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Chocolate Recipes

Mexican Chocolate and Banana Empanadas

Born in Venezuela, Chef Lorena Garcia is a celebrity chef featured on Univision, Utilisima, and Telemundo tv networks. She specializes in authentic Latin cuisine infused with international influences, is adored by viewers around the world for her charismatic personality and contagious enthusiasm. Lorena is the chef owner of Food Café and Elements Tierra restaurants, both located in Miami’s Design District, in addition to being the chef spokesperson for Nestlé.

In today’s chef recipe, she shares with us an a dessert recipe for Mexican Chocolate and Banana Empanadas, featuring Nestle’s delicious Abuelita Mexican chocolate. Abuelita, if you haven’t tried it, is a yummy Mexican chocolate infused with cinnamon. We found it in the Hispanic food section of our regular grocery store.

Mexican Chocolate and Banana Empanadas
Chef Lorena Garcia

12 (one 11.6-ounce package) frozen store-bought empanada dough discs, defrosted (These you should be able to find in most grocery stores, if not a Mexican grocer should have them. We used Goya brand.)
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
3 tablets (90 grams each) NESTLÉ ABUELITA Chocolate, broken into pieces
3 tablespoons heavy cream
1 package (8 ounces) cream cheese, at room temperature
3 small ripe bananas, chopped
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
Sweetened whipped cream or vanilla ice cream

Directions:
Preheat oven to 375° F. Grease a large baking sheet.
Combine the sugar and cinnamon in a small bowl; reserve.
Heat the Abuelita chocolate and cream in small saucepan over medium-low heat, stirring frequently, until chocolate is completely melted and smooth; remove from heat. Beat cream cheese and melted Abuelita chocolate until mixed well. Fold in chopped bananas.
Place 2 heaping tablespoons Abuelita mixture in center of each pastry disc. Wet edges with water; fold in half and crimp edges with fork. Place empanadas on prepared baking sheets; brush lightly with oil and sprinkle with the cinnamon sugar mixture.
Bake for 25 to 30 minutes or until golden. Serve warm with whipped cream.

Chocolate Recipes Culinary Tips Dessert Recipes

Chef Renee: Chocolate, Hot Tips to Dip!

{Savory Tv is pleased to welcome Chef Renee Fontes as a delicious guest poster. Renee is a restaurant chef and caterer, and enthusiastically volunteered to help us out with our recent chocolate obsession! In our featured post today, she tells us how to make the perfect chocolate sauce for dipping, including a fail safe secret for tempering. For more delicious recipes, tips, and photos from Renee, visit her site here.}

Hot Tips For Dipping Chocolate

Temper, temper! There is a trick to getting chocolate to coat and harden on anything you want dipped in its sweet, silky, delight. The trick is called tempering. Follow this easy method and you will be an expert at creating chocolate dipped fruit such as strawberries, raspberries or bananas, nuts, candy or even bacon!

Chocolate becomes stable and glossy when it is properly tempered by a process of melting it to the right temperature and cooling it to the right temperature. Without this process it’s impossible to create candy and chocolate decorations. When you buy chocolate it is already in temper, but melting it knocks it back out. To get it back into the “zone” there is the classic way and a quick temper method I like to use.

The quick method I found in Food Lover’s Companion by Sharon Tyler Herbst ( love that book!) works and you don’t have to have a marble slab in your kitchen to participate. Melt two thirds of the chocolate to be tempered to 115 degrees add in the one third remaining stir constantly until smooth and 89 degrees. Spring for some great chocolate, chop into small pieces place in a double boiler and melt over simmering water. Keep a eye on the temp if it starts slipping under 89 degrees set it back over the water to maintain 89 temperature and stir occasionally.

Now you are ready to dip! Make sure your items are clean and dry. Really dry. Use tongs or skewers to lower items into chocolate allow excess chocolate to drip back into bowl. Put parchment paper down and place dipped goodies on it to set. Make sure items do not touch are they will become one when cool.

After you get good at fruit and candy, you can dip anything! You could even propose with a chocolate covered engagement ring! Chocolate is fun and you may lick the bowl after you are finished.

– Chef Renee Fontes

– Chef Renee on Twitter

{Chocolate obsessed like us? Visit more delicious chef chocolate recipes here.}

Chocolate Recipes Drink Recipes

Restaurant Recipe: Café Angelina’s Hot Chocolate

via creative commons, flickr user laowai kevin

Our friend Ariana (the email Santa!) just emailed us with the most delicious gift. A recipe. Not just any recipe, but a recipe for Café Angelina’s famous hot chocolate. Café Angelina (226 rue de Rivoli) in Paris is notorious for their velvety rich hot chocolate called Chocolat L’Africain (named so for it’s Ivory coast cacao beans). The tea room, close to the Louvre art museum, is a favorite venue of both local Parisians and tourists alike. Fashion designer Vera Wang listed it as one of her favorite destinations, and Grammy Award winning soprano opera Renée Fleming states Angelina’s “is a must for hot chocolate.” We love Ariana’s description the best: “so sinfully thick, it’s almost difficult to pour”!

Café Angelina’s Chocolat L’Africain (deliciously decadent hot chocolate)
This recipe serves 2 small cups, or one large cup. 2 serious chocolate lovers should double it!

1/4 cup whole milk
1/4 cup heavy cream
1 tsp of confectioners’ sugar (aka powdered sugar)
4 oz of chopped 72% Omanhene brand bittersweet chocolate (you may use another brand here, but ensure that it is close to 70% cocoa. We chopped up half of a Lindt 70% bar, found in the baking section of our regular grocery store.)

Heat the milk, cream, and sugar over medium high heat until bubbles are created around the pot.
Remove the pot from heat. Add the bittersweet chocolate.
Stir until melted adjusting heat as needed. Serve topped with whipped cream.

{Tasting Notes: Our review after making this – it’s similar to drinking a chocolate bar, and perfect for those evenings when you are craving sweets after dinner. And put your guilt on the back burner, dark chocolate is antioxidant packed.}

Appetizer Recipes Chocolate Recipes Dessert Recipes

Savory Chocolate Bruschetta

Savory sweets, we are seeing them everywhere lately. From chipotle chocolate chili, to salted caramel candies, to bacon and egg ice cream. Is this a fickle culinary hipster trend or is it here to stay? While that remains to be seen, we guarantee that this recipe will stay permanently in your repertoire!

It’s another delicious video recipe from Chef John of Food Wishes, it literally only takes 5 minutes, and the combination of crispy bread, dark chocolate, and sea salt will transport you into chocolate lovers heaven. The first time we made this, despite having camera batteries charged, it disappeared before we could photograph it! So…we had to make it again, and quickly snap a photo, for the readers of course! The second time it was taken to a holiday party in Aspen, and the crowd loved it. It’s flavor is salty sweet, with both crunchy and soft textures, and the combination’s are magical chocolatey goodness. People were seriously pulling and tugging at a red wool peacoat asking for the recipe.

One question you may have as the party goers did: Is dark chocolate crustini bruschetta a dessert or an appetizer? The answer: it is whatever you want it to be. In fact, it may just be breakfast for us one day, paired with a piping hot Sumatra coffee. Read Chef Johns post, wine pairing recommendation, and full ingredient list here. (Note: For the dark chocolate, we used a Lindt brand bar with 70% cocoa, found in the baking section of our regular grocery store. And, as you may notice in the photo, we were lacking the Maldon sea salt with the nice thick crystals, so we used what we had, but it was still chock full of deliciousness. Is deliciousness a word? )

[pro-player width=’550′ height=’353′ type=’video’]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9MEH5P2SKAg[/pro-player]

Breakfast Recipes Chocolate Recipes

Brunch Bliss! Chef Marcus Samuelsson’s Chocolate Pancakes

Born in Ethiopia and raised in Sweden, Chef Marcus Samuelsson is one of the hottest rising culinary stars in the media today. At the tender young age of 25, Marcus was the youngest chef to receive a coveted three star review from the New York Times. (NYT restaurant reviews are rated with 4 stars at the top, an nearly impossible task with only 5 restaurants holding the title currently). Chef Samuelsson also won a James Beard award for “Best Chef: New York City” in 2003. Currently he is involved in several restaurants including the award winning Scandinavian restaurant Aquavit in NYC.

Today’s video recipe features Marcus whipping up an order of chocolate pancakes using his highly rated Marcus Cookware, served on top of a crunchy pineapple cashew salad. It’s not your average breakfast or brunch but this would be great for a blissful weekend splurge!

[pro-player width=’550′ height=’353′ type=’video’]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yyNuesJGv48[/pro-player]

Chocolate Pancakes
Marcus Samuelsson
Serves 6

4 ounces bittersweet chocolate, coarsely chopped
8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, cut into chunks, plus 2 to 3 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature
2 large eggs
2 large egg yolks
2 tablespoons plus 2 teaspoons sugar
5 tablespoons all-purpose flour

1. Melt the chocolate and the 8 tablespoons butter in the top of a double boiler or in a heatproof bowl over a saucepan of barely simmering water, stirring occasionally until smooth. Remove from the heat.
2. Whisk together the eggs, egg yolks, and sugar in a large bowl until well mixed. Whisk in the melted chocolate and butter. Sift the flour over the top and fold it in.
3. Melt 1 tablespoon butter over low heat in a large nonstick sauté pan. Drop a heaping tablespoon of batter into the pan and cook for 2 minutes, then turn and cook on the other side. Transfer the pancake to a plate. Repeat with remaining batter, adding more butter to the pan as necessary.
You may make the pancakes in advance, reheat in a 350 degrees F oven until heated through.

Pineapple Cashew Salad
Marcus Samuelsson
Serves 6

1/2 cup sweet white wine
1/4 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 golden pineapple, peeled, cored, and diced (about 1-1/2 cups)
1/2 cup roasted cashews
4 mint leaves, finely shredded

1. Pour the wine into a medium bowl and add the sugar, stirring until it is dissolved. Add the pineapple cubes. Cover and refrigerate for 2 hours.
2. To serve, stir the cashews into the pineapple. Divide among serving bowls and sprinkle with the mint.

For more Marcus Samuelsson recipes, check out:

Chocolate Recipes Dessert Recipes

Chocolate Orange Soufflés with an Orange Creme Anglaise Sauce

Ah dear sweet chocolate. Whether you are blissful or bitter about Valentine’s Day, you should still indulge in this fabulous dessert. Chef Frank McClelland is the author of Wine Mondays, and chef/ owner of L’espalier restaurant in Boston. He shares with us in this video one of his signature restaurant desserts, chocolate orange soufflés with an orange creme Anglaise sauce. This one sounds complicated but is actually quite simple, as chocolate soufflés tend not to have the “falling” issue common to many soufflés, a result of the strength of the cocoa.

Some soufflé trivia: The word soufflé is derived from the past tense of the french verb “souffler“, which literally translates to “blown up”. Legend has it that the original soufflé recipe was printed in the book “Le Cuisinier Moderne” in 1742, which was written by Vincent La Chapelle, a prestigious author and french master chef who was employed by Madame de Pompadour, the famous mistress of Louis the XV. And did you know? Febuary 28th is National Chocolate Soufflé day in the US!

Read on for the recipe…
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