The Mayans were amazing and sophisticated people. They learnt how to cultivate cocoa trees, and they developed ways of fermenting and roasting the beans so that they could be consumed. At the same time the Roman Empire was peaking, the Mayans were building their huge pyramids.
So here’s a recipe inspired by those incredible Mayan Pyramids. To create the unique shape of this chocolate triangle cake, the mixture is poured and set into a tilted cake tin. I have used almonds and raisins in this recipe but you can substitute any dried fruit or nuts you like; for example hazelnuts, mixed nuts, dried apricots, de-stoned prunes, dates, or glacé cherries to name a few.
Ingredients:
Preparation Guidelines:
Time:Â 20 minutes to prepare plus cooling and setting
Cocoa Treats: 10 servings
Continue readingFor this recipe, I’ve combined two recipe favourites into one – meringue with fruit and cream and iced forest fruits with hot chocolate sauce. My recipe uses white chocolate and contrasts the tartness of the dark berries with the sweetness of the meringue and chocolate cream sauce. It’s great because you take the hot sauce to the table and let your guests pour as much or as little as they like over their fruity meringue mountains. (Also try frozen berries with white chocolate sauce, which is very similar but doesn’t use meringue.)
Iced Fruit Mountains and Hot Chocolate Snow is a sumptuous melting pot of a dessert. It looks and tastes heavenly, and makes a great finish to a special meal. It’s also achingly easy. Small fruits definitely work best for this because larger ones (like strawberries or large blackberries) take too long to defrost. If you really want to use larger fruits, you’ll need to defrost them in advance so that they’re not hard and cold in the middle – then they should be perfectly defrosted as the hot sauce pours over them.
Ingredients:
Preparation Guidelines:
Note:Â Â Â You can freeze your own selection of fruit throughout the year for this and other desserts by laying fresh berries on a tray in the freezer, freezing until solid, then bagging up. This process stops them from solidifying into large clumps that are difficult to thaw or separate. It also makes it easier for you to extract the berries a bit at a time without damaging their appearance.
Time:Â Â 15-20 minutes to prepare
Cocoa Treats:Â 4 servings
Continue readingFor those still chill evenings in the spring, before the summer comes in, why not delight in making and eating this fudgy chocolate sponge pudding, which you can serve with chocolate custard and ice cream? These sponge puddings are simple to prepare and very quick to cook for a bit of a posh, midweek pud!
When we were children, we used to go and stay with my granny in the Easter holidays, and she lived by the sea – so you can imagine what fun we had playing in the sand and going to the theme parks! It was an exiting and magical time. Some days, when we got in from a long day of running and hiding in the sand dunes, she would make this pudding for us after we’d hungrily downed our pesto cod and chips and mushy peas! So this one’s in honour of precious memories with you, Gran!
Ingredients:
Preparation Guidelines:
Time: 20 mins to prepare, 5 mins to cook
Cocoa Treats: 4 servings
Note:Â Â Â Try serving with warm chocolate custard, or with pouring cream
Continue readingIn my opinion, Christopher Columbus’ most important discovery was chocolate. OK, he had to discover the Americas to find it, and that was great too, but chocolate was the best thing he ever did. Before then, it was the dark and secretive preserve of the Central Americans and one of their gods in particular, Quetzalcoatl, who is usually represented as a serpent-like figure with plumes. The ancient guardians of chocolate (or ‘xocolatl’, as it was known) revered it as a source of strength and wealth – and how right they were! It is both energy-giving and worth masses on the stock market! It has evolved into a vastly more sophisticated and varied product than Columbus could have dreamed, especially while he was drinking the bitter watery concoction that passed for drinking chocolate in those days! Columbus is known to have drunk chocolate, but it was his compatriot, Hernan Cortez who brought it back to Europe in the early 16th century. I bet they would have loved to have sampled my Mocha Slushy Punch.
Try this as a dessert idea after a filling dinner when you think there won’t be much room for heavy pudding – it goes down a treat! I use Baileys, but you could just as easily use whisky or rum for a delicious alternative. You could also create some great non-alcoholic versions or use a similar recipe for a cool iced mocha.
Ingredients
Preparation guidelines:
Note: Serve immediately in tall glasses with long spoons. Keep super-chilled if it’s going to be more than 5 mins before you serve, to preserve the slushy texture.
Time:Â Â 10 mins plus a couple of hours to chill the fresh coffee
Cocoa Treats:Â Â 4 generous servings
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