When it comes to any place that?s food related, I?m easy to spot, usually excited like a kid in a candy store. Well, just imagine if I were actually in a candy store. Or a chocolate shop. Or a date shop even.  It was certainly the case when I was recently at Economy Candy in New York City, exchanging oohs and aaahs with Dorie Greenspan about our favorite candies and growing nostalgic as we shared memories of our family’s top picks.

More oohs and aahs followed when simply walking the streets of Manhattan, taking in all the sights and smells of the city.  Smells?!  Perhaps not quite what you expected, but I’m talking about one aroma in particular.  Nuts 4 Nuts!  I don’t actually like nuts in baked goods, but when they’re crisp and coated in sugar on their own, or mixed into chunky sweet granola, what’s not to like?  And who can really resist that smell of vanilla sugar that wafts from these nut stands below their orange umbrellas, those nuts caramelizing away, tantalizing you to buy those small, white, wax paper bags for a couple of dollars?

Now imagine those nuts with chocolate. Read the rest of this story >>

A quick detour to the rapeseed fields of the French countryside, and now back to Venice we go… for a few sweet addresses to put away in your travel files. And a sweet announcement to go with: this is MyKugelhopf’s 101st post! I hope along the way, your sweet tooth has been satisfied, travel plans have been made, and perhaps out have come the baking pans too! Here’s to the next 100! A big thank you for joining in the adventures here and for your comments, which I love! (So please do keep them coming!)

To mark the occasion, I thought of sharing my 101 favorite Venetian sweets with you – but I don’t want you all to go in to sugar shock. Just a few highlights instead. My travels serendipitously led me to these places below…

My mother had brought me back bags of delicious meringue-like cookies and treats from her trip to Venice years ago, and I could still picture the label.  It had a round, brown or red flower on it, as I recalled.  While I didn’t know the name of the pasticceria, I knew I wanted to find it!  And there it was, in one of Venice’s most renowned pastry shops, no surprise to find the label there.  Marchini, I said to myself, but of course!

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I knew I’d see gelato all over the place.  Trattorias and pizzerias left and right.  I was told about the carnival masks I’d be confronted with too, in every size and color.  And forget about “I love Venice” souvenirs – there’s no shortage of those either.  But I can’t believe no one ever told me about the omnipresence of… torrone !  That soft, chewy, white as snow confection, also known as nougat.  Yes, roughly 80% sugar and dotted with almonds, hazelnuts and/or pistachios.  It’s everywhere in Venice, and I could not have been more happy about that.  Not only nougat, but sugar in all different forms.  A true sweet tooth heaven.  Who knew?!

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Whether a “sweet tooth” refers to one particular moment when you crave something sweet, or a more broad liking of sweets in general… well I have one.  All the time.  In fact, I have a whole mouth full of them.  I am not promoting an excess amount of sugar in one’s diet; we all know this a no-no.  But I am promoting enjoying the sweeter side of life, and this definitely includes indulging one’s sweet tooth from time to time.  It doesn’t necessarily have to be by eating though.  With the explosion of food and travel blogs over the past few years, you can spend all day gazing at pages and pages of gorgeous photos of baked goods, chocolate, sweets – and not take in a calorie.   Too much reading though and you might get saturated just as easily.

I was not only honored, but real excited, to be invited as a guest author on Blogs.com this past week, to come up with a themed list of my 10 favorite blogs.  The site was put together to help people find the best in blogs, and it’s very well organized and easy to navigate.  A popular feature is the Guest Top 10 Lists, where bloggers, writers, celebrities and big thinkers pick their 10 favorite blogs on a topic of their choice.  I thought about my favorite blogs for French speakers, and my favorite bloggers in Switzerland, but ended up with a topic that should come as no surprise to you all.  My theme… Top 10 Blogs to Satisfy Your Sweet Tooth.  But of course!

It’s a fun list of bloggers who all appreciate the sweet life, and I check their sites regularly to see what they’re baking up or the sweet spots they are visiting.  All of their photos are mouthwatering, their recipes approachable and inspiring, and their ideas new and creative.  Hope you’ll enjoy them as much as I do.  Click the image to the left to see my list of sweet sites on Blogs.com, and feel free to click around to see other lists as well. It’s a really great way to discover other blogs, and less intimidating to do so when you can pick and choose by your personal interests.

And while we’re on the topic of sweets (not that this is out of the ordinary), I thought I’d revisit some favorite MyKugelhopf posts of 2008 that will definitely satisfy your sweet tooth as well!  Click the photos below and follow your sweet tooth on a little adventure… enjoy a Kouign Amann on France’s Brittany coast; sweet fruit candy or salty licorice from Sweden; creamy gelato at the border of Italy and Switzerland; Roanne’s legendary and bright pink, sugary Praluline brioche; and an extra crispy and buttery palmier in Paris, or colorful macarons if you prefer.  Don’t forget some good Swiss chocolate and a stop in the Alsatian town of Colmar for a kugelhopf!

Now, for those of you with a sweet tooth that’s drawing you into the kitchen, here’s another adventure for you.  Stay cozy in your own home and turn the oven on.  Take your pick below, and bake up a fig tarte Tatin, a pumpkin chocolate cake, a batch of banana macadamia chocolate chip cookies or some crumbly polenta shortbread.  Bon appétit!

Seeing that today is Halloween, it seems rather timely that I’d want to write about candy.  I don’t mean that sweet sugary candy corn that I happen to adore, nor those mini individually wrapped chocolate bars that children will watch drop into their big trick or treat bags or plastic pumpkins.  I’m not thinking of American candy at all, even if we Americans like to think of Swedish fish as our own.  You know those classic, red, chewy candies shaped like fish, with the word “Swedish” embossed on them, that stick to your teeth no matter what you do?  Well, I’m actually thinking of the Swedish fish that the Swedes proudly call their own.  Along with a diverse range of candy, one that won’t remain unknown for long, thanks to Swede, Lena Rosen.

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Well they’re back.  And this is not the stuff of urban legends.  This is the stuff of dark chocolate lovers and those searching for high end confections.  No mixing with Coca-Cola, no exploding stomachs.  Just chocolate.  Dark chocolate meets Pop Rocks.  Granted it’s probably been done many times before, and inventive pastry chefs have most likely dabbled with these exploding candies in a recipe or two.  The brand Pop Rocks even came out with a milk chocolate bar in 2007.  But this time, there’s a serious chocolate maker at the helm, Christopher Elbow.

I first experienced Elbow’s artistry many years ago, in the form of individual chocolates with beautiful and colorful designs, encasing creative and sophisticated flavor combinations.  There was a strawberry balsamic caramel, I recall, a rosemary caramel, and another chocolate with a yuzu-infused ganache.  I have to admit that I haven’t had anything of his since then; the chocolates were only available through mail order, and the company still sells almost entirely online, save a few stores in San Francisco, Chicago and Kansas City, those lucky residents!  So when I stumbled upon a few of his chocolate bars in Food Emporium (go figure!), a New York City supermarket, I was excited to try.  I have already confessed in previous posts to my forever curiosities of new chocolate flavors, so Christopher Elbow’s were quickly added to my repertory.  

The collection of bars comes in attractive brown packaging, much more toned down than his signature pieces.  Bars are numbered from 1 to 12, with flavors including 61% dark chocolate with ground roasted coffee (no.5), 41% milk chocolate with ground roasted hazelnuts (no.10) and white chocolate with roasted cocoa nibs (no.11).  I went for no.6, Dark Rocks.  I’m sure I heard of chocolate mixed with popping candy years back, but I was never intrigued and just waved it off as a silly fad.  But here was a talented chocolatier taking a go at it.  So I went for it too.  

It resembles other classic dark chocolate bars at first glance: thin bar, glossy exterior, loud snap when you break it.  But there’s lots of little speckles all over it, especially noticeable when you break it up, perhaps easily mistaken for ingredients in a Crunch bar.  But take one bite and you’ll know it’s no Crunch bar.  Biting the chocolate adds an extra crispness to its otherwise smooth texture, and you can hear little popping sounds as you chew.  But if you let the chocolate melt slowly on your tongue, you’re in for more of the classic Pop Rocks sensations.  I was never a huge fan of these tingling special effects, and I will admit preferring my chocolate pop-free.  But it’s certainly a change from the more usual chocolates on the market, and a fun way to surprise your friends when you offer them a piece of chocolate.  

Just don’t serve them a glass of Coke with it.  Hey, you never know…