Dear Readers,
Firstly, sorry for
my absence of late. I'm in (what I hope will be) the final stages of editing my
book and what with my fab-u new German class I haven't surfaced for yonks.
Still, a girl's gotta
eat, right?
So today, when we were
preparing a lovely Sunday roast, I stumbled a chocolate dessert recipe that is so simple and
versatile, its suitable for most, including (with some tweaking) dieters,
vegans and (if you remove the whisky) non-drinkers and so on (insert your
dietary need here). Essentially its a classic, but with a little play I'd like to think I've enriched it...do let me know.
*********************
Roche's
whisky cardamom chocolate puds
(makes 2 servings)
4 generous tablespoons* of fine cornflour
4 tablespoons of cocoa powder
2 spoonfuls of raw cane sugar (or sugar product of your choice, or try with Agave nectar)
4 cardomon pods, ground with pestle and mortar
400ml or so of milk of your choice.
For my base I took a
chocolate pudding mix (schoko-pudding auf Deustch, how cute) from the supermarket, which, laughably, consists of all
of two ingredients, cornflour and cocoa powder. Both of these goodies may well
be in your store cupboard already.
To this I added about two or three generous spoonfuls
more of cocoa, because I wanted to achieve an intense dark chocolate taste
and the schoko-pudding mix looked rather pale**. Then I ground up 4 cardamom
pods with a pestle and mortar (after grinding remove the shells of the pods and use only the ground-up
seeds).
In place of dairy milk I
used oat milk. Of course you can use cow's milk and indeed cream for a richer,
more indulgent variation. Stir 6 spoonfuls of the cold milk into your
chocolate-cornflour base (you're aiming for a creamy consistency here, judge it
by eye) and heat the rest on the stove to almost boiling point.
The cold
mixture will form a beautifully rich chocolate paste, to which you should add your
sugar to taste and ground cardamom.
When the milk is approaching boiling point,
pour it over your chocolate mixture and stir together and then immediately
return to the stove on a moderate to high heat. Continue stirring with a whisk, and very quickly
your mixture should begin to thicken. Glorious.
Only when removed from the heat, add the whisky, (we really
don't want this to cook out, people).
Pour into nice (sturdy, heatproof) glasses or ceramic ramekins. When cooled, you may like to add a
layer of whipped cream, about a finger thick, or indeed a non-dairy equivalent (soya cream? get hunting).
Allow to cool in the fridge for at least a couple of hours, or until dinner
time!
Dust with cocoa powder over to serve.
Cardamom and whisky
compliment each other beautifully, but if you're avoiding liquor I also find that
the cardamom and cocoa combination is rather intoxicating as well.
*by which I mean
ordinary spoons for eating, and not large serving spoons.
** My 'schoko pudding' base from the supermarket was 4 parts cornflour to 1 part cocoa powder, whereas my mixture used roughly even amounts of both.
