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If you love cocoa, then this selection is sure to give you chocolate cravings. From easy classics to refined creations, here are ten chocolate desserts you should try at least once in your life.
Chocolate is much more than a simple ingredient: it is a miracle made food. As a mousse or a ganache, melted or grated, it elevates all forms of desserts and pastries. What’s more, it exhibits a wide range of flavours, from white to Dulcey to bitter dark: this means that it can be enjoyed by people of all ages and tastes. So it’s hardly surprising that this multi-faceted ingredient has found its way into so many recipes. But which ones stand out the most? To find out, EnVols has selected the ten best chocolate desserts you absolutely must try. Here they are.
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This ranking only includes pastries that have been initially designed and created around chocolate as the main ingredient. There is no place here for any dessert variations such as chocolate tiramisù or chocolate flan. So here are ten chocolate desserts you should try once in your life:
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The top spot in this ranking would of course go to the chocolate cake. A classic in French kitchens, it comes in several flavours: moelleux, fondant or mi–cuit (semi-cooked, better known as lava cake). While the moelleuxcake is easily recognisable by its airy texture, it’s harder to tell the fondant and the mi-cuit. The reason for this is simple: they have the same recipe, but different cooking times. To tell them apart, all you have to do is look at the centre of the cake: mi-cuit is runny and melty, while fondant is not.
Chocolate mousse came up in the 19th century as a recipe created by the Swiss Charles Fazi, Louis XVI’s chef. It mixes melted chocolate, egg yolks and egg whites for a light, airy texture. It is delicious eaten as is.
In third place: the chocolate éclair. This famous dessert consists of a stick of choux pastry filled with a chocolate custard and topped with a layer a chocolate icing. It is said to be so delicious that it is eaten in a flash, hence name éclair (French for lightning). The recipe is similar to that of the chocolate religieuse, which consists of one large and one small choux pastry bun stacked on top of each other. It is decorated with a ring of buttercream, reminiscent of a nun’s habit.
The chocolate soufflé is an iconic French dessert with quite a spectacular look. This somewhat fussy recipe is made from a base of pastry cream or a ganache, into which you fold beaten egg whites to create an airy texture. As it bakes, the soufflé should puff up, but be careful, as it will quickly collapse. This dessert is best served warm, with a custard or a scoop of ice cream.
The Opera cake is a French creation from the 1950s. It is made up of layers of Joconde biscuit (a beaten pastry similar to sponge cake), of coffee buttercream and of chocolate ganache.
The Black Forest cake, named after the eponymous region in Germany, combines chocolate sponge cake, amarena cherries, whipped cream and chocolate shavings. Although there have long been many variations of the cake in this mountainous region of Germany, this recipe was officially written down by confectioner Josef Keller in 1915.
A little further south, in Austria, the sachertorte (or Sacher tart) takes the spotlight. The record has it that this dessert originated in Vienna in 1832. It was created by Franz Sacher for the Prince of Metternich. What is it made of? A deliciously moist chocolate cake with a thin layer of apricot jam, topped with a glossy dark chocolate icing. It is usually served with a dollop of whipped cream and goes very well with a Viennese coffee.
Brigadeiro is a Brazilian dessert made with sweetened condensed milk, cocoa and butter. It is shaped into small balls coated with chocolate vermicelli. Often served at parties, they are simple to prepare and frightfully addictive.
Another Brazilian pastry you should try at least once is pão de mel. This cake made of honey and spice is coated in chocolate. A very popular dessert that can also be filled with milk jam.
The Scots, for their part, are fond of tiffin. For this no-bake dessert, mix chocolate, crushed biscuits and sometimes dried fruit or nuts. Crunchy, crisp and soft all at once, it’s perfect served with a cup of tea or coffee.
The list of chocolate desserts is virtually endless, as this ingredient is the star of recipes all over the world. In the United States, for example, chocolate is particularly popular in the form of brownies and cookies. In France, chocolate is also used to make chocolate truffles, tarts and sauces, used in treats such as hot chocolate profiteroles.