It’s time, my friends. We’re all getting ready to travel, to cook, to deal with in-laws, and to enjoy Thanksgiving. Our menus are set, our plans have been made, and I just can’t wait.

With so much preparation required for such a meal, I love making as many things in advance as possible. The easiest one? Cranberry sauce. Cranberry sauce is my second favorite Thanksgiving meal component. It sits right behind stuffing, because, duh, stuffing. I’ve tried every kind of recipe that exists for this necessary component, and I still love the most classic ones. I don’t want my cranberries shrouded in some boozy port reduction or over-powered by spices and citrus. I want cranberry. The turkey wants cranberry, too. Just ask him.

Beehive Bitters makes my favorite bitters, Spiced Orange. The flavors are balanced, bright, and perfect for both cooking and cocktail-ing. Warm baking-spice flavors play a key role next to the bright, tangy orange note. Since both of these are classic additions to cranberry sauce, it only makes sense to add them right in to the recipe. You can make this sauce up to four days in advance before the texture becomes more jelly-like, but it will keep for over a week. Make this today, and save yourself the stress, there will be plenty of other things to worry about once Thursday rolls around.

Now, since the best part of the weekend after Thanksgiving is all the leftovers, here’s what I’m doing with my leftover cranberry sauce. I make my sauce with just a bit more water than is necessary. I’ll drain off the excess into a jar and use it as a flavored simple syrup for cocktails. For the sauce, I love to spread ricotta over freshly toasted bread and top with cranberry sauce and grated orange zest. Boom, Black Friday breakfast.

Enjoy the holiday, and enjoy your cranberry sauce!

Beehive Bitters Cranberry Sauce
Serves 4-6

Cook time: 15 minutes
Difficulty: Easy
Bonus Points: Local Bitters, Make Ahead

• 12 ounces fresh cranberries
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 1/3 cup water
• Spiced Orange Beehive Bitters

Bring sugar and water to a boil. Add cranberries and reduce heat to medium. Continue to gently boil for about 10 minutes and remove to a serving bowl. Remove 1/3 of liquid to be used for other recipes (ahem, cocktails). Stir in 2 dashes of bitters, add more to taste. Serve at room temperature or keep refrigerated until the day of your meal.

Beehive Bitters Cranberry Cocktail
Makes 1 cocktail

Cook time: Less than 5 minutes
Difficulty: Easy
Bonus Points: Local Bitters, Make Ahead

• 1 teaspoon cranberry simple syrup from cranberry sauce
• 1 dash Spiced Orange Beehive Bitters
• 6 ounces Prosecco or other sparkling wine
• Spiced Orange Beehive Bitters
• 1 orange, for garnish

Pour prosecco over cranberry syrup and bitters in a cocktail glass. Add more to taste if desired. Garnish with an orange wheel and fresh cranberries.

Caputo’s Chocolate Week comes at the perfect time of year. Our annual Chocolate Fest puts me in the mood and mindset for the holidays and festivities, but it also gives me a chance to start testing desserts for the family dinners and fun holiday parties to come. My family has a knack for making enough food to feed an entire village, but we do our best to minimize the menu as much as we can every year. We always make the usual pumpkin, pecan, and apple pies, and these are also often accompanied by another cream-based or chocolate-based pie.

This year, I wanted to find a way to incorporate a chocolate dessert without making yet another deep-dish pie. Chocolate pies rely heavily on cocoa powder for flavor, but I like having more control of the nuances. Basically, I want a chocolate pie with a third of the volume, no cocoa powder, and to be made exclusively with chocolate bars.

Meet the chocolate tart. Thin, sweet pastry dough holds a thin layer of rich, luxurious chocolate and a dollop of bitters flavored whipped cream. My first attempt was so successful it garnered a happy dance and a phone call to the family. Solstice’s Wasatch Blend bar made an earthy, balanced tart base that was enlivened with a Beehive Bitters spiced orange whipped cream. It was festive, delicious, and a quarter of the size and effort of our usual chocolate pie.

Save this recipe for your upcoming holiday parties. You can also use your favorite chocolate bars and bitters to make this your own.

Wasatch Blend Chocolate Tart
Serves 8-12

Tart Dough

• 8 tablespoons butter
• 1/3 cup sugar
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• ¼ teaspoon Beehive Spiced Orange bitters
• 2 egg yolks
• 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

Mix all ingredients with a stand or hand mixer until there are no dry patches. Chill for at least 4 hours or overnight until firm. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Roll dough out to about 1/4 inch thickness or until there is an excess of about 3 inches in diameter to fit an 8-inch tart shell. Press dough into the shell and bake 20-25 minutes or until golden brown. Allow to cool before removing the tart ring from the shell.

Chocolate Ganache Filling

• 10 ounces heavy cream
• 7 ounces Solstice Wasatch Blend, or two dark chocolate bars, 70% cacao or higher
• Fleur de sel sea salt

Simmer a small pot of water. Set a metal or glass bowl over it, making sure there is air between the bottom of the bowl and the simmering water. Pour cream into bowl and heat until it’s warm enough to melt the chocolate. Add chocolate and stir to melt. Once the chocolate is melted, use an immersion blender or whisk to combine. Whisk until your ganache is fully blended. Stir in fleur de sel in small pinches, to taste. Set aside to cool for about 15 minutes, then pour into the tart shell. Chill until ready to serve, but remove about 15-20 minutes before serving

Bitters Whipped Cream

• 10 ounces heavy cream
• 3 tablespoons confectioner’s sugar
• 2 teaspoons Beehive Spiced Orange bitters

In a medium bowl, whisk heavy cream, confectioner’s sugar, and bitters until whipped, but still loose. We don’t want stiff peaks, but enough volume to hold cream together when we top our chocolate tart with it. Adjust sweetness and flavoring with bitters before serving.

More from Chocolate Week:

A Primer on Solstice Chocolate

Solstice Drinking Chocolate Recipe

Caputo’s Solstice Chocolate Mini-Tartlets

A Retrospect of Past Chocolate Festivals

Recipe: Adri’s Festive Wasatch Tart

The Menu for Chocolate Fest Featuring Solstice Chocolate

Ask Matt Caputo: What is the Best Process to Taste Fine Chocolate?

Guys, IT SNOWED! Never mind that it lasted 15 minutes, and never mind that none of it stuck around. The important fact here is that frozen precipitation fell from the sky the first week of November. I began dreaming of all the hot drinks in my near future as I watched those big, fluffy flakes fall gracefully to the wet ground. Cider, hot toddies, tea, but most importantly, drinking chocolate. Not the powdered milk and cocoa with weird dried marshmallows, but real drinking chocolate.

The key to this recipe is high-quality chocolate. Any low quality bars won’t create the right consistency or flavor that you and your loved ones deserve. With so few ingredients, we rely heavily on the flavor of our chocolate to make this drink shine. I’ve always had a soft spot for the Solstice Bolivia bar. Notes of honey, cream, and very subtle warm baking spices are the perfect flavor I want when I’m craving drinking chocolate.

We made chocolate cake pops just a few weeks ago with a special focus on ganache. For cake pops, the ganache served as a binder to keep the cake crumb together and on the pop sticks. Here, we’re making what I like to call a “loosey-goosey ganache” that is the perfect consistency for drinking. This is the same process as making a thick ganache, we’re just using more cream than chocolate. The very nature of drinking chocolate is luxuriously
thick, so a little goes a long way here. I only need about 1/4 cup when I make this on special occasions with friends, so let’s not lose our marbles over the use of heavy cream. However, should you feel that your marbles are still in jeopardy of being lost, use whole milk or half and half.

This is a fun, easy, and quick recipe that comes together in less than 10 minutes. Make this with your kids, your friends, or your family. This is my favorite and most decadent way to welcome the cold weather. Blankets, thick socks, and a fire make it the perfect early winter evening.

SOLSTICE DRINKING CHOCOLATE
Serves 4

• 14 ounces heavy cream
• 5 ounces or two dark chocolate bars, 70% cacao or higher, preferably Solstice Bolivia
• Fleur de sel sea salt
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

In a medium bowl, whisk 4 ounces of heavy cream until whipped, but still loose. We don’t want stiff peaks, but enough volume to hold cream together when we top our chocolate with it. Set aside.

Simmer a small pot of water. Set a metal or glass bowl over it, making sure there is air between the bottom of the bowl and the simmering water. Pour 10 ounces of cream into bowl and heat until it’s warm enough to melt the chocolate. Add 5 ounces of chocolate and stir to melt. Once the chocolate is melted, use and immersion blender or whisk to combine. Whisk until your ganache is fully blended. Stir in vanilla, then add fleur de sel in small pinches, to taste.
Pour into small espresso cups, Mason jars, or other small glasses. Spoon whipped cream on top and serve immediately.

This is an easy recipe to add your own unique twist. Here are a few easy ways to make it your own:

• Steep the cream ahead of time with your favorite spices
• Add a cinnamon stir stick upon serving
• Add a dash of cayenne for a spicy kick
• Add booze. Any booze. I’m a personal fan of whiskey or Bailey’s
• Mix equal parts drinking chocolate with coffee
• Top with marshmallows or whipped cream
• Substitute your favorite bitters for half of the vanilla extract

As I write this, the first light snow is falling from the sky, and it really feels like sweater season. I often dread the beginning of this cold weather. I miss the farmer’s market, the madness of the holidays are looming over my head, and, I’m just plain cold. This year is different. The weather cooled very gently and after nine years of working at Caputo’s for the holidays, I’m feeling shockingly calm—almost zen, if you will.

So as the holidays approach and the snow starts to fall more frequently and in bigger doses, let’s enjoy it with our best friends and family over treats and nibbles. You’ll need a cocktail too, of course. Here’s how we’re enjoying the transition to winter:

CHEESE: Ossau Iraty Reserve

One of the most-celebrated and well-known Basque cheeses is made even more delicious in the hands of Caputo’s own affineuse, Antonia Horne, in the chilly comfort of our Cheese Cave. Ossau Iraty arrives in great condition to eat immediately. It tastes mildly grassy and sweet, and is a great choice for the table when you crave the comfort of a creamy, alpine-style cheese. But this is Caputo’s after all, so, of course, we couldn’t just let you settle for a good cheese. We want you to experience great cheese, and we want everyone to know first hand how our caves affect and improve even the most delicious wheels. Antonia gives the ultimate TLC to Ossau for six months. That sweet, grassy cheese transforms to have a deep, complex, brand new flavor. Ossau Reserve offers newly developed notes of caramel and browned butter with a still-perfect interior and more interesting and aromatic rind.

Enjoy this with your favorite cheese accouterments and wine alone, or get your cheese geek on and try the original Ossau and Ossau Reserve in a side-by-side tasting to see exactly what the differences are. You’ll want to hug Antonia afterwards. I always do.

CHOCOLATE: Solstice Chocolate

We give you one, fantastic chocolate almost every month, but this month is special. Here why:

1. We couldn’t agree on one Solstice bar. We didn’t have time to sell tickets to the WWE-style brawl it would take to select one, because of…
2. SOLSTICE CHOCOLATE FEST. That’s right. Our 4th annual Chocolate Fest features our first locally-made chocolate. Each bar will be featured in a dish made by a talented local chef in a sweet or savory application, plus all proceeds will be donated to the Heirloom Cacao Preservation Initiative (read more here).
3. Have you had Solstice? Could you pick one? Of course not, and neither could we.

Solstice is locally-made and has been blowing our minds. We’ve never seen the kind of support for a local chocolate like this. Solstice is on the menu of some of the best restaurants downtown, and it’s being used by Chocolatier Blue for its amazing chocolates. What’s more, Solstice is crafting chocolate with a no-waste and eco-friendly operation.

BAR: Beehive Spiced Orange Bitters

Bitters are the future, friends. Seriously. Local bitters are even more exciting. Imagine, little ol’ Utah making top-tier, high-quality bitters. Yeah, it’s happening.

Beehive Bitters is making a small selection of bitters that belong on the bar cart of any cocktail enthusiast. Not much for cocktails at home yet? You’ll find these bitters behind the best bars in the city, or you can add them to your personal pantry for cooking, baking, and marinading. The Beehive Spiced Orange Bitters is the perfect welcome to the cold weather. I’ll be using this in everything from plays on hot toddies to cranberry sauce. I’m even experimenting with turkey brine recipes that call this. The possibilities aren’t just endless, they’re exciting and, more often than not, quite rewarding.

Guys, it’s coming. You now have six days to find someone to love in time for the big day. It’s cheesy, sappy, silly, and I just can’t get enough of it! I love love, I love Valentine’s Day, and I love giving (and receiving) all the lovey-dovey little gifts. Need some inspiration? I’ve got your back. Here are our top picks for your Valentine. The best part about all of these is that you’ll hopefully get to share in the joy of them. You can’t really share your Valentine’s perfume or jewelry, so these picks are just as good for you as they are for your Valentine!

Now, let’s get to those gift picks.

1. Chocolatier Blue
I’ve already said it once, but I’ll say it again… Don’t be a sad cardboard box chocolate gifter. Be the ultimate Valentine with the ultimate chocolates. The most decadent, unique, and crave-able chocolates are here at Caputo’s. Whether you’ve been here once or one hundred times, you know what I’m going to say — dearest friends, Chocolatier Blue. Pick from a variety of box sizes ranging from six pieces to 30. The six-piece boxes are perfect for friends and family, or for that date you cancelled on last week. The 30-piece is basically a declaration of your undying love and dedication.

2. Amedei Toscano Red

Amedei is top notch, but you knew that. What you may not know is the masterful and unexpected inclusion bars are nothing short of addicting. Here, deep, dark chocolate meet freeze dried raspberries, cherries, and strawberries pieces for a pleasantly tart crunch. This bar is actually perfect for this month. You get transcendent dark chocolate, which is exactly what I crave after a long, cold day or big meal, with pieces of fruit that really taste just like the middle of summer. My two favorite seasons meet in this lovely little package.

3. Francois Pralus Chocolate Pyramids

Matt Caputo is more than just my boss. He’s truly brilliant, the brains of Caputo’s market selections, and a worldwide authority on chocolate (he’s also pretty cool). Matt says it best when it comes to Pralus, “As it goes with most French chocolate makers, Francois Pralus walks the line between dark roast and burned. Imagine barbequed cacao. This season Pralus’ Djakarta, Indonesie and Madagascar are revelations. We never know which bars will shine, but each year we know that several of his bars will be among our absolute favorites. Pralus offers a huge array of 75% dark bars with rare and common origins.”

Drooling? The pyramids are your answer. Sample the decadent offerings with one of Pralus’ perfectly gift-able pyramids collections of chocolate. You will…, er, your Valentine will get to experience a large portion of these fantastic chocolates in one fell swoop. I hope you picked a generous mate, you’ll want to try these.

4. The Introduction to Fine Chocolate Class

See that guy? That’s Matt. The brilliant, chocolate geeky, totally rad person I was talking about above. His Intro to Fine Chocolate class made it onto Salt Lake Magazine’s bucket list of things to do in good ol’ Salt Lake. This is our most popular tasting class. Learn what makes one chocolate “fine” and the other just “standard.” Find out how to identify flavors, get familiarized with great chocolate makers, and learn other priceless bits of chocolate know-how.

It’s the perfect date night. You get to learn about the greatest treat to ever exist with, hopefully, your very own favorite human (a.k.a. your date). We’re teaching chocolate classes at each of our locations, so you can find the perfect time for you. Check out our full schedule here.

5. Mulate Spices Bar

We introduced you to Mulate with our January cravings, but our obsession is only becoming stronger. From the makers of Chocolate Naïve comes Mulate, the funky fresh younger brother to the sophisticated Naïve line. This bar epitomizes the classic flavors of Central America. Vibrant dark chocolate is emboldened by the warm flavors of cinnamon and vanilla with a spicy finish from ground cayenne.

Let’s put it this way: If Valentine’s Day had an exclusive flavor associated with it the same way Christmas owns those warm baking spice flavors of clove ginger, cinnamon, and nutmeg — this bar is it. Warm, sexy, and spicy. Really, it’s perfect.

Happy Valentine’s Day, friends. I hope you have the most perfect, loving, and delicious day. I also hope your Valentine loves you enough to give you something like the delicious things above. If not, come visit us. You owe yourself some chocolate love any day.

Everyone has one, everyone needs it, the welcome January cleanse. Starting at Thanksgiving and ending with New Year’s, the season is packed full of rich, fatty, decadent holiday food. We consume it happily and with gusto, but all good things must come to an end. By New Year’s Day, I just want a salad and water for weeks. I love the transition from heavy sauces and too many desserts to greens and root vegetables, but I’m finally starting to want just a little more starch. I’d be lying if I didn’t admit my first heartier meals were pasta. Every year, as January wanes into February, I just want pasta. The best way back to my one true food love is with simple, light pan sauces and plenty of vegetable matter. I’m not ready for heavy cream sauces and braised meats amid my noodles, it’s just too soon.

Enter, the braised vegetables. Hearty enough to make you feel good, and healthy enough to put your mind at ease. This veggie and pasta combo really needs an extra boost of flavor, and it’s now the go-to meal for the month. Secret ingredient: condiment grade olive oil. Not just any oil, Bariani Early Harvest.

As the harvest of late fall/early winter comes and goes, the newest and freshest extra virgin olive oils are released to the masses. Our very favorite domestic olive oil is worthy of international awards, and I can’t wait to get my hands on a new bottle. The Bariani family has historical roots in Lombardia, but now call California their home and playground helping to create truly beautiful olive oil. The possibilities here are endless. So endless, that there should just be a bottle placed in the kitchen and another on the dinner table. It’s perfect for drizzling over roasted meats, when you’re ready, of course, and veggies, tossed with pasta and a few other choice additions (read: cheese), or as the ultimate condiment to be drizzled over every single thing that touches your table.

It’s incredibly important for me to have both cooking oils and finishing oils handy. I’d hate to waste my money by cooking with condiment oil and I would hate a bland dish even more. Sautees, roasts, dressings, even poached eggs and veggies get the cooking oil treatment. I’m not saying run to the nearest grocery store and stock up on the cheap nonsense that likely isn’t even olive oil, I’m saying find something you like. I love this for my cooking oil. For the most exciting finishing oils, I love Bariani. It has that green, grassy top-note and peppery finish I love in a good condiment oil with a lovely, silky mouthfeel. So, it’s perfect — for everything. But don’t take my word for it. Make your favorite pasta and veggies, drizzle all the oil you want over them, and get back to me.

Just like the title reads, I’ve learned my lesson. No more last minute gifting for me! If I have to spend one more holiday eve crammed in line with all the other procrastinators, I’ll surely perish.

I get to ease back into gifting this year with what I believe is the easiest holiday for gifts, Valentine’s Day. It sneaks up quickly and silently, like I used to sneak home after curfew. If you’re not prepared or haven’t chosen your 2015 Valentine, you’ll be in those lines with sorry cardboard boxes of awful to mediocre chocolates that often aren’t even eaten.

Don’t be a sad cardboard box chocolate gifter. Be the ultimate Valentine with the ultimate chocolates. The most decadent, unique, and crave-able chocolates are here at Caputo’s. Whether you’ve been here once or one hundred times, you know what I’m going to say — dearest friends, Caputo’s Chocolates by Chris Blue.

If you somehow haven’t heard of these — or heaven forbid, haven’t tasted them — let me tell you: this is the chocolate box to end all chocolate boxes. Each filled chocolate is made with the utmost precision and care by Chris Blue, former pastry chef at Michelin-starred Charlie Trotter’s in Chicago.

Salt Lake City’s very own Solstice Chocolate is the chocolate of choice for Chocolatier Blue’s paper-thin chocolate shells and the base for its chocolate ganache. The ingredients vary from the country’s most expensive cream to the very best handpicked fruits, nuts, and liqueurs. Each chocolate is a masterpiece. They’re beautiful, decadent, creamy, and begin with the most delicate snap from their ultra-thin shells.

Pick from a variety of box sizes ranging from five pieces to 20. The five-piece boxes are perfect for friends and family, or for that date you cancelled on last week. The 20-piece is basically a declaration of your undying love and dedication. Who needs diamonds when there are chocolates?

We just heard about the newest flavors that will be released in time for V-day. And I can’t wait. Here’s the list of flavors Chocolatier Blue has lined up for Valentine’s 2015: