This book is a collection of some of our favorite things to do with two of our favorite ingredients: chocolate and culinary herbs.
Want more? Check out Amber and Jake’s Foodie Friday Bonus Recipes and Bean to Bar Mysteries Bonus Recipes.
Chocolate Gingerbread.
Chicken Satay with White Chocolate Peanut Sauce.
Dark Chocolate Mushroom Arancini.
Maybe you didn’t realize these things were missing from your life, but try them, and you may find yourself with some new go-to recipes to impress at dinner parties, or treat yourself or your family at home. Plus, sampling them might change the way you think about chocolate.
Chocolate can be earthy, bitter, nutty, subtle or sweet, and it’s not just for dessert. There are Herbs in My Chocolate uses everything from cocoa butter and white chocolate to chocolate infused balsamic vinegar to explore the range of tastes that can come from the seeds of a single tree.
In this book, you will learn how to make herbal syrups, sauces, pastes and candied herbs, and to infuse herbs into ice cream, confections, breads and pastries. Most importantly, you will learn how to choose herbs to pair with different types of chocolate to create balanced flavor profiles. The herbs involved may be fresh from the garden, dried, or infused into herbal liqueurs.
These meticulously tested recipes, featuring detailed full-color photographs, will take you on global culinary adventures. This cookbook updates and fuses traditional ingredient combinations.
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The author of the Chocoverse science fiction series brings you an out-of-this world delicious cookbook!
Chocolate. It’s not just for dessert. Using chocolate to round out flavor profiles is an easy, creative way to add unexpected flair to any part of your menu. From aperitifs, to soups, to entrees to dessert, there’s a place for chocolate. Chocolate doesn’t have to be sweet. Consider ways to incorporate chocolate into the savory side of things:
— Cocoa powder adds an earthiness to sauces and pairs beautifully with mushrooms.
— Dark chocolate can fill in the same flavor notes as red wine in stews and chili.
— Cocoa butter can add a delicate perfume to pesto and salad dressings, and take the place of butter in making bruschetta and toast.
— Cocoa nibs can take the place of nuts (especially for individuals who are allergic to nuts) to add an unexpected crunch to salads and baked goods.
Dark Chocolate Mushroom Arancini
These fried appetizers are a traditional way to use up leftover risotto – given a chocolaty twist. And the Italian herb blend in the coating gives it an extra kick of flavor. The mushrooms in the risotto highlight the earthy nature of chocolate.
Chicken Chilaquiles with Cocoa Red Sauce
This is another traditional dish designed to use up leftovers: in this case tortillas and salsas, which make for a delicious layered dish. The dark chocolate in the red sauce in our version shows how chocolate can be subtle, adding a depth of flavor and notes that you won’t necessarily recognize as “chocolaty.”
Pumpkin Ravioli with Cocoa Brown Butter Sauce
Making your own pasta dough is a fun way to elevate your cooking, and we’ve stuffed the herbs for this recipe inside the ravioli. The cocoa powder in the brown butter sauce speaks to the bitter side of chocolate, which balances the rich and slightly sweet pumpkin.
Rosemary Honey Butter Roll with Dark Chocolate
In these rolls, the surprise ingredient is the Colby jack cheese, which goes well with rosemary. And here, the chocolate is left in chunks, so you can really taste it in contrast to the dough. Use a single origin dark chocolate from Madagascar (or anything that says cherry or raisin in the flavor notes), and you can taste the bright berry notes that show chocolate has a fruity flavor palate.
Lavender and Roses Hot Chocolate
This is a French-style hot chocolate, which is basically a drinkable ganache. It highlights how neutral-flavor chocolate (usually a blend of chocolates from different origins) can be just what you think of as “chocolaty,” which lets it be a good base to let other flavors be the star – in this case the delicate floral flavors imparted by the lavender and rose.
Cocoa Nib, Cinnamon and Bay Ice Cream
Cocoa nibs are broken up pieces of roasted cacao beans. They have a nutty flavor, something like pecans with a hint of coffee and chocolate. This ice cream uses them to show off chocolate’s nutty flavor palate. Cinnamon and bay go together to create a warm-noted backdrop for the nibs.
Chocolate Cinnamon Cupcakes with Lemongrass Frosting
A number of these recipes have one component that incorporates the culinary herbs (in this case, frosting infused with lemongrass and cinnamon whiskey) and another that includes the chocolate (the rich cinnamon-chocolate cupcake sponge). Alone, they each taste good, but when you put the components together, you get something special.
Pistachio and Cardamom Bark
Of course, chocolate also hits sweet notes, especially milk and white chocolate, which contain more sugar. This bark has a bitter-sweet chocolate base, with white chocolate spread on top of it. The flavors layered onto the bark are inspired by kheer (Indian-style rice pudding) and include saffron, cardamom and rose.