The Panko Chocolate Bar

Walk into a Chuao Chocolatier Café and you’ll quickly see that this boutique is an innovative one. Confectionery creations like Spicy Mayan hot chocolate (made with pasilla chile and cayenne pepper) and caramel fudge (with chipotle chile, salt and popping candy) contribute to its one-of-a-kind menu.

Co-owners Michael and Richard Antonorsi have always worked hard to create distinctive flavor combinations. Recently, though, they’ve taken their innovative leanings and spun them together with a bit of tradition. The result: the panko chocolate bar. Made with a Venezuelan dark chocolate blend and filled with roasted panko breadcrumbs and sea salt, the bar is a new take on an old standby.

“The Panko bar was ultimately inspired by one of my favorite childhood foods in Venezuela: the chocolate Panini,” says Michael. “We would slice a baguette in half, stick a chocolate bar inside and put it in the Panini press.” Others may recognize it as a takeoff on the chocolate croissant (pain au chocolat) or the salty-sweet chocolate-covered pretzel.

The specialty chocolatiers knew they had a hit on their hands with the similar Pan Con Chocolate bonbon, one of the café’s best sellers. The panko bar, they say, was a natural progression. The Panko Bar ($5.99, 80 grams) is available at Chuao Chocolatier Cafes (five locations in California and Florida) and nationwide at retailers such as Whole Foods Market, Crate & Barrel and Pier 1.—Kara Mayer Robinson