Chocolate Cake and Wine

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CHOCOLATE CAKE & WINE
Husband-and-wife team Howard and Ruth Milstein cover the world of chocolate and wine with Ruth’s recipe for Chocolate Cake Balls, and Howard’s wine pairing tips. Howard is a wine expert, and Ruth is the author of the Gourmand award-winning cookbook ‘Cooking with Love: Ventures into the New Israeli Cuisine. Learn more at www.RuthMilstein.com

 


RUTH’S CHOCOLATE CAKE BALLS

Why not make Chocolate Cake Balls? Use your non-eaten chocolate cake for a delicious candied-style dessert treat, that is beautiful to see and even tastier to eat! Makes 20 balls.

4 ounces dark chocolate

2 ounces milk chocolate

3 tablespoons heavy cream

5-6 slices of chocolate cake (baked or bought)

Melt the dark and the milk chocolate in a double pot; a pot where water is boiling gently and, on the top, a smaller pot with the chocolate. The pot on the top with the chocolate should not touch the water.

Add the heavy cream and stir until mixture is smooth. Turn the heat off.
Crumble the chocolate cake into the mixture and blend gently. Let the mix cool and firm up a bit.

Form 20 balls and put on a tray. Roll the balls in cocoa powder, coconut or chopped almonds and refrigerate for 3 hours.

Before serving transfer the balls into baking paper cups.

*** You can add 2 tablespoons brandy or preferred liquor to the mixture.

HOWARD’S WINE PAIRING TIPS FOR CHOCOLATE & CHOCOLATE CAKE

Great chocolate cake as well as chocolate desserts, such as my wife Ruth’s featured chocolate cake ball recipe, can get an unexpected “burst” of complexity and joy when paired with a good wine.

There are some wonderful choices you can try; however, I have found that typically, Cabernet or Cabernet Sauvignon based wines are a good first choice. Make sure that the wine is ‘ready to drink’ and not ‘overly’ tannic to keep away some astringency you might notice. Another good choice is Red Zinfandel. It’s a varietal that often goes way beyond “hints of chocolate” as with some producers, being chocolate and berry coated. Good Red Zinfandel usually has a lower tannin level than Cabernet and Merlot (Bordeaux

varietals).

Many people love a good, aged Madeira wine. Its combination of mature and somewhat sweet almonds and hazelnuts complements chocolate and chocolate cake quite well. The Island of Madeira lies southwest of Portugal. Speaking of which, Port or “Porto” as they say, are great partners with chocolate cake. The Vintage Ruby ports (which are bottle aged) have sweetness and viscosity along with flavors of blackberries, currants and plum. Wood aged ports are a bit less expensive but in many cases just as tasty. Do not forget to try some Tawny Port which has a tinged brown/purple color and is usually a bit lighter than Ruby port. Its dominant flavors tend to have nuances of almonds, hazelnut and caramel.

Although everyone has their favorites, I tend to stay away from the Muscat’s, although a good Sauterne would not be out of the question.

Ruth Milstein


About the Author:

Howard is a wine expert, and Ruth is the author of the Gourmand award-winning cookbook 'Cooking with Love: Ventures into the New Israeli Cuisine.”

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