Three of the best chocolate recipes for chocolate addicts Wine News

Chocolate is the refuge of the full and the broken-hearted. Who among us has not turned to it in times of turmoil? I usually make chocolate recipes for Valentine’s Day and Easter, but watching the days leading up to Christmas – with an eye out for news about Covid updates – I knew we would need it.

There are different levels of need and desire for chocolate. I went on vacation with my sister last year and got used to her daily chocolate routine. She buys good things and eats a square every night. Oddly enough, she has it with a cup of tea.

I love chocolate with coffee – sweet with bitter – my thing too, but the notion of a square of great chocolate every day seems like a good idea. I once spent a day with a former chocolate buyer for Fortnum & Mason, a French woman who had calibrated her chocolate consumption to perfection. She loved it, of course, and always had, but she had to control the amount of consumption she consumed early in her life.

After her morning swim, she tasted a square of high quality chocolate (I mean really good things, Amedei or Valrhona). She had another square after lunch, another at 4 p.m., and another after dinner. Eaten this way, and with an awareness of what to look for – the flavor of berries or citrus, the sharp ‘snap’ chocolate makes when you break it, the ‘melt’ on the tongue – you can really enjoy chocolate. For some, four squares may be enough.

Then there’s the chocolate eater halfway there. This is where I am most of the time. I love chocolate, but I can usually take it or leave it, and I prefer it with other flavors. The marmalade, chocolate, and bread and butter pudding I share here are perfect. I like chocolate to “punctuate” a dish, to find chips that contrast strongly with other elements, or to enhance them, so I find ways to associate chocolate with orange, raspberries, fruits of passion and coffee.