A chocolate affair
Intricate sculpting, surprising textures, and unconventional flavours – there’s more to these chocolate desserts than meets the eye. Whip up these offbeat yet elegant treats at your next t t - -t t .
Serves 4
Prep time 1 hour + 2 hours soaking + 1 hour refrigeration
Cook time 1 hour
white chocolate box
400g white chocolate
200g Go Pure Organic Acacia Honey
» Pour white chocolate into a grease-free metal bowl and slowly melt chocolate over a bain-marie.
» Once melted, add honey and mix well. » Spread chocolate onto baking parchment paper and score out the sizes required for each side of the chocolate box. After chocolate hardens after 5 minutes, use a knife to cut out the shapes without breaking the chocolate sheet.
» Rest the chocolate until hardened, then break along the cut lines to assemble into box shapes. Refrigerate until needed.
» Use any mould to customise your own lettering design on the chocolate box.
white chocolate rose
400g white chocolate
200g Go Pure Organic Acacia Honey » Pour white chocolate into a grease-free metal bowl and slowly melt chocolate over a bain-marie.
» Once melted, add honey and mix well. » After 5 minutes, use a teardrop metal mould to cut lightly on the chocolate sheet. Before the chocolate hardens, take the individual chocolate petals and attach them together, using the warmth of your thumb to melt the chocolate slightly. » Shape the chocolate petal edges outwards. Continue to make and attach petals to overlap other petals, until you get your desired shape and size for a rose. » Cover chocolate rose loosely with plastic wrap and refrigerate until needed.
dark chocolate mousse with liqueurcured cherries
6 organic cherries, pitted
2 tbsp brandy
150ml dark chocolate, coarsely chopped 300g cold heavy cream whites of 3 large eggs
20g raw sugar
» Slice each cherry into 8 pieces and soak in brandy for at least 2 hours. » In a large bowl over a bain-marie, stir dark chocolate pieces until melted. Turn off heat and let melted chocolate stand. » Beat heavy cream in a bowl over ice until it forms soft peaks. Set aside at room temperature.
» With a mixer, whip egg whites to soft peaks, then gradually add sugar and continue whipping until firm.
» Remove chocolate from bain-marie and fold in all egg whites using a whisk. When the white are almost completely incorporated, fold in whipped cream. » Cover the mousse with cling wrap and refrigerate for about 1 hour or until set.
chocolate genoise
50g unsalted butter
1 vanilla pod, seeds scraped 70g organic cake flour 4 large eggs
50g raw sugar
30g melted dark chocolate
» Line the bottom of an 8-inch cake pan with a parchment round, or butter and flour the pan.
» Preheat oven to 180°C.
» Gently melt unsalted butter on medium heat in a small saucepan (butter should not bubble) and cook until milk solids sink to the bottom of the pan and become brown. » Drain butter into a small bowl, discard the milk solids in the pan.
» Stir vanilla into the browned butter and set aside.
» Sift flour and set aside.
» In a mixer bowl, add eggs and sugar, then set the bowl over a pan of simmering water (but don’t let the bowl touch the water – so that the eggs don’t cook) and whisk until the eggs are lukewarm, so that it binds with the sugar.
» With the mixer, whisk until the eggs have tripled in volume.
» Sift ½ the flour over the egg mixture and fold in repeatedly using a balloon whisk. Repeat with the remaining flour.
» Fold butter mixture into batter until combined.
» Melt chocolate over bain-marie, then mix into butter mixture.
» Pour mixture into the cake pan, then bake in the oven until the cake springs back when pressed in the centre, about 30 minutes. » Leave cake to cool in the pan for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a cooling rack. » Cool cake completely before cutting to size to fit inside the white chocolate box.
assembly
» Fold brandied cherries into dark chocolate mousse.
» Place chocolate genoise into the white chocolate box as the base.
» Spoon mousse mixture into the box, then level it. Repeat until chocolate genoise touches the brim of the chocolate box. » Place white chocolate rose on top of the mousse, then serve.