This week's DELIGHT: Chocolate Pecan Tart

Taking a break from the NY news, today is the recipe of the week: Chocolate Pecan Tart.

I chose this dessert for my New Year's dinner and, let me tell you, it entered the hall of my favorites because it's so easy to make and delicious. A chocolate overdose!

It's perfect if eaten chilled or at room temperature. The chocolate cream melts in your mouth (use a good quality chocolate, please). And you can also substitute the pecans for hazelnuts, almonds or peanuts. Check out here the recipe.

Nutella Panna Cotta

Here is the delicious Nutella Panna Cotta that I made for Thanksgiving. Easy to make, even with the heavy cream and the Nutella, it is still light and not too sweet. It's a perfect dessert for a casual or formal dinner (you will only need to change presentantion a little bit). It will please everyone for sure!

My comments: I used fat free milk and it worked really well. The texture is similar to a flan, and the good thing is that you don't need to use the oven. The recipe yielded 5 full cups but you can make smaller portions.
I think that using cups is very charming, but you can use ramekins as well (I didn't have them at the time, but now I got them for the next recipes!)

This week's DELIGHT!

As promised yesterday, here's the recipe for Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cake (another delicious recipe from my friend Bev - you'll hear a lot about her, my baking partner!)
This cake is one of the best I ever tasted. Hubby, who is not a fan of pumpkin cakes, loved it and has asked me to make it again!

Vosges Haut Chocolat

Walking through the neighborhood this weekend I saw a new store: Vosges Chocolate. Since I'm crazy about chocolate, I didn´t miss the opportunity and got to know it a little more.

I discovered that Vosges, a brand of luxury chocolates, "wants the customers to take a cultural journey through chocolate." Maybe that's why the store is so different: in its decor you can find influences of Aztec, Mayan, Moorish, and almost every chocolate is created with some spice, herb or nuts.
They have a huge variety of products ranging from bars, truffes, toffees and marshmallows to cake, pancakes and cookies mixes. The packaging is in a lovely shade of purple!
I tasted milk chocolate with bacon (you can´t taste the bacon. You feel something savory, but it is unclear that it is bacon), a dark chocolate truffle with vanilla ganache (delicious!) and, finally, milk chocolate with ed pepper (I recommend! At first you feel nothing, but after the chocolate melts in your mouth, get ready, because there is a spicy feeling coming!)
Prices are higher than you would pay for a chocolate, but you do notice the quality of the ingredients used.

It's certainly an excellent suggestion for a gift for others or for yourself!