Ingredients:
Directions:
Preheat oven to 325F. Butter the bottom and sides of a 8 inch metal baking pan. Put a long piece of parchment paper in the bottom of the pan, letting the parchment extend up two sides of the pan and overhang slightly on both ends. (This will make it easy to remove the bars from the pan after they have baked.) Butter the parchment.
In a medium saucepan over medium heat, melt butter. Continue cooking until butter stops foaming and browned bits form at bottom of pan, stirring often, about 5 minutes. Remove from heat; immediately add sugar, cocoa, water, vanilla, and 1/4 teaspoon salt. Stir to blend. Let cool 5 minutes (mixture will still be hot so make sure you add eggs once cool so you dont get scrambled eggs). Add eggs to hot mixture one at a time, beating vigorously to blend after each addition. When mixture looks thick and shiny, add flour and stir until blended. Beat vigorously 60 strokes. Stir in nuts.
Spread into prepared baking pan. Bake for 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean (with a few moist crumbs attached). Cool on a wire rack.
When cooling, sprinkle with a bit of "fleur de sel" (or any good sea salt) on top. They taste even better when they're cool!
Recipe yields 16 brownies, but Jonathan likes em big, so 8 brownies total! :) Enjoy!
Adapted from Bon Appetit, February 2011
Compartes was officially selected to customize chocolates for Dreamworks' latest animation "How to Train Your Dragon"!
Honored to be selected from all the chocolate companies across the nation, Dreamworks chose us at Compartes for our uniqueness in handmaking organic gourmet chocolates without losing touch with an artistic result; a result that still retains the look of true luxury -- not to mention the palate of flavours that makes Compartes so spectacular, and lest we forget, so delicious!
Early proofs included this one...
To the finished product...
Contact us via phone or email to have your custom logos and designs made out of gourmet chocolate.
Another delicious day is passing at the chocolate factory here in Los Angeles when the Discovery Channel calls and places an order for 2000 (yes, that’s right, two thousand!) customized chocolate truffles for their 25th Anniversary special.
Setting to work immediately, we discuss presentation; how the logo would look best; sharing our designs and ideas together to come up with what results in a truly unique and striking box of chocolates that the Discovery Channel sends out to some of the most distinguished members of press and contacts that have supported them throughout their history.
An initial draft of the chocolate box layout.
2,000 Discovery Channel customized truffles ready for packaging.
The Chocolates are carefully boxed and inside is placed a custom message signed by the Discovery Communications Team.
Watch one of the lucky recipients capturing the moment he opens his box from Discovery!
Customized Chocolates and Chocolate Gifts by Compartes
We at Compartes take pride in using all organic ingredients and the quality of our chocolates is of utmost important to us. Each truffle is individually made by hand taking care to ensure accuracy in both the appearance and the taste. Best of all, anyone can customize our chocolate for any occasion! Weddings, baby-showers, marriages, birthdays, holidays; the list is endless!
For pricing and info, please click here for our contact page or call us now at 310-826-3380.
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See more about the 25th Anniversary of the Discovery Channel
Sweet and cute, we recently received an order to create personalized baby carriages as baby shower favors! We made delicious hollow organic milk chocolate intricately-molded baby carriages, filled them with our gourmet dark chocolate foil-wrapped hearts, closed the baby carriage with a milk chocolate top and wrapped them in cellophane. For a final personal touch, we printed individual recipient names on linen paper and attached them with a complementing pink ribbon, the sweetest little gifts to celebrate a newborn baby girl!
Chocolate comes from the fermented, roasted, and ground beans of the cacao or cocoa tree. The word "Chocolate" comes from the Nahualt language of the Aztecs. The Nahualt word xocolatl means bitter water. The pre-Columbian peoples of the Americans drank chocolate mixed with vanilla, chile pepper, and achiote. Europeans sweetened it by adding sugar and milk and removing the chile pepper. They later created a process to make solid chocolate creating the modern chocolate bar. Although cocoa is originally from the Americas, today Western Africa produces almost two-thirds of the world´s cocoa, with Côte d´Ivoire growing almost half of it. Today, it is one of the most popular and recognizable flavors in the world.
A Short History of Chocolate
Chocolate is made from the seed of the cacao tree, a tree native to lowland areas of South America. Cacao was used as far back in history as 1100 BC. Although historical evidence shows the Mayans used the cacao bean prior to this, most of the popular credit is given to the Aztec civilizations. Cacao played an important role in the Aztec society, serving both as a drink and as currency. Columbus originally observed the natives scrambling to pick up the seeds when they spilled without realizing their value to them. The drink “xocolatl” or “bitter water” was consumed by the Aztec elite society. According to legend the Aztec ruler Montezuma consumed up to fifty cups of chocolate a day. Perhaps the myth of chocolate was born when Europeans first observed Montezuma drinking xocolatl prior to visiting his concubine.
Although Columbus actually was the first to bring cacao back to Spain, it wasn’t until Cortez returned to Spain with cacao beans that Europeans first started consuming it. Unlike the people of South America, Europeans found the drink bitter and sweetened it with sugar. Within 100 years the secrets of cacao had spread throughout Europe and chocolate was a favorite in the royal courts of Europe.
In 1828 the Dutch chemist Van Houten invented a press to extract the cocoa butter from the roasted ground beans leading to the invention of the chocolate bar. When Daniel Peters developed a technique to incorporate condensed milk into the chocolate and was able to maintain a stable product milk chocolate was born. At around the same time in the United States, Milton Hershey used fresh whole milk.
History is sprinkled with anecdotes relating to chocolate and its various uses. In addition to Montezuma’s use of cacao as an aphrodisiac, the great Italian lover Cassanova allegedly used chocolate for the same reason. Reportedly he actually preferred chocolate to champagne. At one stage, chocolate was marketed as a medicine both in the United States and in Europe.
