Hot chocolate our way

This post was a mother and daughter effort. Our eldest visited for the week end from Toulouse, where she’s doing her last year in architecture. Sharing a love for art and camera and food, we worked in a team to do “cocolat chaud à notre façon”. A mere twenty two years ago, she was sitting feet and all on the kitchen counter, licking from the mixing bowl. Now she is as apt at living an adult life as she was then at licking a bowl. I enjoyed this experience with her, making our hot chocolate, setting up for the photo shoot, choosing the best shot and ending with sipping our chocolat chaud.

09dec07-choc2.jpg

Chocolat chaud à notre façon(Hot chocolate our way)

  • Heat up a cup of milk per person.
  • Melt about 1 heaped tablespoon of cooking chocolate chips (70% cocoa) per cup, together with 2 tablespoons of water. Alternatively you can use 125 g of dark chocolate to 250 ml of milk.
  • Add the melted chocolate to the hot milk and simmer gently for about 5 minutes.
  • Remove from the stove and whisk with a frother(or in a chocolatiére) until foamy.
  • Pour into cups and sprinkle with cocoa.
  • Serve with brown sugar lumps on the side.

Variations:

  1. For a creamier version, replace some of the milk with cream.
  2. Add mint leaves to the milk to infuse and remove before adding the chocolate. Serve, topped with a mint leave, dusted with icing sugar.
  3. Add a cinnamon stick to the milk and infuse.
  4. Add some orange peel to infuse with the milk and serve afterwards with sugared orange peel dipped in chocolate.

chocolatiere2.jpg

Chocolate truffles

December is chocolate time – chocolate for gifts, chocolate truffles, chocolate mousse, souflé, cookies, in a cup, saucy over veal….

Everybody has a truffle recipe. Mine comes from way back, from Letitia Prinsloo (owning Femenika at the time), who opened up the Institute of Culinary Arts in Stellenbosch SA, in 1995.  I have not yet come across a more delicious chocolate truffle.

dsc_0035-3.jpg

Chocolate truffles

  • 50g butter
  • 20ml icing sugar
  • 15 ml rum
  • 2 egg yolks
  • 250g finely grated chocolate(70% cocoa)
  • 20ml cocoa
  • 50ml ground almonds roasted
  • melted dark chocolate
  1. Whisk the butter until soft.
  2. Add the sugar, rum, egg yolks, grated chocolate, cocoa and almonds and mix.
  3. Shape into small balls, roll in sifted cocoa and store in fridge.
  4. If preferred, melt 500g dark chocolate over gentle heat and dip the truffles into the melted chocolate, in place of rolling in cocoa, after you’ve let them cooled overnight in the fridge.
  5. Serve with a pinch of gold leaf for that festive sparkle.

dsc_0013-5.jpg