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Posts tagged ‘chocolate and roasted pears’

Oct 11

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“Divine” Chocolate Gingerbread, Roasted Pears And Chocolate Caramel Sauce

Chocolate Gingerbread and chocolate caramel sauce...Divine!

Chocolate Gingerbread and chocolate caramel sauce…Divine!

I love Divine Chocolate, it’s fantastic, the quality, the flavor and the company itself. Divine is Fair Trade Chocolate, the farmers are the owners, it’s a cooperative that is a huge success, with happy workers that all share the company profits. Whats not to love, honestly, a great product produced by a company that is a model for fair and ethical work standards.

I partnered with Divine to create some baked goods for “No Kid Hungry” bake sale and fell in love with their chocolate. The good people from Divine have asked me to partner with them again to create a recipe using their incredible chocolate, how can I say no!! There were several themes  suggested and I got to choose which I wanted to represent and my choice was local produce, supporting local farmers and farmers market. It should also to represent the season “Autumn” and what better fruit than the lovely and delicious pear (ok except for maybe apples).

The gingerbread is a recipe from a friend from Food52, Antonia James, I adapted the recipe slightly adding a little more chocolate than she called for, it’s moist and delicious and warm, the spicing makes me think of Autumn, my farmers market find that I incorporate with this are pears, oven roasted, gently spiced, sweet and buttery and when paired with the gingerbread it’s heavenly. Served warm and topped with some vanilla ice cream and homemade chocolate caramel sauce, this dessert is rich and totally delicious. The gingerbread itself is not very sweet, Antoniajames tops with a hard sauce, I chose a chocolate caramel sauce, this makes for the perfect amount of sweetness.

Spiced Roasted Pears

2 pears (I used bosc) peeled cored and cut in half

1/4  cup brown sugar

3 tbs butter

1/4 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp nutmeg

Optional splash of Poire William

Heat oven to 350 degree’s place pear halves cut side down in baking dish, mix the brown sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg together and sprinkle over the pears, dot with the butter. Roast in the oven for 20 minutes or until pears are just tender. Cover baking dish and set aside  I also added a splash of Poire William to the pears thats purely optional.

Chocolate Gingerbread 

  • ½ cup unsalted butter (1 stick, or four ounces)
  • 2 ounces Divine Bittersweet chocolate
  • 1/3 cup regular molasses (not light, not blackstrap)
  • ½ cup dark brown sugar NOTE: recipe didn’t say packed, I did pack the sugar
  • 2/3 cup all purpose flour
  • 1 ½ – 2 teaspoons ground ginger, to taste
  • ½ teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
  • Pinch of cloves
  • ½ teaspoon baking powder
  • ½ teaspoon salt
  • ½ teaspoon cinnamon (optional . . . I don’t use it)
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla
  1. Pre heat oven to 350 degree’s and generously butter an 8×8 baking dish. Melt the butter and chocolate together over low heat (or do what I do, which is to put them in a Pyrex one-cup measure and microwave at about 40% for 2 -3 minutes).
  2. Put the melted chocolate and butter into a medium bowl with the molasses and brown sugar. Stir well to combine.
  3. Combine the dry ingredients.
  4. Gently beat the eggs and stir into the wet ingredients, with the vanilla.
  5. Add the dry ingredients and stir just to combine. Do not overbeat.
  6. Pour the batter into the prepared baking dish and bake in the middle of the oven for about 30 minutes. Allow to cool in the pan. NOTE: I omitted the cloves and included the cinnamon.
Chocolate Caramel Sauce

Chocolate Caramel Sauce

Chocolate Caramel Sauce:

1 cup granulated sugar

6 tbs salted butter (yes salted) cut into tbs size pieces

2 oz Divine bittersweet chocolate chopped

1/2 cup heavy cream

1 tsp vanilla extract

Put the heavy cream in a glass measuring cup and microwave on high for 45 seconds, add chocolate and microwave another 30 seconds Stir until its smooth, set aside so that it will cool before adding to the caramel.

In large saucepan add the sugar, turn heat to med/high and let sit until it starts to liquify. Start stirring with a heat proof spatula, the sugar will crystalize but thats alright keep stirring until its all liquid. Stop stirring and let it cook until it turns amber in color, now add the butter, stir to combine. Remove from heat and add the chocolate cream. Stir until its incorporated in the caramel. Store in container at room temperature until ready to use. Note: If you make this ahead of time, simply place the bottle or jar in hot water to warm the caramel so it’s pourable.

Disclosure: The very nice people from Divine Chocolate provided all the chocolate used in this recipe