Chocolate Adventures on the Road: Milwaukee in December

Since the snowstorm that hit the Eastern Seaboard left the DC area relatively unscathed, I’ve luckily made my way back here from the awesome land known as “Milwaukee,” where I hung out with family and forced them to eat insane desserts.

While I was there, my Uncle Dave fed us well, which involved a trip to V. Richards.

At this little shop, I discovered not only a supply of Vosges bars, but a local chocolate bar outlet: Indulgence Chocolatiers, a Milwaukee-based business that handcrafts chocolate bars. Reviews, as always, are forthcoming.

My Uncle Dave also took us past Brennan’s, which boasts the Best. Cheese. Selection. Ever.

They also happened to have some E. Guittard in stock.

In addition to the milk chocolate that I purchased to make some lime-coconut thumbprint cookies, I picked up two new E. Guittard bars to review.

Well, and to eat. Let’s not pretend that this is anything but an awesome task.

Since Wisconsin is playing in the Rose Bowl later this week, everybody is all about the Badgers this week, and my family celebrated by making some Wisconsin-themed Brunsli.

I had some help from my grandmother, who has actually studied cooking at Le Cordon Bleu and at The Ritz Hotel Paris. I mean, wow. Am I seriously lucky or what?

Since she and I share a love of baking, she got me a copy of Warren Brown’s latest book, United Cakes of America, for Christmas.

My Uncle Dave and Aunt Maggie, who are also well-aware of my kitchen exploits, got me a convection toaster oven (!).

And my parents pitched in by getting me new baking sheets and a kitchen scale, both of which will be very helpful in my quest to make more and more macarons.

And, as no trip to Milwaukee would be complete without frozen custard, my Uncle Dave got us Turtle Sundae custard from Kopp's Frozen Custard.

The Turtle Sundae flavor features a base of Kopp's signature creamy vanilla custard, and also includes a bittersweet chocolate sauce that had just a bit of grit to it, crunchy roasted pecans, and a buttery caramel sauce.

Neat little break for Christmas, huh? I sure thought so. Plenty of chocolate, that's for sure.

Did you travel at all for Christmas? Where did you go? And most importantly, was there good chocolate?