The Munchies Blog

One thing to visit when you’re in Cologne is, of course, its famous Cathedral.

But as this is a foodblog, even the most impressive Gothic architecture is more than slightly off-topic. What’s more interesting in this context is that Cologne also has a chocolate museum.

One part of the museum shows the process of making chocolate, from the cocoa plants to various cocoa-based products. This includes a small greenhouse (which you can safely leave out if you’ve ever been to a greenhouse before). Another part shows historic devices used for chocolate consumption — mainly mugs and bowls from the Maya, Aztecs and Olmecs and special chocolate pots (like a teapot, just for chocolate) and cups from the 18th century.

The part I personally like best is the working chocolate production area. In this area, you can watch (and smell!) chocolates being made. There also is a chocolate fountain where they hand out small waffle pieces dipped in warm chocolate. I remember that on my first visit to the museum (I must have been around 14), my best friend and I swapped jackets after getting waffle pieces for the second time whithin 5 minutes because we thought they then wouldn’t remember us when we came back for a third time…

The last time I was there, they also had a temporary exhibition on the history of associating chocolate with erotic settings (like in Baroque paintings), which was fairly interesting (and perfectly family-safe, in case you’re wondering).

Officially called “Imhoff-Stollwerck-Museum” after the chocolate manufacturer Stollwerck, a large part of the exhibition areas has a strong focus on the products and the history of this company. This includes chocolate advertisements from the 19th and 20th century and some old chocolate vending machines. While these might be interesting for some visitors, they take away space that could have been dedicated to — exactly, chocolate ;) Together with the rather high entrance fees (currently, 6 € for adults and 3.50 € for students etc.), this left me slightly disappointed. Parts of the museum just feel more like an interactive advertisement for Stollwerck than like a place to learn more about chocolate.

Even if you’re not interested in the museum itself, it might be worthwile to go there: The museum’s shop (accessible without paying entrance fees) has a nice assortment of chocolate and usually also an interesting assortment of confused tourists from various countries. Be prepared to leave some money there — the prices are normal compared to other shops, but if you’re like me, there are just so many things you want to have ;)

The chocolate museum is located on an artificial peninsula in the Rhine (map) and can easily be reached on foot from the cathedral by walking southwards along the Rhine for some 15 minutes.

I am shamelessly copying this from my own blog where it is posted already. I think it is tasting good enough to have several mentions ;)

Supposedly serves 6 people. If they aren’t starving.

500 gr. minced meat.
2 cloves of garlic.
2 Onions.
500 gr. potatoes.
500 gr. carrots.
500 gr. leeks.
~200-250 ml cream. More works as well ;)
~200 gr. “Schmelzkäse” (Soft meltable cheese, “mjukost” in Swedish).
~ 750ml Vegetable Stock.

Fry (a big pot is a good place) the minced meat, garlic and onions together while cutting the vegetables in smallish pieces.
Once the meat is done, put it all into a big pot and add the vegetable stock. The stock should not cover the vegetables entirely all the way up.
Put to a simmer for 20 minutes, add the cream and the cheese. Simmer for 5 more minutes, and add spices.
Salt, pepper and various herb spices are recommended.

Serve with a bit of sourdough bread if you feel adventurous.

(Don’t know what the “Part II” is about? Go and read Part I.) The original recipe uses

• 400g good quality dark chocolate,
• 20cl whipping cream and
• 40g butter.

I decided to use half the amount of chocolate and went for a large (250g) bar of Rausch Amazonas (60% cocoa solids) minus some six pieces. I then followed the recipe, breaking the chocolate apart (I was lazy and only broke off the pieces, which I regretted later because the chocolate took quite long to melt), bringing the cream (30% fat whipping cream) almost to a boil, pouring the cream over the chocolate and finally mixing in the diced butter.

I used crushed butter cookies (Butterkeks), chocolate granules (Schokostreusel, like these), unsweetened cocoa powder and icing sugar (Puderzucker) for the toppings.

As mentioned in Part I, I used cayenne pepper, cinnamon, a sweet masala mixture from the organic supermarket, vanilla and salt (fleur de sel, to be exact) for flavouring the ganache itself. I can’t really say anything about the amounts I used; it was pretty much “use what feels right”.

And here’s the summary:
I think the truffles would be nicer with slightly less dark chocolate. Next time I’ll try Rausch Santo Domingo with 55% cocoa solids.

Toppings:

Flavorings:

After stumbling over (and spending some hours reading) the really nice foodblog Chocolate & Zucchini yesterday, I decided to try out her recipe for Chocolate Truffles.

As usual with chocolate, I had this strong urge to play with spices. So now our fridge looks a bit like the mad scientist’s lab in a bad movie: small bowls with a little bit of chocolate in each, carefully wrapped in plastic foil, with small labels on them (”Vanilla”, “Cayenne Pepper”, “Salt”, “Sweet Masala”, “Cinnamon”).

Results tomorrow.