Get a taste of Everett’s new sweet spot for chocolate

EVERETT — Angie Carozzo fell in love with food as a girl growing up in Michigan.

“As soon as I could walk into the kitchen, my mother had me making cookies,” she said.

Now 40-some years later, Carozzo is the owner of the new Oh Sweet Chocolate shop across the street from the Schack Art Center on Hoyt Avenue, between Wall Street and Hewitt Avenue.

Oh Sweet, which also serves Everett’s Bargreen’s coffee, opened on Valentine’s Day.

“We already have regular customers,” Carozzo said. “We love being across the street from the Schack. It’s a great neighborhood. We hope people will start stopping by after dinner for espresso and chocolate.”

As a child, Carozzo took cake decorating classes, was given some of the cooking duties at home and, as soon as she could, was working in restaurants, even while attending Michigan State University.

She moved to Seattle about 20 years ago and helped open Hot Mama’s Pizza on Capitol Hill.

When her children were in school all day, Carozzo entered the Seattle Culinary Academy at Seattle Central Community College.

There she worked with award-winning pastry chef Regis Bernard, who taught her to make chocolate.

“I love creative cooking and chemistry, and chocolates are the perfect combination,” Carozzo said

When the economy tanked seven years ago, Carozzo put off the dream of opening her own chocolate shop. She even contemplated going to nursing school.

But a friend, wowed by some chocolate she made at home, convinced Carozzo to give her dream a shot.

“I realized I still had a huge passion for it,” Carozzo said. “And by then the doors were wide open.”

While working on the Oh Sweet logo with the artist Steven Johnson Leyba, who lives in the Artspace Loft apartments above the Schack, Carozzo spotted the empty storefront across the street.

She contacted owner Gary Swett, and before long she was turning the space into her chocolate shop, complete with a small commercial kitchen.

On St. Patrick’s Day, the chocolate display case at Oh Sweet was packed with an assortment that included strawberry white chocolates with balsamic reduction, Bailey’s milk chocolate, Macallan 12-year Scotch-infused dark chocolates, passion fruit truffles, PB&J truffles, chamomile citrus milk chocolates, lavender truffles, salted butter caramels, milk and dark chocolate truffles, a praline crisp and, Carozzo’s favorite, a Bergamot dark chocolate truffle.

The Bergamot, now her signature chocolate, is in honor of her mother.

“My mom died a few years ago. When I was a girl, she loved putting on tea parties. So the Bergamot, used in Earl Grey tea, is for her,” Carozzo said. “When I was in culinary school, I called her and said, ‘Mom, you knew everything about cooking, but you didn’t realize it.’ My Italian family had a lot of good cooks. I can’t wait to make my great grandma’s pistachio nuggets.”

Easter is a big holiday for chocolate, Carozzo said. You won’t find chocolate bunnies at Oh Sweet, but many of the shop’s truffles will provide a great end to an Easter Sunday dinner.

“I thought home cooks might enjoy making the lavender truffle,” she said.

Gale Fiege: 425-339-3427; gfiege@heraldnet.com. Twitter: @galefiege.

Oh Sweet Chocolate

2918 Hoyt Ave., Everett, 425-258-8080.

Hours: 10 a.m. to 8 p.m., Tuesday through Sunday.

Find Oh Sweet Chocolate on Facebook at www.facebook.com/ohsweetchocolate.

Lavender dark chocolate truffles

• 1/4 cup heavy cream
• 1 tablespoon dried lavender
• 5 ounces bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped
• 1 tablespoon unsalted butter, softened
• 1/4 cup whole milk, in case needed
• 1 cup powdered sugar, sifted

Bring the cream to a simmer in a small pot. Remove from the heat, add the lavender, cover and steep for 10 minutes. Uncover, bring to a simmer again, remove from heat, cover and let steep for another 10 minutes. Repeat one more time. Steeping three times with the lavender will provide the intense flavor.

Strain the lavender from the cream and measure again. Add whole milk, if needed, to bring the amount back to the original 1/4 cup.

Heat the cream to a simmer again, add the chocolate and remove from heat. With a rubber or silicone spatula stir the mixture until the chocolate is completely melted.

Stir in the softened butter until an elastic core develops and the resulting ganache has a smooth, shiny texture.

Put the ganache in a bowl and cover with plastic wrap directly on the surface of the ganache. Refrigerate until somewhat firm, about two hours.

To make the truffles, use a melonballer to scoop out about 1 tablespoon of ganache, place in a deep dish with the powdered sugar and roll back and forth with two forks to coat. You can do this by hand, but you must have cold hands and wear gloves in order to keep the chocolate from melting.

Store in a cool, dry place until ready to serve.

Makes about 20 truffles.

Recipe courtesy Angie Carozzo of Oh Sweet Chocolates in Everett.