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. 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 provide the full range of expression to desserts from everyday to gala dinner. 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.

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 such 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. They don’t require advance planning, but sit in a jar on your 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. To read the full review below, click here. For more of our favorite dessert sauces reviewed in THE NIBBLE™ online magazine, click here. For the table of contents of the June issue of THE NIBBLE™, plus the back issues archive and our most popular articles, click here. All prior issues of the Top Pick Of The Week newsletter are archived here.

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. $60.00. 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 recipes with step-by-step instructions. Yes, you can do it! $22.50. 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, is inspired and distinctive. $28.35. 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 a dozen 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 annual the NASFT annual Product Awards Competition. (They have two products in the finals of the 2006 awards, which will be announced in a few weeks.)

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 at the dozen things you can do with them that are so quick and easy, create delicious and exciting dishes, make serving a snap, entertaining a breeze, and give everyone a top-quality chocolate (or caramel) fix.

On The Menu

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 most are so special, we’d clear other things out of the refrigerator to give them shelf space. The chocolate comes from one of America’s finest chocolate processors, a blend of African and South American. It is blended with undutched cocoa, cream, butter, sugar and Bourbon vanilla into a silky smooth sauce, the type you’d make yourself it you had the time (and the recipes to make some of the special flavors work). At room temperature, the sauces have a fudgelike consistency. When you heat them (which you can do instantly in the microwave), they turn into thick, liquid 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 sprinkling of malted milk powder. Photo by Pietro Giordano.

• Dark Chocolate. Made in Bittersweet Chocolate, 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. In White and Key Lime White Chocolate, the latter 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 instead of sugar (and 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 for sugar-free products growing every day, it’s a shame to lose two such exceptional ones. Order a bunch while you can.

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. If you take pride in your own homemade caramel sauce, you may 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, tasting just like an infusion of the apples into the caramel—totally natural, totally wonderful Pear Cinnamon Caramel: Ditto but with pears and cinnamon

Add some King’s Cupboard Raspberry Caramel and a few fresh raspberries and an everyday plain brownie or piece of chocolate cake becomes a special dessert. Photo by Duard van der Westhuizen.

• Spiced Walnut Currant: 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

*Corn syrup is not used in the chocolate sauce because it imparts a slippery mouthfeel, which you can now look for in chocolate sauces that contain it. 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.

Cooking With The King

How many different things can you do with one jar of chocolate or caramel sauce? Use it: 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;

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

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;

In its solid state (unwarmed), to fill or ice cakes, ice brownies, bars, 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, coffee and mint, e.g. ). Almost all 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. For a subtle liqueur flavor, heat the sauce, then mix in __ tablespoon per 10-ounce jar. If you like a stronger flavor, add more. Heating The Sauce The sauces heat almost instantly in the microwave.

Take come 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.

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 one’s friends with an opportunity to taste the entire line, in the form of a Sundae Party. Order one of every flavor (don’t forget the caramel sauces below) and get little white sampling spoons—the kind you taste flavors with at the ice cream parlor. After people find their favorite(s) in their fudgy, non-drippy state (at room temperature), you can microwave the sauce in the jars, bring out the ice cream and let guests to create their own sundaes. It’s entertaining where you don’t have to make anything but coffee, and everyone has a memorable time. (And, those who can’t have sugar can have the Sugar-Free Chocolate Sauce with sugar-free ice cream.)

As we mentioned earlier, 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 Dessert Sauces 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 “Seasons of [Chocolate] Sauce” A Year Of Deliveries: 3 Sauces Every 4 Months (12 Jars Total) $84.95 “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

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 great technique. $22.05. 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. $28.35. 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: Raspberry-Strawberry Bavarian, creamy Black-and-White Cheesecake, Walnut Fudge Pie a la Mode and many more. $18.87. Click here to purchase or for more information.
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. $15.72. Click here to purchase or for more information.	The Cake Book, by Tish Boyle, 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. $25.17. Click here to purchase or for more information.	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. $15.72. Click here to purchase or for more information.

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