#everything chocolate

[hockeysweetheart]

Chocolate- Aesthetic... 

[universitybookstore]

Everything, mind you, everything. New from America’s Test Kitchen, Everything Chocolate: A Decadent Collection of Morning Pastries, Nostalgic Sweets, and Showstopping Desserts.

[silverstory11]

I have way too much chocolate in my dorm room.

Chocolate cookies, chocolate bread, chocolate drinks, chocolate spread+breadsticks (nutella go), chocolate... well, chocolate.

[sfrecipes]

Chocolate–Peanut Butter Crème Brûlée

Serves 8

Why This Recipe Works We love the creaminess and textural contrasts of crème brûlée, but ubiquitous and flavored only with vanilla bean, the dessert can be a bit, well, vanilla. We reinvented the classic French dessert by giving it a very American chocolate-peanut profile. We added ¼ cup of creamy peanut butter to our custard base in addition to 4 ounces of bittersweet chocolate, which made the custard chocolaty without adversely affecting the texture or obscuring the peanut butter flavor. We’ve found that the key to a soft, supple crème brûlée, rather than a bouncy one, is to use just egg yolks rather than whole eggs. We replaced a portion of the cream with milk to prevent the custard from becoming overly rich from the added fat from the chocolate and peanut butter. The traditional sugar crust provided a nice crunch against the creamy custard but we doubled down on the crunch for this new spin, topping the caramelized sugar with toasty, sweet-salty candied peanuts that reinforced the flavor of the peanut butter. You will need eight 6-ounce ramekins (or shallow fluted dishes) for this recipe. Use peanuts in the Candied Nuts.

           23/4   cups heavy cream, divided

           1/2     cup granulated sugar

           4          ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped fine

           1/4     cup creamy peanut butter

           1          cup whole milk

           10       large egg yolks

           3          tablespoons turbinado sugar or Demerara sugar

           1          recipe Candied Nuts (recipe below)

1 Adjust oven rack to lower-middle position and heat oven to 300 degrees. Place dish towel in bottom of large baking dish or roasting pan. Set eight 6-ounce ramekins (or shallow fluted dishes) on towel. Bring kettle of water to boil.

2 Combine 2 cups cream and granulated sugar in medium saucepan. Bring mixture to boil over medium heat, stirring occasionally to dissolve sugar. Off heat, whisk in chocolate and peanut butter until melted and smooth. Stir in remaining 3/4 cup heavy cream and milk. Meanwhile, whisk egg yolks in large bowl until uniform. Whisk about 1 cup chocolate mixture into yolks; repeat with 1 cup more chocolate mixture. Whisk in remaining chocolate mixture until thoroughly combined. Strain custard through fine-mesh strainer into 4-cup liquid measuring cup; discard solids. Divide custard evenly among ramekins.

3 Set baking dish on oven rack. Taking care not to splash water into ramekins, pour enough boiling water into dish to reach two-thirds up sides of ramekins. Bake until centers of custards are just barely set and register 170 to 175 degrees, 25 to 35 minutes depending on ramekin type, checking temperature 5 minutes early. Transfer ramekins to wire rack and let cool completely, about 2 hours. Set ramekins on baking sheet, cover tightly with plastic wrap, and refrigerate until cold, at least 4 hours or up to 3 days.

4 Uncover ramekins and gently blot tops dry with paper towels. Sprinkle each with 1 to 11/2 teaspoons turbinado sugar (depending on ramekin type). Tilt and tap each ramekin to distribute sugar evenly, then dump out excess sugar and wipe rims of ramekins clean. Caramelize sugar with torch until deep golden brown, continually sweeping flame about 2 inches above ramekin. Rechill custards for 30 minutes. Sprinkle with candied peanuts before serving.

Candied nuts:

1 cup peanut, toasted

1/4 cup sugar

1/4 cup water

1/2 teaspoon table salt

Line a rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper. Bring all ingredients to a boil in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Cook, stirring constantly, until water evaporates and sugar appears dry, opaque, and somewhat crystallized and evenly coats nuts, about 5 minutes. Reduce heat to low and continue to stir nuts until sugar is amber-colored, about 2 minutes. Transfer nuts to prepared sheet and spread in even layer. Let cook completely, about 10 minutes.

Recipe and photos courtesy of America’s Test Kitchen

[sfrecipes]

Chocolate Bread Pudding

The headnote says, ”Why This Recipe Works Bread pudding—with its rich, custardy base and pieces of bread that are at once crispy, chewy, and soft—is an immensely satisfying alternative to individual slices of French toast in the morning. We knew that adding chocolate to the mix would be a winning proposition. We started with a basic recipe that called for soaking cubed, toasted sandwich bread in egg yolks, cream, milk, and sugar. For well-rounded chocolate flavor, we knew a combination of cocoa powder and melted chocolate would be key. We preferred the richness of semisweet chocolate to milk chocolate (too sweet) or unsweetened (too grainy). Rich challah suited the chocolate base better than delicate sandwich bread, but we ran into a problem: The melted ­chocolate made the base too thick to fully soak into the bread. The solution was allowing the bread to soak in a warm mixture of cream, milk, cocoa, espresso powder, and sugar before adding the custard of melted chocolate, egg yolks, sugar, and cream. Once the bread cubes were fully saturated with our “hot cocoa” mixture, we poured the custard over the bread and baked our pudding until crisp on the outside but still soft on the inside. A generous drizzle of chocolate sauce provided the finishing touch.”

               1             (1‑pound) loaf challah, cut into ½ ‑inch cubes

               4             cups heavy cream, divided

               2             cups whole milk

               ½            cup (1 ½ ounces) unsweetened cocoa powder

               1             tablespoon instant espresso powder

               1             cup (7 ounces) sugar, divided

               8             ounces semisweet chocolate, chopped

               10           large egg yolks

  Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 300 degrees. Toast challah cubes on rimmed baking sheet, stirring occasionally, until golden and crisp, about 30 minutes. Transfer to large bowl.

Increase oven temperature to 325 degrees. Grease 13 by 9‑inch baking pan. Heat 1 ½  cups cream, milk, cocoa, espresso powder, and ½  cup sugar in small saucepan over medium-high heat, stirring occasionally, until steaming and sugar has completely dissolved. Pour warm cream mixture over toasted challah and let stand, tossing occasionally, until liquid has been absorbed, about 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, bring 1 cup cream to simmer in now-empty saucepan over medium-high heat. Remove from heat, add chocolate to hot cream, and stir until chocolate has melted and mixture is smooth. Transfer 1 cup chocolate mixture to bowl and let cool for 5 minutes (cover pan and set aside remaining chocolate mixture). Whisk egg yolks, remaining 1 ½  cups cream, and remaining ½  cup sugar into chocolate mixture in bowl until combined.

Transfer soaked challah mixture to prepared pan, distributing it evenly over bottom of pan. Pour chocolate custard mixture evenly over challah mixture. Bake until custard is just set and surface of pudding is slightly crisp, about 45 minutes, rotating pan halfway through baking. Transfer to wire rack and let cool for 30 minutes.

Warm reserved chocolate mixture over low heat, then pour over pudding. Serve. (Leftover bread pudding can be wrapped in plastic wrap and refrigerated for up to 3 days; reheat individual portions in microwave.)

Serves 12.

Recipe and photo courtesy of America’s Test Kitchen and excerpted from:

[silver-moon-rose]

"Save the Earth... Its the only planet with chocolate"

- Unknown

[chocolate-besos]

Queue-ing anything & everything chocolate!

So beware x]