12 February 2008

Chocolate Traditions

So, it’s Valentine’s Day again. Now, the 14th of February used to be a pretty normal day for me in the past. The only remarkable thing about it was that it is my friend Mathias’ birthday. During my childhood in Germany, Valentine’s Day was something entirely foreign. Something that only flower shops advertised. Something, that the Germans shrugged off and ignored.

Those days are gone. Long gone. At least for me and that’s due to two factors which are entirely unrelated.
One is that globalization seems to have caused the whole of Europe to celebrate holidays they had never heard off before (has anybody born before 1980 ever celebrated Halloween as a child in Europe??). Two: I have a boyfriend who was brought up in Singapore and England and who takes Valentine’s Day very seriously. So over the past four years, I got treated to the full Valentine’s Day extravaganza. I must say, I like that. I like being pampered, I like receiving flowers and being taken to great nights out at fancy restaurants. Call it Valentine’s Day or whatever you like, I simply enjoy it. But then: relationships are not just a one way street, are they? So, while I tremendously enjoyed the “getting pampered” side of it, I felt a bit at a loss as to how to pamper my boyfriend in return – the Valentine’s Day way. I had to come up with my own Valentine’s Day tradition.

Since Valentine’s Day and chocolates go together like Carrie Bradshaw and Manolo Blahnik, and we happen to live in Brussels, the official capital of chocolate heaven, the solution seemed to be very easy.
Brussels is full of chocolate shops, they are distributed all over the city, from your tiny little local praline shop in the neighborhood to the big palaces of chocolate by Leonidas, Neuhaus and Godiva. But the uncontested king of chocolates in Brussels (well, at least according to me) is Pierre Marcolini. If chocolate is a religion, this shop is the temple to worship it. According to my friend Paul it is “pure sex”. It is stylish, minimalist, highly polished and does not leave room for any distractions from it’s one and only Raison d’Être: to make the most incredible chocolate and pralines you’ll ever have tasted. The pralines are dark and rich and come in the most delicate flavors. A personal favorite of mine are the Earl Grey or thyme pralines. Marcolini’s are definitely not chocolates for chocolate beginners. They look and feel very mature and grown up, and I admit it, the shop has even something intimidating to it (like haute-couture, Gucci and Dior shop-intimidating). It’s definitely not every day chocolates, but chocolates for special occasions. Like Valentine’s Day.

But then: buying chocolates is a bit boring, isn’t it? Even if they are as good as Pierre Marcolini’s, it is not really personal and it looks like a last-minute solution. So not really romantic, since romance thrives on time and devotion. Therefore I do not leave it at buying chocolate. I rather use it as a starting point to make my wonderful, rich, decadent, Valentine’s-Day-worthy Gâteau au Chocolat. I first made this gâteau for my boyfriend three years ago, and by now it is a Valentine’s Day chocolate tradition for us (well and on many other days of the year we eat it too…)

The recipe comes from Paris. I lived in Paris for a year after high school and a friend of mine introduced me to this wonderful way of eating chocolate. The recipe has stayed with me ever since and many of my friends have included it in their repertoire as well. It is that good. The gâteau is incredibly easy to make and uses good things – like high quality chocolate and butter – in large quantities. I was a bit shocked when I first saw that almost no flour goes into the batter. But once you have tasted it, you will not miss anything. You will be just asking for more. This cake makes you feel happy, loved, comforted, special. Short: it makes you feel like Valentine’s Day should. Have a happy and chocolate-dripping Valentine’s Day!



Gâteau au Chocolat
This recipe is for a small (10-inch)round baking form. You can also pour the batter in small ramekins and bake them individually for dessert and serve them hot with Vanilla ice cream or fresh raspberries or a berry coulis. If you make several small cakes remember that they bake faster and reduce the baking time, since the gateau au chocolat tastes best when it is still a bit soft and liquid in the middle.

150 g butter
120 g caster sugar
150 g dark good quality chocolate (at least 60% cocoa, but of course, you can even use highre percentages if you like), broken into small pieces
3 medium eggs
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 pinch of salt

Preheat oven to 200°C. Butter the baking form.
Melt the chocolate and butter in a bain marie (a bowl or smaller saucepan placed over a saucepan with simmering (not boiling!)water. Stir regularly until chocolate and butter have melted completely and are shiny. Careful: you don't want to overheat your chocolate-butter mixture. Set aside.
In a medium bowl, beat the eggs with the sugar in/with a mixer until pale yellow, light and fluffy. Gently fold in the melted chocolate.
Mix flour, salt and baking powder and sift over chocolate mixture. Fold in. Pour the batter in the prepared baking form and tap on the counter to remove any air bubbles. Bake for 25 to 35 minutes, according to your taste. Let cool in form for at least 10 minutes before serving it. Enjoy!




Pierre Marcolini

Rue des Minimes, 1
Place du grand sablon
1000 Bruxelles

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