A Choice of Chocolate Toppings

As much as I love chocolate buttercream, I know it simply won’t do when you’re looking to elevate your baking to a higher level of sophistication. Picking your chocolate is very important since a sauce is all about the chocolate intensity and quality is definitely better than quantity in this particular situation. Personally I like to use Valrhona because it has a beautiful silky texture and it’s incredibly rich; however, you can use whichever chocolate you like best as long as it’s at least 70%.

I have two fail safe recipes that are perfect for toppings cakes, ice cream or pastries.

Chocolate Sauce

I stumbled upon this recipe on the Guardian website when I was looking for a chocolate sauce to pour over my profiteroles.  I especially like the fact that Felicity has done all of the hard work testing out different sauces and settling on one that is both easy to make and very tasty.

Ingredients:

150g plain chocolate, broken into small pieces

50ml whipping cream

2tbs golden syrup

Knob of butter

Pinch of salt

1. Put the chocolate and cream into a small, heavy-based pan over a low heat and stir constantly. It’s important that you don’t rush this and use a higher heat because you will burn the chocolate.
2. It’s ready once the chocolate has melted and combined with the cream to make a paste.
3. Stir in the syrup and you’ll notice the sauce begins to loosen and look like chocolate sauce. Stir in the butter and salt to make it glossy.

Keep warm until ready to serve or pour into a jar and heat gently in the microwave when you are ready to use it.

I love the Weck jars I found at Butlers and this recipe is enough to fill up one of the 290ml jars.

Chocolate Ganache

I’ve been using this ganache recipe for a long time and I can’t remember where it comes from, but I do know that it makes an excellent ganache topping. I’ve used it on cakes and cupcakes and even whipped it to make a super rich filling for a chocolate cake.

Ingredients:
250g plain chocolate, broken into small pieces

235ml double cream

1. Place the chocolate pieces into a heat proof bowl and set aside. Heat the cream in either the microwave or in a small pan over a medium heat until just before boiling point.
2. Remove from heat and pour over the chocolate pieces and whisk until smooth.

Set aside to let cool for around ten minutes and then pour over the top of your cake. You can whip the ganache to a fluffy consistency, perfect for spreading with a palate knife or a filling, by allowing it to cool completely and then mixing with the whisk attachment on your mixer.