to think high quality chocolate does not include green and blacks

[wilsonq2]

Making a torte tonight, just seen what dh bought last night. I asked him for eggs and high quality dark chocolate. He managed the eggs OK but came back with g nb 70%.

I know its not awful, but it really isn't high quality stuff. Not even fairtrade and made by the same people that brought you cheese in a can.

Aibu?

The bold thing does't work if you have hit return. One long line going over several lines will work. But if you split the lines but hitting return it doesn't.

Back in the 90s I once asked my DH to buy marscapone so I could make a Tiramisu. He came home with macaroni cheese - both tinned and boxed cos he wasn't sure which type I needed.......

That's adorable!

Both tinned and boxed. Spoilt for choice. Which did you eat first?

This thread is spectacular.

Thanks pipbin

Try Valrhona cooking chocolate if you have a very discerning palate and deep pockets. I find G&Bs 85% to be perfectly fine for eating. I've used lidl's chocolate and Sainsbury's basic dark for brownies, tortes and rocky road and no one noticed the difference not even me.
I do think Lindt is pretty awful though, the milk chocolate is sickly sweet and the plain is as enjoyable as eating a lump of wax.

Surely the correct approach is to flick the bean rather than scrape it?

Wait a moment, cheese in a can?? Why did nobody tell me.

Oh, and I once made a chocolate torte to take to work, everybody loved it. So much so that somebody asked me to make one for them to have on Christmas day. I agreed to, then used really expensive (even higher cocoa) chocolate. They hated it. Said it was horrible and bitter. Ruined their Christmas. I left shortly afterwards. The events were not unconnected.

This reminds me of the thread about Burger of the Week where the OP got in a right strop having been bought the aforementioned (and requested) burger from McDonalds only to discover it was chicken which was completely unacceptable as she once got really ill after eating KFC...

As an aside, you sent him to Waitrose, not Fortnums. G&B is perfectly fine for cooking.

I agree with using Sainsbury's basic and Lidl. Sometimes 1 bar of cheap and 1 expensive. Did this in a Nigella cake this week to great effect.

Lidl good for vanilla pods too!

I cheat and use vanilla powder...you get the flavour and the little black flecks which add the necessary evidence of using the proper stuff, can't be doing with all that scraping business.

Is that you, Hully?

Would really appreciate you telling us which chocolate you would have bought yourself. I am really curious. By the way Paul Hollywood recommends Bournville for his chocolate, cranberry and walnut brownies. They are scrumptious.

squoosh Tue 11-Nov-14 17:29:10
Imagine if OP sent her husband to the shop for ham and he came home with common old wafer thin ham when she assumed he'd plump for jamón ibérico.

Dead man walking.

Actually snorted out loud at this!

Waltons - no cocoa for 2 years?! However did you cope? [wibble]

I used to love G&B chocolate, particularly maya gold, but they seem to have changed something about it and I don't like the texture anymore, it's a bit waxy. As is hotel chocolat chocolate, I don't understand why people race about it.

But I think YABU, if you're so fussy you should have specified the brand.

Agree Hotel Chocolat is all about the branding....their products are over priced for the quality.

This thread is just horrible. How does your DH feel about being 'sent' to the shops to get 'high quality' chocolate and then when he returns with high quality chocolate being scolded and scoffed at because it is not high quality enough? Have you heard yourself OP? I feel for your DH. Are you this spoilt and precious with other things? Or does he treat you with equal amounts of disrespect so this is normal in your house?

OP, were you making an ironic seventies-style torte (should actually be Torte, because it's a German noun) or an innocently unironic torte? Because an ironic torte should be made with Bournville at best - those seventies Beverleys didn't have access to anything better.

I like the variety of hotel chocolat chocolate, but I agree the quality isn't up to much. Doesn't stop me eating it.

Back in 1999 I used to get the occasional free chocolate from montezumas, I still rate their chocolate.

This is what I do for a living. I get paid to write recipes and shopping lists that no bugger can misinterpret. Usually for the IT sector but I am quite flexible. Freelance rates are, I believe, £450 a day if you are interested.

for the Beverleys

OP - I think you should divorce DH for a crime so heinous.

I'm not sure this even counts as a "first world problem".

*I get the same vanilla pods, too, Scrambled. Nice big fat juicy ones.

Unfortunately, I tend to forget that I have them and find them rock hard and shrivelled, at the back of the cupboard.

And it's so much less faff to tip in a slug of extract.*

I read this as you could tip in a slug .... which, when they're shrivelled up look remarkably similar to ancient vanilla pods anyway.

As for "high quality" chocolate - each to their own, totally subjective and down to individual taste, ratio of ingredients, manufacturing policies (if you care about that, not having a go, just that it wouldn't feature on a lot of people's radar for discerning "high quality"), price (e.g. if you're snobby) etc etc etc. But the thing here is that unless he's a connoisseur of chocolate, how the heck was the OP's DH supposed to know that her definition of "high quality" may be different to his ?

(I'd be delighted if mine came home with G&B as he has a tendency to bring back the cheapest of whatever, arguing "I know you said xxxx but yyyy was much better value" regardless of what I need it for).

FWIW, I've made tortes dozens of times (give me a medal) and so long as you get the specified % cocoa solids it really doesn't make a lot of difference to their flavour - honestly. As others have said, by the time you add, for example, sugar or glucose, or rum, the individual characteristics of the chocolate you use pretty much get lost. It's entirely different to just snacking on it, or using it in a recipe where its flavour will be very distinct - like a florentine, or the topping for an éclair.

Oh - and I'd be delighted to do a taste test. Do please tell us when Waitrose (or the like) are offering this sort of opportunity for us all to tuck in willy nilly to comparatively small bars that cost £4-5 per 100g just so there can be no doubt about which "high quality" chocolate we should use next time we concoct something chocolately. At those rates BTW, you'd be looking at £22.50 for chocolate alone for the torte recipe I use most often !

I do sometimes feel I must be living in a parallel universe here ........

Cats - that's an exaggeration. Montezuma chocolate is currently £1.70 for 100g in Waitrose , not £5. In comparison green and blacks is £2.19. Therefore it would have been cheaper to get the better quality chocolate. What op said ages ago..

Yeah, if comparing those two brands - but there are plenty of others which might arguably be considered "high quality" coming in at £4-5. Waitrose sell T'a Sentimento 72% at £4.98 per 100g and Madecasse 80% at £3.99 per 100g.

If you want to go really "high quality" (albeit subjective) then the likes of Hotel Chocolat sell small 70g bars at £7.50 - or over £10 per 100g! Though I accept of course that OP didn't expect her DH to find Hotel Chocolat in Waitrose.

What I want to know is did OP actually make the blasted torte in the end - and did it taste "inferior" ??

I bloody love Green&Blacks.

There is no way I'd put it in a torte. It's about 7 jeffing bucks for a 100g bar here!

In my universe, that's 'snaffle quietly while nobody else is looking' territory.