By Leigh O’Connor.
Seven days without chocolate makes one weak!
Mmmm…chocolate! Just the sound of the word invokes a desire to taste this smooth, velvety and decadent treat that most of us simply can’t do without.
This week we are celebrating all things chocolate in the leadup to the festive season – what better time to indulge the senses than over the holidays?
Did you know it takes 400 cocoa beans to make half a kilogram of chocolate? That’s a lot of beans…here are four more fun facts and four recipes from renowned Chefs for you to try at home:
•Each cacao tree produces about 2500 beans.
•The average serving of milk chocolate has as much caffeine as a cup of decaf coffee.
•Chocolate comes from a fruit tree and is made from a seed.
•Cacao beans were so valuable to early Mesoamericans that they were used as currency.
Known as Australia’s Queen of Chocolate from her MasterChef days, Kirsten Tibballs is one of this country’s most loved and celebrated pastry Chefs and chocolatiers. These days she is the brainchild behind Savour Chocolate & Patisserie School, offering hundreds of online classes and infinite possibilities for home cooks to enjoy their time in the kitchen.
Her recipe for chocolate-coated honeycomb is sure to become a family favourite – left in a single sheet, this treat has a shelf life of a month, but once broken up, it needs to be eaten within a few days.
Larissa Takchi was just 11-years-old when MasterChef Australia premiered on our screens in 2009. More than a decade later, Larissa – affectionately known as Larry – became the youngest contestant to take out top spot in the cooking competition.
Celebrate having friends and family over with these indulgent chocolate cookie and stout caramel sandwiches, garnished with a fresh shave of truffle, sea salt flakes and crushed, toasted hazelnuts.
"There is nothing better than a cookie that is just oozing caramel, it is also interesting to use truffle in a sweet context,” Larissa says.
What do you get when you combine ice cream, paperbark, smoke, chocolate and a biscuit? Say yum to Connor Bishop’s recipe for a dulce de leche ice cream sanga, coated in chocolate.
In charge of the kitchen at McLaren Vale’s Red Poles restaurant, Connor has excelled in his career from being awarded Apprentice Chef of the Year to working at some of South Australia’s best restaurants.
His ice cream dessert is a great way to finish a lunch, or make at home as the perfect show-stopper to impress guests after a memorable meal.
When afternoon tea time rolled around at the palace, there was only one cake on the mind of Queen Elizabeth II – chocolate biscuit cake!
Chef Darren McGrady was personal Chef to Queen Elizabeth II, Diana Princess of Wales and Princes William and Harry for 15 years, as well as cooking for Presidents Ford, Reagan, Bush, Clinton and Bush. He is now a Chef, author, culinary consultant, event planner and public speaker living in Dallas, Texas.
Darren says this chocolate biscuit cake recipe was Her Royal Majesty the Queen’s favourite afternoon tea cake by far; it was probably the only one that was sent to the royal dining room again and again until was all gone.
A rich dark chocolate cake, it has a lovely crunchy texture thanks to the addition of classic English cookies, called rich tea biscuits; while a layer of decadent chocolate frosting is the perfect finishing touch.
For more chocolate recipes to get chip faced, click here.
