Off the Beaten Path
I recently made Panna Cotta for a class I was participating in and used Knox Gelatine powder rather than sheets of gelatine. As with a lot of products, there was a recipe on the inside panel of the box. I don’t usually use gelatin but I had some leftover so in idle curiosity I read through the recipe – Chocolate Whirl. What caught my attention was the combination of chocolate and orange liqueur.
Orange and chocolate is a flavour combination I really like. I have a recipe for putting orange peel and chocolate in the coffee carafe before brewing the coffee. There’s a Lindt chocolate bar that I particularly like with this combination.
I had to look up the name of chocolate bar and discovered that Lindt has whole stores of their own, just their chocolate, and one is right around the corner from my home. I clicked into their website looking for the bar and saw “Home Delivery is now Available.” Let’s just skip that for now. Lindt Excellence Dark Chocolate Orange Bar. A couple of squares with my coffee in the morning… Oops, swerved a little off topic just thinking about it.
Despite being interested in the recipe for the orange and chocolate, I was only missing orange liqueur, I thought it was worth reviewing since my calculation of the sodium content put at petty low per serving. I pushed away the voice that said that the fat content was worse. Oh the things I will do for chocolate.
Whipping cream – 2 c
5 mg of sodium per tbsp = 160 mg
Milk – 1/2 c
125 mg of sodium per cup – 62.5 mg
Total sodium 222.5
Total servings = 8
Sodium per serving = 27 mg
It turned out it was a good thing I was testing the recipe and not preparing it for an occasion. I over beat the cream like a newbie and went from soft peaks to hard peaks to chocolate soup. It seems reviewing a recipe can have unexpected twists and turns.
Chocolate Whirl
Equipment
- Stand Mixer, measuring cup, measuring spoons, spatula
- measuring cup
- measuring spoons
- spatula
Ingredients
- 1/2 c milk, divided
- 1/4 c boiling water
- 3/4 c sugar
- 1/3 c cocoa powder
- 2 tsp real vanilla extract
- 2 c whipping cream
- 1 tbsp orange liqueur, optional
- chocolate curls for garnish
Instructions
- Mix cocoa powder and sugar in mixer bowl. Add vanilla, whipping cream and liqueur ifusing. Beat on medium speed until soft peaks form, stopping once when everything is combined to scrape the bottom and sides to make sure all the cocoa and sugar are incorporated. Once the soft peaks form, slowly add the gelatine and milk mixture and beat on high speed until hard peaks form. Do not over beat.
- Divide evenly into 8 dessert bowls and refrigerate 2 – 3 hours to set. Garnish with chocolate curls. If the liqueur wasn’t added, you could also garnish with fresh raspberries, orother fruit.