As the summer ended, I had guests round and decided to make eclairs with white chocolate cream. However, for reasons that are too lengthy to go into here, but involved a broken whisk and remaking the mixture with a less powerful one, I ended up making eclairs in my Yorkshire pudding tins and hence they became Yorkshire eclairs. But that’s not really the point, the point is that this time I used Simon Rogan’s Caramelised White Chocolate (£6.95, 250g) for the cream. This is the strangest white chocolate I’ve seen, big chunks of it with a crumbly interior. It almost tasted like Scottish tablet: intensely sweet, but insanely moreish. Melting it took ages, but the result was this wonderful butterscotch-coloured cream sat upon my new creation of a Yorkshire eclair. Rogan recommends melting it into cream and setting it for a luxe panna cotta. I’ve yet to try this.
Someone recommended M&S’s Made Without chocolate, made without dairy and wheat. I did grab a small bar of Honeycomb and Caramel (£1, 35g), but the caramel was too overwhelming for me. There are other bars: ‘milk’ and dark, so worth a try if you don’t eat dairy or wheat – let me know what you think.
A fantastic bar I did try was Luisa’s Solomon Island 75% with Sicilian orange pieces (£4.95, 50g). This has won awards and with good reason, it’s absolutely terrific. The chocolate is bold and strong, but super smooth and… jolly. It’s also perfect for the beginning of October and the turning of the leaves and dare I mention it’s 85 days until Christmas? I think I do.
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