Day 5: Sea buckthorn berry caramel filled chocolate

Sea buckthorn, Hippophae rhamnoides  

Sea buckthorn is an amazing plant that we first became aware of in Nepal, where its berries were renowned as having more Vitamin C than any other fruit and where it was a valuable plant for feeding goats as it grows at a very high altitude. We were amazed to find that it grows so well in a coastal sandy environment here in the UK - so different ecologically from the Himalayan mountains. However, its berry is as sour and as Vitamin C rich here as it was there. It has a really strong 'tropical' flavour to it that persists when cooked. Looking up Sea Buckthorn on Wikipedia I was amazed to read that it is now classed as a superfood due to its high levels of anti-oxidants (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sea_buckthorn).   There is now an excellent community company based near Gullane, Sea buckthorn Scotland, where they pick and process the berries each year, selling juices, concentrates and many other sea buckthorn wonder-based products.

Using sea buckthorn as an ingredient is a little tricky - it is incredibly acid (I used it to ceviche fish when on the Wildbiome diet), and very tart in flavour.  That acidity and sharpness are problematic in chocolate - combining the juice with cream for a ganache would just lead to the cream curdling and souring.  We make a very concentrated jelly with the sieved cooked berries - almost a membrillo (which is in itself an amazing condiment with rich meats or cheeses) and melt this into cream carefully to avoid curdling - and then use a white chocolate for the ganache to balance the flavour and most importantly keep the gorgeous orange colour.  We make these throughout winter as each one feels like a burst of sunshine and sea air, encased in chocolate!

We hate waste here - especially when you have spent time gathering and processing something as tricky as sea buckthorn berries, why only use the juice?  The seed pulp and the seed itself (containing valuable Omega oils) are still tasty and nutritious, so we dried them and in the chocolate world, ground them into plain or white chocolates to make Wild bars, and in the eating wild food world - using it as a tasty addition to wild flours.  Our last Sea buckthorn Wild bar was made with a salted Dominican Republic 68%  plain bar from Bare Bones - and was fabulous - that little bit of salt played very nicely with the sea buckthorn. 

This Advent chocolate is a caramel - made with concentrated sea buckthorn juice - and carries that tartness and bright tropical flavour through the sweetness of the caramel.  We have paired this with an Original Beans 75% Piura plain chocolate - and I hope you enjoy the 'After Eight' moment of a very thin crisp chocolate, filled with a soft filling - a nightmare to make, but we think it was worth it for that moment.