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Monday, October 10, 2011

Sidetracked: Quick Dip into Laughing Moon Chocolates

Bayley Hazen Blue Cheese Truffles
Laughing Moon Chocolates
Phone: 802.253.9591

You say the moon isn't really made of blue cheese? Guess anything is possible, now that truffles come filled with rich blue cheese chocolate ganache too.

We stopped in Stowe so Fig could get a sandwich at Black Cap Coffee before we left for the long drive home. I figured she'd get a panini, her favorite, so I had a few minutes to walk around while they grilled it. Scurried over to Laughing Moon Chocolates, the small chocolatier I'd heard about when Meg and Greg married in Stowe, and gave Laughing Moon truffles to their wedding guests.

It's a small and charming shop, with an antique candy case from an old country store. A man from New York [I saw his license plate later, that's how I know] was raving about the lavender chevre truffle and one made with Bayley Hazen Blue Cheese from Jasper Hill Farm. Yes, you heard me right. And, this being Vermont, the maple creams caught my eye and so did the Oreo-sized ginger sandwich cookies filled with maple cream and dunked in dark chocolate. The New York guy was having the young lady fill a box with all of his carefully chosen favorites.

I was pressed for time, so I got:
  • 1 maple cream 
  • 1 lavender chevre truffle
  • 2 of the ginger sandwich cookies
I have to tell you I loved the place, and especially the cookies. The maple cream and chevre truffle weren't all I hoped for, but I couldn't resist trying them. Goat cheese in chocolate? How farm-to-table can you get? This was one more sweet stop. And if you paid with cash, you got a 3 percent discount. But the goodies were pricey: $34 per pound! My little brown sack was $10.55, after the discount.

Mom, you don't have to stop in another chocolate store, Figgy said, getting tired of my sampling and talking. Chocolate-covered cheese? she said when I emerged excitedly with my report. That's like fried butter. She's wrong, of course. The chevre was whipped into a dark chocolate ganache truffle filling. And when a little shop is off my beaten path and makes small-batch chocolates, I really want to try it. What can I say--some people get to travel to Paris and Belgium. I feel more worldly for having nibbled on these sophisticated treats.

I will never look at a dark Kit Kat bar at CVS the same way again. Those are simply pretenders to the throne.

TCOY
  1. Short walk in Stowe, to get to that chocolate shop.
  2. Lots of leaf and open-sky viewing.
  3. Lots of water on drive home.


4 comments:

  1. I read your posts every day and they never fail to make me hungry. But blue cheese and chocolate? I'd have to sample that... the combo sounds too strange. You didn't say whether you tried that one. Guess you would have mentioned it if you did. Glad you had a great time. Love, Linda

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  2. Lin, I didn't try the bl. chs. one b/c the only thing left was a box of those....i wld have tried only one if there was a single left!!! The NY shopper said they were amazing. love alice

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  3. I know exactly what you mean when you say you feel sophisticated and worldly for having tried these amazing chocolates. I do the same thing but lately it 's ice creams. Lemon ricotta cardamom, Thai coconut, goat cheese cherry all in my freezer right now!

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  4. Wow, Nan! lemon ricotta cardamom, Thai coconut, goat cheese cherry ice cream--are those local farm brands? Hope all is well in D.C. area.

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