bit) and then finish with a scoop of vanilla ice-cream!

2. Thinly slice your plum pudding and pour steaming warm custard over the top. Decorate with a dollop of whipped cream.

3. Drizzle the plum pudding with warm (Chocolate Box) Raspberry Framboise Fruit sauce. (If you remove the metal lid, the fruit sauce jar can be microwaved for a very short while to make it warm). Finish with warm custard and or vanilla ice cream.

The Chocolate Box Christmas Plum Pudding (400g)
The Chocolate Box Raspberry Framboise Fruit Sauce (250ml)

RECIPE BLOG! Hot Chocolate

THREE NEW HOT CHOCOLATE RECIPES
Your last chance to make hot chocolate before the warmer weather finally Springs into action!

CLASSIC HOT CHOCOLATE
Stir 12 milk chocolate pastilles* into hot milk. Add marshmallows and sprinkle
with cocoa powder for decoration. (Chocolate and marshmallows are available from The Chocolate Box).

HOT CHOCOLATE SNOWSTORM!
For the adventurous! Stir 12 white chocolate pastilles* into hot milk. Add a splash of Baileys, or brandy liqueur.

CONTINENTAL HOT CHOCOLATE!
Stir 12 dark chocolate pastilles* into a mug of hot milk. Stir in 2 tablespoons of Grand Marnier or Cointreau liqueur. (As an alternative, you could also use The Chocolate Box's Cointreau chocolate sauce).

*For an equivalent of chocolate pastilles, you can also try breaking 2 pieces from your 50g chocolate block, or 4 pieces from the 100g chocolate blocks into your hot milk. It varies to taste.

Enjoy!

Masterchef Wraps with Chocolate

Sunday was the final for Masterchef Australia, and what was the final, make-or-break challenge to test those terrific amateur chefs? ... Chocolate! In one memorable moment Poh put her tempered chocolate baton in the refrigerator to cool, and in hundreds of living rooms around Australia, a collective "Noooooo!"rang out from every employee of The Chocolate Box, every chocolate manufacturer, and every professional pastry chef or amateur cook who has ever worked with couverture chocolate.
Some don'ts about tempering coverture chocolate:
1. Don't put it in the fridge, and
2. Don't get water in it
Remember chocolate is very sensitive to changes in temperature and if it changes too quickly, it will become dry tasting and develop a white powdery bloom after it has time to settle.

You can find the tempering guide for our chocolate pastilles here.

You have probably seen commercial chocolate bars advertised as suitable for keeping in the fridge - but what you need to know is that those bars are made of compounded chocolate. Couverture chocolate, the chocolate lover's chocolate, is a trickier substance to temper, but worth it for serious chocolate afficianados. If you would like to know more about the differences between couverture and compound chocolate read about it here.

RECIPE BLOG! Chocolate Mousse

(Serves 4-6)

INGREDIENTS:
120g of The Chocolate Box's Milk (or Dark) Chocolate
4 Separated Eggs
15g butter
Rum to taste
Whipping cream for decoration.

METHOD:
Break the chocolate into smaller pieces (or you can use chocolate pastilles) so they will melt more easily. Grate a portion of the chocolate and put aside for sprinkling. Place chocolate pieces in a bowl with butter. Cook on "high" in your microwave for 1-2 mins, or over a saucepan of boiled water (use two saucepans and dip the second into the boiled water, making sure no water gets into the chocolate mixure) and stir once, half-way through cooking. Whilst chocolate is still melted stir in egg yolks and rum, whisk egg whites until stiff, and fold into the mixture. Pour mixture into 4-6 individual dishes and chill until set. If you wish to decorate it with whipped cream, buy some whipping cream and whip it until it becomes stiff. Decorate with whipped cream and chocolate sprinkles to serve.

RECIPE BLOG! Chocolate Thickshake

The Chocolate Box's Chocolate Thickshake (Easy Recipe)
(Serves 1)

INGREDIENTS
200g Vanilla Ice Cream
4 tbsp of The Chocolate Box's Chocolate Fudge Sauce
125ml Milk

METHOD
Mix ice-cream, chocolate sauce and milk in a blender and stir until mixture is smooth. To decorate, drizzle a small amount of chocolate sauce onto the edges of a clear tall milk shake glass in a spiral pattern. Pour mixture into glass. Serve.

For more Chocolate Box recipes, click here.

RECIPE BLOG! The Chocolate Box's Banana Split

The Chocolate Box Banana Split (Easy Recipe)
(Serves 1)

INGREDIENTS
1 Banana
2 Scoops of Ice-cream
3 Tbsp The Chocolate Box Chocolate Sauce
6 Pecans or almonds

METHOD
Peel banana and cut length-ways. Chop nuts. Place banana in dish, top with ice-cream, drizzle with the chocolate sauce of your choice, and sprinkle with chopped nuts. Try our Chocolate Cointreau or Chocolate Fudge chocolate sauce.
Serve.

What's in a Box? Chocolate Assortments Part II

What's in an chocolate box? Is a creme by any other name just as creamy? Here's the lowdown on what's inside some of our most popular chocolate assortments. (Part 1)

Named after the owners of The Chocolate Box, the Adlers’ Assortment is one of The Chocolate Box’s original and most popular of assortments. This selection of individually wrapped milk and dark chocolate coated truffles has a soft whipped fruit or chocolate filling in a variety of popular flavours. Varieties include: Mango, Orange, Strawberry, Rum, Apricot, Hazelnut, Chocolate, Peppermint, Ginger & Raspberry. Our Adlers Assortment are all loose chocolates, so there are no moulded trays, just chocolates in a box! The Adlers assortment is now more colourful than ever, with a selection of wonderfully eyecatching colourful twistwraps.

The crème de la crème of the truffles range, our fresh cream truffles are made of soft truffle filling lightly accented with honey or liqueur. The handmade truffles are then dipped in fine milk, dark & white chocolate. Due to the fresh nature of the chocolates, Luxury Truffles have a typical life of six months and the flavours in this assortment include: Blanc de Blanc, White Honey, Rum Truffle, Champagne Truffle, Dark Cointreau, Tia Maria and Grand Marnier.

Our delicious flaky truffles are created with fine whipped chocolate centres, enrobed in fine milk, dark or white chocolate rolled in flakes of mouthwatering Belgian chocolate. It's a simple and lovely assortment in a gold box, and very popular for it's triple chocolate concentration (it is all chocolate inside and out).