Grilled Chocolate Sandwich

Let's continue this dark chocolate celebration. Here's a yummy recipe for a grilled dark chocolate sandwich from Eating Well. It's super simple and scrumptious. Make way for dessert!

Dark Chocolate: It Does A Body Good

In the spirit of this healthy heart of a month I think it’s only appropriate to bring up my favorite topic: chocolate! I don’t discriminate, I savor every kind of this sweet eat but we all know that there is some level of distinction between the different kinds of chocolate. Turns out, the higher the concentration of cacao, the more you will benefit from it health wise. It was milk chocolate all the way for me until a moment of desperation for something sweet gave way to my discovery of the flavorful taste of dark chocolate.
Dark chocolate is packed with antioxidants and essential nutrients like fiber and protein. This tasty sweet also lowers blood pressure but that doesn't give you the green light to eat all the chocolate you want. Dark chocolate, like all chocolate is high in fat so consume it in moderation. Where are the heart health benefits, you ask? Dark chocolate is infused with heart healthy flavoniods that are exclusively found in this kind of chocolate. Flavoniods keep cholesterol from gathering in blood vessels, reduce the risk of blood clots, and slow down the immune responses that lead to clogged arteries. A University of California San Francisco study showed that people who ate 1.6 ounces of dark chocolate loaded with epicatechin (a flavoniod only found in plants) a day gained health benefits. After undergoing high-tech evaluation of how well the blood vessels dilate and relax (an indictor of healthy blood vessel function) tests revealed the group who ate the dark chocolate showed high levels of epicatechin coursing through their arteries. That leads to increased blood flow and we all know what that means: good blood flow = good heart. Source

Prepare to crave chocolate because I've got a list of my favorite dark chocolate makers and the fabulous chocolates they create.

Vosges Haut-Chocolat
Vosges uses the purest ingredients and it doesn't hurt that it's an environmentally conscious chocolatier. These delightful morsels of dark chocolate truffles are fantastic. Vosges Haut-Chocolat




Green and Blacks
These chocolate makers produce wonderful and high-quality organic dark chocolate bars that you can find at your local grocery store. Green and Blacks








Soma Chocolates
Soma chocolates are made of premium cacao and taste splendid.
Soma Chocolatemaker




Godiva
We all love Godiva chocolates and their dark collection is superb. Godiva









Scharffen Berger
These chocolatiers are famous for their premium chocolate creations and I highly recommend their sumptuous high cacao content dark bars. Scharffen Berger

Fire-y Chocolate

For my first birthday festivities treat of the day I sunk my teeth into a gift of delicious chocolate! I had the pleasure of biting into a smooth chunk of dark chocolate with Mexican ancho and chipotle chilies and Ceylon cinnamon from Vosges Haute Chocolate. It was heavenly. The spice from the chilies enhanced the bittersweet essence of the dark chocolate while the cinnamon delightfully perks up taste buds and leaves a pleasant lingering after-taste. If you’ve never tried spicy chocolate you are truly missing out on a great thing.

For more info on where you can get Vosges’s Red Fire Bar and a bevy of other spectacular chocolates visit their website.




Photo Credit: Courtesy of Flickr, Vosges Haute Chocolate

Chocolicious

Can we talk chocolate for a sec? Let me tell you about the piece I just had a moment ago. It was a dark chocolate wedge made by Trader Joe's. But wait, this is no run of the mill chunk o’ chocolate. Not only is it made up of high quality 70% Belgian cacao, it’s got ancho and chipotle chilies and Korintji cinnamon. Chilies? Yeah, chilies. There is a party going on in my mouth! This trio of zing really kicked up an otherwise ordinary block of dark chocolate. The bitterness of the chocolate combined with the spiciness of the chilies and cinnamon came together in perfect harmony. Alright, just one more piece...

Note: The Chocolate Traveler sells high quality chocolate wedges however I couldn't find anything similar to the chocolate that I tried made by Trader Joe's.