I had a lovely Mothers Day last weekend
My family made me breakfast in bed- with home made Hollandaise on my perfectly poached eggs; we went to yum cha for lunch, watched a movie, worked in the veggie patch, had one of my favourite dinners, and of course there were presents!
Look at the load of lovely goodies I received!
A delicious Saffron Syrup, some crystallised violets, a jar of very good quality saffron, 2 dozen plump vanilla pods, and the latest Donna Hay cookbook.
Totally blessed!
While nibbling away at my breakfast, I was flicking through the cookbook and one recipe in particular caught my eye: Chocolate Sorbet.... I knew it was meant to be.
I love Donna Hays fresh and lovely approach to food. Her recipes are delights that have such a universal appeal and can be made easily by home cooks. I own all her cookbooks, as much for the styling ideas as well as the food, and her magazine is one I squeal over every time I find it in my letterbox.
I have had a good chocolate sorbet before, but hadn't been able to recreate it in my own kitchen. I was really overthinking it. No dairy disasters, no eggwhite fluffiness, no glucose viscosity- just 4 simple ingredients. That's it. Would it have the rich mouth feel I was after without fats, would it be gritty and icy or smooth and soft, would it really taste like chocolate? I was about to find out!
2 3/4 cups Water
1 cup Castor Sugar
1/2 cup Brown Sugar
1 cup good quality Cocoa
Place the sugars and water in a saucepan on high heat, stir until dissolved, and bring to a boil
Whisk in the cocoa powder and reduce heat to medium
Leave on a high simmer for 14- 17 minutes, until the mixture is thick and syrupy and hits 96*C on a thermometer
Let it cool
Process mixture in an ice cream churner, then freeze until firmed up and ready to serve. Alternatively, place cooled mixture in a shallow dish in the freezer, stirring it vigorously about every half hour or so until ready
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Scoop out into delicious dollops of dark delight
The sorbet was exactly what I had been trying for- smooth and very, very chocolatey. I really didn't think I could have achieved that result with just cocoa alone, and I would certainly have thought that I'd need an amount of fat to achieve such full bodied richness. Boy, was I glad to be wrong.
The sorbet scooped very well and also held it's shape nicely, having a nice thick syrup is really the key here. If you didn't let it reduce far enough I don't think it would have enough viscosity to maintain it's structural integrity once frozen, or achieve such small, smooth crystals.
I'm so happy to have found this recipe, it's perfect for InTolerances and vegetarian/vegans, and trust me, so very, very delicious!
So Dear Readers, how did you celebrate Mother's Day and spoil your Mother?
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