36 28 MARCH 2024 Weekending ORLANDO MURRIN These No.1 Golden Hot Cross Buns and No.1 Belgian Chocolate Hot Cross Buns from Waitrose (SAVE 20% £2/4s was £2.50, o er ends 2 April) are both Taste Approved by the Good Housekeeping Institute. Fruit fans will love the sweet dried apricots, plump sultanas and tangy Seville orange marmalade in the golden buns, while those who have always polished o their chocolate eggs by breakfast on Easter Monday won’t be able to resist the generous Belgian dark chocolate chunks and cocoa-laced sourdough of the chocolate option. Best buns in show How do you like your chocolate? Do you simply snap bits o and munch away or make a ceremony of it, savouring it as it melts in your mouth, unleashing its deep, rich, complex flavours? It’s such wonderful stu that it seems almost a crime to cook with it, except that it’s so versatile, and can be transformed in so many delicious ways. Having spent all my life in the kitchen playing around with chocolate, here are three lessons I’ve learnt over the years. Do you agree, or have others to suggest? Chocolate cakes and bakes, I think, taste better slightly undercooked. I’ve never found a satisfactory explanation for this, but almost all chocolate goodies taste better this way, so much so that in some households an ultimate treat is being allowed to scrape uncooked cake or cookie mixture straight out of the mixing bowl – although this is something Waitrose wouldn’t recommend! Obviously, you don’t want the centre of your cake to run all over the plate, or cookies to collapse when you try pick them up, but test carefully and don’t be tempted to give things an extra few minutes in the oven ‘just in case’. They’ll finish cooking as they cool, and if by any chance you’ve overdone the underdoneness (so to speak), put them in the fridge to firm up with no detriment to flavour. Don’t throw away chocolate that’s seized. You’re melting it and it suddenly turns all thick and grainy – don’t worry, it’s happened to the best of us. First of all, there’s nothing wrong with it. You can chop the clumps up and use them in chocolate chip cookies or for hot chocolate – you won’t be able to taste the di erence. Nor need you throw away chocolate that has developed a white bloom, usually because of incorrect storage. The reason chocolate seizes is that it’s been contaminated with a small amount of liquid while melting – even a wet wooden spoon will do it. The chemistry is complicated, but one way to think of it is that the chocolate molecules pile in on the liquid, like a rugby scrum or tug of war. The solution, counterintuitive as it may sound, is to add more water or other liquid. It’s like the referee blowing a whistle – the molecules fall back into an orderly line. Beat in warm or cold water 1 tsp at a time and I promise your chocolate will return to silky-smooth. (If you’re in the middle of a recipe, be aware you’ve added a little extra water – you may wish to adapt accordingly.) Chocolate chips make life easier. Most recipes start with chopping chocolate, which is a tedious, messy business. Now that good-quality chocolate chips, for instance Guittard and Dr Oetker, are available (this wasn’t always the case), I use them at every opportunity. In the unlikely event that you don’t polish o all your Easter eggs, break them up into chips and put them into a plastic box or bag. You’ll thank me the next time you make a chocolate cake. Orlando is President of the Guild of Food Writers and his culinary crime novel, Knife Skills For Beginners, is out now Make the most of chocolate in your cooking – it’s so versatile
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