Death by chocolate

Chocolate ganache Pot with a strawberry surprise

What can I say about Chocolate that’s not already been said? Whenever summer love leaves me... its chocolate that stays with me throughout the year; bringing a smile to my face.

For now I’ll just stop at that. I will probably dedicate an entire post to chocolate later but I must add that Ganache does great justice to chocolate. It's a glaze, icing or filling made from chocolate and cream. Imagine that! Ganache goes back to the year 1850, invented in either Switzerland or France. Whoever it was, he/she did leave me upsizing and wanting it more and more.

Let's move on and bring a smile on that face!

Ingredients

Chocolate-semi sweet or bitter sweet (I used dark-bittersweet)

Digestive biscuits

Fresh cream

Sugar

Gelatin Powder

Butter

Strawberries

Brown sugar

Lemon Juice

Mint

Method:

For a biscuit base:

Crush the biscuits well - add them into a sauce pan and add 1.5 tbsp. of butter and mix well. (Add butter according to how well the crust has mixed; less or more depends on your serving) You can add cinnamon for an extra (surprise) flavor to your base.

After mixing well, empty it out in a pot and layer it well (I used a serving pot). You could turn it into a Chocolate Ganache Pie by using a spring tin by serving it completely scooped out. You could also scoop it out while make it into a pot (might need a little expertise).

Freeze the base.

Sautéing Strawberries:

Caramelizing strawberries, yummy! I love doing this. The water strawberry releases combined with sugar is just amazing!

Cut the strawberries into half (again depending on your serving) - I cut around 2 and half for my pot. Add one tbsp. of brown sugar and one tbsp. of white sugar. Add drops of lemon juice.

Cook until the strawberries release water and the melted sugar is completely coated onto your strawberries. You'll notice your strawberry texture change.

Preparing the Ganache:

I heated half cup of cream in one sauce pan.

I melted the dark chocolate on another pan by adding pieces of chocolate with tbsp. of sugar and 1-2 tbsp. of butter.  Make sure you keep a watch on the chocolate as it could burn easily. Cook on medium-low heat and stir. Remove as soon as the chocolate has melted.

Add the chocolate to the cream sauce pan and mix well.

Once that's combined well, turn the heat off for the next step.

While stirring in the lovely glossy ganache, add 2 tsp. of gelatin powder. Do not do this over the heat as it'll create lumpy texture.

Final cooking step

Add your caramelized strawberries to you ganache and fold. I love how the tart flavor the sauce released during the caramelizing process and added to the lovely ganache. Just looking at it made me drool and writing about it is worse! In fact, once I'm done, I'm treating myself. Considering I've gone an entire day without sweet ;)

Next post - Supreme Trifle

Lovingly yours

-A-