Do you hide your chocolate?

[crazycanuck]

I normally leave my chocolate in the freezer. mmmm..chocolate...mmmmmm

[mtbdarby]

Awww, come on here. If you put the chocolate in the high cupboard and you only have a 5 yo in the house is it really "hiding" the chocolate? I mean please.....

[solobiker]

I hide mine too. DH husband would pick on me if he knew. I usually buy the dark chocolate which I some how manage to justify eating because it is "healthier" then milk chocolate.

[Blueberry]

I have to locate this in the US. Lindt is my favorite chocolate but I've never had their Chili version. I LOVE chili chocolate (and can leave it out because DH won't touch the stuff)...so I MUST try this! YUM!

Off to search the internet now...

I bet a Southern Season in Chapel Hill has it - I'll try to remember to check next time I'm in there (we just got back from a run....) I know they have other chili dark choc.

We have a special part of a cabinet for the good stuff

CA

[smilingcat]

I noticed several of you freeze or worse deep freeze your chocolate. Freezing or even refridgerating causes chocolate to bloom which is not a good thing.

Proper way to store your chocolate:

Chocolate should be stored in its wrapper and/or box and stored in a cool, dry, dark place. If storing an open bar, wrap in its paper and then in a sealed plastic bag. The best storage temperature is 62F to 70F. I do not recommend refrigeration because condensation that occures can cause sugar bloom. If you live in a hot place without air conditioning, however, there may be no option...

The whitish color that can rise to the top of the chocolate is called a fat bloom. It means the cocoa butter has separated and risen to the top due to heat... final taste is not affected, because when the chocolate is melted, the cocoa butter will be redistributed throughout the chocolate.

by Fran Biglow with Helen Siegel , Pure Chocolate, Broadway Book, 2004 ISBN 0-779-1658-1

It is difficult to predict the shelf life of any preservative-free product. Proper storage plays a large role in extending that life. Unless stated otherwise, the chocolates and confections... should be stored in an air tight container at 60F to 65F for no longer than two weeks

by Andrew Garrison Shotts, Making Artisan Chocolates Flavor-Infused chocolates, truffles, and Confection, Quarry Books 2007, ISBN 1-59253-310-8 (pbk)

both authors are considered experts and Andrew Shotts is also an award winning pastry chef/chocolatier.

I'm especially fond of the second book. It gives me idea on paves, truffles and chocolate desert.

Smilingcat

[Possegal]

My mother used to hide hers, she was quite the chocoholic. I used to be able to sniff it out when we were kids. Then when it was grandkids coming over, I used to laugh at her as she would say "the kids are coming over, I have to hide my candy", so NOT very grandmotherly of her!


A few years before she died she started losing weight and we couldn't figure out why. My brothers were driving with her to Canada and she was in the backseat and they were chatting and she said something like, maybe she was losing weight because she wasn't eating as much chocolate lately. My brothers say, well on average, how much chocolate do you eat in a week? She thinks and then says, maybe 10 lbs. My brother nearly drove off the highway. Even if she was overestimating, and I'm sure she was, but still, this is no chocolate bar a day habit!

I miss that crazy lady.

[snapdragen]

I do not hide my chocolate. Stay away from that bottom drawer, there is nothing there! I SAID there is nothing stashed in that bottom drawer!! *gasp* [innocent eyes]Where did that Scharffen-Berger come from?[/innocent eyes]

[teigyr]

Ok, true confession time. A long time ago, I was dating this guy. We had went wine tasting for the weekend and stopped by a chocolate store. I got truffles and all sorts of yummy things. We also stopped by a bookstore and I got a book. He had to go to work the next day so he stayed at my house. All night I thought of the truffles and book. Out of decorum, I hadn't ripped into any of it yet. He left my house at 4am monday morning (finally!) and I pretended like I was asleep. The minute he left, I grabbed the chocolate, the book, and proceeded to eat chocolate and read in bed.

He came back in because he forgot something

I ducked under the covers and feigned sleep again. He leaned over to kiss me good night and said "oh my god, you've been in the chocolate!" I had to acknowledge at that point that I wasn't really asleep. He also found the book under the covers.

I appreciate age though. Now I do that stuff in front of DH and I really don't care but back then I was sooooo embarrassed

[KnottedYet]

I don't hide my chocolate. I eat it.

And those 85% cacao Lindt bars are FABULOUS! I never found anything better until I ran into (over, and through) Theo chocolate. http://www.theochocolate.com/

sigh.

(and Theo just *happens* to be across the street from a great steel bike shop. Free Range Cycles. Talk about two addictions in one spot!)

[Zen]

"oh my god, you've been in the chocolate!"

Great story.
hey, at least it was just chocolate. It's not like you were waiting for him to leave so you could break out the scotch and cigarettes.

[mimitabby]

yes, I hide my chocolate. we even have his and hers chocolate here. Raleighdon likes coffee in his chocolate, so his coffee laiden pieces sit out for ever. Mine, hidden in my desk slowly get eaten. I never (well, almost never) eat a lot at once, but I have some nearly every day.
Possegal, Teigyr, great stories!

Lots of times (ahem, cough, choke) I have been busted
when someone decides to give me a kiss. Ah, you've been eating chocolate!!

[Hub]

Yes.

I buy chocolate for the house and sometimes special stuff for myself. THat's what I stash away.

I work with a group of women and I am the keeper of emergency chocolate. We usually keep a semi= exotic (for Cleveland MS) dark chocolate bar stashed for long and stressful &/or hormonal days.

[shootingstar]

There's a box of wrapped chocolates from this Christmas ....unopened on coffee table. And another box..about 4 years old, unopened in pantry plus a few chocolate bars. It's a bit lost among all the other (better) groceries.

We did eat a small box ...between the 2 of us over 4 days last month.

We're not purists ....we just buy and eat our desserts at restaurants and cafes.

OUr chocolate storage shares same area as our bottles of wine --cool, dark place with closed door.

[bmccasland]

I am eagerly waiting for my Christmas box from my pen-pal in Paris, which she has informed me that it will contain chocolates from a chocolatier in Paris....

At home, there's just me... so the chocolate is stored in the cupboard.
At the office, it's in a little box in my cube, near the coffee maker (far side of my cube), but to raid it you have to get past me. I usually keep Doves Dark in that box.

[tulip]

Yes, I put my chocolate in the freezer because I like it that way, frozen. It does not stay in the freezer long enough to "bloom" however. It's very short-term storage.