A Recipe for Choco Lovers

Chocolate in many incarnations is always a lovable dish, like this Mousseline de Genepi with Chocolate Fondue recipe by Chef Marc Veyrat. This recipe is composed of two parts. The first part is the sabayon itself (referred to as mousseline). The sabayon is simply egg yolks mixed with a “30° syrup” – a syrup made from boiling equal amount of water and sugar or with 50:50 ratio for 30 seconds. To enhance the flavor and aroma add whipped cream and Génépi liqueur. Thus, the recipe is called “Mousseline de Génépi” or “Génépi liqueur sabayon.” The second part is the chocolate sauce. It’s made fully packed with chocolate flavor by using bitter chocolate and cocoa powder at the same time then sweetened with sugar.

Mousseline, Muslin in French, is a sauce or food like a mousse. It is prepared with whipped cream in it. Another way of preparing it is by puréeing or molding beaten egg whites instead, together with meat or seafood. It’s usually made with whipped cream and the ingredients used in a hollandaise sauce (mayonnaise). Mousseline is also used to describe pastries and cakes containing delicate mixtures with cream or butter. Many more online video recipes are available here.

Zabaione, an Italian term, also spelled as zabajone, or zabaglione, is called as sabayon in French. It is popular in different terms in other places. It is an Italian dessert made using egg yolks, sugar, and sweet wine (originally Moscato d'Asti in its old recipe). Presently Marsala wine is more widely used. Sometimes, whole eggs are also used for this. It actually is a custard, very light one because it is whipped to incorporate a large amount of air. Since the 1960’s, zabaglione is traditionally served with fresh figs. It is commonly served with fresh strawberries in a glass.

Ingredients

For the chocolate sauce:

2 cups water
0.33 lbs Caribbean chocolate
3.5 oz. cocoa powder
For the Mousseline de Genepi:
7 egg yolks
½ cup water
½ cup sugar
12.32 oz. (about 1 ½ cups) whipped cream
5 ½ tablespoons powdered sugar
6.4 oz. Genepi liqueur

1. Prepare the sabayon. Boil the water and sugar together for 30 seconds to make syrup. Heat up the egg yolks with this. Leave it to cool.

2. Melt some chocolate in a bain marie. Cut some plastic sheet or cooking film into rectangular strips twice the height of a circular mold and long enough to cover it. Shine it up with some cotton balls. Spread the chocolate sauce thinly on the plastic sheets. Roll one up and insert it till the bottom of a circular mold. Refrigerate.

3. Prepare the chocolate sauce. Heat up together chocolate with water and cocoa powder. Add sugar then mix together constantly stirring. Remove it from heat.

4. Take the sabayon then mix it. While mixing it, add the cream, Génépi, and sugar. Take the chocolate molds and fill each quickly with sabayon. Put them in the freezer.

5. Set the serving plates to a lukewarm temperature. While doing this, boil the chocolate sauce. When done, spread some chocolate sauce on the center of the plates.


6. Remove the sabayon filled chocolates from the freezer. Then remove the molds and the plastics. Set them on the plate then drizzle with some chocolate sauce on top. Serve immediately.

Heavenly Taste of Fudge

Before 1886, the origin and history of fudge is unclear, but Fudge is thought to be an American invention. Most believe the first batch was a result of an accidental “fudged” batch of caramels, hence the name “fudge”.

In 1886, fudge was sold at a local Baltimore grocery store for 40 cents a pound. This is the first known sale of fudge. A letter, found in the archives of Vasser College, written by Emelyn Battersby Hartridge reveals that Emelyn wrote that her schoolmate's cousin made fudge in 1886 in Baltimore and sold it for 40 cents a pound. More chef recipes are available in just a push of a button.

In 1888, Miss Hartridge asked for the fudge recipe, and made 30 pounds of fudge for the Vassar Senior Auction. The recipe was very popular at the school from that point forward. Fudge became a new confection after word spread to other women's colleges of the tasty delight. Later, Smith and Wellesley schools each developed their own recipe for fudge.

Ingredients

1 (14-ounce) can sweetened condensed milk
1 tablespoon salted butter
1/2 teaspoon salt
18 ounces chocolate (buy the best chocolate you can find — this should be a pure chocolate see note below)
1 teaspoon pure vanilla

1. Line an 8-inch square pan with parchment or foil and set aside.

2. Heat sweetened condensed milk, butter and salt on medium low in a 2-quart sauce pan.

3. In a separate container, pre-melt the chocolate in the microwave until it is totally melted and stirred – no lumps. Be careful to not overheat the chocolate in the microwave -- use 30-second intervals and stir at every break. When the sweetened condensed milk is warm and has loosened up, pour all of the chocolate into the sauce pan with the milk. Stir with a wooden spoon. The mixture will be thick as the chocolate incorporates and then it will get glossy. When your mixture turns glossy, add vanilla and stir quickly. Remove from heat and pour IMMEDIATELY into the prepared pan. Cool for several hours in the refrigerator before cutting into small squares. Fudge is best kept in an airtight container and eaten within 4-5 days.

4. This recipe can be doubled and put in a 9- by 13-inch pan.

5. A note about chocolate: Buy a high-quality chocolate at a retailer like Whole Foods or Trader Joe’s. Chocolate chips or the chocolate sold for dipping fruit are not good choices as they have stabilizers in them which makes for a stiffer fudge.

Chocolates was Only Served to the Gods

Chocolate comes from a fruit called a pod that grows on the cacao tree. A seedling tree generally must mature for five years before it produces pods, with peak pod production happening at 10 years. A cocoa tree can bear fruit and produce pods for 30 to 40 years. Each pod is similar in size to a football, and contains up to 50 cocoa beans. To make one ounce of milk chocolate, it takes 4 cocoa beans, and one ounce of dark chocolate requires 12 beans. An average American or Canadian will consume about 12 pounds of chocolate per year. However, the Swiss are the world’s largest consumers of chocolate, eating about 22 pounds of chocolate per person per year!

Chocolate can be bittersweet, and we don’t mean literally. Although chocolate has many benefits to your health, some facts about how chocolate is made may make you want to munch on a different snack, or at least lower your chocolate intake.

Dark Chocolate Health Benefits - www.BeCancerFree.info

Heart Health Benefits of Dark Chocolate:

Dark chocolate is good for your heart. A small bar of it everyday can help keep your heart and cardiovascular system running well. Two heart health benefits of dark chocolate are:

Lower Blood Pressure: Studies have shown that consuming a small bar of dark chocolate everyday can reduce blood pressure in individuals with high blood pressure.

Lower Cholesterol: Dark chocolate has also been shown to reduce LDL cholesterol (the bad cholesterol) by up to 10 percent.

AT PRESENT...

Chocolates came a long way to get to the wrapper it's in right now.  From the ancient times to the middle ages, chocolate is only for the kings, then to the wealthy and now for everyone who wants to indulge themselves in the bitter sweet taste of chocolates. Healthy it maybe but too much can lead to unhealthy results.

Now let me give you a mouth watering dessert for all season, serve it cold or serve it warm.  The choice is yours

http://www.gourmandia.com/recipes/boysenberry-chocolate-brownie

Ingredients

1 can (15 oz.) boysenberries in syrup

3/5 cup butter

3/4 cup cocoa

3 eggs

1 1/4 cups caster (superfine) sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 cup self-rising flour, sifted

Preparation Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F and line a 9-inch square cake pan with baking paper. Drain boysenberries, reserving the juice.

2. In a saucepan gently melt the butter and cocoa, stir and set aside to cool.

3. In a large bowl, beat the eggs, sugar and vanilla until thick and creamy; then fold in cooled chocolate mixture and flour.

4. Pour batter into cake pan and place drained boysenberries over the top, letting them sink in by themselves. Bake for 30-40 minutes or until brownie springs back when touched.

5. To make a boysenberry sauce, place reserved boysenberry syrup in a small saucepan and simmer gently for 12-15 minutes or until reduced by half and thickened. Set aside to cool.

6. Cut brownies into squares and dust with cocoa if desired and serve with whipped cream, yogurt or ice cream drizzled with the boysenberry sauce.