R khooks

Chocotastic Tiramisu with raspberries

I chocolate especially dark chocolate. There’s nothing more satisfying than unwrapping that gold paper ‘Willy wonka style’ and taking a large bite out of a chunky bar of dark chocolate. It’s pure, quite egoistic, self satisfaction but always tainted with that slight feeling of guilt (why is there no such thing as a decent ‘light’ chocolate bar?). Having now found out about the trafficking involved, eating any ‘regular’ chocolate bar is stained with even more guilt.

Fairtrade products have been around in the UK for quite a while now but France only seems to have caught up in the last couple of years. The ‘commerce equitable’ section seems to be getting bigger and bigger every time I pop by my local supermarket. No excuse anymore for me not to buy ‘guilt free’ chocolate. It is a bit more expensive than the Lindt chocolate I usually go for but worth it. Quality and taste wise I think it definetly matches any of the higher end chocolate brands.

We had a ‘Tiramisu‘ booklaunch at La Cocotte last week. So I took a leaf out of the author Laura Zavan’s book and came up with my own version* of a tiramisu. Quite chocotastic with a chocolate sponge and mascarpone cream and some raspberries to cut through the richness of the cream and chocolate.

*A traditional Tiramisu will also include eggs.

So come on guys, try and match this. You’ve got ’til Friday Monday 8th. Let the chocotastic battle begin!

Dark chocolate and raspberry Tiramisu

200g dark chocolate (fairtrade of course!)
500g mascarpone
500g raspberries (I used frozen)
Small chocolate sponge cake* (preferably in a loaf shape)
4 tbsp cocoa powder
100g sugar
250ml water

* I made a chocolate sponge cake but you could use a bought one to save time.

Ceramic rectangle dish (roughly 25 x 15cm)

Place the raspberries with the water and 50g sugar (if your raspberries are very acidic add extra sugar) in a pot. Put the pot on a medium heat and cook until the sugar has dissolved. Leave to cool.
Cut the chocolate cake into 2cm thick slices. Layer the slices so they cover the bottom of the dish. Pour on the raspberries with the syrup. Making sure you soak all the cake. Cream the rest of the sugar, cocoa powder and mascarpone together. Chop up half of the chocolate into small chunks and mix into the mascarpone. Spread the mascarpone on top of the raspberries. With the rest of the chocolate make the shavings using a potato peeler. Chill for 1 hour before serving.