That was my thought when I tried King Arthur’s Flour Whole-Grain Chocolate Fudge Waffle mix (which now comes packaged as a pancake and waffle mix).

The mix was quick and easy to prepare. It calls for melted butter or vegetable oil, eggs and milk. Everything else was in the mix, including semisweet chocolate and cocoa.  I tasted a bit of the dark brown batter when it was raw and a strong, quality chocolate taste came through. Bits of chocolate chips peaked through. As the batter baked in my waffle iron, it smelled like brownies, only better; since when do you have brownies for breakfast?

Timing the waffles on my ancient waffle iron was difficult since it was hard to tell when waffles are properly browned when they are brown to start out with. 

When baked, the waffles’ color had lightened to about the shade of a Hershey’s milk chocolate bar and my segmented rectangular waffles sort of resembled a giant one, too.  Not just the color had lightened, but the taste was not as strong nor was it very sweet.  The bits of chocolate had melted and were no longer visible. The interior crumb of the waffle was good and it was tender with a bit of crisp resistance to the bite. The waffles definitely tasted of chocolate, but not in an intense, dessert way.  I was surprised, but rationalized that this would make the waffles more of a breakfast treat than a splurge and allow for some embellishments.

I topped mine with fruit, yogurt and a bit of caramel syrup and found the combination heavenly.  I thought the waffles would also go nicely with jam or maple syrup. For a really decadent version, try whipped cream and hot fudge sauce.  They seemed very versatile. In fact, I turned the leftovers into toffee-caramel ice cream and chocolate waffle sandwiches.

Overall, I am not a mix person, but I use and like King Arthur flour and found this waffle mix to be quick and tasty.  For this kind of product it is even relatively healthy, boasting six grams of fiber (thanks to the whole-grain spelt). 

Marzipan is a mixture of ground almonds and sugar cooked until it is moldable.  Marzipan can be formed into shapes ranging from realistic to surrealistic and then painted with edible tints and colors.  The shapes can be used as stand-alone confections or to decorate other sweets, such as the minature candy carrots that often top carrot cakes.

To spread the word about working with marzipan, Love’n Bake, a division of the American Almond Products Company, has created a downloadable booklet called All About Marzipan. The booklet tells the history of marzipan, has information on how it is made and offers detailed instructions on using it.  The booklet is illustrated with step-by-step instructions on how to craft edible sculptures ranging from piggies to pears.  To download the booklet, click here.

For more information on Love’n Bake line of nut pastes and fillings and more, check out the company’s website.

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Photo credit: Love’n Bake 

Tasting Report

Description:  See’s chips are a dark, dark brown almost black in color, although the photograph of the package shows them a milk chocolate brown color.  The ones I bought had a bit of white bloom on them.  They are big for chips, about three-quarters of an inch in diameter.  They are also flat, with a distinctive swirl on top.  The chips are packed in a 16-ounce bag and are available on line and in the See’s Candies’ stores.  (For purposes of comparison, I raided my baking stash and took a look at a Nestle’s Toll House Semisweet Chip.  The Nestle’s chip was more triangular and a lot smaller, measuring in at about three-eighths of an inch in diameter.) 

Taste:  These are the chips for dark chocolate lovers.  No milk or milk fats in the chocolate.  They are a bit brittle with a hard snap when you bite into one straight from the package, but when they are baked into cookies they are transformed. They retain their disk shape and integrity, but they are soft and creamy.

Eating them right out of the bag, I felt a bit overwhelmed by a cocoa butter taste (a bit greasy and fruity), but then the chocolate began to melt in my mouth.  I was smitten.  The cocoa butter taste vanished replaced by chocolate that was smooth with a warm, winey note and with a very pleasant aftertaste that hung around for a while. (The control chips were also hard when you bit into them.  The cocoa butter taste was even more evident. When the chocolate began to melt in my mouth it was sharper, off balanced and somehow managed to taste like instant hot chocolate powder.  The aftertaste was not something I would want to linger around my palate.)

Once baked, the See’s Candies chips were softer and lost their cocoa butter overtones and the rich, full chocolate taste came through. (No control chips were baked into cookies.)

See’s Trivia:  See’s Candies offers a chocolate chip cookie recipe on the back on the bag of chips. (FYI - It’s not the recipe my son used for the cookie shown below.)

See’s Original Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe

½ lb butter – cream well
1 cup light brown sugar
1 cup sugar 
2 eggs
1 ½ teaspoons vanilla
2 ¼ cups flour
½ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup chopped walnuts
2 cups See’s Semi Sweet Chocolate Chips

Add sugars gradually to creamed butter, beating until smooth. Beat eggs and vanilla into butter and sugar mixture. Mix together flour, salt and baking soda, add to mixture and blend well. Stir walnuts and chips into mixture. Drop by teaspoonfuls onto a greased cookie sheet. Bake at 375 degrees F 8-10 minutes.

Yield – 4 dozen cookies.

Ingredients: Sugar, chocolate, cocoa butter, soy lecithin, vanilla. 

Nutrition Facts: 10 pieces (15 grams) have 70 calories with 40 of those from fat.  A serving does provide 1 gram of fiber.

Well Fed Network Rating: As compared to other See’s Candies I’ve sampled, I would have to rate these chips as a 9 when eaten straight out of the bag and a 10 when baked on a scale of one to 10.  Pros: Wonderful chocolate flavor can elevate the most basic baked good. Cons: Cocoa butter taste when eaten “raw.”  Chips might need to be chopped for some recipes because of size.