Peppers In The World Of Dessert: The Ingredient Language Of Creativity

A Documented Meeting Of Chocolate And Chilli

France’s Ministry of Agriculture notes that Piment d’Espelette is used in chocolate bars. The pepper’s geographical name meets a new form: it becomes part of a bar broken into pieces to eat.

That use opens a question of placement for our own recipe. Keeping the sauce in the fruit rather than throughout the ganache lets us build spoonfuls with and without pepper from the same bowl.

The Cherry’s Red Line

Our proposal has soft chocolate ganache below, pepper-seasoned cherries above and hazelnuts added at serving. We briefly cook down the cherry juices, then mix Biberify Orijinal into the cooled fruit. The pepper’s position becomes a visible decision within the recipe.

Equal weights of chocolate and cream are intended to give a texture spooned from small bowls rather than a firm filling cut into slices. Added sugar is reserved for the cherries, to be tasted alongside the chocolate’s own sweetness and the fruit’s sourness.

Ingredients And Method For Two Small Bowls

• 60 g dark chocolate containing 60–70% cocoa; 60 g pasteurised cream with 35% fat; 100 g pitted fresh or frozen sour cherries; 12 g caster sugar; 15 ml drinking water; ¼ teaspoon (1.25 ml) Biberify Orijinal; 12 g toasted, unsalted hazelnuts. A teaspoon means a 5 ml measuring spoon.

• Finely chop the chocolate and put it in a heatproof bowl. Heat the cream in a small saucepan until it steams and small bubbles appear around the edge. Pour over the chocolate, leave for 3–5 minutes, then stir from the centre. If pieces remain, briefly set the bowl over warm water and stir until melted.
• Divide between two small bowls. Refrigerate promptly rather than leaving at room temperature; chill for about 2 hours, until thick enough to spoon. Your chocolate may need longer.
• Put the cherries, sugar and 15 ml water in a small saucepan. Once gently simmering, cook for about 5–8 minutes, until the fruit softens and its juices reduce a little. Transfer to a shallow container, cool promptly in an ice-water bath while stirring, then refrigerate.
• Mix half the measured amount of Biberify Orijinal into the cold cherries. Taste a little fruit with a small spoonful of ganache before deciding on the remaining sauce. At serving, divide the cherries between the bowls and finish with roughly crushed hazelnuts.

Place the cherries to one side rather than covering the whole surface. The first spoonful can be chocolate alone, the next with fruit. Adding the hazelnuts last brings a distinct crunch beside the two soft, cold layers.

Keep Cold Until Serving

Keep the ganache and cherries separately in covered containers in the refrigerator at 4 °C or below, and combine them at serving. Count preparation and serving time together: no more than two hours out of refrigeration, or one hour above 32 °C. If that limit is exceeded, do not save the dessert by chilling it again.

• Biberify Orijinal in a filling, an accompaniment and a drink
• Pairing and preference within a bite
• Aroma and retronasal smell