Chocolate & Chilli Recipes with benefits!

I remember many years ago being happily surprised when I ate a dark chocolate filled with chilli jelly.  I can’t remember where it was but it must have been somewhere peculiar because it was before such interesting food was the norm.

I then experimented with the flavour combo myself, even occasionally in our restaurants, because we had great foodie customers who were gagging for a change from the old Black Forest Gateau situation.

Dark chilli chocky such as Lindt is good (they even have it in France you know!) when I’m not in the mood to cook for just myself, my real man being so very conservative, to put it politely. When I am in the mood here are some of the things I have made, sold and eaten.  I suggest you do the same with the possible exception of the sold bit!

Dark Chilli Chocolate Ganache

A ganache is a lovely thing and so easy!  Basically coarsely chop chocolate (in this case dark chili chocolate), pour over hot double cream and stir till smooth.  Depending on what you are going to do with the ganache, and there are several options, you need a higher or lower ratio of chocolate to cream …

~  Ganache makes a lovely chocky sauce or drizzle for ice cream, pancakes etc., for best results use one part chocolate to two parts of double cream.

~  To make a thick pourable chocolate glaze for cakes then use equal amounts of chocolate and cream. If instead of pouring you chill the mixture it can be whipped to thick and used as filling for cakes, éclairs or as a simple Chocolate Chilli Mousse.

~  If you use twice as much chocolate as cream and chill to very cold you can roll it into balls, coat in chopped chocolate, cocoa, chopped nuts and so on et voila – truffles.

Dark Chocolate & Chilli Quesadilla

This was a lovely sudden lunch pudding – chocolate quesadilla recipe here. 

Chocolate and Cayenne Soufflé – serves 4

90g dark chocolate – coarsely chopped
60g sugar
3 tbsp lovely strong coffee
1 tbsp brandy
½ tsp cayenne
pinch of salt
3 egg yolks – lightly beaten together
4 egg whites
2 more tbsp sugar

~   Preheat oven to 200°C/400°F/180ºC fan/gas 6.
~   Butter 4 ramekins and then dust with a little icing sugar.
~   In a small pan over low heat stir together the first 4 ingredients till melted and smooth.
~   Stir in the cayenne and salt.
~   Remove from the heat and allow to cool a couple of minutes then stir in the egg yolks.
~   Whisk the egg whites till they start forming peaks then add the sugar and continue whisking till stiff.
~   Fold the whites into the chocolate goo and divide between the ramekins
~   Bake for 10-12 minutes till risen and wobbly and serve immediately.

Pinterest friendly image – go on!

Hot Hot Chocolate

Chili spiked hot chocolate mixes are the norm now but until they were I used to add just a drop or two of non-garlicky hot sauce to the drink. Worked for me! Worked for Montezuma too, apparently, because he was known to fortify his pre-nookie hot chocolate 
with chillies and sometimes vanilla too, speaking of which …

Chocolate and Chilli are both considered to be aphrodisiacs and I have written about them in my ebook …

Food for Love

Eat  your Way to a Better Sex Life ~ Win/Win Situation

The 9 Best Chocolate Recipes Ever IMHO!

It being National Chocolate Week I think now is the time to share my 9 favouritest chocky recipes ever – all of these have been big sellers in the posh and not so posh restaurants I have cheffed in and also go down well with my real man (except the peanut butter tart ‘cos he can’t stand peanut butter).

Firstly some guidance on melting chocolate ...

Pin so you don’t forget!

~   Break the chocolate up a bit. The easiest way to do this is to throw the cold sealed bar violently onto a hard floor or maybe bash it on the edge of the counter.  Unwrap et voila …
~   Put the broken chocolate into a bowl and the bowl into a small pan of simmering water to come about a third of the way up.  Here’s a tip – stand it on a metal jam jar lid or similar to stop it sticking to the bottom of the pan.

~   White chocolate is a little more delicate than dark and must be melted carefully over very low heat.

~   Don’t mess with the chocolate as it melts just let it sit till there till it’s ready then stir till smooth.

~   WARNING – if you get water into the melting chocolate it will go all hard, lumpy and useless.  For this reason Do Not Cover as steam will condense on the lid and fall back into the chocky.

Dark Chocolate Ice Cream 

The optional brandy in this recipe benefits the ice cream in two ways; it will make it softer and also taste more alcoholic chocolatey.

200g/⅔ cup condensed milk

175g/1½ cups coarsely chopped dark chocolate

1 tablespoon cocoa

500ml/2 cups double cream

3 tablespoons brandy – optional but highly recommended 

~ Put the condensed milk, the chocolate and the cocoa into a small bowl.
~ Stand the bowl in a small pan of water as described above.
~ Simmer the water till the chocolate has melted and then stir smoothly into the condensed milk. This will be quite a thick mixture.
~ Cool slightly but not too much as it needs to be soft enough to fold into the cream.
~ Whip together the cream and the optional brandy till slightly thick.
~ Add the melted chocolate mixture and continue whisking till thick.
~ Freeze.

This is just one of over 100 ice cream recipes in my book Luscious Ice Cream without a Machine – including at eight more chocolate ice cream recipes and lots of ancillaries such as the cones and the sauce in the picture. 

Dark Chocolate & Kahlua Marquise

This is a classic and my sister and I made vast numbers of marquises in our Cornish restaurants. When I went to the Caribbean the slices seemed to soften quickly as we plated them so I took to serving from frozen, which worked really well – a kind of semi freddo by the time it reached the table!

You need 3 bowls and a loaf tin to make this, I prefer to use a silicon loaf “tin”.

200g dark chocolate
200g soft butter
40g caster sugar
1 tbsp cocoa

3 eggs – separated in yolks and whites
another 40g caster sugar

275ml double cream
2 tbsp Kahlua (or other spirit or liqueur of your choice)

~   Melt the chocolate as above in the first bowl.
~   Whisk together the butter, first batch of sugar and the cocoa in the second bowl.
~   In the third bowl whisk the egg whites till still. It is crucial that you whisk these in a clean dry bowl or they won’t work.
~   Fold the butter mixture into the melted chocolate.
~   In the empty butter bowl whisk together the egg yolks and the second batch of sugar.
~   Fold this into the chocolate mixture.

~   Finally whisk the cream (together with Kahlua) and fold that into the mix till no streaks are left.
~   Decant into the loaf “pan” and either chill or freeze.

Serve thickly sliced, probably with more cream!

Chocolate Sorbet

This recipe is taken straight from my little book Sorbets & Granitas which gives the key recipe for sorbet , 40 more sorbet and granita recipes, ideas, serving suggestions and what to do with leftovers!

A lovely rich chocolate coffee mix. If you don’t like coffee use a plain syrup in the same proportions and add a drip or two of vanilla extract.

250ml strong hot freshly brewed coffee
125g sugar
150g dark chocolate – coarsely chopped

~   Stir the sugar into the coffee till dissolved.
~   Immediately (as it needs to be hot) pour the syrup over the chocolate and stir or whisk to melt and amalgamate.
~   Cool, chill, freeze, mashing scraping the sides of the sorbet to the middle occasionally and mashing to make a smooth sorbet.

Easy Peasy or what? I also make wicked chocolate ice creams which are also based on a genius key recipe but whilst it is another favourite recipe it’s a bit too much to go into here. 

My book, Luscious Ice Cream without a Machine, explains how this quick, easy, no churn method works and gives over 100 ice cream recipes plus ideas, suggestions, recipes for accoutrements such as cones, sauces and inclusions.

Chocolate Mousse

Or in more detail from an old meu long ago and far away … 

See here for the recipe plus a great photo of a Dalek on holiday. 

Chocolate Topped Peanut Butter Mousse Tart

You need a 24cm (9½”) pre-baked (preferably by you but bought in is fine too) tart case, either pastry or a crumb base as with cheesecake.

120g smooth peanut butter
50g soft light brown sugar

100g cream cheese

½ tsp vanilla extract + see below

180ml double cream + see below

150g dark chocolate

another 80ml double cream

another couple of drips of vanilla extract

~   Whisk together the peanut butter, cream cheese and vanilla extract till combined.
~   In a separate bowl whisk the first batch of cream till thick.

~   Whisk ¼ of the whipped cream into the peanut mixture.
~   Fold in the rest of the whipped cream and put it into the tart case, levelling the top.
~   Chill.

Now for the chocolate bit …

~   Chop or break the chocolate into pieces and put it into a bowl.
~   Bring the second batch of cream to a boil and pour it over the chocolate together with the second vanilla extract.
~   Allow to sit for a few minutes (during this time it is advantageous to make yourself a coffee to accompany scraping the bowl).

~   Stir till smooth.
~   Pour the chocolate gently over the peanut mousse and smooth the top.
~   Chill till needed.

White Choc Mousse

200g white chocolate
15ml water
75ml sour cream
juice of ½ a lemon
240ml double cream

~   Melt together the white chocolate together with the water as instructed above.
~   Mix together the sour cream and lemon juice.
~   Fold the cream mixture into the melted chocolate.
~   Whisk the cream till thick and fold into the chocolate mixture.

 A Wonderful Thing to do with Chocolate Brownies (and a wooden spoon!)

~   Make a batch of your favourite recipe brownies.
~   Whilst they are baking also make a batch of the chocolate ganache topping in the peanut butter tart recipe above. 
~   Turn the brownie out onto a rack and then take a wooden spoon and lightly butter the handle end! 

~   Carefully insert the spoon handle straight down into the brownie at 1” intervals twisting gently it on the way in and out twisting to form lots of deep little wells.

~   Fill each little hole with chocolate ganache and then allow the brownie to cool completely before cutting into squares.

This is lovely served at room temperature, gorgeous chilled and if you heat before serving the ganache melts and you get a self-saucing brownie which is also utterly wonderful.  

Gorgeous Chocolate Chip Cookies

Makes about 16 fairly large cookies so serves 1!

I make these sporadically and then try other things and then go back to these.  They really are the dog’s thingies!  People keep asking for the recipe – so here it is for everyone.

125g soft butter
125g caster sugar
100g soft light brown sugar
1 egg
½ tsp vanilla extract
225g self raising flour

a pinch of salt

200g dark chocolate – thrown onto the floor and any larger lumps cut into smaller pieces

OR

a similar quantity of chocolate chips

~   Preheat the oven to 180ºC/350°F/160ºC fan/gas 4.
~   Cream together the butter and sugars.
~   Beat together the egg and vanilla and then add it to the butter mixture together with a spoonful of the flour (this helps stop the mixture curdling).
~   Stir (or munge) in the flour, salt and chocky, it is pretty thick so easiest with your hands.

~   Roll into walnut sized balls and place well-spaced on ungreased baking trays.

~   Bake for about 8-10 minutes till just gold round the edges (if you want them squidgier cook a little less).

~   Cool on a rack.

  

The dough can be rolled into a sausage shape and frozen and then it is possible (if you are careful and use a sharp knife) to slice off just as many cookies as you need and bake them from frozen. Useful in emergencies.

Chocolate Quesadilla

This is not actually a time honoured recipe of mine, just a Really Good Idea I had a couple of years ago and wrote about see here for how to make your own chocolate quesadilla.

And here’s another thing I like to do with chocolate; try it you might like it!

How to Use Leftover Easter Eggs!

I have to admit that this is not my own photo, I got it from freeimages.co.uk

I realise that to many people, me included, leftover chocky is a very strange concept but in my line of work it’s still something I have to deal with so this post refers to leftover chocolate Eater eggs and not at all, at all to leftover boiled eggs.

There are, of course, numerous ways to use the lovely stuff and one of the easiest is just to eat it!  Sometimes, however, you might need to stretch the chocolate amongst a few people or you’d like to make a big thing of it so here are some suggestions.

Chop Chocolate and then …

~   Sprinkle on ice cream or creamy desserts or stir into trail mix and go for a walk.
~   Stir into cake or brownie recipes. 
~   Have a chocolate sandwich!
~   Make Chocolate Chip Cookies – see my useful key cookie recipe here.

Chocolate pieces can also be add to chocolate friendly recipes, for instance …

Chocolate Pancakes 

See here for the basic pancake recipe but do the following or you will end up with a real mess.

~   DO NOT add the chopped chocolate to the pancake batter.

~   Follow the recipe instructions and as soon as you have poured the pancake(s) into the pan sprinkle with the chocolate then spoon a little more pancake batter over the top.

~   Continue the recipe.

Serve for breakfast with good strong coffee.

Melted Chocolate

Use leftover melted chocolate to drizzle on, say, freshly baked cookies or to dip things such a pieces of fruit or stir stuff into like with those Rice Krispie things we used to make. There are some important rules to melting chocolate …

~   Put leftover chocolate into a bowl and out the bowl into a small pan of simmering water so that the water comes about a third of the way up the bowl, and here’s a tip; stand it on a metal jam jar lid or similar to stop it sticking to the bottom of the pan. 

~   White chocolate is a little more delicate than dark and must be melted carefully over very low heat. 

~   Don’t mess with the chocolate as it melts just let it sit till there till it’s ready then stir till smooth. 

WARNING If you get water into the melting chocolate it will go all hard, lumpy and useless.  For this reason Do Not Cover as steam will condense on the lid and fall back into the chocky.

Hot Chocolate for One – maybe you!

~   Gently heat 250ml of milk till very hot but not boiling.

~   Stir in 50g grated or chopped chocolate (the darker the better) and stir till melted.  Do Not boil but you can simmer gently, whisking all the time, if you’d like the mixture a little thicker.

~   Taste and sweeten if necessary – I like to use light brown sugar for a fudgier flavour.

~   Add some flavouring if you like; a drip of vanilla or brandy, a pinch of crushed instant coffee granules, a sprinkle of cinnamon or maybe a little chilli syrup! 

~   Pour into a pretty cup, sip and grin.

Chocolate Ganache

This is very, very simple and nowhere near as posh as it sounds.  Weigh the chocolate, coarsely chop it and put into a bowl.  Bring an equal quantity of double cream (eg. 100g chocolate and 100ml cream) almost to the boil, pour over the chocolate and stir till smooth.   

Use as a hot sauce, cool till thick and use to ice a cake or chill and whisk as a lighter chocolate frosting or chill severely and roll into balls to serve as truffles – maybe coat with cocoa or chopped nuts or more leftover chocolate.

Dark, Milk or White Chocolate Caramel Sauce – all delicious

100g granulated sugar

50ml water

150ml double cream

90g coarsely chopped dark, milk or white chocolate

pinch of salt

1 tsp vanilla extract

~   Set the cream beside the stove. 

~   In a deep saucepan over low heat stir together the sugar and the water till the sugar is dissolved and then bring to a boil.  Don’t stir any more but when it begins turning golden you can swirl it about a bit to even out the colour.

~   Cook to a deep golden brown watching carefully and swirling occasionally.

~   When you are happy with the colour add the cream and stir over low heat till the caramel which will have hardened has melted back into the cream.

~   Add the chocolate and stir till completely melted and mixed into the sauce.

~   Add the salt and vanilla extract and mix in.

If I can think of this many ideas for leftover Easter eggs, how many do  you imagine I have thought of for the othe 449 potential leftovers in my book Creative Ways to Use Up Leftovers?

Incidentally Easter Bunnies can be used for all the above ideas …

(I thank you Elizabeth!)

More chocolate recipes here.

Yukky Gnocchi & Yummy Chocky Quesadilla

~  Menu  ~

Gnocchi in a Creamy Tomato & Boursin Sauce

Glass of Sangiovese

Dark Chocolate & Chilli Quesadilla

Coffee

I am glad to say I don’t like gnocchi.  I have made them several times, been unimpressed and assumed I was doing it wrong.  For the sake of research I’ve ordered them once or twice when eating out and still no joy and today as a last attempt I cooked Tesco’s Finest Potato Gnocchi for lunch and didn’t like them either  – yukky gnocchi!  It is not Tesco’s fault, it seems gnocchi are supposed to be unpleasant; at first I though it was my cooking!  What a relief.

I sauced the gnocchi with a creamy mixture of tomato and Boursin and fried up some breadcrumbs in roasted garlic oil to add a contrasting texture (this is known as Pangrattato and is a lovely addition to many meals), they sure needed it.  It tasted fine but the gnocchi themselves are pretty well how one would imagine mashed potato and flour mixed together and boiled would be.  Similar to the “nothing special” krumplinudli I made the other day!

On the other hand I was abso–feckin-lutely delighted, as the Irish say, with my dessert.

Quesadillas

Many, many is the time I have turned, in a professional sense, to quesadillas to use up leftovers. These lovely crisp Mexican (or Tex Mex?) versions of a sandwich are so versatile, so quick and easy and so, so delicious. Normally the filling consists of beans, or chicken, or chilli con carne, etc, with cheese and salsa; those sort of things. 

Good idea or what? Pin it so you don’t forget!

I have a pack of flour tortillas to play with for my forthcoming book on leftovers (see below) so I thought – why not a chocky quesadilla? And then the answer came to me; no reason at all. My lunch pudding was but the work of a few moments … 

~ I chopped 3 squares (just 3) of Lindt’s dark and lovely chilli chocolate. ~ Sprinkled it on one half of a flour tortilla (plain!).
~ Folded it in half and pressed down firmly so that no chocky could escape.
~ Melted a knob of butter in a non stick pan.
~ Fried my quesadilla till crisp and golden on the outside and lovely and gooey in the middle.
~ Ate it which was rather messy but had to be done – working lunch!

Forgive my fingers, they seem to have aged whilst my back was turned!

Leftover Gnocchi …

For supper I had the rest of the leftover boiled gnocchi fried up in olive oil and sprinkled with grated Parmesan, smoked black pepper and sea salt – this was much better, almost really good!

My Book on Leftovers

News from the future … my book was published in March, 2013. Originally titled The Leftovers Handbook a second edition is now available called Creative Ways to Use Up Leftovers.  In it I give all the information, ideas and recipes I can think of for over 450 possible leftovers. 

Marmite’s Very Peculiar Chocolate and 2 others

So sorry I haven’t posted for a while; my real man and I have been romantically sharing a bout of ‘flu.  Sadly the experience was somewhat marred for me by some very scary chocolate lurking on my bedside cabinet and looking at me  …

Marmite Very Peculiar Chocolate

As the many hundreds of avid readers of this blog may remember I have been looking for this very peculiar chocolate for some while and eventually found a bar in, of all places, Miss Selfridge. Until today, however, I have not felt strong enough physically, mentally or emotionally to try it.  

However, having at last tasted a bit here are my thoughts …

~    There was nothing to be scared of.

~    On opening the pack I was surprised (I’m not very observant) to find milk chocolate.  I had just assumed that Marmite would be paired with dark chocolate and perhaps the colour of the wrapper may have encouraged me in this delusion.

~   A Marmity whiff exited the packet on first opening.    

~   With my first piece I could taste very little but the bar is slim (to put it politely) and the squares are small,  I then shoved in 3 squares together and could taste medium quality milk chocolate with tiny salty crystals which certainly went well with the chocolate but I could not in truth say tasted of Marmite.

~   The 100g bar of chocolate cost £3 and I think you can get either a lot more or lot better chocolate for this amount of money.  On the other hand it is an interesting and by no means unpleasant novelty and I might take some back to the islands next time I go; frighten some Americans who are notoriously Marmiteophobic.  ( *** I urge you to see below for another brilliant phobia.)

2 Other Peculiar Chocolates

This morning, it being Easter, I gave my darling a little something in the chocolate department …

I only bought it for him because he is a joiner and good at construction but, having read the warning on the packet, he decided to just eat the contents of the flat pack un-assembled. Probably he is not the only one as it says this on the packet …

“IMPORTANT NOTICE: The makers of the amazing Flat Pack Chocolate Easter Egg^TM offer no warranty either explicitly or implied as to the success of your endeavours when attempting to assemble this product.  As you can imagine, working with chocolate is not easy and requires a high level of skill.  Therefore your chances of complete the task to a satisfactory standard a rem in a word, slim.  We’ve never managed it.”

A third bar of chocolate that deserves a mention here is one that my sister gave me to eat on the bus back from my visit to her on Mersea Island.

This one reads  …

“Get a triple feel good hit from the coffee, white chocolate and ark chocolate! Don’t blame us if you can’t sleep at night, however!”

This is very yummy, the contrasting white and dark chocolates are made even deliciouser by little crunchy bits of what may well be instant coffee granules.  No offence, if I am mistaken, whatever they are I approve!

***  My niece Holly recently delighted me with news of a phobia, Anatidaephobia I think its called, which is the fear that wherever you are in the world and whatever you are doing a duck is watching you!  

Please click here to tweet this, it might help someone!

Hopefully now I am back on my feet I shall be creating some leftovers soon and will let you know what then ensues.