Viennoiserie aux camerises

Petite nouvelle bouffe trouvée sur la page Facebook de Première Moisson: ils ont une nouveauté, un pain roulé aux camerises et caramel. Je ne connaissais pas les camerises, ça manquait à ma culture. ce sera donc notre mot du jour. J'apprends grâce à eux que la camerise est une baie unique au Québec, riche en antioxidants. Par conséquent, ce dessert doit être bon pour la santé.

Les Caramels du Chat

 Mon père m'a envoyé cette photo. Il semblerait que le Chat vende des caramels au chocolat, en plus d'être un personnage de bédé. À $10.99 en spécial, c'est mieux d'être bon.

Sundae au caramel

Lors de notre dernier passage à à Bourne for Desserts, je me suis payé la traite avec un dessert bien décadent: un sundae au caramel avec sucre à la crème (que les Anglais appellent cream fudge). ce n'est pas leur meilleur sundae, mais je voulais en essayer un nouveau, voilà qui est fait. C'est le temps de manger des desserts avec la crème glacée, alors autant en faire bonne mesure. Et je le partage ici parce que food porn.

Caramel Mocha (home delivery)

I hate coffee, as those of you who have been following this blog for a while know. My wife, however, really loves coffee, more than an average Brit. Especially things like mocha. So yesterday, she saw on social media that a local barista was selling his products for home delivery (!) for £3.50 a cup. She was hesitant, but I told her that it would be nice to encourage local businesses in these uncertain times, that it would make this mocha extra special and that anyway, I had some spare change and it would be my treat. So here it is. The proper term, if I am not mistaken, is caramel mocha latte. In any case, it looks very fancy, cost only £3.50 and it was delivered.

La Chandeleur (selon Juliette et Chocolat)

J'ai pris cette photo sur la page Facebook de Juliette & Chocolat. Je sais que je suis en retard dans les nouvelles, mais je ne la publie pas pour faire de la food porn (enfin pas seulement). La photo est accompagnée de longues explications sur la Chandeleur: "La Chandeleur est fêtée le 2 février de chaque année, soit 40 jours après Noël. C'est une fête traditionnelle française où pour l'occasion les personnes mangent des crêpes. Elle trouve ses origines dans une fête païenne. La Chandeleur faisait référence à la fertilité de la terre. Avec leur forme ronde et leur couleur dorée, les crêpes symbolisaient la lumière, le soleil et donc le retour des beaux jours qui approchent". Et encore ceci: "La tradition veut que l’on fasse sauter la première crêpe d’une main (la droite) avec une pièce en or dans l’autre (la gauche), pour s’assurer d’une bonne récolte pour l'année en cours. Attention, il faut qu’elle retombe bien à plat dans la poêle". Morale de l'histoire: moi qui suis adepte de traditions, je veux vraiment mieux la célébrer l'année prochaine.

Twix and Tea

A few years ago, back in my old job (not my last one, but the one before) a then colleague told of a way to enjoy a Twix bar and tea: you dip the Twix in your tea, bite the bit that had been in the liquid, then do the same for the other end, then finally use what is left of the bar as a straw. You get hot tea mixed with warmed up caramel, the rest of the bar is all gooey and warm and it is allegedly delicious. Well, I have been curious about it since then, so I decided to try it yesterday after my lunch as my wife had bought some Twix for dessert. While there was not much possibility to drink all that much tea, it did taste quite nice. I will try it again, next time hopefully I will be better at it.

My wife won a cake

Well, she did, just not this year. I wanted to blog about it for a while, but never got down to it. So anyway, last year, we went to a local fête for charity organised on the premisse a primary school nearby, where my wife used to work. There were a few stands, some with food, some with drinks, some with special activities and my wife knew some of the people organising them. One of the stands was selling cakes and we could also win one caramel cake if we could guess accurately its weight. You can see the cake on the pictures here. Its icing was covered with question marks, which was a nice touch.

Anyway, as I was saying, my wife knew a lot of people involved in the fête and this stand was no exception: the ladies organising it were very happy to see her, to ask about how she was doing and how was Wolfie (as it is always the case they were very excited about our son) and so on. They were also eager for us to participate to their competition. We had to choose one weight among many choices on a list,there were some left and they were very strongly implying that the right choice was still available. I suspect to this day that they wanted us to win it because they really liked my wife and found Wolfie so very, very cute. In any case, they not so subtly suggested a weight which my wife chose and it turned out to be the right one. So she won the cake. Veggie Carrie does not like caramel much, ironically enough, so Wolfie and I ended up enjoying it more than her. And we can't remember how much it weighted. It will remain a mystery for the ages.

La crête kouign amann

Je sais que je fais souvent des billets bouffe ces temps-ci, je vais essayer de bloguer sur d'autres sujets bientôt, promis. Toujours est-il que je voulais depuis un temps partager ce dessert décadent que j'ai eu en Bretagne, je crois que c'était au Mouchoir de Poche. Une crêpe kouign amann. Et par là je veux dire: construite comme un kouign amann. Avec caramel et crème glacée et toutte le kit. Il fallait la commander avant le reste du repas. C'était bon pas rien qu'un peu.

White chocolate Snickers?

My readers may remember that I really like Snickers bar. I find the mix of chocolate, caramel, nougat and nuts to be the perfect mix of indulgent sugar and protein. Sugar and chocolate for endorphins, nuts for feeling not too guilty about the high sugar content. I tried many of its variants: the one with almonds which I really liked, and the one with hazelnuts which is to this day my favourite Snickers. I recently tried a limited edition (or so it said in the wrapping) white chocolate Snickers. £0.99 for a bar. I don't think it was worth that price. So far it is my least favourite Snickers bar. Is it only me, or does white chocolate make desserts taste bland?

The Mars bar, with extra caramel

I am a big fan of Mars bars. I have been for years. What I particularly love about Mars bars is how extremely indulgent the whole mix is: caramel and nougat coated in chocolate. For me, it is the quintessential sugary dessert snack, the one that boost your endorphin level automatically, as long as you forget about the calory intakes. It is the worst chocolate bar, it is the best chocolate bar. Recently, I had the opportunity to try one of its variations. I received in my Christmas stocking Caramel Mars bar, where it is all caramel inside, without nougat. It was enjoyable, but it did not taste as nice. The classic Mars bar has a balance that is lost here. Still good, for one who likes caramel, just not as enjoyable an indulgent experience.

Snickers aux amandes (et autres)

Bon ben ça va mal: j'avais acheté durant mon séjour au Québec deux barres de Snickers aux amandes (yum, yum), j'ai fini par les manger toutes les deux. Celle sur cette photo était la dernière. (Et oui, ça peut sembler cave, mais il m'arrive de photographier un truc aussi bête qu'une barre de chocolat quand je veux faire de ma food porn.) Je ne retrouve plus de Snickers aux noisettes nulle part ici, qui était encore meilleure que la Snickers aux amandes. Je ne trouve pas non plus de barre Mars aux amandes, que je n'ai pas mangée depuis des années, mais qui a l'avantage comme les autres susmentionnées de mélanger chocolat et noix et donc de me donner un petit boost d'énergie et d'endorphines quand j'en ai besoin. Faudra me trouver autre chose, de la Snickers aux banals arachides sans doute, mais la Snickers aux amandes ça avait de la gueule.

Snickers & Almonds

I bought this Snickers bar twp days ago at the airport. You can see it is just not your ordinary Snickers bar. It is bigger, for one, as it is a two pack. It is also a Snickers Almond Bar. I have been wanting totry them for ages and I have been unable to find any in England. I even bought two to make sure I would enjoy it again if I liked it.For me, Snickers is the quintessential comforting chocolate bar and, since it has nuts in it, it is sort of nutritional too, at least to some degree. I never feel completely guilty munching one. So what is the verdict for this variation? I really loved it! Not as much as the one with hazelnuts, which is my current favourite, but tastier than the normal one with peanuts (which I still like). Almonds, like hazelnuts, give the bar a certain air and taste of snobbery, in a good way.

Starbar

Sometimes after lunch, I try to calm my sweet tooth and give myself a sugar boost with a chocolate bar. This is what I did today, with Cadbury's Starbar, something I did not remember trying before. I sually have a Snickers, but this is not exclusive. This one has many things similar to a Snickers bar actually: it has peanuts and and caramel. The caramel is smoother though. That said, I can't help suspecting strongly that this is Cadbury's answer to Snickers (Starbar was launched in 1976, Snickers in 1930). And I was unconvinced. I am not sure why. It is a good enough chocolate bar, it's just not... original enough, I guess. Snickers is stocky, it's like a working man's chocolate bar. This has a fancier wrapping, a pompous name, but it's just an imitation. I will stick to the original for now on, thank you very much. Or the Snickers with hazelnuts, which is maybe my favourite chocolate bar nowadays. But Starbar? Even the wrapping irritates me a bit.

Les p'tits gâteaux Vachon

Bon ben des fois ça me prend, surtout en voyage: je redécouvre les petits gâteaux Vachon. J'en achète souvent un pour mon trajet Montréal-Chicoutimi et vice versa, d'habitude à la Gare du Palais à Québec. Plus souvent qu'autrement (ce qui bien entendu n'arrive que très rarement, vu l'infréquence de mes voyages), c'est un Ah Caramel!. Le pire c'est que je ne pense pas que ce soit si bon que ça, mais ça m'en prend un pareil pour passer le voyage. Pour avoir ma dose d'endorphine? Sans doute. Mais les gâteaux au caramel Vachon, ils sont quand même quelques coches au-dessus du reste de leurs pâtisseries. Comme ils disaient dans les annonces: "un p'tit Vachon, c'est tellement bon!". Et c'est quand même vrai, en tout cas en ce qui concerne les gâteaux au caramel. À défaut d'autres chose, ils sont une excellente source d'endorphine.

Un gâteau automnal

Cette photo a été prise l'année dernière, j'avais acheté ce morceau de gâteau à prix fort dans une foire gastronomique. Il a été confectionné par une pâtisserie artisanale et haut de gamme dont le nom m'échappe. La même pâtisserie qui a fait ce gâteau aux bleuets. Celui-ci est au caramel et aux pommes. Ce qui lui donne une apparence et un goût très automnaux. La pomme est bien entendu le fruit typique de l'automne, ceci explique donc cela un peu. Les épices renforcent Pour l'apparence, les couleurs brun-doré du gâteau s'apparentent au feuillage de la saison. La foire gastronomique se passe en septembre, alors c'est aussi une autre raison pour faire pareille association d'idée. Comme je fais une obsession sur l'automne et que je suis dans un état d'esprit automnal, j'aurais comme envie d'un morceau, là.

Snickers & Hazelnut

My long time readers know of my love for Snickers as chocolate bar of choice for both endorphin and energy boost. Well, I recently discovered a new variety of Snickers: Snickers & Hazelnut. Guess what is different with this bar. Yes, you guessed it, very perceptive of you: hazelnuts. Maybe I am a sucker, I don't know, I don't really follow new recipes of old successes, but I really love the added taste of hazelnuts in my Snickers. It gives it a distinctive and actually distinguished taste. Because let's face it: hazelnuts are far more sophisticated than peanuts or, well, peanuts. Added to the workmanlike Snickers, it's one of those odd matches that actually work. Like I said on Facebook: "Eating Snickers and hazelnut is snob, but it's good". Maybe not something they'd use for their advertisement campaigns, but I think it deserves to be a new great unknown line. In any case, if you want to try a great classic revisited with success, try this bar.

Snickers and energy boosts

Maybe it is the weather, maybe it is because I work so darn hard sometimes, but I have discovered that in the afternoon I often feel deflated after lunch and I am in need of an energy boost. I go the lazy way: instead of making a healthy balanced lunch, I munch something quickly then get myself a chocolate treat fill of sugar and bad stuff, but it also allows me to get the energy I need (and the comfort) to finish my day. Since Café2U is gone, I have to get my sugar intakes from the vending machine. I have tried many different chocolate bars, but now I have settle for Snickers. I don't find them as good as their sisters the Mars bars, but they have peanuts in them, so that means it has also proteins, not only sugar, so I don't feel so guilty eating it. But I love peanuts too. And chocolate. And caramel. So I have the essential energy and the just as essential endorphin to survive the afternoon. Moral of the story: comfort is a biochemical reaction.