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So what is the best chocolate in town?  That is your call!  But I can tell you that there is a huge difference between the chocolate bars next to the check-out stand, and the ones that you can find in health-food and/or specialty food stores.

Let’s say that you want bittersweet chocolate to make the almond dessert that I feature today.  The first thing to know is that you shouldn’t try to make it with chocolate chips, no matter what the brand.  Chocolate chips are formulated to keep their shapes, so they will resist the incorporation of melting into a recipe.  If you want 16 ounces of bittersweet chocolate, as specified in the recipe today, buy chocolate bars from the best chocolate house you can find.

Top-drawer chocolates are definitely found at Whole Foods on Speedway, where I shop.  The names to look for are Ghirardelli and Guittard, as well as others.  For white chocolate, which you also need for this recipe, look for Lindt but not their truffles, which have a white chocolate shell and a white chocolate ganache inside.  The Lindt truffles are truly divine, but you will want white chocolate bars.

Another place to look for quality chocolate is A. J.’s market at the La Encantada mall, which is at the northern end of Swan Road.  You could plan to have lunch there in one of several lovely restaurants, not to mention the breathtaking view in the Foothills of the Catalina Mountains.  That is what I would do since it is a very long drive for me—literally the length of Tucson from my house near the Tucson International Airport to the absolute end of Swan Road.

And this time be sure you are getting bittersweet chocolate and not semi-sweet.  The last thing you want is the baking chocolate that has a characteristic semi-sweet taste.  The whole point of the bittersweet/white chocolate combination is the contrast.

Tags:  chocolate health dessert almond chocolate chips melting recipe