Food
The quality of chocolate in New Zealand is improving all the time and it makes a wonderful raw ingredient in the kitchen for desserts and sweet treats.
Chocoholics are spoilt for choice with the upsurge in the variety and quality of chocolate in this country. The basic offering in supermarkets is being sweetened by high-quality bean-to-bar chocolate and innovative new flavours and styles. Our largest bean-to-bar producer, Whittaker’s, is incorporating regional flavours such as Marlborough sea salt, Hawke’s Bay black doris plums and Nelson pears into its chocolate. It’s a delicious way to tell the New Zealand food story – especially when coming from celebrity chef Nigella Lawson in the TV ads.
The biggest story, however, is with the chocolate itself. As with many other commodities, there’s the option to work directly with farmers to ensure they are paid fairly for their produce – exploitation of cacao farmers in West Africa has been widespread and well documented – but also to secure rare varieties of cacao and of the best possible quality.
“Bean to bar” means that producers start with the raw cacao bean, often sourced direct from farmers or co-operatives, and control production all the way through to the wrapped chocolate bar. These people are “chocolate makers”; by contrast, a “chocolatier” will temper, shape and mould chocolate into desserts, filled confectionery and pastries – it’s a highly skilled craft, but they are essentially end users in the chocolate-making process.
Many chocolate makers focus on the sustainability of their product, such as Wellington Chocolate Factory, which has in the past sailed a small yacht to Bougainville to collect its cacao beans, thereby reducing its carbon footprint. It has also sought to promote the Pacific region as a producer of cacao. New Zealand chocolate makers have also used cacao from “local” producers in Samoa, East Timor and the Solomon Islands.
Chocolate is categorised by its chocolate liquor and cocoa-butter content; it can be unsweetened, bittersweet, semi-sweet, milk or white. The more bitter the chocolate is, the more intense the chocolate flavour will be. Most good chocolate will have the proportion of cocoa solids, often as high as 85%, displayed on the packaging. The higher the percentage, the better the quality. This naturally leads to it being more expensive. For cooking, I always like to work with chocolate that has a very high proportion of cocoa solids.
CHOCOLATE AND RUM MOUSSE WITH BERRIES
150g dark chocolate (75% cocoa or more), grated 75g unsalted butter, cut into very small diced cubes 3 eggs, separated
2 tbsp rum
20g caster sugar
300ml cream, lightly whipped
1 punnet strawberries
1 punnet raspberries Soften the chocolate in a large heatproof bowl set over a pan of simmering water until melted. Immediately stir in the butter, egg yolks and rum and stir very gently for 1-2 minutes – do not over beat. (Overworked or overheated chocolate will split and become grainy.) Remove the bowl from the heat and stand in a warm place.
Whisk the egg whites and sugar with an electric beater until they form soft but firm peaks. Scoop a third of the egg whites into the melted chocolate and gently whisk.
Carefully fold in the remaining egg whites with a large metal spoon, cutting through the mixture and turning it gently. Fold in half the whipped cream and stir gently until smooth.
Hull the strawberries and pull the cores out of the raspberries.
Cut any large strawberries into two or three pieces. Layer most of the berries with the chocolate mousse in a large bowl or 6-8 individual glasses. Cover with cling film and place in the fridge for 2 hours or refrigerate overnight until required.
To serve, pile the remaining whipped cream on top of the mousse, and decorate with the remaining berries and a little extra grated chocolate.
Serves 6-8.
ROLLED CHOCOLATE SPONGE WITH BERRIES
3 eggs, separated
4 tbsp sugar few drops of vanilla extract 1 tbsp cornflour
1 tbsp cocoa pinch of salt
FILLING
1 punnet strawberries 1 punnet raspberries
3 tbsp strawberry jam 150ml cream, whipped 6 tbsp greek yogurt icing sugar, to finish
Preheat the oven to 175°C. Line a swiss roll tin with baking paper.
Beat the egg yolks, sugar and vanilla until light and creamy. Sift in the cornflour, cocoa and salt and gently fold into the egg mixture.
THE CHOCOLATE BAR
Chocolate aficionado Luke Owen Smith established his business three years ago. He curates chocolate tastings, pop-up events, gift boxes and monthly subscriptions containing the best bars he can find, allowing customers to sample rare bean-tobar chocolate from all corners of the Earth. There’s even an accompanying log book for serious chocoholics to record every nuance and flavour.
HONEST CHOCOLAT
In Matakana, north of Auckland, Nico Bonnaud, a former rugby-playing pastry chef, and his wife, Emily, make a superb range of chocolates. They sell online and from their tiny store and make jellies, chocolate bars, a rich hot-chocolate drink and more. Their popular chocolate bonbons are filled with water ganache and include flavours such as lychee and rosewater, and kaffir lime and coconut. The bonbons are glutenfree, soy-free, dairy-free (except the milk chocolate) and, in some cases, sugar-free.
Beat the egg whites until stiff and carefully fold into the mixture, ensuring you do not lose any of the volume.
Pour into the prepared tin and bake for 15 minutes or until light but firm to the touch.
Turn out while still hot onto a clean tea towel, remove the baking paper, roll into a cylinder in the tea towel and set aside to cool.
To serve, hull the strawberries and pull the cores out of the raspberries. Cut any large strawberries into two or three pieces. Unroll the chocolate sponge and spread with jam. Mix the cream and yogurt together, then spread evenly over the jam, followed by half the strawberries and raspberries. Roll up the sponge, place on a platter, dust with icing sugar and serve with remaining berries.
Serves 6.