Homemade Chocolate Covered Grapes. An Easy and Surprising Chocolate End to a Dinner Party!
Michel Richard's Great Book
Here's a recipe for an after meal chocolate that you can make in 10 minutes, that is dead easy and that will surprise and delight everyone at your table.
I love a culinary surprise, and one of the most enjoyable things about being a chef is watching the reaction on people's faces as they bite into something that isn't what they thought it was going to be (At least when it happens in a good way!!!).
Serve a bowl of these chocolates after dinner and everyone will think they're being offered a lovely homemade truffle. Not bad in itself, but hardly surprising. Now watch their faces as they bite into it and experience the cool tang of a seedless grape nestled inside good rich dark chocolate!
Before I go any further, I gotta' fess up that these are not my creation. I have been devouring Chef Michel Richard's beautiful cookbook, "Happy in the Kitchen" which has proven education, surprising and a lot of fun…even to a jaded cookbook reader such as myself! Well worth a read!!
Homemade Dark Chocolate Grapes
- 1 100 gram bar of good quality dark chocolate. Use a 60-70% cocoa percentage chocolate for this recipe. The cheap but very good Lindt 70% bar is a great workhorse chocolate.
- 1 lb of seedless grapes
- 2 Tbls of cocoa powder
- Melt the chocolate in a double boiler (or in a microwave with an attentive eye) until melted. Let cool down until the chocolate is merely warm (or at body temperature tips Richard in his book.)
- Take all the grapes off of their stems and place them gently into a large bowl. Add the chocolate to the grapes spoonful by spoonful, stirring the grapes gently between additions to coat.
- When you have added all the chocolate to the grapes, place the grapes on a parchment paper covered baking sheet and sprinkle them all over with the cocoa powder.
- Refrigerate until cold and the chocolate is set. Serve the same day they are made.
Will make enough for a surprising chocolate finish for a large dinner party.
A lot of fun and very good.
Other fruits that go very well with chocolate
If you're feeling creative and the above recipe inspires you, here are a few other fruits that are a natural match for chocolate:
- Orange
- Banana
- Melon
- Raspberries
- Strawberries
- Prunes
- Kiwis
- Raisins
- Cherries
Melt up a batch of chocolate and have fun playing with fruit and nut pairings.
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Comments
Summer is coming in South Africa and soon grapes will be in good supply and them I am going to try this recipe.
Great idea! I have to say that dried fruit is easier to work with because there's not water to mess up the melted chocolate. I gotta try the grapes dunked in chocolate!
That sounds great. I have had strawberries and bananas with chocolate but never grapes. I have been meaning to try pomegranate with chocolate too.
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