Recipes: Novel ideas for a treat

To celebrate the 15th anniversary of Chocolat’s first publication, the Yorkshire author has teamed up with food writer Fran Warde to write a recipe book inspired by Vianne Rocher’s decadent chocolaterie.

The Little Book of Chocolat has 50 mouth-watering recipes as well as facts and folklore about chocolate from Joanne.

Celeste praline Cheesecake

The term ‘praline’ has existed since the 16th century, and was originally a whole almond coated in hard sugar. Nowadays the term is a general one, referring to any confection made from sugar, nuts and chocolate. For this luscious cheesecake I’m using a favourite combination of hazelnuts, cream and dark chocolate.

serves 8

Ingredients

150g digestive biscuits

100g ground hazelnuts

100g butter

Topping:

200g dark chocolate, broken into small, even-sized pieces

125ml double cream

250g cream cheese

75g unrefined caster sugar

100g hazelnuts

Method

Place the digestive biscuits in a blender and whizz to a fine crumb. Mix in the ground hazelnuts. Melt the butter and mix it into the biscuit crumb and hazelnut mixture. Tip into a 20cm loose-bottomed round tin, spread evenly and press down with the back of a spoon.

For the topping, melt the chocolate in a bain-marie. Add the cream and blend until smooth.

Whisk the cream cheese to soften, add the chocolate mixture and sugar, and blend. Pour into the prepared tin, smooth over the top and scatter with the hazelnuts.

Place in the fridge to set for 3 hours, then carefully run a thin bladed knife around the edge to help release the cheesecake and remove from the tin.

Classic French Macarons

Macarons (or ‘macaroons’) is a term taken from the Italian maccarone. Unlike the English macaroon, which is most often based on coconut, these are traditionally a meringue base of eggs, icing sugar, ground almonds and a variety of flavours, most often sandwiched together with ganache or a fruit-based filling. Fran likes a ganache filling for these, although I like to cut the richness of the chocolate with a berry-fruit jam instead – sour cherry or blackcurrant both work very well.

Makes approx. 20 sandwiched macaroons

Ingredients

4 large egg whites

200g unrefined caster sugar

30g ground almonds

4g cocoa powder

115g icing sugar

50g dark chocolate, broken into small, even-sized pieces

2 tbsp double cream

Method

Heat the oven to 150C/gas mark 3. Line two large baking sheets with baking parchment.

Beat the egg whites until standing in peaks. Add the sugar, and whisk until stiff and shiny.

In a food processor, whizz the icing sugar, ground almonds and cocoa until really fine, then sift into a bowl.

Don’t try to skip this stage; discard any lumps that will not pass through the sieve.

Add to the egg whites, folding in with a spatula, and mix until evenly blended. Do not over mix.

Put the mixture into a piping bag and pipe on to the baking parchment in 4.5cm blobs. Bang the baking trays firmly on the work surface four times to remove the air. Leave to stand for five minutes.

Place in the middle of the oven and cook for 15 minutes. Transfer to the bottom of the oven for a further 10–15 minutes. Remove from the oven, slip the baking parchment with the macaroons off the baking sheet and leave to cool.

For the filling, place the chocolate in a bain-marie along with the cream and melt.

Remove from the bain-marie, mix and cool until it is stiff. Spread a little on one macaroon half, place another half to the filling and gently sandwich together.

Quetzalcoatl’s Chocolate Cake

According to ancient belief, Quetzalcoatl, the feathered serpent god of the Aztecs, was the lord of light and the harvest, as well as the inventor of books and the calendar.

He was worshipped with chocolate and golden maize, which makes this twist on the classic Devil’s Food Cake especially appropriate, relying as it does on the combination of butter, rich chocolate and golden syrup to give it a luscious consistency.

serves 8

Ingredients

Butter for greasing tin

150g butter

150g unrefined light brown sugar

150g golden syrup

2 eggs, beaten

225ml milk

45g cocoa powder

225g plain flour

1½ tsp baking powder

Icing:

4 tbsp cocoa powder

150g butter, soft

300g icing sugar

1½ tbsp golden syrup

3 drops vanilla extract

Method

Heat the oven to 180C/gas mark 4. Butter two 20cm sandwich tins and line the bases with baking parchment.

Place the butter, sugar and golden syrup in a saucepan over a low heat. Mix until melted and blended. Remove from the heat and cool for five minutes.

Mix the egg and milk thoroughly in a bowl, before adding the contents of the saucepan and mixing thoroughly. Finally, fold in the cocoa, flour and baking powder.

Divide the mixture between the two prepared cake tins and smooth the top with a palette knife.

Place in the middle of the oven and cook for 30 minutes. The mixture should have shrunk away from the sides of the tins a little and when a knife is inserted into the middle it should come out clean.

Cool for five minutes and then turn the cake out on to a wire rack to cool.

To make the icing, mix the cocoa with the four tbsp of hot water in a bowl until smooth. Add the butter, icing sugar, golden syrup and vanilla extract and beat until smooth and creamy.

When the cakes are cold, sandwich them together with some of the icing. Spread the remainder over the top and sides of the cake.

To help with spreading, dip your palette knife in hot water to stop the icing sticking to it, then work to your chosen finish, smooth or whirls.

• Taken from The Little Book of Chocolat:Fifty recipes celebrating the bestselling novel Chocolat by Joanne Harris and Fran Warde, published by Doubleday £12.99.