Yesterday I was at Whole Foods, and the guy in front of me was commenting loudly on the price of the Pralus chocolate gift set, ten 1-ounce bars for $40. “Is there hash in those?” he asked the cashier.
“I wish,” the cashier replied.
I was glad for this bit of mirth, because it drew my attention to a different expensive chocolate product, Valrhona Perles Croquantes. They’re tiny cracker bits coated in 55 percent dark chocolate, so you end up with crunchy chocolate spheres a couple millimeters in diameter. They are superb on ice cream (especially coffee), and because the cracker is fully insulated by chocolate, they’ll presumably hold their crunch well in homemade ice cream, cookies, or maybe some demented iced bubble tea-like concoction.
If you can’t find them at a Whole Foods or chocolate shop near you, you can order them from Chocosphere, albeit for $30 per kilogram.
what a find! i hope with anticipation there is a slight saltiness?
i have been looking for the perfect choclate to put into my homemade strawberry icecream – now i just have to wait until June when Jesse’s berries arrive. sigh. guess i will just have to try to perfect another flavor while i wait!