With every passing year, Easter - the biggest holiday of the Christian calendar - seems to become a more lavish event, with retailers launching new products like novelty chocolate characters to beauty eggs stacked with luxury products.
I love any excuse to indulge a little, and I think I’ve found the perfect way to celebrate the ending of Lent on Easter Sunday if you don’t fancy making a roast for dinner, either.
Particularly if you have kids, Easter can be stressful enough, organising an egg hunt, telling them they can’t eat seven Creme Eggs in a row - so Snowdonia Cheese Company has taken the stress out of lunch, at least, with their Cheese & Chocolate Tasting Basket.
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The £45 hamper - which featured in BBC Good Food’s Best chocolate hampers to buy in 2023, offers a selection of cheeses paired with artisan chocolate that’s the ideal starting point for a midday charcuterie board - or for relaxing with a glass of wine once the kids have gone to bed.
The basket, which is very sturdy and was quickly reused to make a birthday hamper that very same week, comes filled with four 200g cheese truckles from the Snowdonia Cheese Company, with four accompanying chocolate bars from Willie’s Cacao.
I love cheese. I love chocolate even more. But I’ve never tried them together, and there’s no time like the present, so we got stuck straight in.
Inside the basket was a Black Bomber extra mature cheddar, Res Storm vintage red Leicester, Green Thunder mature cheddar with roasted garlic and herbs and a Red Devil, which was red Leicester with Habanero chillies and peppers. Each of the Willie’s Cacao chocolates were then handpicked for their ‘unexpectedly delicious’ flavour pairings, including their El Blanco 36% white chocolate, Ginger Lime 70% dark chocolate, Milk Of The Gods 44% milk chocolate and Surabaya Gold 69% dark chocolate.
I nipped out to Aldi to pick up a few extras for a little grazing board, using other things I already had in my fridge - we love a picky tea in our house, so often have an abundance of cured meats, olives, pickles and the likes.
Meanwhile, I pulled the cheeses out of the fridge to reach room temperature, which helps bring out the flavour - something which I heard on the TV on a Saturday morning chef show.
The cheese hamper comes with a lovely slate serving board, but we needed something a little bigger to feed our family of three adults, so pulled out the wooden board usually reserved for Christmas.
I arranged the cheeses onto the board, referring to the handy tasting guide so that I could place each of the corresponding chocolates with their cheese pairing. It showed that the white chocolate went with the chilli cheese, while the ginger and lime joined the garlic and herb wheel. The milk chocolate sat alongside the red Leicester, while the dark chocolate accompanied the mature cheddar. The guide also suggested which other nibbles might pair well with the dairy duos, including nuts and nachos - but we just went for a mixture of textures and flavours of things we fancied, including breadsticks, fruit, sausage rolls and posh crusty bread.
Mum, Dad and I loved tasting the cheeses with their paired chocolates, commenting on the flavours and taking notes about our favourites. It made for a really fun experience where we could sit down and chat, without masses of washing up to do in the kitchen after, either.
My favourite cheese had to be the roasted garlic and herbs, but as a pairing, the Red Storm chilli cheese with the white chocolate was a sure winner, there was something about the spice with the creamy chocolate that was so satisfying.
Last year, I reviewed a Snowdonia Cheese Company Mother’s Day hamper that featured two cheese, biscuits, crackers and chutney, so for an extra £10 for four cheeses and four chocolates, I think this was particularly good value, and similar to what I might spend on cheeses at the Manchester Christmas Markets, which I always like to do.
There was enough chocolate and cheese for three people with plenty to spare, so you could enjoy it over the whole bank holiday weekend, if you so wish. It certainly goes to show that cheeseboards aren't restricted to Christmas, and you don't need a lamb dinner for it to feel like Easter - this was such a fun and different way to get the family together over some of our favourite foods, which is what Easter is actually all about, right?
If this sounds like the ultimate Easter Sunday treat to you - you can find out more about the chocolate and cheese hamper from Snowdonia Cheese Company here.
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