Chocolate Covered Tortilla Chips

I'm not comfortable saying I have a favorite food...it's just too much of a commitment. I've felt the same way about favorite colors too, because they're all pretty great, you know? I mean...is there a certain feeling that "favorite" envokes? I'm just a bit confused here. Am I stuck in my head? Totally, 100%. I won't even try to deny that.

Tortilla chips have always been a hit with me though. Easily the best chip...no question there and just my luck...Mission just came out with some organic tortilla chips and asked if I wanted to try them out...umm, yes...yes I do!

Since I was home when the chips arrived, my parents and I have been snacking away on them. Crunchy, and salty, and so many possibilities. The blue corn are my favorite. Mostly because corn that is blue is pretty cool concept. Aside from dipping them in salsa, or topping them with a bit of tuna, I also opted to make one of my favorite sweet and salty snacks. Some people seem alarmed by the notion of tortilla chips and chocolate, but come on now! This combination destroys the pretzel and chocolate duo. Seriously, so much better. More salt, more crunch...more magic.

Because everyone loves options, I did some milk chocolate and some dark. I prefer the dark though, and I would have done white chocolate but then things would have gotten completely out of control.

There's no secret behind this recipe, I just chopped up the chocolate and melted it in metal bowl over a small pot of boiling water. I stirred the chocolate with a spatula to make sure it didn't burn. You could do this in a microwave, but that usually ends in lumpy burnt chocolate when I do it.

Now, you have two options with this snack...

All you really need it some wax paper, and either style is pretty easy. You can dip the chips and let them dry on the wax paper or throw a bunch of chips down on wax paper and just go to town drizzling that chocolate all over the place. You could even throw in some toppings....nuts, marshmallows, caramel, fresh fruit, man that sounds good actually! Strawberries would have been stellar.

So a big thanks to Mission, for these super crunchy tortilla chips, you spoil me! And hey, don't knock it till you try it.

Share Chocolate

I made Twix. At long last, I made Twix.

It would have been enough JUST LIKE THIS:

But then we made them miniature (aka irresistable) and added chocolate (aka addictive)

I'm not much of a candy bar girl, in general they just don't really do it for me.

But Twix are different, I think it's the shortbread. It must be the shortbread.

It cuts the overwhelming sugar rush of the candy bar business,

and really makes for one hell of a sweet treat. Kit Kats are also pretty special.

I really wanted to make these for my brother,

because well...I think he'd really dig them. I mean, who wouldn't though?

The first time I thought about making Twix, I was going to 

bring them down to San Francisco for my brother BUT

 there was a shortbread mess and I accepted (temporary) defeat. 

But not for long! I'm back and this time I was 

not settling for anything less than a crowd pleasing success. 

Apologies to my brother. I owe you some Twix, Alex!

I do have a confession though: I somehow managed to completely wing it with this caramel.

I'm going to try to recreate it so I can share the recipe, but for now 

I'll just share a popular one that I found other Twix-bar-makers relied on.

{{I can tell you that my caramel involved some mix of:

sugar, butter and dulce de lece (from boiling a can of sweetend condensed milk FOREVER)}}

Naturally I ended up covering everything in my room with chocolate, 

including these lovely little caramel seductresses  

Here's how you make these little babes:

Homemade Twix Bars with Himalayan Salt
makes 20-30 bars; Adapted from Mele Cotte

For Caramel
3/4 cup unsalted butter
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup dark corn syrup
1 can (14 oz) sweetened condensed milk
For Shortbread
1 1/2 cups flour
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup + 2 tbl butter
pinch of salt

+ Plenty of Bakers Brand Chocolate 

1. Preheat oven to 350 F
   
2. Mix all the shortbread ingredients in the bowl of a mixer, with a paddle attachment. mix until combined but crumbly
3. Butter a 10 inch round springform pan of an 8 inch square pan ( I used the springform because it's what we had and it made it really easy to take the shortbread/caramel out)
   
4. Press the crumbly pieces together to evenly cover the pan and bake in the oven for 20 minutes, until golden
   
5. While that's baking, start making the caramel: put all caramel ingredients in a pot, start at medium heat
   
6. Continuously stir the mixture until it comes together and the sugar dissolves, keep at a boil for about 10 minutes making sure it doesn't stick. Remove from heat when it's completely thickened.
   
7. Pour the caramel over the shortbread and let it harden in the freezer for atleast 30 minutes
   
8. Once hardened, remove from the pan and cut into bars 
   
9. Let the bars harden again in the freezer while you melt some chocolate. // I tried chocolate chips and baker's chocolate and the baker's chocolate works much butter // I melted the chocolate in a microwave at 50% power, stirring every 30 seconds
10. Individually remove the bars from the freezer, dip in the chocolate using a for underneath bars and let dry on wax paper. 
    
11. While the chocolate is still wet, sprinkle with Himalayan Salt/Sea Salt

All done! These store best in the freezer or refrigerator. 

Let me just tell you this:

You will want to eat these all, perhaps all it once. 

But don't! Share these babies all around town!

I've never seen a happier bunch of folks than those

that are given free homemade chocolate candy. 

Do It!

The salt is totally essential. 

Sweet and Salty. It's what life is all about!

You better believe I'll be making these again. 

Maybe start a little chocolate stand? 

Or Maybe just shower my friends and family with them?

Sounds good!

So as far as candy bars go...what's you absolute favorite? 

I feel like Snickers has a pretty loyal following

The Most Popular Borough

I think I have made it pretty clear how much I adore Brooklyn. 

So it shouldn't come as a surprise that I made yet another trip into the city mostly just to play around Brooklyn.

Todays mission: Fetta Sau (Love this picture of the sign by the way. My friend, Tyler snapped the awesome shot on his iphone)

This is a true BBQ haven, with a rotating assortment of smoked meets sold by the pound you better come with one hell of an appetite.

And that's exactly what we did...

We ordered the Pork Belly, St. Louis style Ribs, Baked Beans, and of course a couple of Half Sour Pickles.

If pickles are on the menu, I am going to be ordering them and that is just a fact of life.

The sauces were best when they were all mixed up together, maybe not the prettiest puddle of flavor but it tasted pretty superb.

We also shared a Kelso St Gowanus Ale and enjoyed it with the heaping pile of food.

I was stuffed by end and ready for a nice stroll around the streets of Williamsburg.

One of the most impressive parts of the place, was their bourbon list. It seemed endless! And had it not been so early in the day I most definitely would have done some damage. I'd love to go back and try some of the bourbon. Any takers?

By the way, how cool is the wall in Fette Sau?

After a good amount of strolling around we landed on Mast Brothers Chocolate.  This was an amazing place to land, I've wanted to check out their shop for a long time and being met with a table of chocolate samples wasn't the worst thing ever...

We made sure to do a couple of rounds to figure out our favorite chocolate blends.

Not only is the chocolate delicious but the packaging is nearly perfect. Scratch that, it's totally perfect.

I somehow resisted buying a bag of cocoa nibs. They have the most amazing texture and a flavor that I seriously cannot put my finger on. 

While we tasted, someone was up at counter making a huuuuge purchase. Jealous of whoever's getting those for gifts! 

The next stop was Blue Bottle. 

Don't hate me butttt.... I really don't enjoy coffee. It just doesn't do it for me. I drink it for a pick me up and that's about the only reason.

I'm always happy to proven wrong though, and this cup of coffee totally proved me wrong. It was truly tasty, not bitter, and delicious without anything added.

On the rare occasion I do drink coffee, I prefer it black and this cup was perfect just like that.

Then there was some more leisurely walking and I spotted this precious little sign

Tyler loves milk, so I made sure to stop by Momofuku Milk Bar to introduce him to cereal milk soft serve. Obviously it was a hit.

Have you tried it? You've really got to!

After that, we grabbed a beer (a zesty IPA) in the west village and headed over to Grand Central to grab a train up to school.

Another successful trip, filled with food.

homemade oreos

Happy Fourth of July!

What’s more American than highly processed snack foods? Nothing!

I’m just playing, but on this lovely fourth of July I made homemade oreos with the fam over in Boston.

They were super tasty, check it out!