Do you like chocolate? How much do you like chocolate? I like chocolate, but this dessert was too much cocoa even for me!! The recipe calls for close to 300 grams of 70% cocoa chocolate. After eating one serve of this dessert I filled my chocolate cravings for a week! Dont get me wrong, its tasted divine, but I really thought that the chocolate could have used a little sweetness, and dare I say, a little bit of milk solids. This dessert is one for the adults, rich, intense and very wicked, I enjoyed it with a glass of Nobel one. If I was to make this recipe again, which I'm sure I will, I will be adding a little milk chocolate to try to cut the richness of the cocoa.
I was a little nervous when making this dessert. I have a basic understanding of physics and don't remember the lesson where they taught us if you whisk chocolate and water together it forms a chocolate mousse, I must have been on a sickie that day or something. I tentatively added the water to the solid chocolate and waited for it to melt. I don't know what I thought would happen, I was imagining an unshaken Milo with solid bits of chocolate floating on the top. But I ended up with a silky, rich looking chocolate mixture.
The next step involved putting the silky chocolate into an iced water bath and whisking until your arm falls off. About 2 minutes into the whisking I wished my old hand held mixer didn't die. I never thought I would ever reach that realization, but here I was wishing that my trusty old friend was still around. I was a disbeliever, I thought surely this wont work and I'll have to guzzle half a liter of chocolate water....new Chinese torture or the new Adkins diet?! But it worked!! It was a little like whipping cream, you whisk and whisk, and nothing seems to be happening, and then all of a sudden...BAM! frothy cream! I let out a little whimper of joy....remember I was hand whisking....and then moved onto the next step.
Every other aspect of the dish was so incredibly simple. I used frozen raspberries to make the raspberry and rhubarb juice, and used fresh raspberry's for the presentation. I think the raspberry poached rhubarb was the best component of the whole thing. The rhubarb was so soft and it managed to soak all the raspberry flavor into its flesh. It was delicious! I'm going to make a huge batch of the rhubarb and eat it spooned over some cold custard...YUM!
Raspberry, sugar and rhubarb skin ready to cook
Hey presto! Liquid gold!
I must say one thing abut this dish that I don't often say about other recipes, it was a very pretty dessert. The gorgeous plump raspberries sitting on top of the frothy dark and handsome chocolate, finished off with the rose coloured nectar, you can't help but swoon once it is presented in front of you, ready to be devoured.
15 comments:
Oh man, now you got me craving chocolate a week early!
Woah nearly 300g of rich chocolate is a LOT of chocolate. I can imagine being satisfied from just a mouthful! I know what you mean, water+chocolate makes me very nervous, looks like it turned out just right!
I always wanted to learn how to make chantilly cream ever since I had it in France. Thanks for sharing! It's very engaging reading how you anticipating the results :)
Oh god your poor arms. This always seems to end badly for me when I have to hand whisk/stir/beat things in the kitchen. After my right arm gets tired I try doing it with my left, which is completely uncoordinated and I end up spilling things everywhere before giving up and returning to my right arm. There may be some grunts or moans in there too, after which my housemate makes a comment about how I should just go buy whatever it is I'm trying to make from the shop!
Anyway, enough about me... this dessert IS pretty! Pretty rich, hehe. I'm intrigued by the process too.
It is a pretty dessert. I can't believe you hand whisked it though - I'm so not strong enough to even contemplate that. Whisking chocolate with water does sound interesting though (I've only whisked water into melted chocolate and that was a problem!!). I know what you mean about too much chocolate - I've had that in two desserts I've made. :)
Wow, that is a lot of chocolate! It's definitely pretty though. I never would have thought that whisking water into chocolate would make it a mousse - crazy!
That is such a pretty dessert! At least all that whisking balances out all that chocolate, hehe!
Wow, that looks gorgeous! Even a big batch of raspberry rhubarb won't last long. I was imagining a horrible lumpy disaster for the chocolate and water too, but it looks just gorgeous. Probably worth repeating with a different strength chocolate.
Too much chocolate? Hmmmmm, I think I could definitely eat through my fair portion, and then some. I love all the components of this dessert. Great job!
Your photos are amazing. Food porn
Oh my goodness the results look amazing! Oh how I wish I could take photos like you do.. total food porn.
I love raspberry and rhubarb but never thought about putting the two together...genius.
Beautiful photos! I love this. 300gr of 70% chocolate seems like a truckload (I used the same amount with brownies over the weekend!) but at least you know you'll definitely satisfy that chocolate craving! I think I literally overdosed on chocolate over the weekend though :(!! Also, I want to pass on an award to you, please pick it up from my blog :)
Mm, I like chocolate but I love raspberries.
Hey all the whisking must have burnt a whole lotta calories right?
It looks SOOOOO GOOOOOOD! you have nailed it!!
That's a real show-stopper of a dessert! The kind you want to nonchalantly 'whip up' when people come over..."Yes I do this every day, don't you?" Though obviously you might have to hide the pain from the arms hehe! I've had to whisk something quite significant recently so I can empathise! Saving it for a future blog post because I'm REALLY proud of the outcome haha! Glad to see our efforts are paying off! =o)
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