Indulge in treats at Easter

Mar 22 2008 by Alison Young, South Wales Echo

IT’S naughty, it’s nice – and the Easter holiday gives us the perfect excuse to indulge in some chocolate teatime treats.

As well as being delicious eaten ‘neat’ in bunnies, eggs and chicks, chocolate can add its own special magic to desserts and cakes.

“Eyes light up when there’s chocolate on the menu,” said Martin Dobson, owner chef of The Olive Tree Restaurant in Glebe Street, Penarth.

“We all seem to become children again when we see it and it’s so hard trying not to pinch some.”

Martin’s head chef Grady Atkins, who worked in Los Angeles for 13 years, has created some simple yet luxurious specials here, inspired by his time across the pond.

The pecans glazed in maple syrup and dipped in white chocolate go down well as petit fours or as an anytime nibble. The easy chocolate mousse, lifted by the scented tea, is a straightforward way to impress.

“Chocolate has one of the biggest feel-good factors of all foods,” said Martin. “The smell, the flavour, everything about it is associated with happiness and good times.

“For the best results for rich dishes like mousse, it’s important to use chocolate with at least 70 per cent cocoa solids.

“I would choose the best quality you can afford and steer clear of the cooking variety which is mainly fat rather than chocolate.

“White chocolate has a special taste of its own.

“It gets its flavour from cocoa butter which is high in fat and more likely to burn.”

Martin, a well-known chef on the local scene, and Grady, who touched down in South Wales last June, have put their expertise together to come up with a range of new dishes on their menu, many of them, like the recipes here, influenced by Grady’s international experience.

“My father is American,” Grady explained.

“I always wanted to travel and worked at the Ritz Carlton in Boston, a French restaurant in Hong Kong and in Paris and Sicily as well as LA.”

But wherever he worked around the world, chocolate was the one ingredient everyone wanted to order.

Aromatic chocolate mousse

Serves four to six

Ingredients

270ml (9fl oz) boiling water

pinch salt

one aromatic teabag of choice, eg Earl Grey

350g (12oz) semi-sweet dark chocolate

600ml (1pt) double cream, lightly whipped

A few blueberries dipped in sugar to decorate

Method

Break chocolate into a glass bowl.

Add the tea bag to the boiling water and infuse for at least four minutes.

Remove bag and spoon the tea water all over the chocolate, whisking at the same time.

It will be stiff to begin with but persevere.

When the chocolate mixture is down to blood temperature, fold in the double cream.

Pour into glasses and chill for two hours.

Scatter the blueberries over the top.

Banana and chocolate loaf

Ingredients

four ripe bananas

70g (3oz) unsalted butter, melted

one egg, beaten

one teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

pinch salt

400g (14oz) plain flour

one teaspoon vanilla extract

175g (6oz) chocolate chips, milk or dark as preferred

Method

Cream together butter and bananas.

Add sugar, egg and vanilla and mix well.

Add bicarbonate of soda and salt.

Fold in flour and chocolate chips.

Grease and line a 1lb loaf tin.

Bake at gas mark three, 325F, 170C for one hour.

Keep for 24 hours before serving to allow the banana flavour to soak right through.

Pecans in white chocolate dip

Makes 20

Ingredients

20 pecan nuts

four tablespoons maple syrup

100g (4oz) white chocolate

Method

Place pecans on a baking tray and roast in the oven at gas mark four, 350F, 180C for 10 – 15 minutes. Cool.

Put nuts and maple syrup into a thick bottomed pan over a medium heat for approximately seven to eight minutes until all the syrup has gone and the nuts are glazed.

Allow to cool for 15 minutes, then separate any that are stuck together.

Melt chocolate in a basin placed over a pan of boiling water.

Dip each nut up to half way in the melted chocolate and put on to parchment paper.

Allow to set in the fridge for 30 minutes.

Make sure bananas for the loaf are very ripe with no trace of green.

Roasting the pecans before use is optional but it intensifies the flavour.

Don’t be tempted to use an ordinary tea bag for the mousse.The scented one makes all the difference.