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Sweet spots

For a taste of heaven, find your way to one of seven European-inspired chocolatiers.

It sounds just wrong, but chocolate connoisseurs know that less is more.

Like everything else in this country, chocolate truffles have been super-sized, and many consumers think that eating a $4 glob of butterfat is a gourmet experience.

But you don't need to eat a truffle the size of a baby's fist to be satisfied. In fact, you'll be more satisfied eating one small, high-quality piece. Europeans know this, and chocolatiers in this country are catching on, too.

You'll find the good stuff in some unlikely places — in the small Wisconsin towns of Ashland and Menonomie and in the western Minnesota town of Willmar — as well as the big cities. Below are seven places where you'll want to brake for great chocolate.

Gabriele's German Cookies & Chocolates, Ashland, Wis.: In this town on Chequamegon Bay, Gabriele Heldrich-Block makes her tiny chocolates with homemade liqueurs, fresh cream and ingredients her mother brings back on yearly visits from Nuremburg, Germany, her hometown.

Try the white-chocolate cassis, made with currants she grows herself, and her popular drunken cherries, soaked in vodka, covered in dark chocolate and rolled in sugar. She sells them for just $7 a dozen.

"My husband says that's way too high,'' she says with a smile. "He says you can buy a Snickers bar for 45 cents and get four times as much.''

Heldrich-Block was a home-ec teacher when she met David Block, a native of nearby Mellen, Wis., but she attributes her success partly to her sister, who taught her how to make a good ganache, or chocolate filling, and her parents, who love Christmas and always filled the house with dozens of different kinds of cookies on holidays.

Actually, her cookies are even better than her chocolates. They're tiny, delicate masterpieces you can't find anywhere else, especially for $6 a dozen. My favorites are the florentines and hazelnut stars, a cutout filled with her homemade currant jelly and dipped in homemade vanilla sugar.

Her shop in downtown Ashland, 413 W. Main St., is open regular hours Monday-Friday but only 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday and not at all Sunday, so plan ahead. She also ships; a heart-shaped box of three dozen chocolates is only $25. Call her at 715-682-2114, www.gabrielesgermansweets.com.

Legacy Chocolates in Menomonie, Wis., and St. Paul: Mike Roberts can only be called a chocolate wonk. The cocoa couvertures, or covers, on his small truffles come in four degrees of intensity, from a sweetish 41 percent to a super-dark 99 percent, and each one is segregated from the others in tiny plastic cups, to preserve its aromatic integrity.

He also has a European sensibility about preservatives — there aren't any — and freshness; a best-quality filled chocolate lasts only about two weeks. He imports cocoa beans are from small, sustainable farms in South America, and the butter and cream come from local farms. Regular flavors include raspberry, almond and espresso; specials include merlot and Pama, made with pomegranate liqueur. A box of six is $10.

The flagship store in Menomonie is downtown at 643 S. Broadway (when I was there in May, it was giving away free sundaes made with Cathy Roberts' Potion No. 9 chocolate sauce), 715-231-2580, and the one in St. Paul is at 2042 Marshall Ave., near the Marshall-Lake bridge, 651-646-0644. Visit www.legacychocolates.com.

Leonidas Pralines in Chicago: In Belgium, where filled chocolates are called pralines, Leonidas is known as the "every day'' chocolates because they're mass-produced rather than made in the back of a small shop. (Belgians sneer at Godiva, which was owned by the Campbell Soup Co. of New Jersey for 40 years until a Turkish holding company bought it in December 2007.)

Leonidas pralines may be ordinary in Brussels, but they're at the top of the heap in this country. A small storefront inside the Loop's Bank of America building sells the delightful little pieces, filled with impossibly light creme fraiche and laced with fine liqueurs. They're all imported from Belgium, where praline-making is high art.

Go for the creams, which are hard to find here (eat within two weeks). They sell for $34 a pound, about $1 a piece. The store is at 231 S. LaSalle St., off Quincy, but it's closed on weekends. But it'll ship by two-day FedEx for an extra $12-$13. Call 888-536-6432.

Mr. B Chocolatier in Willmar, Minn.: For many years, Willmar photographer Dwight Barnes was the only producer of true Belgian-style pralines in Minnesota. Like most of us, his a-ha moment came on a trip through Belgium — "The minute I tasted a Belgian chocolate, I thought, 'This is the best I've ever had,'' he says — and eventually, he studied with a master chocolatier in Antwerp, Belgium, and returned with molds to make his own exquisite pralines.

Couvertures are made from Callebaut chocolate and fillings from local cream and imported fruits and nuts; they bear no resemblance whatsoever to anything from Russell Stover.

"It's fun to see people's faces when we say it comes from Willmar,'' Barnes says.

Barnes retired in 2007, but his granddaughter Danielle George and her husband, Ian, are producing his chocolate; a box of 18 is $18.95. They're sold on-line and at  shops in Willmar, 320-235-1313, and St. Cloud, 320-259-5665. Visit www.mrbchocolate.com.

Three stops in the Madison area: Chocolatier Gail Ambrosius is among the new breed of candy-makers who like to use such ingredients as curry, cayenne and tea. That's not my taste, but her other chocolates are very good. A box of six sells for $11. Ambrosius has a shop at 2086 Atwood Ave. in Madison, 608-249-3500, www.gailambrosius.com.

I've never had Candinas chocolate, but Consumer Reports routinely rates them very highly. They're made in the southern suburb of Verona by Swiss-trained chocolatier Markus Candinas, who sells a 16-piece box for $20.75. Shipping adds $7.50-$12.50. 800-845-1554, www.candinas.com.

And there's another don't-miss stop in the Madison area. Whenever I can, I swing by Clasen's European Bakery in Middleton, on the corner of U.S. 12 and Donna Drive, and pick up such Old World pastries as Bienenstich and Linzertorten, which are hard to find elsewhere. Call 608-831-2032, www.clasensbakery.com.

Last updated on October 22, 2008