“Can’t live without” Chocolate Thursday

Did you know there’s no appropriate time in the day of the week of the month in a year to eat chocolate? None. I checked. The consensus says it’s now or never. The people have spoken! I’m shaking a little from this powerful information. It’s a mix of excitement and all the sugar I just consumed.

fdsrgrdsgert356ygn xgdggggggggggg

Don’t worry, I can still type.

It’s a little unfortunate that this day just happens to fall on the day that I’m not going to mention right now. Sure, flowers exist in this house but I’m probably not on the same love level as my roommate lover. In fact, I live on a different planet.

I remember when I was in my hormonal years at school, I’d wait for some spark to fly or someone to throw a paper ball on my head. You know, in a sweet way. The kind that you’d put a stop to if you didn’t have heart eyes. I was that sort but I was also stupid. Numerous paper balls later, I grew out of it. Cynical and proud.

I know I know. Stick to the subject Edlyn. You know you love me better when I don’t but I agree with you this one time. Why stop talking about chocolate for awkward teenage year flashblacks?

Bad career move.

Back on track I go with this.

It started with a square bar of Ritter Sport that I found. I am one of those people who will pick up food that’s packaged and abandoned and not expired. Especially if it looks like a chocolate bar. My mother would probably hit my hand and make it fall back to where it was but I haven’t been 5 for a long time now. It would be in her best interest to not do that anymore.

I brought my new friend home and ate 2 pieces. Then it happened.

My sisters and I pride ourselves in not being sugar nuts like some parents we have. Saying no to sweets is easy for us. I don’t know if it’s the circumstances I find my brain in these days but I. needed. more.

More.

In pure-ish forms. Not that Nestle, Hershey’s mediocrity. 50%? I’ll take 70%. Oh yes, I went to the dark side.

The only way this post could be better is if you scrolled down, made this, scrolled back up and read the unimportant parts while you ate a bowl of it.

Happy knowing what matters not just today but everyday day.

Ingredients

• 2 1/4 cups water
• 1 cup sugar
• 3/4 cups unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder
• 6 ounces bittersweet and/or semisweet chocolate, chopped. I used Ghirardelli
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• Pinch of salt and cayenne pepper

Put the sugar, cocoa powder and and 1 1/2 cups of water in a large saucepan and stir.

Not like this, silly.

The boring way.

Stir, stir, stir. It will feel like you’re stirring forever but trust me when I say your kitchen will feel like rainbow unicorn Candyland. Even chocolate flying all over the floor from an out-of-control blender will feel magical and like it never really happened.

Bring the mixture to a boil and let it go for about 45 seconds before you take it off the heat. As soon as it’s off, add the vanilla essence, remaining 3/4 cup water and chopped chocolate bits. Oh and the salt and cayenne pepper. Stir till the chocolate bits melts.

Sigh. It’s so wonderful.

Put it all in a blender and blend for 30 seconds. Don’t skip this step as it helps homogenise the mixture. Chocolate world peace and harmony is what we’re aiming for.

Chill it in the fridge for an hour or even overnight.

Once chilled, you take out the pre-frozen ice-cream maker bowl (like I have with my Cuisinart), pour in the chocolate mess you made and let the machine churn the mixture for 20 minutes.

I wanted a slightly more airy texture so I performed the step above, froze it for 30 minutes in the bowl and churned it once more for 20 minutes.

If you don’t have an ice-cream maker, this link is very helpful. I might even try it this way sometime because who needs machines when you have guns.

Hoo ha!

I may not be the world’s best photographer but damn I make ….

Who cares? I’m just going to eat this now.