I love my winter flavour line up: dark chocolate, espresso, mascarpone and fig, and peanut butter and chocolate chip. With a multi-cultural feel, there is a light-to-dark contrast, from the chocolate’s deep midnight darkness, the slightly lighter coffee with milk hue of the espresso, along with the brown peanut butter, with its dark chocolate stracciatella.  

I don’t know how this combination came to be, but it works perfectly with the somewhat thwarted no-snow season. People say dark chocolate – which I have pretty much made the same from day one — is my signature flavour but recently it has reached a new level.

I had modified the basic Cuisinart dark chocolate sorbet recipe that came with the machine. Water, sugar, chocolate powder, and chocolate chips(instead with melted Costco 72% Swiss dark chocolate and a bit of my home-brewed vanilla extract (from my own vanilla pods used in gelato making). But there were some problems. It was very icy and always had to be defrosted before consuming and, after a while, what to do? In Italy, the dark chocolate fondentes (no dairy, like a sorbet), which we tried in Rome, Sorrento, Lecce and Ostuni, were smooth and creamy with no trace of ice. 

The solution came about almost by accident or blunder as sometimes breakthroughs occur. I was walking across Eglinton at Dunfield Physio, feeling good because my man Steve put me through incredible muscle relaxation. And there in front of me was a brand new Bulk Barn at 75 Eglinton E. It was a treasure chest inside—so many wonderful items – nuts, pasta, grains — and when I came across the higher fat (containing at least 22% cocoa butter) product, I had to pick it up. 

Most grocery store products, like the excellent Frye’s found at most Loblaws, which I had been very content with, only have 10-12% butterfat. There is also a good selection at Amazon.ca, including Ghiradelli’s which tops out at 20-22% and there is also King Arthur Black Cocoa, at 10-12% along with King Arthur Black at 14% and Bensdorp, 22-24%. 

Handle The Heat’s Tessa says: “The higher fat content results in a richer chocolate flavour with cakes that are ultra-moist and tender in texture, brownies and cookies that are chewy and fudgy and ultra-smooth buttercream frosting.”

And the next time I churned my ‘signature recipe,’ it was even better than before, when everybody just loved it and said it was so ‘decadent and wicked.’ Moral of the story: just about any recipe can be improved.