Can You Ever Have Too Much Chocolate?

I find this hard to admit, but I was once in a room with too much chocolate.  This room, about the size of two football fields, was inside the Los Angeles Convention Center. 

A Chocolate Festival was in progress.  My job (courtesy of the International Herald Tribune) was to visit as many booths as possible, take notes and taste whatever was on offer.  That way I could tell readers about the latest American chocolate trends. 

I couldn’t believe my luck, especially when I saw 25-pound bars of semi-sweet chocolate being hacked into fist-sized samples.  But I soon discovered there’s truth in that old saying, “Your eyes are bigger than your stomach.”

After about 30 minutes of tasting one brand of chocolate after another, I began eating less and talking more, quizzing the chocolatiers about what set their chocolate apart from other chocolate brands.  I filled my notebook and collected company brochures.

I also filled my shopping bag with chocolate samples.  I figured I’d munch on them on the drive back to the office.  In the car I was surprised to discover I’d lost my appetite for chocolate.  It took nearly 24 hours to come back.

That’s when I started thinking about expanding my baking beyond Chocolate Chip Cookies and Devil’s Food Cake out of a box.  Why should a dessert include only one kind of chocolate?  It seemed wasteful somehow to spend time making brownies and just use cocoa or unsweetened chocolate.  Why not both.  Why not add a cup of chocolate chips?  What about a chocolate icing or a dollop of chocolate syrup.

I went a little crazy for a while. Now when I make a chocolate dessert, I don’t overload it with different kinds of chocolate.  Two out of these seven chocolate options—unsweetened squares, semi-sweet squares, chocolate chips, chocolate discs, chocolate syrup, cocoa powder, chocolate ice cream—are probably enough, although once in a while I’ll add at least three.

Chocolate Pizza allows you to include as many kinds of chocolate as you can squeeze in as toppings.  Triple Chocolate Brownies (recipe below) uses three kinds of chocolate, with a suggestion for two more. 

Triple Chocolate Brownies – makes 25 1½-inch squares 

2 tablespoons butter + more for greasing

4 ounces semisweet chocolate

1/4 cup water

1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1/2 cup sugar

2 large eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 cup all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 cup (6 ounces) semisweet or milk chocolate chips 

Place an oven rack in the middle position and preheat the oven to 350 degrees.   

Line an 8- or 9-inch pan with aluminum foil, making sure two ends of the foil overhang the pan by about 2 inches so you can easily lift the brownies out of the pan later.  Lightly rub the bottom and sides of the foil with butter.  Set aside. 

Combine the chocolate, water and butter in a medium, heavy pan over low heat, stirring occasionally.  When the chocolate is just melted, turn off the heat and stir in the cocoa.  Set aside to cool for a few minutes. 

Add the sugar, eggs and vanilla and stir until well blended.  Add the flour, baking soda and salt and stir until no flour shows.  Stir in the chocolate chips. 

Transfer the batter into the foil-lined pan and bake for 20 to 25 minutes, or until the top feels firm and the brownies pull away from the sides of the pan.  Remove from the oven and cool on a rack for about 15 minutes.  

Carefully lift the ends of the foil and remove the brownies from the pan.  Cut into 25 squares and serve.  Store in an airtight container or wrapped in foil or plastic wrap. 

NOTE: If you want to add more levels of chocolate, serve with chocolate ice cream and/or spread on some chocolate icing.

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