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Valrhona Perles Craquant

Valrhona Perles Craquant

I want you to know about these. They are tiny, bb-sized pearls of chocolate surrounding a crunchy center (shown below) and they taste amazing. The container I bought was labeled Valrhona Perles Craquant, but I’m finding spelling variations all over the place.

Valrhona Perles Craquant

They most closely remind me of the crunchy biscuit cookies with a layer of chocolate that come from the UK. Or maybe those little Japanese chocolate mushroom snacks with the cookie stem? Something like those, but yummier.

Valrhona Perles Craquant

They are perfect for throwing on top of some ice cream that wasn’t as good as the container promised. They would be great in ice cream. And according to what little I can find out about them they won’t melt in baked goods, something great has got to be created with that. Anybody know what they are supposed to be used for?

I found them at Whole Foods, in plastic containers branded Whole Foods like they were portioned out from bulk foods. These were found near the very fancy cheeses, just past the prepared foods and before the wines, it might be different in your store.

I initially used these as small candies to fit inside the Chocolate Easter Surprise Eggs and the Easter Surprise Eggs, but it was lucky we didn’t eat them all before I could get them into the actual eggs. If you find these buy them.

· comments [16] · 04-23-2010 · categories:food ·

16 responses so far ↓

  • 1 Alicia // Apr 23, 2010 at 5:14 am

    Yummmm. I’m drooling over here:)

  • 2 Heather // Apr 23, 2010 at 6:31 am

    Shake Shack uses the Valhrona crunchies in their sundaes here in NYC. They have one (served at the location next to the American Museum of Natural History) that’s made with vanilla custard, malt, the crunchies, and chocolate toffee. It’s divine. (It is hilariously called the Natural History Crunch-stellation.)

  • 3 melissa // Apr 23, 2010 at 7:22 am

    omg I bought a tin of plain chocolate Valhrona pearls a few years ago! The tin was really well designed – it was a round tin, but with a dispenser to only allow one pearl out at a time, so it was great for keeping in my bag when I just needed a small hit of something sweet. It saved me from ordering many big desserts at restaurants since my tongue just needed something small to be satisfied.

  • 4 Abril // Apr 23, 2010 at 7:32 am

    The bakery I used to work at used them on top of the chocoalte buttercream frosted cupcakes and on top of chocolate tartlets, yum!

  • 5 Jenny G. // Apr 23, 2010 at 10:16 am

    Thank you for sharing this- these sound great!

  • 6 Uncle Beefy // Apr 23, 2010 at 11:19 am

    You wild, wicked, wonderful woman!!! Cute, tiny, crunchy, chocolatey? ON IT! Awesomesauce! :)

  • 7 Marian // Apr 23, 2010 at 12:10 pm

    Thanks for the tip! Heading the Whole Foods this afternoon. Oh my gosh – must.try.these.

  • 8 Amanda // Apr 23, 2010 at 12:48 pm

    I bought a bag from my favourite dessert bar about a year ago. I tend to eat them plain, but I did throw some into a batch of banana oatmeal cookies once. They didn’t melt, but the crunchy centers softened, so it wasn’t the textural contrast I wanted to achieve.

  • 9 Amy Kelly // Apr 23, 2010 at 6:53 pm

    I found them just last week at The Fresh Market packaged the same way as you described them being at Whole Foods (from bulk). They also had Valrhona cocoa and the white chocolate and dark chocolate disks. Now if only I can save up some money to buy some. I told my hubby I wanted some for my birthday. (We’re still in that poor college student stage of life, though not for much longer thankfully.)

  • 10 Sam // Apr 23, 2010 at 11:04 pm

    I found these on Amazon and there they are called: Valrhona Crunchy Dark Chocolate Pearls

  • 11 samin // Apr 24, 2010 at 1:10 am

    we used to use them at the restaurant all of the time, both in and on desserts and drinks. the coverture has some sort of waxy stuff in it, so they don’t melt exactly, even when baked into cookies or biscotti. also great in ice cream, on top of cocoa, and even in (so 90’s, i know) chocolate martinis…i love these so much!

  • 12 Elsa // Apr 24, 2010 at 2:27 pm

    Thanks for the head-up on these — this is exactly the kind of dark-crunchy-tiny-garnishy thing I adore.

    I loved those little mushroom cookie things! The import shop where I used to buy them closed up and I can’t find them in town any more. This is my sad face.

  • 13 lia // Apr 27, 2010 at 2:59 am

    ooooo yummmm are they as good as they look :)

  • 14 megan // Apr 28, 2010 at 3:11 pm

    Heather – I had no idea that Shake Shack uses these, thanks so much for the note. It makes me feel fancy.

    Sam – Thanks! I couldn’t find them there.

    Lia – Yes, yes they are :)

  • 15 Tegan // May 13, 2010 at 12:16 am

    Are these like mini Maltesers? I’m from Australia so we don’t have these but they look yum. :)

  • 16 megan // May 13, 2010 at 10:31 am

    Tegan – They taste very different from Maltesers, which I can confidently say since we had Maltesers in the house and I actually did taste them side by side! The crunchy center of the perles is more of a dry cookie, no hint of malt.

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