Crunchy and Creamy Dark Chocolate with Raspberries

Last Sunday I went to the Big Feastival on Clapham Common, London. Jamie Oliver masterminded this weekend of food and music with all profits going to charity.

My favourite tastes of the day were both sweet ices - a delicate pistachio gelato and later a fantastic creamy raspberry pavlova ice cream with tangy raspberry coulis. I'm going to have a go at recreating both sometime this summer

I also saw some great demonstrations by Giorgio Locatelli, Matt Tebbutt, Rachel Allen, Willie Harcourt-Cooze, Gennaro Contaldo, Jay Rayner and, of course, Jamie Oliver himself. I learnt a lot and they were all engaging and amusing to watch.

 While I was there I picked up a copy of the cookbook they produced to go with the Feastival. It has a great collection of recipes from some of the participating chefs. After a bit of deliberation, I decided to try this recipe by John Murray of Vinoteca. I haven't made many multi-component desserts so this seemed like a good challenge. 

If it helps this was the order I made it in: the ganache and creamy chocolate, which went in the fridge to cool. I made the coconut crunch mix and then the crumble while it chilled. I took the creamy chocolate out of the fridge to come to room temp. Then I baked the coconut crunch, turned the oven up and baked the crumble. Finally I assembled it.   

The balance of this dessert is great - so many contrasting and complementary textures and flavours. The raspberry cuts through the rich chocolate and the various crunches from the coconut and almond round it out. It's an exciting dessert to eat. 

Crunchy and Creamy Dark Chocolate with Raspberries

(adapted from John Murray's recipe in The Big Feastival Cook Book)

For the raspberry ganache:

50g fresh raspberries

50g quality white chocolate

Chop the white chocolate up into small chunks and place in a small bowl. Press the raspberries through a fine sieve into a small saucepan until you only have the seeds remaining. Scrape down the bottom of the sieve so you don't loose any juices. Heat the raspberry juices until boiling. Take off the heat, wait 30 seconds, then pour over the white chocolate. Stir until smooth then cover and place in the fridge. 

For the creamy dark chocolate:

1 egg yolk

10g demerara sugar (or soft brown)

65ml double cream

60g quality dark chocolate

Chop the chocolate up and place in a small bowl to one side. Whisk the yolk and the sugar together in another small bowl and set aside. Place the double cream in a small saucepan and heat until just starting to boil and then take off the heat. Pour a small amount into the egg bowl, whisking as you go. Scrape the egg mixture back into the saucepan and whisk to combine. Put back over a medium heat and use a spatula to stir and scrape down the mixture until it has a custard consistency. Pour over the dark chocolate and stir until smooth and glossy. Put in the fridge until 1 hour before you want to serve. 

For the coconut crunch:

25g caster sugar

15g unsalted butter, at room temperature

pinch of sea salt

1 tsp milk

15g dessicated coconut, lightly toasted and cooled

1/2 tbsp plain flour

Cream the butter, sugar and salt together until light and fluffy. Stir in the milk then fold in the coconut and flour. Place into the fridge to rest for 30 minutes, meanwhile preheating the oven to 150C. Spread the mixture into circles or teardrops of about 3mm thickness - it should make 8. Bake for 12-15 minutes or until lightly browned.  Set onto a wire rack to cool until needed. 

For the chocolate crumble:

20g demerara sugar

20g unsalted butter, at room temperature

20g ground almonds

17g plain flour

1/2 tsp cocoa powder

Cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Fold the almonds, flour and cocoa in. Roll into a log, wrap in cling film and place into the freezer for 30 minutes. When nearly ready to serve grate the log onto a lined baking tray. Spread out and bake for 8-12 minutes. Leave to cool for 5 minutes. 

To assemble:

16 - 20 fresh raspberries 

handful flaked almonds, toasted

Divide the raspberry ganache into four and spread into four ramekins or small glass bowls. Sprinkle over 1/4 of the crumble, followed by 4-5 raspberries. Heat one or two spoons (whichever you are more comfortable with) in some hot water, then create four quenelles from the room temperature creamy dark chocolate mix. As you go place each one on top of the raspberries. Sprinkle the flaked almonds over the top and place one or two coconut crunches on top or to the side. 

(Serves 4)

Guinness Chocolate Cake

A few weeks ago, my friend Dave had his 21st birthday. As it was during exam period, it was left semi-uncelebrated. So on Saturday we decided to do a bit of a belated celebration. So I made cake. Obviously.

Dave is Northern Irish. Dave likes Guinness. So when I saw this cake while browsing the archives of Design*Sponge made by the fabulous Katie of What Katie Ate it reminded me of the Nigella original and I had to make it for him.



On Friday night we all went to a white tie ball - the Trinity College Commemeration Ball. It was my last ball at Oxford and I have to say it was by far the best. The food was great (we had oysters, eton mess, falafel wraps, noodles, hog roast, breakfast baps at 4am etc etc), the champagne and cocktails were flowing all night, the music and fairground rides gave constant entertainment and we didn't get home until 6am when the sun had fully risen. I slept for four hours (after taking my vintage 1950's full length red velvet gown with proper petticoats off) and then started making this cake. The smell of the Guinness made me feel a bit nauseous as the cocktails started to wear off, but it was worth it.

Despite my lack of sleep, the cake came together easily. It's very rich and dense but doesn't have an overwhelming taste of Guinness. The fluffy and slightly tangy icing contrasts beautifully. All in all, it's a great recipe.

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UPDATE 9/05/15: I made this again last week for another birthday and ended up changing a few things - reducing the vanilla, switching to baking powder and using less sugar and more cream in the icing - I've updated the recipe below to reflect this. As my cake hadn't cooled fully, I took the icing in a separate box to the cake (with a cooler) and then iced it perched on a bit of the bar at the pub. It worked brilliantly - the middle of the cake was still a touch warm and the cool icing was a lovely contrast. The icing was a bit foamier than in the pictures, but the cake looks much the same.



Chocolate Guinness Cake
(adapted from Nigella Lawson's Feast)

For the cake:
250ml Guinness
250g unsalted butter
75g best quality cocoa powder
400g caster sugar
140ml sour cream/greek yogurt
2 eggs
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
275g plain flour
2 tsp baking powder
pinch of salt

For the icing:
180g cream cheese
60g icing sugar
100ml double cream

Preheat the oven to 180C/350F. Fully line and grease a 23cm/9" springform tin (or a angel food cake tin of about 10"). Pour the Guinness into a large pan and put over a medium heat. Add the butter and cocoa and whisk until the butter has melted and the mixture is combined. Turn off the heat then whisk in the sugar. Beat the eggs, sour cream and vanilla together in a medium bowl then whisk them into the mixture. Finally whisk in the flour, baking powder and salt.

Pour into the prepared tin and bake in the preheated oven for 45-60 minutes - you want a skewer to come out with damp crumbs, not totally clean but not with raw mixture. Place onto a cooling rack and leave to cool (it can take quite a while to cool).

In a medium bowl, beat the cream cheese until smooth. Beat in the icing sugar in two goes and keep going until it is smooth. Whip the cream to just past soft peaks. Fold a third of the cream into the mixture to loosen it, then gently fold the rest in. Smooth over the top of the cooled cake, leaving the sides free to create the idea of a pint of guinness.

(Makes about 14-16 slices)



Three more chocolate recipes:
Coconut Milk Chocolate Cake
Chocolate Cardamon Cookies
Choco-Caramel Sundae Sauce