Exotic Dessert Sauces and Spreads

Many of you raved over our house-made Cocoa-nib Infused Butter served with buttermilk biscuits. In fact, I was really surprised to hear that some even considered it the best of the five course dinner. We will be serving it again for the next dinner, but what about those of you not planning on attending?

Well fret no more! Our Cocoa-nib Butter and four other temptations are now available in convienent bottle form! Sold fresh, these babies should be stored chilled and enjoyed within 30 days. I've already got the butter and Chile-Burnt Caramel (from our cheese platter) ready to go, and hope to have the other three by the end of the week. Chocolate and caramel sauces are $10 each, or two for $16, and the butter is $15. Here's the lot:

Cocoa-nib Butter- Hand-made butter infused with cocoa nibs and a touch of sea-salt.

Chile-Burnt Caramel- Smoky burnt-caramel sauce infused with dried chiles, vanilla bean, and a touch of cayenne.

Kentucky Bourbon Caramel- Rich caramel sauce in 36% milk chocolate infused with vanilla bean and Kentucky Bourbon.

Lavender Vanilla-bean Chocolate Sauce- 55% dark chocolate sauce infused with vanilla bean, organix lavender blossoms, and honey.

Mixed Berry Merlot Chocolate Sauce- 61% dark chocolate sauce with mixed berries and fruity Merlot.
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Lavender Sea-salted Caramel

Wow! 63 posts. Looking back on the first nine months of blogging, I can't believe that I've yet to mention some of my signature infusions. It's about time.

Most definitely my most popular infusion, Lavender Sea-Salted Caramel is also one of my most complex. Not to say that you need to be a sommelier to appreciate it, but it certainly has some subtle nuances to explore. Made from smoky burnt-caramel and 61% dark chocolate ganache, each truffle is hand rolled and dipped in 36% milk chocolate and topped with our house-made lavender-herbed grey sea salt. Quite a mouthful! While some of these flavors are more profound than others, the overall experience is very dynamic with each flavor hitting your palate at a different time.

Enjoy our signiture truffle in a box by themselves or design your own assortment of different exotic infusions; they are perfect for a picnic in the park, romantic evening for two, or as a hostess gift.

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Free Wi-Fi. Really!

When I opened the cafe four months ago, I thought that I might be shooting myself in the foot by offering free wireless internet. After all, there are many other cafes in the area who offer free Wi-Fi and they mostly seem flooded with laptops. But as I sit here making chocolate and happily blogging away... I can't help but wonder where all the people are? Free Wi-Fi! Grab an espresso or tea, house-made pastry, or artisan truffle and internet away. Come and get it!

Plus, you get the added bonus of all the ambiance and atmosphere from the iTunes playlist in our production kitchen. Take a looksie at what's been playing. Then go download your own!

Rocket, by Au Revior Simone
Silver Lining, by Rilo Kiley
Percolator, Stereolab
I Feel It All, by Feist
Five, by Electrolane
Wrapped Up in Books, by Belle & Sebastian
New Slang, by The Shins
Paco!, by Ladytron
Red Dust, by Iron & Wine
Brothers on a Hotel Bed, by Death Cab for Cutie
Missile, Blonde Redhead
Red Right Ankle, by The Decemberists
Lollipop, by Mika
Dashboard, by Modest Mouse
Noah's Ark, by CocoRosie
Breathe Mia, by Sia

Cranberry-Cocoa Nib Scone

I'm going to start this post by saying that I'm not really a scone person. I do love me some tasty pastry, but my experiences with scones have resulted in dry, crumbly messes in my mouth and hands. Granted, I've never made my own before (can you believe it?... but I'm a chocolatier, not a scone-atier). Still, I've yet to meet a scone that has knocked my socks off, though I've not exactly been on the look-out.

In pursuit of more tantalizing daily pastries, I've finally bitten the bullet and tried some out for myself. Knowing that the key to most any butter-based pastry is to prevent overworking, I was very conscious about mixing the dough until it just barely came together, hoping that the result would be light and airy like a nice pie crust. Good call, if I say so myself:)

New in the cafe this morning are Cranberry-Cocoa Nib Scones and at the moment they are still warm on the inside! Made from all butter and other all-natural ingredients (like everything else around here), these babies get their flavor from the addition of dried cranberries and cocoa-nibs that have been plumped in boiling water. Pretty simple, really... pop some dried fruit in a little boiling water and strain a few minutes later. The result are little burst of flavor that help keep the pastry moist and succulent. They are finished with a little milk-wash on top and a generous dusting of cane sugar before baked until golden. Fun!

March Chocolate Tasting Dinner

If you lived in a cave or under a rock during the first half of February, you may not have known that the Eclipse Chocolat Team was throwing a fancy-pants dinner for Valentine's Day. As it turns out, the shindig was a wild success and sold out (at 90 reservations!) a whole two weeks prior to the actual holiday.

Most of the attendees seemed pretty excited about it, what with five courses to enjoy and all, and many asked when another such dinner would be planned. Well wait no more!

So we're giving it another go. Friday, March 28th at 7 and 9pm, we will be hosting another lucky 48 people for a fabulous tour of everything chocolate. From appetiser to dessert, RSVP ASAP to enjoy five courses of cocoa-concoctions, only one of which is actually a sweet course.

The first dinner was repeated for a second evening so we served 90 people in total. This dinner will not be repeated, so we expect it to sell out very quickly. We will be announcing the details in the upcoming two weeks, but call (619.578.2984) or email (info@eclipsechocolat.com) very soon to reserve your space. The cost will be $30 per person and all guests will enjoy 10% off retail chocolate for that evening.

Incidentally, did anyone out there reading this actually attend the dinner? There's got a be a few of you! If so, I'd love a few replies to this post as testimonials. Who wants to take my word for it anyway!

Spring Dessert Tasting Platter

It's finally here! The new Dessert Tasting Platter has debuted and will be available for the next 8 weeks. Don't miss out:

White Chocolate-Macadamia Pudding with Butterscotch Rum Sauce
[airy white chocolate pudding+toasted macadamia+burnt caramel & muscavado butterscotch rum sauce]

Curried-Peanutbutter, Marshmallow, & Milk Chocolate Panini
[masala curry infused peanutbutter+vanilla bean marshmallow+36% milk chocolate panini, grilled to order]

Frozen Chile-Burnt Caramel Semifreddo
[frozen chile-burnt caramel semifreddo mousse+dark chocolate brownie crumb crust+burnt caramel topping]

Dark Chocolate Brioche Bread Pudding with Creme Anglaise
[dense dark chocolate-chocolate chip brioche bread pudding, warmed+vanilla bean creme aglaise]

Dark Chocolate Butter Croissant

Now that we're out of the winter holidays, I can concentrate on bring forth better and more regular pastries. As the cafe becomes busier in the next few months we will be able to support more types of fresh pastries, but as they are all baked in house, I can only offer a few types each day. Typically, we've had our exotic brownie collection each day and another specialty pastry that rotates between a few fun things I'm whipping up,

A new one you will see here from time to time is the Dark Chocolate Butter Croissant. Baked fresh, these beauties are made from an all-butter laminated dough and stuffed with 55% dark chocolate. Personally, I feel that the typical American croissant is too blond and pale to really have a proper texture, so I bake ours to a deep tawny color.