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I am a complete nut for good chocolate so you pushed all my buttons with this post!

What is your favorite brand? To eat? I love dark Toblerone. There is also an Icelandic chocolate bar called Draumur (translates as Dream) that is fantastic. One type of Draumur bar is shot through with black licorice strands, oh man...!

To make things with? Valrhona, hands down. There is no substitute.

What do you like with your chocolate? (nuts, fruit, mint...) Like I mentioned above, I do like chocolate with licorice. I also like strawberries dipped in chocolate. Oh...and who can beat chocolate covered raisins?

Favorite thing to make with chocolate? Real homemade hot chocolate in the middle of winter is hard to beat! I did see a recipe for chocolate ganache iced brownies the other day though that I am dying to try.

I get my Valrhona from here:

www.chocolatesource.com/home/index.asp

They have pretty much any fine chocolate you might desire. Don't ever visit that site while dieting.

Here's the brownie recipe I found, I saw it prepared on "Calling All Cooks". I am dying to try it! What an appropriate name:

Brownie Decadence
Recipe courtesy Claudine Destino


Recipe Summary
Prep Time: 25 minutes Cook Time: 35 minutes
1 cup butter
4 squares unsweetened chocolate
2 cups sugar
4 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup white chocolate chips or shaved white chocolate (premium imported
brand)
1 cup heavy whipping cream
2 cups premium chocolate chips
1 to 1 1/2 cups chopped, toasted pecans

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Prepare 9 by 13 inch baking pan by greasing with butter or spraying with a cooking spray (such as Pam). Melt butter in a large saucepan. Over low heat add unsweetened chocolate and stir until chocolate is melted. Remove from heat, mix in sugar (in saucepan). Add eggs and vanilla, stir until incorporated. Add flour, baking powder, and salt and stir just till flour is mixed in. Gently stir in white chocolate. Spread mixture in prepared pan. Bake 30 to 35 minutes just until brownies begin to pull away from the sides. Remove from oven and let cool completely. While brownies are baking, prepare ganache topping. Over low heat in a medium saucepan, bring heavy cream to the boil. Remove from heat and add chocolate chips. Let sit for a few minutes to melt chocolate. Stir until all chocolate is melted. Let mixture cool and thicken, stirring occasionally for about 20 to 30 minutes. Spread chocolate ganache over completely cooled bownies. Press chopped, toasted pecans into the ganache. Let ganache harden and then cut into squares and then into triangles. Carefully remove from pan and serve on a garnished plate.