The Nutella Cookbook: Steal This Book?

September 4, 2013 By Kate Heyhoe

The Nutella Cookbook, shaped like the actual jar

Nutella cookbook, shaped like the actual jar, or get the ebook

Would you steal Nutella?

In 2013, thieves stole $21,000 worth of Nutella from a warehouse in Germany. College cafeterias face massive losses from pilfered Nutella. Columbia University is reportedly losing $5000 a week, $250,000 a year, because students are sneaking copious amounts of the stuff back to their dorms.

So what is Nutella, and why all the fuss? It’s a creamy hazelnut and chocolate spread. Not dark chocolate (I so wish it was!) but a motherly milk chocolate that plucks at the comfort-food heartstrings of people around the globe.

When I lived in Europe, Nutella was everywhere – an everyday food-fixture, like peanut butter in the States. Nutella has since been discovered in America. A few years ago, you could only find it in specialty stores. Now it’s in every supermarket; fan websites swoon over it; and there’s even a World Nutella Appreciation Day (lots of drama here: Nutella’s makers at first shut down the site and event, but reversed course in response to public outrage.)

Enter: Nutella: The 30 Best Recipes. It’s a die-cut cookbook in the shape of a Nutella jar. Presumably, you could give this book with a real Nutella jar as a combo gift (perhaps find a black-market jar for cheap, in Germany?).

For those who want to take Nutella to new heights, here’s a round up of recipes from Nutella:

From:

Nutella: The 30 Best Recipes, by Ferraro U.S.A. Also available as an ebook.

Mini-Nutella Croissants

September 4, 2013 By Kate Heyhoe

Treat yourself at breakfast or teatime with these mini-croissants made with the famous hazelnut chocolate spread!

Makes 16 mini-croissants

Preparation: 10 min. Cooking: 20 min

230 g (8 oz) ready-rolled puff pastry
150 g (1/2 cup) Nutella
1 egg yolk, to glaze

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (180 degrees C /Gas 4).

2. Unroll the pastry on the work surface. Spread with a thick layer of Nutella.

3. Cut the pastry into 16 equal-sized pieces. Roll each piece onto itself, starting at a long edge in order to form a mini-croissant.

4. Brush with the egg yolk.

5. Bake for 20 minutes.

For more recipes:

Nutella: The 30 Best Recipes, by Ferraro U.S.A. Also available as an ebook.

Chocolate’s Next Conquest: India

June 21, 2013 By Kate Heyhoe

In Western tradition, a dinner guest brings a bottle of wine as a host or hostess gift.

In India, Cadbury wants to make Toblerone the gift to give – it’s a strategy for growing the chocolate market in India. And it’s working. Hershey’s and other chocolate makers have also zeroed in on India, a subcontinent ready to be conquered.

Cadbury’s Toblerone, with its distinctive triangular box, is the leading brand in airport duty free stores around the world. It’s considered a premium brand and Cadbury India (a division of Kraft Foods) is actively promoting it and its other premium brands, including Cadbury Silk, in India.

In a nation where gifting is a solid tradition, chocolate gifting accounts for 6 percent of India’s gifting sales. The biggest brands: Hershey’s, Ferrero Rocher, Lindt, and Cadbury, which at 70 percent dominates India’s nascent chocolate market.

So how much chocolate are we talking about? Between 2005 and 2012, India’s chocolate consumption tripled – meaning it jogged from 40 grams to about 160 grams person, or less than two 3.5-ounce chocolate bars. Undeniably, this is a meager amount. But international cocoa producers are on a mission to expand their product everywhere. And wherever sales are low, there’s room to grow.

As incomes rise in India (and elsewhere), consumers tend to trade up, especially in food and grocery items. They start buying more expensive brands, and products with higher quality, better packaging, and distinctive branding.

India has long had a love affair with sweets and gift-giving, and Indian-made chocolates do exist (Amul is the largest). But international mega-brands have aggressively pitched their chocolates as status-symbol gifts during Diwali, the Indian festival of light and the most important holiday of the year. People increasingly prefer pristinely packaged chocolates over the mithrai, traditional Indian sweets sold at shops and stands. And perhaps chocolate’s caffeine and theobromine content creates a chemically induced, feel-good habit that non-chocolate mithrai can’t provide.

Chocolate Crimes and Frivolity

Diwali chocolate-gifting is now popular enough to spawn both counterfeit chocolate sales and luxury chocolate jewelry.

Some of the Diwali woes: Fake chocolate sold under big name brands; chocolate adulterated with minerals to increase the weight and deepen color; and gravelly texture from inferior sugar. India’s newfound passion for chocolate has inspired spurious products.

Luxury products also get a boost. One designer is selling chocolate jewelry, gilded with edible gold. Gold is the ultimate Indian status symbol, and with gold prices so high, gilded chocolate seems like a novel alternative.

But whether gilded or not, chocolate is invading India, and no one seems to mind.

Cool! Mehndi Tattoos with Cocoa Powder

May 2, 2013 By Kate Heyhoe

Cocoa powder makes a temporary tattoo, similar to Indian mehndi skin designs.

Be a Bollywood star with a mehndi design – crafted from cocoa powder (and a doily)

Go Bollywood this weekend: The Mehndi Cocoa Paint design shown here uses a doily as a stencil, with added flourishes from a paintbrush.

Mehndi skin designs predate Bollywood by a few centuries, dating back to ancient India as a ceremonial art form of body painting. Brides and grooms are adorned with intricate mehndi patterns and symbols, usually on hands, palms, and feet. It’s also worn for festivals and other special occasions in countries stretching from the Sudan to South Asia.

Today, mehndi is a chic fashion statement in the Western world and a trendy alternative to true tattoos; it’s been flashed by Madonna, Sting, Prince, Erykah Badu, and models on magazine covers ranging from Cosmopolitan to WIRED. (Rubina Ali, child star of the movie Slumdog Millionaire, wore mehndi-painted hands to the Oscars.)

Mehndi (or mehendi) is made from henna, a type of plant, and though the stain isn’t permanent, it will last for weeks. The traditional color is a reddish brown, though black mehndi made with toxic additives is also sold.

Mehndi Cocoa Paint

This kitchen version of mehndi is safe, nontoxic, and nonpermanent. It doesn’t stain like real henna because it’s made of egg yolk, cocoa powder and molasses (for elasticity). It rinses off with soap and water, and while not waterproof, it does resist a light rinsing in water. (Anyone who’s ever tried to clean dried egg off a plate knows the sticking power of egg yolk.)

For best results, apply it to smooth skin areas that won’t be getting wet for a while: around the ankles, upper wrists and arms (not on palms), cheek, as an armband or necklace, or as a shoulder tattoo. It should last several hours, long enough for a night on the town or an all-day wedding.

Ideas: Ocelots, leopard, tiger and zebra prints. Paint a wild pattern using Mehndi Cocoa Paint – for a fab fashion statement or a Halloween costume that’s literally skin deep.

Tips

• Remove any clumps or thick strands from the egg yolk, for a smooth consistency.

• A thick mixture leaves a slightly raised texture, which may be desirable. But don’t dab it on too thickly, or it will crack off. Thin with a drop of water if it thickens while standing.

• Dab on fine dots with the point of a skewer or fork tines, or paint on with a very fine brush.

• Wash the mixture off with soap and water; it’s not waterproof, but will resist a light rinsing.

• Use pre-made stencils or cut your own from plastic or paper. Doilies make great stencils. Use masking tape to hold them in place.

• This recipe makes enough for one fully designed arm, and may be doubled or tripled.

Basic Tools & Equipment

Small bowl

Small fork

Fine paintbrush

Masking tape and paper doily (optional)

Fine sponge (optional)

Ingredients

1 tablespoon egg yolk

1/2 teaspoon water

1 teaspoon molasses

2-1/2 teaspoons cocoa powder

Instructions

1. In a small bowl with a small fork (like a cocktail fork), beat the egg yolk with the water. Remove any thick clumps of egg yolk. Beat in the molasses and cocoa powder, stirring until smooth. The cocoa powder may resist dissolving, but keep stirring. The mixture will be syrup-like, and will thicken as you use it.

2. With a fine paintbrush, apply designs to dry skin. Or, with masking tape, secure a doily (or stencil) around the wrist or arm; rinse a fine sponge and squeeze dry. Dab the paint over the doily. Allow a few minutes for the design to dry thoroughly.