Day 9: Wild raspberry in plain chocolate

Wild raspberry, Rubus idaeus



One of the joys of August in Scotland is nibbling wild raspberries as you walk - some years are better than others, and some years your entire favourite spot is wiped out by the local farmers spraying weed killer over his field on a windy day.  It is not too difficult to find a new spot for raspberries around here, and my new favourite spot is really fantastic! They are slow picking though - often few to a bush, few that are ripe enough to pick but not so ripe that they get squished in the picking.  But their flavour is intense, and more than makes up for their smallness and scarseness.

I have used the word 'favourite' a couple of times already, and we had a plan for the curation of this Advent - we listed 25 categories and chose chocolates to fit each one.   The category for this day is 'pushed to say it is my favourite':  at almost every event, I am asked many times by customers 'which is your favourite?'  My stock answer is, of course, 'but I don't really have a favourtie - it all depends on my mood/what chocolate is in front of me at any time/our latest creation' - any of these really woolly, non-committal answers.  You can't have a favourite child, can you?  But if really really honest, I think it is this chocolate that fits this category.  The two components - wild raspberries, and Duffy's Chocolate 72% Venezuela Ocumare are in their own rights, respectively, my favourite fruit and my favourite chocolate.  Bringing them together could have been disastous - you know when you finally get your two favourite people together and they just don't get on?  But these two did - a perfect match of rich fruit flavour and rich chocolate.  On making this chocolate, I felt I had actually reached a zenith of some sort - this was the most delicious thing I had ever made.  

So that is my answer, finally.  I hope you enjoy it as much as I do



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