Add a drop of King’s Cupboard chocolate or caramel dessert sauces to any dessert, even a slice of cake, and it becomes fit for...a king. Photo by Kelly Cline | IST. WHAT IT IS: A comprehensive line of chocolate and caramel dessert sauces. WHY IT’S DIFFERENT: From the classic (Bittersweet Chocolate, Orange Chocolate) to the modern (White Key Lime Chocolate, Pear Cinnamon Caramel), the sauces enhance desserts from the everyday to the gala. WHY WE LOVE IT: Impeccable taste and great recipes, as good as we could make ourselves. Using the best ingredients, there’s a maximum of good chocolate or caramel flavor, without sugariness. And it’s a time-saver: after just moments in the microwave, the sauce is ready to turn anything on the plate into a fancy dessert. Just drizzle and serve. PURCHASE AT: KingsCupboard.com.

The King’s Cupboard Dessert Sauces: Long Live The King CAPSULE REPORT: There is a king of chocolate dessert sauces—and a queen, too. They live in an unlikely place for dessert royalty—Red Lodge, Montana—and their palace is a small factory that turns out 15+ splendid chocolate and caramel sauces. There’s even a sugar-free version so good, you can’t tell the difference. We have tasted a hundred or more dessert sauces, and for breath and excellence of selection, we are a loyal subject of The King’s Cupboard. If you love chocolate and/or dessert, you will become one, too.  Luxury dessert sauces are one of those “magic trick” foods that let you elevate an everyday brownie or baked apple into a special dessert...and transform an elegant dessert, like the chocolate chip cheesecake at the left, into something truly special-occasion. The sauces don’t require advance planning, but sit in a jar on the shelf waiting to be called into action—which also could be the next time you’re in need of a quick spoonful of something sweet. KingsCupboard.com. Read the full review below. For more of our favorite dessert sauces reviewed in THE NIBBLE online magazine. See the table of contents of the June issue of THE NIBBLE online magazine, plus the back issues archive and our most popular articles. See the prior issues archive of the Top Pick Of The Week newsletter.

Dessert Fantasies

A Neoclassic View of Plated Desserts, by Tish Boyle and Timothy Moriarty. If you want to learn how to plate breathtaking desserts—the kind you’re served at top restaurants—this is your guide. Click here for more information or to purchase.	A Modernist View of Plated Desserts, by Tish Boyle and Timothy Moriarty. An inspiration to anyone who loves dessert-as-art, 75 masterful recipes with step-by-step instructions. Yes, you can do it! Click here for more information or to purchase.	Sweet Seasons: Fabulous Restaurant Desserts Made Simple, by Richard Leach. Leach, executive pastry chef of the Park Avenue Café and a James Beard Foundation Pastry Chef of the Year, offers recipes that are inspired and distinctive. Click here for more information or to purchase.

Long Live The King: The King’s Cupboard Dessert Sauces

Cooking is chemistry, so it’s no surprise that scientists are so good in the kitchen. Rigger Poore and Lila Randoph-Poore, founders of the award-winning The King’s Cupboard, were research scientists before deciding, fifteen years ago, to experiment in the laboratories of gourmet food science (where the R&D projects are at least edible). What began with a recipe for Lila’s grandmother’s bittersweet chocolate sauce is now an extensive line of more than fifteen dessert sauces, half of which are caramel; plus several hot chocolates, chocolate puddings, chocolate cake mixes and frostings.

To put it simply, the royal couple has a penchant for chocolate—which has paid off over the last several years in nine awards at the annual NASFT* Product Awards Competition. (They have two products in the finals of the 2006 awards, which will be announced in a few weeks.)

*The National Association of Specialty Food Trades is the industry’s professional association.

But back to the sauces: we ask you not to think of them as mere toppings for ice cream, superb as they may be for such purpose. You’ll probably be surprised by the dozens of things you can do with them that are so quick and easy: tricks that create delicious and exciting dishes, make serving a snap and entertaining a breeze, and give everyone a top-quality chocolate (or caramel) fix.

Gourmet Chocolate Sauces

Chocolate Sauces. It’s obvious that the King has a good time developing chocolate sauce recipes, because he’s got a lot of them, and we’d clear other things out of the refrigerator to give most of them shelf space. The chocolate, made of African and South American beans, is blended with undutched cocoa, cream, butter, sugar and Bourbon vanilla into a silky smooth sauce, the type you’d make yourself if you had the time (and the recipes to make some of the flavors work). At room temperature, the sauces have a thick but stirrable consistency (refrigerated, they turn to fudge). When you heat them (which you can do instantly in the microwave), they turn into a more fluid chocolate heaven. There are currently 11 selections:

A brownie à la mode becomes un grand dessert with some Bittersweet Chocolate or Espresso Chocolate Sauce and a sprinkling of malted milk powder. Photo by Pietro Giordano.

• Dark Chocolate. You can enjoy your chocolate as pure Bittersweet Chocolate sauce, or in Espresso Chocolate, Mint Chocolate, Orange Chocolate and Raspberry Chocolate. The Bittersweet is a classic; Orange and Espresso are perfect executions. The Mint infusion is on the strong side, the Raspberry is a tad on the tart side.
• Milk Chocolate. An option for those milk-chocolate-only folks who won’t yield to the magnificent Bittersweet.
• White Chocolate. Made in White and Key Lime White Chocolate, the latter is a key lime lover’s dream.
• Sugar-Free Chocolate. This is a low-carb product, just 4 grams of carbohydrate per tablespoon. Made with maltitol (our favorite sugar substitute), this is such a delicious sauce, no one would notice the difference. The sugar-free sauce is made in Bittersweet Chocolate, Coffee Chocolate and Raspberry Chocolate. We love each of them and have reviewed them separately. Alas, we read on the company’s website that the Coffee and Raspberry are to be discontinued. With the need for sugar-free products growing every day, it’s a shame to lose two exceptional ones. Order a bunch while you can.

Gourmet Caramel Sauces

Fresh cream, sweet butter and deeply caramelized sugar combine to create a heavenly, old-fashioned-style caramel sauce. There’s corn syrup too†, which imparts a delightfully chewy texture to the sauce. Even if you take pride in your own homemade caramel sauce, you may decide to spend your time elsewhere and enjoy what the King has wrought, especially in the specialty flavors. In addition to the basic Cream Caramel and Chocolate Caramel, there are: Granny Smith Apple Caramel. This tastes just like apples have been infused into the caramel—totally natural, totally wonderful. †Corn syrup is not used in the chocolate sauce because it imparts a slippery mouthfeel—which we look for and avoid when purchasing chocolate sauces. Corn syrup should not be confused with high fructose corn syrup, the pervasive and controversial cheap sugar substitute used in soft drinks and other mass-produced foods.

Add some King’s Cupboard Raspberry Caramel and a few fresh raspberries, and a plain brownie or piece of chocolate cake becomes a party dessert. Grate a white chocolate or cappuccino chocolate bar over the top. Photo by Duard van der Westhuizen.

• Pear Cinnamon Caramel. Ditto but with pears and cinnamon.
• Spiced Walnut Currant Caramel. A treat, with big chunks of walnut and currants (available seasonally).
• Raspberry Caramel. Raspberry-colored in a line of burnished tan caramels, it’s liquid raspberry flavor in caramel form—the marriage of two pure flavors.

Serving Suggestions: Cooking With The King

How many different things can you do with one jar of chocolate or caramel sauce? Use it in any of your recipes or: As a topper for ice cream, frozen yogurt, sundaes, parfaits, ice cream cake and profiteroles (photo at right). Drizzled over brownies, cakes, cheesecakes, cobblers, pastries, pies and tarts (both chocolate and caramel are wicked with pecan pie; caramel especially complements apple desserts including baked apple, carrot cake and gingerbread) ... on puddings and bread puddings ... over popcorn. As an instant fondue. As a dipping sauce for fresh and dried fruit, fruit crisps, biscotti, marshmallows, pretzels and potato chips. With dessert waffles, and as a filling and topping for crepes. As a plate garnish and decor for any dessert (see the photo of the cheesecake at the top). As a mix-in for beverages—to add another layer of flavor to milk shakes, coffee or hot chocolate.

Use any of the chocolate, white chocolate or caramel sauces as a plate garnish. Photo by Kevin Russ | IST.

• In its solid state (unwarmed), to fill or ice cakes, ice brownies, bars and cookies, or to make “cookie sandwiches.”
• As a sugar fix (we just open the jar and have a spoonful—it’s as satisfying as any box of designer chocolate).

For those who wish a little protein with their sweets, the company website offers recipes for savory preparations such as Chipotle Caramel Wings, Pork Tenderloin with Raspberry Caramel Glaze, Baked Brie with Caramel Sauce, French Toast with Pear Cinnamon Caramel, Stuffed Squash with Spice Walnut Currant Caramel Sauce and Spicy Caramel BBQ Sauce.

Spirited Variations: Adding Spirits & Liqueurs

But there’s more. If you like liqueurs in your sauces, you can have a good time playing mix-and-match with both chocolate and caramel, using what you already have in the liquor cabinet.

Spirits like bourbon, brandy and rum add spark to the sauces, as do most fruit liqueurs and other flavors that parallel the chocolate sauces themselves (chocolate liqueurs like Godiva, coffee liqueurs like Kahlua and Illy, orange liqueurs like Grand Marnier and mint liqueurs like creme de menthe). Mix in 1 tablespoon per 10-ounce jar after you have heated the sauce. Almost all spirits work equally well in caramel and chocolate sauces. Some things might be a little cutting edge, like caramel with crème de menthe. But in the right preparation, for example on vanilla or chocolate ice cream with a fresh fruit coulis mixed with chopped mint, it would work. Heating The Sauce One of the delights in using these dessert sauces is how quickly they heat in the microwave.

Take some cognac and stir it into the sauce.

• Microwave. An entire jar will warm in the microwave in 45 seconds. Place the opened jar in the microwave for 30 seconds, check, stir and heat for 15 seconds more.
• Stovetop. If you prefer the stove, place the opened jar in a small saucepan filled with water to half the height of the jar. Place over low heat and warm, stirring occasionally.

Recipes

• Gettin’ Figgy With It: Chocolate Fig Recipe
  Heat a jar of King’s Cupboard Bittersweet Chocolate sauce in the microwave for approximately 45 seconds, or until melted. Dip fresh figs into the melted sauce and roll them in crushed macadamia or pistachio nuts. Chill on waxed paper and serve them with coffee or as part of a dessert plate. Another favorite of ours is dates stuffed with mascarpone, dipped into the chocolate and rolled in pistachios. You can dip other dried fruits—and fresh fruits—and roll them in nuts.
• Salad Surprise: Caramel Vinaigrette Recipe
  Blend 1-1/2 parts King’s Cupboard Pear Cinnamon Caramel Sauce, 2 parts walnut oil and 1 part rice wine vinegar. Stir prior to plating to avoid separation. Serve with spring mix salad greens or red leaf lettuce plus pear slices, crumbled gorgonzola and walnut halves or candied walnuts. As a variation, try Raspberry Caramel Sauce with baby spinach leaves, fresh raspberries and pecan halves or candied pecans.

The review concludes below the yellow box with a Sundae Party.

Sundae Party

As we say in NibbleLand, there’s no need to make choices. Any host or hostess would top the popularity scale by providing friends with an opportunity to taste the entire line at a sundae party. Order one of every flavor and consider getting little white sampling spoons—the kind you taste flavors with at the ice cream parlor. After guests find their favorite(s) at room temperature, you can microwave the sauce in the jars, bring out the ice cream and let them create their own sundaes. You don’t have to make anything but coffee, and everyone will have a memorable time. (And, those who can’t have sugar can have the Sugar-Free Chocolate Sauce with sugar-free ice cream.)

As we showed above, these sauces are for much broader use than sundaes—but a sundae party lets you taste them all and decide which ones are your favorites. We’ve tried them all several times, and what we ended up crazy over wasn’t what we would have guessed based on our normal flavor preferences. Given how much we now rely on these sauces to create everyday and special-occasion desserts, the “research” was worth the time.

Jars of The King’s Cupboard dessert sauces make welcome hostess gifts and stocking stuffers. The company website has a variety of gift sets, some of which we’ve listed below—not too saucy, just right.

—Karen Hochman

FORWARD THIS NIBBLE to anyone who loves chocolate or caramel, to sweets-lovers on sugar-free diets and to home cooks looking for easy-but-great dessert ideas.

KING’S CUPBOARD Chocolate and Caramel Dessert Sauces Certified kosher by Kosher Overseers (KOAOA) Chocolate Sauces 10-Ounce Jars $7.95 White Chocolate Sauces 10-Ounce Jars $8.95 Sugar-Free Chocolate Sauces 10-Ounce Jars $9.95 Caramel Sauces 11-Ounce Jars $7.95 ($9.95 for Spiced Walnut Currant) “Seasons of [Chocolate] Sauce” A Year Of Deliveries: 3 Sauces Every 4 Months (12 Jars Total) $89.95 “Three Sauces” Gift Set Your Choice Of Flavors $25.95 Sugar-Free Dessert Set Three Jars $31.95 Purchase online at KingsCupboard.com or telephone 1.800.962.6555.

Some of the chocolate sauces. Some of the caramel sauces.

More Great Dessert Books: Classics For Your Library

The Cake Bible, by Rose Levy Beranbaum. This classic, a former “cookbook of the year” selection by the International Association of Culinary Professionals, has something to teach bakers at every level. More than just great recipes, it’s also great technique. Click here for more information or to purchase.	The Pie and Pastry Bible, by Rose Levy Beranbaum. With every recipe to ensure perfect results, this book however, is for the serious baker who demands top quality. There’s no one who delivers it better than Rose.Click here for more information or to purchase.	Maida Heatter’s Book Of Great Desserts, by Maida Heater. Nearly 300 recipes, each of them worked out to fool-proof protection. Classic recipes include Raspberry-Strawberry Bavarian, creamy Black-and-White Cheesecake and Walnut Fudge Pie a la Mode. Click here for more information or to purchase.
Maida Heatter’s Book of Great Chocolate Desserts, by Maida Heatter. Chocoholics can breathe a sigh of relief, as this classic returns after 10 years out of print. Click here for more information or to purchase.	The Cake Book, by Tish Boyle and John Uher. If you’re looking for something simple and basic that anyone can follow yet still turnout a great cake, this is your book. Every reviewer gives it 5 stars. Click here for more information or to purchase.	Brownies to Die For!, by Bev Shaffer. A comprehensive cookbook on everything brownie-related, with a huge number of recipes. If you don’t want to take on the more complex task of cake-making, this will keep you satisfied. Click here for more information or to purchase.

FOR ADDITIONAL INFORMATION, special offers, contests, opinion surveys, THE NIBBLE back issues archive, product gift-finder, links to our favorite food websites, and the ability to nominate YOUR favorite nibbles, visit the home page of TheNibble.com.

ABOUT THE NIBBLE. THE NIBBLE™, Great Food Finds™, is an online magazine about specialty foods and the gourmet life. It is the only consumer publication and website that focuses on reviewing the best specialty foods and beverages, in every category. The magazine also covers tabletop items, gourmet housewares, and other areas of interest to people who love fine food. This e-mail from the editors features the top food pick of the week. You can read the complete magazine and past issues at TheNibble.com.

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