The Recipe Room

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:

• 300g milk chocolate, broken into pieces
• 100-150g good dark chocolate
• 170g digestive biscuits, broken into roughly shaped pieces
• 125g raisins
• 100ml evaporated milk
• 100g almonds, roughly chopped
• 100g white chocolate

Preparation Guidelines:

1. Take an 18cm square cake tin and line the base and 3 upright sides with clingfilm, leaving one side without film.
2. Pour the evaporated milk into a heavy-bottom pan, add the milk chocolate and on a low heat, gradually melt and stir the mixture together.  Remove from the heat and allow to cool, but not to set.
3. Stir in the nuts, raisins, and biscuit pieces.
4. Place the cake tin at a 45 degree angle by propping it up on one side with a box.  It should sit with the unlined side of the tin being the side that is propped up, and therefore raised above the level of work surface. Transfer the cake mixture to the propped up tin, smooth the top surface and leave until it is firm.  At this stage you can put the tin into the fridge to set the cake completely.
5. Once thoroughly set, remove the cake from the fridge, turn out of the tin and peel off the clingfilm.  If any bits of biscuit sit above the level of the chocolate mixture, you can slice these off so that the cake will sit flat on a serving plate.
6. Melt the dark chocolate and spread it in a very thin layer over the top sides of the pyramid.
7. Melt the white chocolate and drizzle in a decorative pattern for presentation.

Time:  20 minutes to prepare plus cooling and setting

Cocoa Treats: 10 servings

For 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:

• 4 small individual meringue nests
• 400g frozen berries, small raspberries or fruits of the forest
• 200ml double cream
• 200g white chocolate

Preparation Guidelines:

1. 15-30 minutes before you want to serve, place the meringue bases on individual serving dishes or plates, and heap the frozen berries onto them to create little mountains of fruit. Keep at room temperature so the fruit begins to defrost.
2. Break the chocolate into small pieces, and put in a heatproof bowl.
3. Pour the cream over the chocolate, and heat this mix over a pan of simmering water for 10-15 minutes until hot and blended.
4. Pour the hot chocolate cream into a warmed jug and take straight to the table together with the meringue fruit mountains.
5. Let your guests pour on the melted ‘snow’.

Note:    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:   15-20 minutes to prepare

Cocoa Treats:  4 servings

For 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:

• 400g caster sugar
• 400g butter
• 8 tbsp milk
• 8 eggs
• 400g self-raising flour
• 220g fudge, broken into pieces
• 220g good dark chocolate, broken into pieces

Preparation Guidelines:

1. In a mixing bowl, beat the sugar and butter together until light and creamy.
2. Whisk the eggs well in a separate bowl and then add them gradually to the sugar and butter mix.  Once well combined, add and stir in the flour.
3. Grease 4 microwaveable ramekins with a touch of butter.  Put a quarter of the fudge and chocolate pieces into the bottom of each pot, and then spoon over the sponge mixture, dividing it equally across the 4 ramekins.  Cook each pot of sponge in the microwave for around 4-5 mins until the sponge is beautifully cooked and the chocolate and fudge have melted.
4. Depending on you preference, serve directly in the ramekins, or turn the sponge puddings out into shallow bowls so that the chocolate and fudge sit at the top of your presentation.

Time: 20 mins to prepare, 5 mins to cook

Cocoa Treats: 4 servings

Note:    Try serving with warm chocolate custard, or with pouring cream

In 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 16^th 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

• 1L of freshly brewed coffee, well chilled
• 1 small pot whipping cream (200ml)
• 1L tub choc ice cream
• 60ml Baileys
• Chocolate syrup to drizzle on top

Preparation guidelines:

1. Make the coffee in advance and put in the fridge to chill.
2. Whip the cream until really firm.
3. Put the chilled coffee into a big bowl.
4. Add around half of the ice cream and mix in until slushy.
5. Add your Baileys or other drink/flavouring.
6. Mix in the rest of the ice cream, pour into tall glasses, add the whipped cream and sprinkle with the chocolate flakes.
7. Serve immediately.

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:    10 mins plus a couple of hours to chill the fresh coffee

Cocoa Treats:    4 generous servings