In this issue

Letter from the Editor

Sam s
Cook Guide
April 2012 Newsletter

Feature : Benefits of chocolate

Three chocolate receipes
Pictorial : Day out for the Cook Guide team
The Wild with Emmanuel
The Chocolate Crossword Puzzle
Did you know?
Chocolate Gift packs Pg 1 & 5
Pg 2
Pg 3
Pg 4 & 7
Pg 6
Pg 7
Pg 8
Pg 8
Whatever your chocolate indulgence,
the Vosges Haut-Chocolat Corporate Gift
Program was created to make your giving
experience simple, seamless and unique.
Whether your gift is destined for clients,
new staf welcomes, holiday gifts or for
your loved one, Chic Chocolat creates
a lasting impression. Our Chocolate
Concierges are knowledgeable experts,
ready to cater to your every wish and
whim! They can recommend the perfect
chocolate for the even the pickiest of
gift list, set up an automated birthday
or anniversary chocolate shipment, dish
on upcoming new products and even
give you exclusive advanced access to

GIVE YOUR EMPLOYEES, CLIENTS,
FAMILY AND FRIENDS THE WORLD,
WRAPPED IN A PURPLE BOX.
recipients, retain a database of your
our chocolate tasting soires.
Cont on Pg 5
Letter from the Editor
Hi readers,
Its another great month and we are proud to produce yet another copy of the Cook
Guide. It has been a short but great journey with overwhelming response from our
readers. We have had requests on some topics that we shall tackle as the year goes by.
This month its all about chocolate. Many requests have been sent to us via email and
letters asking us to give recipes on chocolate and cakes. In this issue we will have
different articles from our writers on the benefits of chocolate and also give us some
recipes of some great deserts with chocolate.
It may not be valentine but with your kids at home during the holidays how about you
spoil them with chocolate!
Have a wonderful and fun filled month!
Samantha Wainaina,
Senior Editor.
Contact us:
www.cookguide.co.ke
www.facebook.com/sams_cook_guide
follow us on Twitter @cookguide_Sam
Cooks@cookguide.com
Day out for the Editorial team
Marcus and Samantha during the Easy FM
Campus tour
Senoir Editor and Smooth Poet
ANU Mass comm Group photo
Munene Hyagah and Samantha after the tour
Left: Emmanuel relaxing in the ANU Gardens
Right: Emmanuel and Senior reporter Sammy Ayiro
Benefits
of
Chocolate
By Emmanuel Mulwa Byy Emmanuel Mulwa l Mulwa
Why is Dark Chocolate Healthy?
Chocolate is made from plants, which means. It contains many of the health benefts of dark
vegetables. These benefts are from favonoids, which act as antioxidants. Antioxidants protect
the body from aging caused by free radicals, which can cause damage that leads to heart
disease. Dark chocolate contains a large number of antioxidants (nearly 8 times the
number found in strawberries). Flavonoids also help relax blood pressure through the
production of nitric oxide, and balance certain hormones in the body.
Heart Health Benefits of Dark Chocolate:
Dark chocolate is good for your heart. A small bar of it everyday can help keep your heart and cardiovascular
system running well. Two heart health benefts of dark chocolate are:
- Lower Blood Pressure: Studies have shown that consuming a small bar of dark chocolate everyday
can reduce blood pressure in individuals with high blood pressure.
- Lower Cholesterol: Dark chocolate has also been shown to reduce LDL cholesterol (the bad cholesterol)
by up to 10 percent.
Other Benefits of Dark Chocolate:
Chocolate also holds benefts apart from protecting your heart:
- lt tastes good
- lt stlmulates endorphln productlon, whlch glves a feellng of pleasure
- lt contalns serotonln, whlch acts as an antl-depressant
- lt contalns theobromlne, canelne and other substances whlch are stlmulants
Cont on pg 7
Cave Chocolat
Luxury assortment of 96 pieces of Jean-Paul Hvin black pearls
Truffles, toffee, caramels and cocoa
stacked up tall and tied with a bow.
Easy to unwrap and even easier to savor
and share!
Choose French Champagne, German
Riesling, Piedmontese red wine, sweet
French Banyuls, or South American
Malbec matched with the perfect
chocolate truffles. Or choose our Luxe
Champagne and Chocolate Gift Set and
let our Chocolate Concierges help you
create a custom collection.
The birth of Vosges Haut-Chocolat lies
within the Exotic Truffle Collections,
inspired by Katrinas world travel. Each
chocolate truffle tells the story of the
ingredients origin and inspiring artist or
culture that brought the idea to fruition.
Envelop your mind and your palate in a
sense of placesee, smell, snap and taste
your way through all 11 truffle flavors.
Content and information provided by
www.vosgeschocolate.com
Jean Paul Hvin Chocolatier
Chocolate Gift Packs
Available at Nakumatt and Uchumi
branches countrywide
3DELICIOUS CHOCOLATE RECIPES
Brownies, trife, and thumbprint cookies!
Ganache Dark Fudgey Brownies
Chocolate Thumbprint Cookies
1/2 cup butter, softened
2/3 cup sugar
1 egg, separated
2 tablespoons milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Heat oven to 350F. Grease l3x9x2-lnch baking pan.
Stir together cocoa and baking soda in large bowl; stir in 1/3 cup butter. Add boiling water, stir until mixture
completely. Stir in 1 cup chocolate chips. Pour into prepared pan. Bake 35 to 40 minutes or until brownies
begin to pull away from sides of pan. Cool completely in pan on wire rack.
Prepare CHOCOLATE GANACHE. Pour over brownies. Refrigerate 20 to 30 minutes. Cut into 3-lnch squares;
cut squares diagonally in half to form a triangle shape. Garnish with fresh strawberry, if desired. Makes 12
brownies.
CHOCOLATE GANACHE: Place 2 cups (12-oz. package) Seml-Sweet Chocolate Chips and 1 cup whipping
cream in microwave-safe bowl. Microwave at MEDIUM (50%) 30 seconds; stir. If necessary, microwave an
additional 30 seconds or until chocolate is melted and mixture is smooth when stirred. Makes about 2 cups
ganache.
3/4 cup cocoa
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
2/3 cup butter or margarine, melted and divided
1/2 cup boiling water
2 cups sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon salt
l cup seml-sweet chocolate chips
CHOCOLATE GANACHE (recipe follows)
Fresh strawberries (optional)
Double Chocolate Mocha Trie
1 (19.8 ounce) package brownie mix
1 3/4 cups cold milk
2 (3.3 ounce) packages instant white
chocolate pudding mix
Prepare brownies according to package directions. Bake and cool completely. Cut into 1 inch cubes.
granules in water and stir into pudding mixture. Fold in whipped topping. In a glass serving bowl, layer
one-thlrd of brownie cubes, one-thlrd of pudding mixture and one-thlrd of candy. Repeat layering until all
ingredients are used. Chill 30 minutes in refrigerator before serving.
2 tablespoons warm water
2 cups frozen whipped topping, thawed
3 (1.4 ounce) bars chocolate covered
refrigerate for 1 hour or until or until easy to handle.
In a small bowl, whisk egg white until foamy. Shape dough into l-ln. balls, dlp ln egg whlte, then roll
in nuts. Place on greased baking sheets. Using a wooden spoon handle, make an indentation in center
of each cookie. Bake at 350 for l0-l2 mlnutes or until center is set.
1/4 teaspoon into each warm cookie; gently press a chocolate kiss in the center. Carefully remove from
pans to wire racks to cool. Yield: 2 dozen.
1/3 cup baking cocoa
1/4 teaspoon salt
FILLING:
1/2 cup confectioners sugar
1 tablespoon butter, softened
2 teaspoons milk
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
26 milk chocolate kisses
er
mixture
1 eg
2 tab
1 tea
refri
In a
in nu
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1/4 t

FILL
1/2 c
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Benefits
of
Chocolate
Doesnt Chocolate Have a lot of Fat?
Here ls some more good news -- some of the fats ln chocolate do not lmpact your cholesterol. The fats
in chocolate are 1/3 oleic acid, 1/3 stearic acid and 1/3 palmitic acid:
- Olelc Acld ls a healthy monounsaturated fat that ls also found ln ollve oll.
- Stearlc Acld ls a saturated fat but one whlch research ls shows has a neutral enect on cholesterol.
- Palmltlc Acld ls also a saturated fat, one whlch ralses cholesterol and heart dlsease rlsk.
That means only 1/3 of the fat in dark chocolate is bad for you.
Chocolate Tip 1 - Balance the Calories:
This information doesnt mean that you should eat a pound of chocolate a day. Chocolate is still a
hlgh-calorle, hlgh-fat food. Most of the studles done used no more than l00 grams, or about 3.5 ounces,
of dark chocolate a day to get the benefts.
One bar of dark chocolate has around 400 calories. If you eat half a bar of chocolate a day, you must
balance those 200 calories by eating less of something else. Cut out other sweets or snacks and replace
them with chocolate to keep your total calories the same.
Chocolate Tip 2 - Taste the Chocolate:
Chocolate is a complex food with over 300 compounds and chemicals in each bite. To really enjoy and
appreciate chocolate, take the time to taste it. Professional chocolate tasters have developed a system
for tasting chocolate that include assessing the appearance, smell, feel and taste of each piece.
Chocolate Tip 3 - Go for Dark Chocolate:
Dark chocolate has far more antioxidants than milk or white chocolate. These other two chocolates
cannot make any health claims. Dark chocolate has 65 percent or higher cocoa content.
Continued from Page 4
Did you know...
people spend more than $7 billion dollars a year on chocolate?
Americans eat almost half of the worlds yearly supply of chocolate?
Hawaii is the only U.S. state that grows cacao beans to produce chocolate?
You may have heard that eating chocolate gives you energy. Is that
really true? Check out these facts and decide for yourself.
One chocolate chip gives the average adult enough energy to walk 150
feet. That means that to fuel yourself for a hike around the world, youd
need to consume almost 900,000 chocolate chlps. |n reallty, the amount of canelne ln
chocolate ls very llttle - about 5 to l0 mllllgrams of canelne ln one ounce of
bittersweet chocolate, 5 milligrams in milk chocolate, and 10 milligrams in a
slx-ounce cup of cocoa. Compare thls to l00-l50 mllllgrams found ln a cup
of conee.
Chocolate has always played an important role in the armed forces.
Napoleon used to carry chocolate for his energy lapses, and the famous
Hershey 8ar came lnto belng at the request of the Amerlcan mllltary.
www.extremechocolate.com/lnterestlng-chocolate-facts.html
THE WILD
with Emmanuel Mulwa
This week we take a look
at the great Ngong Hills
from a distance and the
sunset.
Chocolate Crossword Puzzle
1 2

3


4 5


6

7

8


9


10



11 12

13

14



15
16


17


18

Across Down
3. A Uconn Favorite - Chocolate Dipped ______ 1. Monsieur Dubisson of France invented this
2. Building the Catering Oce is located in
3. Civilizon where the history of chocolate
dates back to
5. These insects pollinate the cacao trees
6. Chocolate comes from this type of bean
7. Created the rst known heart shaped box
8. Chocolate drinks rst became popular in this
country
9. Melts in your mouthnot in your hands.
10. One of the Europeans credited for bringing
chocolate back to Europe
4. Produced the rst milk chocolate bar
10. What this en crossword is about
11. Dark, White and ________ chocolate
12. Chocolate _______ are great in cookies.
13. Chocolate oen contains this smulant.
14. Invented the steam engine for grinding
15. Hershey's ___________
16. Largest popuon of cacao trees is found in
__________ America
17. Melted chocolate you can dip items in
18. Using a hydraulic press to create cocoa
powder beans
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