Dark chocolate keeps H1N1 away? No, but it is still good for you

It seems like the only thing you can do to help prevent the H1N1 flu is wash your hands and stay home if you're sick. So you might as well enjoy a piece of dark chocolate, especially since there are plenty of studies supporting its health benefits, including these two recent ones:

• According to a study out of Denmark, people who were given dark chocolate consumed 15 percent fewer calories later on than people who were given milk chocolate. Stick with chocolate with 70 percent or more cocoa.
• Another study shows that eating dark chocolate may slash your risk of heart disease by 33 percent.

In my quest for the perfect piece of dark chocolate (containing 70 percent cocoa or more, of course), I headed to What’s Cooking, a gourmet cookware store in Lafayette, where I met Robin Autorino, owner of Robin Chocolates. She was making and sampling her peanut-butter chocolate truffles. In addition to the tasty truffles, Robin had an assortment of some of her other chocolates on hand, and I fell in love with the Chocolate Caramel Fleur de Sel, which is chocolate caramel with French sea salt covered in 70 percent dark chocolate. It was like an explosion of sweet and salt in my mouth. I was hooked.

Robin’s first chocolate creation was many, many years ago: a simple bowl of melted chocolate and some pretzels, which was her solution for entertaining her young son while preparing a meal for 20 dinner guests. Soon chocolate became a serious hobby and a gift she shared with her friends, family and co-workers. After a 14-year stint in the military and then as a civilian working in the computer industry, Robin realized she wanted to pursue her passion for dessert—and chocolate—full time, and enrolled in the Culinary School of the Rockies, followed by an internship at Le Petit Prince in Avignon, France. In addition, she holds a certificate from Ecole Chocolat Professional Chocolatier Program. She considers Keegan Gerhard her mentor and staunch supporter, and it was Gerhard, a Food Network personality, one of the nation's top pastry chefs and owner of Denver's D Bar dessert restaurant, who helped encourage her to launch Robin Chocolates. 

“The first thing I believe that sets my chocolate apart is the chocolate itself,” she says. “I rely on Valrhona and Albert Uster Imports for deep, intense flavor. My flavors are also bolder and more distinctive than what’s usually found in chocolates.” Second to the chocolate is the process used to make each batch. Robin explains that lesser quality chocolates often have concave bottoms and signs of condensation. The process Robin has perfected takes three days, but that means the ganache crystallizes better, the bottoms are not concave, and each chocolate has superior shine—almost like blown glass. Once the chocolate is done, Robin hand selects every piece and is quick to eliminate any chocolate that is not perfect. The end result is a piece of hand-crafted chocolate that resembles a tiny work of art and tastes exquisite. Flavors range from Lavender and Pomegranate to Honey Cinnamon and Espresso, and even PB&J. “The Chocolate Caramel Fleur de Sel and Raspberry Heart are my two signature flavors, and they seem to bring happiness everywhere,” she adds. I couldn’t agree more.