Chocolate | In Season
Photo Credit : Stocksy/Noemi Hauser
Photo Credit : Stocksy/Noemi Hauser
Sure, we can acknowledge that it’s a stretch to say that chocolate is “in season” in New England in February. Cocoa plants aren’t fond of Northern Hemisphere climes, though you can see the plants for yourself at several destination greenhouses around New England, including the ones at Smith College and at Logees in Danielson, Connecticut.
But if you can indulge a little wiggle room in the definition, February is most definitely chocolate season. And New England has a much longer history with this elixir than you might think. There were chocolate houses in Boston as early as 1700—in that era, chocolate was primarily something you drank—and historians have located shipping records from the late 1600s detailing imports of chocolate beans from Jamaica. A 1773 ship’s manifest lists a shipment of 320 tons of cocoa beans—enough to make 32 million cups of chocolate.
 | Earthquake (Chocolate Crinkle) Cookies Our favorite recipe for chocolate crinkle cookies yields a crisp exterior and chewy, brownie-like interior. |
 | Dark Chocolate Walnut Tart This sophisticated Dark-Chocolate Walnut Tart is a great dessert for beginning bakers. The dough is similar to butter-cookie dough and is simply pressed into the tart pan, not rolled. |
 | Chocolate Pudding The creator of this treat maintains she could live forever on a desert island on a diet of boiled shrimp and chocolate pudding — her favorite foods. The combination may not appeal to many palates, but this recipe for homemade chocolate pudding will. |
 | Chocolate Rum Balls A box of these rum balls could make some of your friends very happy, whatever the occasion. |
 | Chocolate Hazelnut Shortbread Bars Sprinkling the chocolate with toasted hazelnuts heightens the flavor of these chocolate-hazelnut shortbread bars, which taste a bit like Nutella, only better. |
 | 3-Minute Chocolate No-Bake Cookies You read that right: no bake. And this divine treat is as delicious as it is easy to make. |
 | Chocolate Hazelnut Tartlets A hazelnut shortbread forms the base of these tartlets, which are filled with raspberries and chocolate ganache. |
 | Cherry Chocolate Coffee Cake Fresh, ripe cherries are months away, but this recipe makes great use of dried tart cherries that plump up when baked between layers of sour cream coffee cake. |
 | Almond-Chocolate Cake Roll with Rich Chocolate Frosting Almond and chocolate join forces to make a delectable and decadent dessert. |
 | Coffee Chocolate Chunk Cookies Jeanne Lemlin’s recipes have been noted as bold and gutsy. Where else can you get a chocolate and caffeine fix all in one place? Crispy chocolate chip cookies are made even more divine with the addition of coffee right into the batter. |
 | Preacher’s Chocolate Cake Ruth Shakeford of Madison, New Hampshire, is affectionately known as “The Cake Lady.” This is one of her favorites, one she made when the minister of her church planned to marry…another minister |
 | Rosie’s Fudgy Evaporated Milk Frosting I love this recipe for its chocolate frosting made with evaporated milk. It was originally published in Rosie’s All-Butter, Cream-Filled, Sugar-Packed Baking Book by Judy Rosenberg (Workman Publishing, 2011). |
Amy Traverso
Food Editor Amy Traverso oversees the Yankee Magazine Food department and contributes to NewEngland.com. Amy's book, The Apple Lover's Cookbook (W.W. Norton), won an International Association of Culinary Professionals (IACP) cookbook award for the category American.
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