CHOCOLATE LOVERS

My right hand man at Giraffe, Rob Hob-Ede, is a super talented pastry chef, I’ve given him the mantle this week to tempt your taste buds with a couple of decadent chocolate treats. His chocolate marquise is to die for — so impressive-looking but ever so simple to make. The salted chocolate shortbread cookies are a stylish treat to serve with coffee.

Rob’s Chocolate Marquise

Serves: 6

Prep time: 30 mins Setting time: 3 hours

5 large (size 7) egg yolks

1 ½ cups icing sugar

200g dark chocolate, roughly chopped 250g unsalted butter, softened and cubed

½ cup dark cocoa powder 600ml cream

½ tsp vanilla essence

3 Tbsp orange liqueur (Triple Sec, Cointreau or Grand Marnier)

1 In a bowl, whisk together the egg yolks and icing sugar till thick and pale, this should take approximately five minutes.

2 Place a bowl over a pot of simmering water, add the chocolate and melt. Add the butter, one cube at a time, whisking with each addition. Remove from the pot and stir in the cocoa powder.

3 Beat the cream and vanilla paste to soft peaks, add the orange liqueur. 4 Combine the chocolate and whipped egg yolks then gently fold in the whipped cream.

5 Pour into a terrine mould or loaf tin lined with plastic film and refrigerate for three hours before turning out.

6 Slice and serve with creme fraiche and fresh mint

Salted Chocolate Shortbread Cookies

Makes: 24 biscuits Prep time: 20 mins Cook time: 15 minutes

1 ¾ cups + 1 Tbsp flour

½ cup + 1 Tbsp unsweetened dark cocoa powder

¾ tsp baking powder

220g unsalted butter

¾ cup icing sugar

220g dark chocolate, finely chopped 1 tsp vanilla paste

1 tsp flakey salt 1 Sift together flour, cocoa powder and baking powder. Set aside.

2 Using a paddle attachment for your mixer, blend sugar and butter on medium speed for about 2 minutes until pale and smooth.

3 Switch speed to low and slowly add sifted cocoa mixture until thoroughly integrated.

4 Gently add chopped chocolate, vanilla, and sea salt. Separate dough into two balls. Roll each ball into a log about 2 ½ cm in diameter. Wrap in plastic and refrigerate for an hour or so until the dough is firm.

5 Preheat oven to 160C. Line a baking sheet with baking paper. Slice dough into 1cm rounds.

6 Spread out rounds on baking paper at least 2cm apart. Bake for 7 minutes. Rotate pan.

7 Bake another 7-10 minutes depending on how soft you like your cookies. Cool on a rack and the cookies will firm up as they cool.