Chocolate and Cheese Together at Last in a Candy Bar

As a cheese aficionado, I’m always on the lookout for new cheese tasting experiences. So when I first heard of Chicago-based chocolatier Vosges Haut-Chocolat’s Cheese & Chocolate bars, I naturally had to check it out. Vosges has a history of mixing unexpected spices with chocolate such as wasabi, curry powder, and much more. I had heard of chocolate pairing with cheeses before but I had never thought of putting cheese into the chocolate bar itself.

I had a chance to talk with Katrina Markoff, founder of Vosges, about her process of making these unusual chocolate bars.

The Taleggio Truffle

Markoff had been interested in a chocolate and cheese pairing because of her culinary training in Europe, especially in France, where the cheese plate follows the dessert. She thought it was interesting that the courses came in succession but “never on the same plate.” Markoff started off making pairings of the two but then decided to try and put cheese in the chocolate itself. “Those acidity and dairy notes can work with the chocolate in the ganache,” she said.

Her first creation became the Taleggio Truffle, called the Rooster, which has Taleggio cheese, walnut, Madagascar Vanilla, and 66 percent dark chocolate. According to the Vosges website, the Taleggio is made by Emilio Mauri, “a cave-aged cow's milk cheese from Pasturo in the Lombardi region of Italy.” Markoff calls it a “cult classic” and says it has been and remains one of her favorites.

They’ve also done a few special edition truffles like a triple creme from France and another with bleu cheese that Markoff said was very strong.

Creating the Chocolate and Cheese Bars

A few years later, Markoff wanted to experiment further. “How do you dry the cheese? How does the cheese work in a solid format?” She asked herself, “What if we grated raw milk cheddar cheese or [something] around Manchego? [I] just started playing with it. Like anything, you just iterate, iterate, iterate.” She started with 12-month D.O.P Manchego paired with Montmorency cherries and 67% cacao. A year later, she made several more bars including the Cheddar and Apple bar with 12-month aged Vermont Cheddar, cinnamon, apples, and 45% milk chocolate. She also made a Parmesan Walnut and Fig Bar with Cathy Strange, Vice President of Specialty and Global Cheese Expert, at Whole Foods. It’s a pairing of 24-month aged Parmigiano Reggiano with figs, Tellicherry pepper, walnuts, and 67 percent dark chocolate.

They worked with milk chocolate, dark chocolate, and white chocolate but the dark was the hardest one to work with, said Markoff, because of its strong flavor profile. “It's hard to compete with delicate cheeses.”

Another challenge Markoff faced was water content. Dried cheeses seemed to work better for the bars. It’s less of a concern with truffles like the Taleggio. Markoff mentioned making a bar with Whole Foods with cheese from Cowgirl Creamery but the water content was too high. Shelf storage was a critical component; truffles are meant to be eaten quickly but chocolate bars need to have a longer shelf life. Another attempt put dehydrated Cowgirl Creamery's Fromage Blanc in the bar but it ended up being too crumbly, Markoff explained. Eventually, they settled on berries inside the white chocolate with the Fromage Blanc sprinkled on top.

As for the taste of these bars, Markoff said, “[The taste of cheese] just comes towards the end. No, it doesn't hit you over the head. It's pretty delicate.” You have to wait for it, she noted. Some folks have said it's too subtle but Markoff explained, “Well, [it’s] not supposed to taste like a slice of cheddar cheese because it's just a layer of [the bar]; it's a component of it. It's not cheddar cheese because if we want to just do cheddar cheese with chocolate, it will be a pairing.”

The current cheese and chocolate 6-bar collection include 2 Manchego & Cherry Chocolate bars with 12-month aged Spanish Manchego and Dried Tart Cherry, 62% cacao dark chocolate, 2 Parmesan Walnut and Fig Chocolate bars with 24-month aged Parmigiano Reggiano and golden Turkish figs and California walnuts with a touch of pink peppercorn, a Cheddar & Apple Chocolate bar with 15-month aged Vermont Cheddar cheese, apples, cinnamon and 45% deep milk chocolate and a single Fromage Blanc & Berries Chocolate bar with Cowgirl Creamery's Fromage Blanc, cocoa butter, rich white chocolate, and forest berries.

Eating the Cheese and Chocolate

Just as most cheeses taste better at room temperature, there are some suggested ways to eat chocolate with cheese. Markoff recommended breaking up the chocolate in your mouth, then spreading it over your palette and running your tongue across it. She suggested letting the chocolate melt so the chocolate notes can come out. After that, the other flavor notes like cheese then come out at the end.

The bars might be a fun alternative for an appetizer instead of cheese and crackers. It’ll certainly be a conversation piece, Markoff noted. In the past, she’s paired the Manchego cherry bar with Manchego cheese. “It sort of makes it more obvious what's there, especially for people that maybe have eaten a lot that day and their palate isn't as clean and detectable,” she said, “that's a way of really pulling out the flavor of Manchego.”

But for folks who are keen on knowing Markoff’s cheese and chocolate pairings, she has a “basic layman’s pairing guide.” She advises eating white chocolate with bleu cheese since the cheese cuts the sweetness of the white chocolate. Other suggestions include milk chocolate with goat/sheep milk cheeses and dark chocolate with a really rich triple creme.

Overall, Markoff sees the compatibility of both cheese and chocolate because they are fermented foods. She noted, “I do think that there is some connectivity of making foods that are more complex by fermenting them [because it] allows for them to have more range and options of pairings. I think one of the things that cheese and chocolate have in common is that they're both fermented foods.”