Chocolate and Chocolate Sauce

We have been spending a lot of time these days talking about chocolate, and being chocoholics there are worse conversations to have!

Over the last six years, we have had an on-going discussion about Valrhona vs. Callebaut. We originally used the Callebaut for everything, then switched to Valrhona two years ago. The difference in taste is immense - the Callebaut is deep and rich, the Valrhona is clean and simple on the palate. Valrhona is a much smaller company, and they have a top reputation among the gourmet community. In terms of eating chocolate, we wouldn't touch another. But things get complicated with ice cream. Often "cruder" flavours taste better when they are combined with the ice cream mix...

In any case, we did a test for chocolate sauce using both, and liked the Valrhona better on its own, but the Callebaut better when served over vanilla ice cream.

If you want to try our recipe, here it is:

Murphys Ice Cream Chocolate Sauce
150 gm chocolate (Valrhona Araguani or Callebaut 72% is what we used. If you can't find either, just use a very good quality bittersweet chocolate. Note that it will only taste as good as the quality of chocolate you use!)
75 ml cream (42% fat)
20 gm cocoa (We use Green and Black Organic)
175 ml milk
75 gm sugar

Follow these instructions carefully if you want a velvety, glossy result:
1. Melt the chocolate in a double boiler to between 34 and 45C (you can use a mixer bowl in larger pot with water in it)
2. Mix together the sugar and cocoa.
3. Put in a pan with the milk and warm to about 45C until dissolved.
4. Add the milk mixture to the melted chocolate in small parts, mixing in between until it's incorporated. Keep this up until you have a smooth emulsion. (The chocolate will clump at first and look dreadful, but don't worry, trust the process!)
5. Add the cream.

Murphys Ice Cream

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