Thursday, July 27, 2017

Chocolate Rhubarb Preserve - Toast Topper #80

Chocolate Rhubarb Preserve. It's an unusual combination: 70% cocoa chocolate, local honey and sour homegrown rhubarb, but I promise you the sweet-tart flavours willing have you licking the spoon!

Chocolate Rhubarb Preserve

If you asked me what to pair with rhubarb, I guarantee you that dark chocolate would not be one of the things I would list. Berries, raisins, honey and sugar, sure. But rhubarb has such a pervasive sour punch and never-ending stringiness that adding another bitter flavour just seemed... wrong.

That said, leave it to the brilliance of food bloggers to come up with something incredible. Skoraq Cooks had posted a recipe with just this pairing a few years ago that not only paired sour rhubarb and bitter chocolate, but added molasses as well. Since I was making this for my mom (not a huge rhubarb fan, but a lover of chocolate) I swapped out the relatively bitter molasses for local honey, and added tart cherry juice (from Cheribundi's lovely gift pack) for a hint of fruitiness.

As the rhubarb, cherry juice, honey and sugar cook down, the sweet-sour flavour comes into full force. The sugar also somewhat caramelizes, adding a rich depth of flavour to just the rhubarb alone. What got interesting was when I added the chocolate and salt. All of a sudden the mixture went from "strawberry rhubarb jam minus the strawberry" to something so balanced that it almost didn't make it to the toast. In fact, both Mom and I had a spoonful from the pot while it was still warm, and would definitely use it as a topping for cheesecake or chocolate ice cream. Here's to experimenting, and cheers to chocolate for making everything better!


Chocolate Rhubarb Preserve
Makes ~4 cups, 32 (2 tbsp) servings
4 ½ cups rhubarb, chopped into small pieces
¼ cup cherry juice
3 tbsp honey
3/4 cup sugar
50g 70% chocolate, chopped
pinch salt
  1.  Simmer rhubarb, cherry juice, honey and sugar on low heat until thick, stirring occasionally (this took me about 30 minutes).
  2. Add chocolate and salt, stirring until it melted and well mixed.
  3. Can 10 minutes in a waterbath.
Amount Per Serving
Calories: 37.9
Total Fat: 0.6 g
Cholesterol: 0.0 mg
Sodium: 1.1 mg
Total Carbs: 8.3 g
Dietary Fiber: 0.5 g
Protein: 0.3 g

No comments :

Post a Comment

Thanks for the feedback!