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Friday Favourites - Chocolate bars

With Easter fast approaching, we've noticed that shops have been stacking their shelves with loads of tempting egg-shaped sweeties. While sadly, the days of childhood egg-hunting are over for us here at The Amazing Blog, we still appreciate a good opportunity to enjoy a sweet treat or two... This Easter, we thought we'd find some alternatives to the eggs. So we've chosen to feature three different chocolate brands with some of their latest bars, which will make a great addition to your Easter celebrations!

For those of you who enjoy a little floral twist in their chocolates, Urban Village Chocolates has a Rose & Bergamot milk chocolate bar that we think you'll love. Urban Village Chocolates are an artisan chocolate company that produces hand-crafted luxury chocolates with their unique recipes. We've previously featured some of their other chocolate discs which are imprinted with pretty, modern designs, see here. We think this award-winning chocolate brand produces some of the prettiest chocolate bar designs we've seen to date. 

This Rose and Bergamot Chocolate Bar is made with steam-distilled pure organic rose and bergamot oils. To complement this scented combination of ingredients, the brand also adds cocoa solids, cocoa butter, vanilla flavouring and milk. The well-balanced mix of all these ingredients makes for a luxurious, moreish and irresistible chocolate bar. Apart from being handmade, each bar is hand-decorated with beautiful floral patterns making it almost too pretty to eat! Also, this chocolate bar contains 110g of chocolate making it the perfect size to share with your friends and family (or perhaps just keep it all to yourself!) You can purchase this delicious chocolate bar here for £5.50.

 

We also suggest trying out Rhythm108's range of Deeelicious Swiss Chocolate Bars. This Swiss brand used the expertise and craftsmanship of their chocolatiers to create organic bars that not only are innovative and healthy but also are gluten-free, vegan and handmade. Their products allow us to enjoy a treat without compromising our healthy lifestyles. Their chocolate bars are available in three different flavours including Hazelnut Praline, Sweet 'n' Salty Almond and Super Coconut.

Rhythm 108's chocolate bars are made with only natural and organic ingredients. The ingredients include nuts, cacao butter, oat flour, quinoa and coconut which makes them healthier and tastier than competitor brands. The mouth-watering Hazelnut Praline bar is the perfect bar for nut lovers and for anyone else that enjoys succulent and high-quality chocolates. The clever mix of smooth praline and nutty hazelnut is heavenly. The Sweet’n Salty Almond bar is filled with oat and almond butter which gives it a sweet and salty taste that instantly brightens your snacking time. Coconut and dark chocolate - what an amazing combination. At the blog, the Super Coconut bar is one of our all-time favourites (and we measure our words here). The bar is an explosion of coconut flavours; add to that a fine dark chocolate, and you have an intense and delightful snack. If you’re still hesitating about trying these bars, then you should know that they have 46% less sugar than other chocolate bars. Amazing isn’t it? Tasty and healthy, so you can enjoy them without feeling guilty. You can purchase the Hazelnut Praline Bar here for £1.65,  the Sweet 'n' Salty Almond Bar here for £1.65, and the Super Coconut Bar here for £1.65. 

 

Finally, we have found a vegan chocolate that tastes even better than a non-vegan chocolate, and think that it certainly deserves its own 15 minutes of fame here on this blog. In fact, we've written about some of their other cult chocolate bars here. Moo Free was started by husband and wife team Mike and Andrea Jessop in 2004, and has grown from strength to strength as an award-winning chocolate brand with a loyal fan baseAny vegans out there know the struggle of finding delicious and fruity chocolates that taste like regular chocolate. Moo Free Chocolates offers a wide array of organic, high-quality vegan, dairy free, lactose-free and gluten-free chocolates. We tried out their latest Crunchy Organic Banana Bar and think it makes an ideal springtime treat.

The Crunchy Organic Banana Bar is packed with organic ingredients including cacao, cacao butter, rice powder, banana chips, and coconut oil. Everyone knows that chocolate and banana taste great together. So the wonderful blend of these two-star ingredients makes a balanced bar that is sweet, comforting and fruity. This Crunchy Organic Banana Bar melts in your mouth when you eat it and left us wanting more. This chocolate brand it has become an iconic chocolate here on our blog, particularly with the vegans in the office. You can purchase the Moo Free Crunchy Banana Bar here for £2.99. Or you can find their products across the UK, in Waitrose, Sainsbury’s and Asda, to find your nearest stockist see here.

Friday Feature - Breadren Cooking Classes

Bread. It’s perhaps one of our favourite comfort carbs not only at The Amazing Blog but for most of us, and the Breadren Cooking Class will teach you how to make it but with an artisan twist. You can learn how to make artisan bread from the comfort of your own home, which sounds fantastic to us. You will be taught by the bread-master Baker Max Tobias at the London-based artisan bakery, Breadren. Breadren, is holding cooking classes with dietary restrictions in mind. They understand the daily struggle if you’re gluten-free, vegan or even vegetarian, and they’re here to broaden your horizons. Their ethos is to promote natural, unpretentious food. You won't learn just how to bake, however, as some of their star recipes include roasted cauliflower with tahini, quinoa with roasted brussel sprouts, crispy kale & fresh pomegranate, Vietnamese-style summer rolls, charred sprouting broccoli with harissa, and matcha and coconut mochi cake.

We’ve often pined for the baking abilities of those we see on the British Bake Off, and now the abilty to shape round loaves, rolls and batards, to knead and proof dough, and manipulating temperatures for the ultimate loaf is at our fingertips. Both sweet and savoury baked goods are incorporated into the classes, and both naughty and nice recipes! You needn’t be trapped by trendy food fads and uninspired ‘free from’ diets. Their recipes naturally forego ingredients like eggs, sugar, wheat or dairy so you can keep to your diet restrictions if necessary, whilst cooking and eating some tasty food.

Vegan Cornbread

There are classes once a month throughout the year, ranging from ‘Vegan Seasonal Cooking and Baking’ to ‘Seasoning & Spice’ classes. However, if you prefer cooking around your loved ones you can book a private cooking class on everyday cooking or a themed cooking class for you and your friends and enjoy the experience. Breadren uses local and seasonal ingredients wherever possible, sourcing primarily from London and the South East, an added bonus.

You can book a cooking class here from £55, and book a private cooking tutorial here for a small group of 2-5 persons for £60 per person.