4 Chocolate Desserts For Valentine’s Day

February 10, 2019

by Rebecca Down Eat

Here are 4 chocolate desserts that will melt your heart…

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The aphrodisiac powers of chocolate are no secret, making it the perfect ingredient to turn to on the day of love. If you’re looking for a chocolate dessert that will leave your sweetheart weak at the knees, the search ends here. From vegan treats to boozy tiramisus, there’s something here for everyone. Date night decadence never looked so delicious…

Pink Summer – Himbeere küsst Holunderblüte

Ingredients

120 g white all purpose flour
a pinch of salt
6 level tsp icing sugar
6 level tsp raw cacao powder
40 ml / 2½ tbsp olive oil
20-30 ml / 1½-2 tbsp water (at room temperature)
For the Chocolate Filling: 75 g dark (70% cocoa) chocolate
For the Chocolate Filling: 60 ml / ¼ cup full fat coconut milk
For the Chocolate Filling: 30 ml / 2 tbsp water
For the Chocolate Filling: 2 tsp maple syrup

Instructions:

To make the pastry, sift flour, icing sugar and cacao into a mixing bowl. Add olive oil and rub it into the dry ingredients with your hands. Finally gradually and slowly add water – how much water you’ll need depends on how absorbent your flour is. Combine all the ingredients into a dough gently, but do not knead. Wrap it in a piece of cling film and chill in the fridge for 30 mins.
Remove the dough from the fridge and divide into 4 portions. Place each portion of the dough between two sheets of baking paper and roll gently until you get a rough circle, about 2-3 mm in thickness.
Put each rolled-out pastry over each mould and and work the pastry into the mould. Trim off the excess pastry with a sharp knife. Prick the bottom of the pastry with a fork in a few places. Place the pastry in the fridge for about 60 mins.
45 min into pastry chilling time, preheat the oven to 175° C. Cover the pastry cases with a small piece of baking paper and fill with baking beads.
Blind bake the pastry for 15 mins, then remove the beads and bake for another 5 mins. Cool pastry cases down completely before pouring any of the filling in.
To make the chocolate filling, melt the chocolate very slowly over a bain marie. Once melted, remove from heat, but keep the bowl with chocolate over the hot water. Start adding coconut milk whisking gently the whole time. At this point the chocolate may stiffen a little, don’t worry, keep whisking gently and any lumps will eventually melt away. Once you have added all coconut milk, add water stirring the whole time.
Once you have a smooth ganache, add 2 tsp of maple syrup. Let it cool off completely before pouring it into cool pastry cases.
When the cases are chilled, pour cool chocolate filling into the tart cases. Let the tarts set for a few hours at room temperature. You can also put them into the fridge if you want be able to eat them sooner.

Raspberry Pistachio Florentines

Ingredients:

125 g flaked almonds
75 g pistachios
50 g dried cranberries
3 tablespoons freeze-dried raspberries
25 g unsalted butter
90 g caster sugar
15 g plain flour
150 ml double cream
200 g dark chocolate

Method:

Preheat oven to 190C (375F).
Lightly crush the flaked almonds and chop the pistachios. Roughly chop the cranberries. Place in a small bowl along with the freeze dried raspberries.
Melt the butter and sugar together in a heavy-based saucepan – don’t take this too far, you don’t want browned butter here! Add the flour and stir together to form a kind of roux.
Add the cream and beat with a whisk until you have a smooth consistency.
Stir in the nuts, cranberries, freeze-dried raspberries and a big pinch of salt (if liked).
Place teaspoonfuls of the mixture onto lined baking sheets.
Bake for 10-12 minutes until just golden brown. The Florentines should have flattened out. Let them cool briefly on the baking sheet before transferring to a cooling rack to cool completely.
Melt the dark chocolate and spoon some over the back of each florentine so that you have a nice thick coating. Leave to set before serving.

Ameretti Tiramisu

Ingredients (Serves 4):

Amaretti biscuits, 20-24
Espresso or strong coffee, 2 shots/2 oz
250ml Mascarpone
250 ml Whipping cream
Icing sugar, 1/4 cup
Vanilla, 2 tsp.
Rum or brandy, 4-6 tsp.
Cocoa for dusting, 3-4 tsp.
Chocolate shavings

Method:

Make two shots of espresso if you have an espresso machine or 2 oz of very strong coffee.
Divide your amaretti cookies between 4 pots. Pour 1/2 of espresso shot in each glass over the cookies and 1 tsp. of rum.
Whip mascarpone and cream with icing sugar and vanilla until stiff peaks form, it will take about 5 minutes.
Divide your mascarpone mixture evenly among 4 jars. Dust with chocolate cocoa and shaved chocolate.

Chocolate Lava Pots with Orange Chantilly Cream

Ingredients:

125g unsalted butter, plus extra for greasing
1 tablespoon cocoa powder
1 sprig of rosemary
125g dark chocolate, broken up
2 eggs
2 egg yolks
125g caster sugar
2 tablespoons plain flour
Icing sugar, for dusting
orange zest, to garnish
!For the Cream:
200ml double cream
1 tablespoon caster sugar
grated zest of 1/2 orange

Method:

Preheat the oven to 180°C/Gas Mark 4.
Grease four mini pudding moulds with butter, then dust the inside of each mould with cocoa powder.
Remove the leaves from the sprig of rosemary and put into a heatproof bowl with the chocolate and butter. Set the bowl over a pan of simmering water and melt gently, stirring. Remove from the pan and leave for about 5 minutes to cool slightly. Whisk together the eggs, egg yolks and caster sugar in a large mixing bowl.
Pass the chocolate mixture through a sieve into another bowl, to remove the rosemary, then mix into the egg and sugar mixture. Gently fold in the flour.
Divide the chocolate mixture among the moulds and set them on a baking tray. Bake for about 12 minutes or until just set (you need to keep checking). Remove from the oven immediately and leave to rest for 30-60 seconds.
Make the cream. Put the cream and sugar in a mixing bowl and whip until thick. Add the orange zest and whip the cream until it will hold semi-stiff peaks. Set aside in a cool place.
Serve the fondants in their moulds) and dust with a little icing sugar, a spoonful of the orange Chantilly cream and a scattering of orange zest.