my pink toes

First of all, I must apologize to all of you who have sighed lovingly while gushing about Ghiradelli chocolate to me. Inwardly, I would roll my eyes when listening (sorry if I also impolitely rolled my eyes on the outside..). I thought Ghiradelli was interesting and all, and hey - what's not to love about San Francisco? - but not really up to snuff on the chocolate scale.

THAT was before I tasted THESE:

My Latest Obsession

Oh. My.
I have always used dark chocolate in baking and ganache-making, but semi-sweet used to cut it just fine for me. Then, I decided to go out on a limb and try a DARK chocolate for baking. As in, chocolate dark enough to actually list the % cacao. I used Trader Joe's "Pound Plus 72% chocolate" bars and they DID seem to make the ganache just a bit more ganache-ier.

And here is wherin I wish my camera and accompanying photo (non)skills were up to snuff. Look - just look - at the shape and contours of the individual chips. Are you swooning yet? Oh my! Let's just say that not only are they the perfect shape and size to give chocolate chip cookies the right balance of oomph, crunch, and chocolatey goodness, but they are also the perfect size and shape to sneak right out of the bag and plop into your mouth.

But they are the very very best when made into a scrumptious cookie. (Recipe will be posted tomorrow).