National Chocolate Souffle Day celebrates a delightfully delicious dessert on February 28th each year.
The word souffle is the past participle of the French verb souffler, which means “to blow up” or more loosely “puff up” which describes a souffle perfectly. A souffle is a lightly baked cake made with egg yolks and beaten egg whites that are combined with other ingredients to make the dish either a savory main dish or a sweet dessert.
Two essential components make up every souffle.
1. a French creme patisserie base/flavored cream sauce or puree
A souffle gets its flavor from the base, and the egg whites provide the lift to puff it up. A variety of cheeses, jams, fruits or chocolates can be baked into the base of the souffle. Many souffle bakers like to puncture the top of the souffle after removing it from the oven. Then they pour mouth-watering sauces onto it, such as chocolate, vanilla or for a savory flavor cheese and herbs.
Souffles offer an opportunity to show off and invite friends to share in the celebration. Put your skills to the test in the kitchen. Make one yourself, or enjoy one made by a professional. We would love to see how you celebrate the day!
National Chocolate-Covered Nut Day on February 25th recognizes the delicious and crunchy snack drizzled, covered, dunked, or smothered in chocolate. The possibilities are endless with so many different types of nuts and chocolate combinations.
For thousands of years, nuts have been a staple of the human diet. The walnut was a favorite of the ancient Greeks and Romans, while Native Americans favored pecans.
Both chocolate and nuts can be good for you. Dark chocolate possesses a substantial amount of antioxidants, while the nuts contain essential fatty acids and linolenic acids. For the most part, the fats in nuts are unsaturated fats, including monounsaturated fats. Nuts also provide arginine, a substance that may help make the walls of the arteries more flexible and less prone to blockage from blood clot formation. Many nuts are good sources of vitamins E and B2 and are rich in protein, folate, fiber, and essential minerals, such as magnesium, phosphorus, potassium, copper, and selenium.
The first chocolate-covered peanut candy was Goobers, originally sold in 1925. The word “Goober” was a common slang word for peanut.
One of the more recognized chocolate-covered nuts is the M & M. These chocolate-covered peanuts or chocolate-covered almonds have become a favorite of many. The peanut M & M was introduced in 1954. They were tan until 1960 when the colors red, yellow, and green were added to production.
While we continue to seek the origins of this day, we’re not withholding any reward. Chocolate, with or without nuts, is a staple snack in the National Day Calendar offices. That doesn’t mean we won’t stop looking for the founder of the day. It just means, it might be helpful if the answer was at the bottom of a bag of Brach’s chocolate-covered peanuts.
HOW TO OBSERVE CHOCOLATE-COVERED NUT DAY
Eat a chocolate-covered nut.
Visit your favorite candy or chocolate shop and pick up some chocolate-covered nuts.
Make chocolate-covered nuts at home.
Give a gift of chocolate-covered nuts.
Have a taste test using different nuts and different chocolates.
Use #ChocolateCoveredNutDay to post on social media.
Chocolate lovers rejoice as February 14th is National Cream-Filled Chocolates Day! On the same day, approximately 58 million pounds of chocolate will be purchased. Much of it will be in heart-shaped boxes, filled with bite-sized chocolates with ooey, gooey centers. Quite a few of these cream-filled goodies will be exchanged and shared on Valentine’s Day.
Chocolate makers offer a wide variety of cream-filled goodness, too. Take your pick from marshmallow cream, chocolate, vanilla, strawberry, coconut, hazelnut creme and even creme de menthe. How about coffee cream filled chocolates? Nearly every fruit you can imagine can be made into some sort of creamy center.
What’s inside those hard chocolate shells? Well, many chocolate makers provide a map so you don’t accidentally eat one that doesn’t sit well with you. One way to completely avoid the mystery is to create your own gift box with flavors you select. Some chocolate makers offer this option. Not only do you select the chocolates your love likes best, but it’s a personalized gift, too. How chocolately sweet is that? It’s also a terrific way to avoid biting into a flavor that will ruin the evening.
No matter how you celebrate, be sure you bite into a cream-filled chocolate or two that you like!
You know what day is it is so sample a few of your favorite cream-filled chocolates and give a few, too. They can even be in a heart-shaped box if you like. What other ways can you celebrate?
Host a cream-filled chocolate sampling party. Invite friends to make one of their favorites to bring and everyone will get to sample. Supply fruit and sparkling wine to complement the chocolates.
Take your party a notch further. Test your sampling skills by seeing who can identify the most cream-filled mystery chocolate flavors. Varieties can range from sweet to savory. We’re thinking a little bacon flavor here, a little coffee there.
Try your hand at making your own cream-filled chocolates. While we often give chocolate as a romantic gesture, why not make it together instead. Turn up the heat in the kitchen and melt each others’ hearts while you melt some chocolate.
Share your celebration using #CreamFilledChocolatesDay to post on social media.
World Nutella Day celebrates what happens when hazelnuts and chocolate collide. For example, millions of people celebrating all on February 5th each year!
It is often said that necessity is the mother of invention. Adding hazelnuts when cocoa is hard to come by may have been an Italian trick during hard times. In the 1800s, in the northern Italian city of Piedmont, they made a paste of chocolate and hazelnuts at a time when the nuts were abundant, but the cocoa was not.
At the end of World War II, cocoa was once again difficult to come by. Pastry Maker, Pietro Ferrero, made loaves of this sweet paste and called it Giandujot. Soon after, the Ferrero Company was founded on May 14, 1946.
It wasn’t until 1951 that Ferrero made the paste into a spreadable form. We wouldn’t even recognize the spread by name until 1964 when Ferrero’s son Michele gave the jar of creamy hazelnut and cocoa the name Nutella.
Sara Rosso founded World Nutella Day in 2007 in celebration of and a way to introduce her favorite spread to her friends. She first discovered Nutella while living in Italy as a food blogger. Read more about her discovery and creation of World Nutella Day at whenihavetim
Enjoy your favorite hazelnut spread. It’s that simple! Of course, we always suggest celebrating with a friend or family member. Celebrations are best when shared. Create a new recipe or try the one you’ve itching to try. Share your favorites while you’re testing and tasting, too!
Every year on January 31, National Hot Chocolate Day warms people up across the country. Try celebrating this, timeless cold-weather beverage.
Hot chocolate is a warm beverage made with ground chocolate, heated milk or water, and sugar. In America, we often use the terms hot chocolate and hot cocoa interchangeably. However, the two beverages are different. Try it with you favorite cookie or cake if you’re feeling really indulgent, and need a break from that New Years diet you started.
Cocoa vs Hot Chocolate
We make hot cocoa with cocoa powder, heated milk or water, and sugar. We’re able to do this thanks to a process developed by father and son chemists. The thicker, more flavorful beverage, we make hot chocolate from ground chocolate containing cocoa butter. It’s also called drinking chocolate. Hot chocolate has also been around longer than hot cocoa. In the early 1800s, Casparus van Houten Sr. developed a process to separate the cocoa solids from the butter. His son, Coenraad Johannes made those fats more soluble in water. Together their processes made cocoa powder possible.
But before then, everyone drank hot chocolate. This thicker, creamier beverage often offered medicinal benefits for stomach ailments during the 19th century. In the 17th and 18th centuries it was a rare treat. Especially in some European countries like Britian. Long before the beverage’s popularity in Victorian times, it served in ceremonial culture.
2000 years ago, the Mayans likely created the first chocolate beverage. A cocoa beverage was also an essential part of Aztec culture by 1400 AD. Europe popularized the drink after it was introduced from Mexico in the New World.
Hot chocolate can be enjoyed in a variety of combinations, topped with whipped cream or marshmallows. Sometimes a sprinkle of cinnamon or a dash of peppermint makes the chocolate extra special. In the United States, an instant form of hot chocolate is popular. It is made with hot water or milk and a packet containing mostly cocoa powder, sugar, and dry milk. People enjoy topping it with marshmallows or whipped cream.
There are health benefits to drinking hot chocolate. Cocoa contains significant amounts of antioxidants that may help prevent cancer. It has also been shown that the cocoa beans help with digestion. The flavonoids that are found in the cocoa also have a positive effect on arterial health.
My favorite fact about chocolate is the way it effects your brain. Did you know it signals the pleasure center of your brain? This is why you get that warm contentment feeling after chocolate. One more reason to look forward to those boxes of chocolates at Valentine’s Day. Of course you can always just order your own year round.
Enjoy a cup of hot chocolate. You can make it with dark or milk chocolate. While you’re at it, try experimenting, too. Add some cinnamon or other flavors to your chocolate. Of course, inviting a friend to join you is essential to the celebration, too. Try adding these toppings.
Whipped cream
Marshmallows
Sprinkles
Candied fruit
Take a photo and use #NationalHotChocolateDay to post on social media.
