"artisan chocolate" news and stories

As a dedicated Slashfoodie, you've already noticed that for Valentine's Day, we at Slashfood wrote a lot about such expressions of romantic appreciation as were appropriate for general readership. We introduced you to chocolate from Askinosie, Dagoba and Green & Blacks. Hopefully you're not too chocolated-out after the weekend for just one more bite. Because if the chocolate is Escazu, you will want to make room.

Escazu is a town in Costa Rica and a chocolatier in Raleigh, North Carolina. According to the Escazu website, chocolatier Hallot Parson formed Escazu Artisan Chocolates after travels through Venezuela and Costa Rica, including visits to the cocoa farms. Thus was born -- perhaps more accurately bloomed -- the vision of artisinal chocolate executed with respect to chocolate's Latin American heritage.

The words "artisan fudge" have a way of making my mouth water. Add some cute retro packaging, a ribbon and get 'em a little melty, and I'm in heaven.

Betty's Tasty Buttons began as the creator's Grandma Betty's fudge recipe, and has expanded into some gorgeous offerings, including fudge sauce and cajeta, a Mexican slow-cooked caramel made from goat's milk. It's great over ice cream, cakes, or even spooned into coffee.

The fudge flavors, though, are what keep the people coming back for more. With a base of organic sugar, local butter, milk and organic or fairly-traded chocolate, the unique flavors include lava (spicy); lavender mint (lovely and smooth); molasses bourbon (chocolate with sass); and green tea...check out the full list here.

Betty's is based in Philly, and as we know, fudge isn't shipped that well (though I'm sure exceptions could be made for the jarred products). Get 'em while they're melty.

There's a new wave of artisan chocolatiers, and the Bay Area is at the forefront.

Recipes and stories this week are: Grandmother's Oven-Baked Chicken, Almond Milk Curd (Hung Yun Dow Foo), Cojondongo (Gazpacho Salad), Mrs. Hyder's Mango Gazpacho, and Mango-Cucumber-Jicama Street Food.

All kinds of news-y tidbits: a soymilk maker, north Berkeley's old Bendean is now Bui, and kids' cookbooks from Williams-Sonoma.