How to make the Perfect Gourmet S’more

by Aaron Davidson

The perfect s’more has always been an elusive creation to make on a consistent basis. Sometimes you make one and it turns out great; other times they are OK, and other times they are just burnt.

I’ve finally found a way of making one that is perfect every time. The only hitch is that they aren’t made the way most folks think nature intended them to be made—over the campfire. These s’mores are made in your own kitchen.

The one main ingredient, of course, is with a fist-size chunk of Lula’s Chocolates’ Aloha Rocky Road. You can use either the dark chocolate or milk chocolate, but I, personally, prefer the dark chocolate.

The first step is to pick a healthy chunk that you can cut off, so that at least two of the marshmallow chunks in the bar end up in your s’more.

The next step is to place the cut piece between two halves of a graham cracker. You can use any graham cracker, but keeping with tradition, I use Honey Grahams—I grew up with them, and I still love them.

The third step is to place the uncooked s’more in the microwave and cook it for 8 to 12 seconds. Each microwave is a little different, so watch for when the marshmallow starts to expand. You should allow it to expand for a few seconds. You may have to experiment a little for the perfect timing. But that’s the fun part, because if it doesn’t quite work right the first time, you get to say, “Dang, that didn’t quite work right—I’ll eat this one and make another one for you.”

When hosting a s’more party, you might want to even make sure you mess up on the first couple—that way, you’ll get the first ones, instead of getting so busy making them that you don’t get any.

After you pull the s’more out of the microwave, the fun part comes. Now: smash it down a little so the marshmallow is distributed evenly over the graham cracker.

Oh, did I mention—there is an even more fun part. Now you get to eat your perfect creation, or, if you’ve been cooking them up for others, you get to enjoy watching them eat your perfect s’more creation.

So, what did you think? Give it a try and let us know how yours turned out. Was that perfect or what? Enter your comment to this blog or send us an email at feedback@lulas.com.

Thanks for the Apple Pie

By Aaron Davidson

Lula’s Chocolates has some great employees. One of our chocolate dippers, I won’t mention who (Nanette), wished me a belated birthday yesterday and brought me in one of my favorite treats, home-made apple pie. I couldn’t wait to dig into it, but I did anyway because I just had to take a photo of it in my dining room with the morning sun. I guess that makes me a photo freak. I got in a little late today because the clouds were out and I had to wait until the sun barely peeked through the clouds so I could get just the right light. I had to wait so long that I didn’t have a chance to eat any, but there’s a silver lining to that though…I have something to look forward to when I go home tonight. Thanks again Nanette for being great and for the apple pie.

Concours Weekend Photos

by Aaron Davidson

One of the great advantages of living and producing gourmet chocolates in Monterey is that we get to be here every year for the Concours. At the end of each summer, some of the most exotic cars ever produced converge on Carmel and Pebble Beach for a week of gawking and admiring automobiles that others may never see in the quantities and styles that appear on the roads here.
The price tag on these works of art may put them out of my reach right now, but taking photographs of them is not. I spent several hours on Saturday walking the streets of Carmel, taking pictures of some of these beauties.

On Saturday, many of the cars are just parked along the streets of Carmel. This is not one of the scheduled events, but that is what I like about it. It’s just the drivers of these exotic cars, wanting to hang around Carmel and let normal people gawk at their cars as they stroll Ocean Avenue. I like this environment because there are not as many people looking at the cars, so you can get better pictures, and sometimes you even find them in motion rather than just parked. I took around 200 pictures (I just love digital photography—it costs almost nothing to take a photo), and I posted what I thought were the best 35 on flickr. Please enjoy the pictures, even if you were not able to enjoy the event.

After Seattle

by Scott Lund

Thank to everyone that came out to visit our table at the Seattle Chocolate Salon. It was a great time and met some wonderful people.

At the table we had contact cards that I said we would be doing a drawing from. The lucky winner would receive a $100 gift certificate, and that winner is Carla D.! We will be contacting her in the next week to inform her of the prize.

Again, thanks for coming to the salon and hope that you loved Lula's as much as we enjoyed meeting you.

Seattle's International Chocolate Salon!

by Scott Lund

We are thrilled to have the opportunity to participate in the Chocolate Salon this Sunday (July 13) at the Bell Harbor Center, in Seattle, Washington from 11a.m. to 5p.m. Admission is $17.50 presale and $20 at the door (while supplies last). This is an incredible event that features some of the best chocolatiers and confectioners in the US, and it is the first major chocolate show in the Pacific Northwest!

To have the chance to stand beside not only some of Seattle’s finest, but to introduce ourselves to a new area is unbelievable. If you have any friends or family up in the Seattle area make sure to let them know about it! Their website is www.seattlechocolatesalon.com. Come and experience what Lula’s is all about! Some of the other companies featured include: Theo Chocolate, Dilettante Chocolates, Oh! Chocolate and Blissful Brownies, among a collection of others.

If you came to this blog after falling in love with Lula’s at the salon, we would love to hear from you! Write a comment for the blog and then send us an e-mail to blog@lulas.com and we will give you add an additional 10% off your online purchase, making your discount 25% off! We look forward to hearing your feedback, and thanks again for visiting our blog!

Why We Cook With Copper Pots

by Aaron Davidson

One of the distinct and tasty advantages to working in a gourmet chocolate factory is the opportunity to give tours to great people who love great chocolate. I wasn't raised making chocolate confections, so almost everything I've learned is new to me. I came on board at Lula's as the business end of things but have found that I have a great interest in the production process. I learned the basics in order to conduct tours when nobody else was available but have taken it upon myself to learn the details of chocolate making. One of the questions I always get asked is why we cook our lush centers in huge, copper pots. This is one of those savory details I have loved investigating.

In my search for the answer, I first went to the source--"the master chocolatier", Scott Lund. He explained that copper pots transfer the heat better so that the centers cook more evenly and the chances of their burning is reduced. That was a perfectly accurate answer, and one that would probably suffice for the average person coming through the factory for a tour, but the answer only fueled my curiosity. I wanted to know more.

These days it's easy to find out anything if you're willing to Google a topic and do some reading, so that is exactly what I did. I am now convinced that cooking in copper is the only way to go. Two of the most informative and easy-to-read articles are "Cooking with Copper" at www.rameria.com and "Understanding Pan Structure" at www.cookswares.com. Naturally these two websites are interested in selling copper pots, and they would like everybody to cook in copper so that their copper pots will sell. Yet sometimes the goal of selling becomes a great motivation for producing useful and even fascinating information.

So that you don't have to read all of the information given on these two sites, I will give you the lowdown on copper pot cooking in laymen's terms. Other than silver, copper is the best metal you can use if you want to conduct heat. For example, you can use a lower heat than you would with a stainless steel pot, and you can get a more consistent result. In addition, the copper disperses the heat better across the entire pot instead of just concentrating it where the heat is applied to the pot. This gives you more control over the cooking process. Finally, when you remove the pot from the heat, the heat disperses faster, allowing you to exercise more control over how long your items cook in the pot.

According to some websites, one of the down sides of using copper is what happens when you cook acidic foods. Acidic foods can actually leech some of the copper out of the pot, which is obviously poisonous. Fortunately for Lula's, the only substances being cooked are the candy centers--which means perfectly created cremes, caramels, and ganaches. Every single time.

A Great Day!

by Scott Lund

Today was a truly amazing day. It started off with a surprise visit by Health Department and ended with two new accounts.

Because we are a food production company, we are regulated/investigated by the State of California – Department of Public Health Food and Drug Branch. We receive unannounced visits from a Senior Investigator every one to three years. It had been about 18 months since we received our first visit, so I have had a feeling that we should be expecting someone for while.

I like to think that we run a clean shop just like my grandmother did, but one never looks forward to visit from the State. We will show the factory to almost anyone so it generally very clean. Today was no different. When John (that is his real name) showed up at 9:30 this morning the plant was still spotless. Everyone was working and the place looked great.

I walked John through the facility for about half an hour answering some questions about our processes, lot tracking and products. In the end we received a clean bill of health and he said he would be back in about 3 years. As a side note: Chocolate is not exactly dangerous product to manufacture. Chocolates are generally too dry for salmonella and e-coli and too sweet for bacteria.

So by 10:30 a.m. you probably could have told me most anything and I would not have cared. Yet, the day only got better.

I visited with the great people of the Cannery Row IMAX Theatre and they have decided to carry Lula’s in their café. May I suggest an IMAX movie and some of Lula’s best chocolates? They should be available by this weekend in the upstairs café.

On top of that, this afternoon I also received word that Berkeley Bowl Marketplace will carry our Grab‘n’Go products (Aloha Rocky Road and California Toffee). We shipped product to them today, so they should have it for you tomorrow.

I don’t know about you but to me that is a great day. I hope you have a Great Day too!