Recipe: Simple chocolate cream

It's Friday and why not begin the weekend with a yummy chocolate treat that you can make in just a couple of minutes?

This cream is my version of a Swedish recipe for an American-inspired brownie frosting using sourcream (gräddfil). I prefer to eat it newly made with sliced bananas, but it can be used in many other ways too: as filling in cakes, swiss rolls, cookies/biscuits, as cake frosting, in desserts. And, I guess, on sandwiches if you live in one of those countries where chocolate and chocolate creams considered spreads. Anyway you like it.

I've used milk chocolate (36 %) from Odense, which is one of my favourite. It can be found in the baking aisle rather than the chocolate/candy section in the store and it's not at all as sweet as, say Marabou milk chocolate. This one has a rich chocolate flavour. Of cause, you can use any chocolate you like and can find where you live. Keep in mind, though, that it always pays to use good quality chocolate. It doesn't have to be the most expensive brand, far from it, just avoid the really cheap ones.


Ingredients

200 grams chocolate
1½ - 2 dl mascarpone (2 dl = approx. 250 grams)



Melt the chocolate in a glass bowl in the microwave oven or a water bath. If using a microwave, stir after a minute or so and watch carefully to avoid overheating the chocolate.

When melted, slightly stir the chocolate with a fork to make sure there are no lumps of chocolate left. Then add the mascarpone, a little at the time. Stir and whisk it into the chocolate with the fork until it is fully blended.

At this point, the cream is very soft and fluffy, perfect for a dessert like the one I described above with the bananas. When stored cold -- and it should be stored cold -- the cream will harden somewhat. How much depends on how much mascarpone you use.

I estimate the above recipe is enough to make four servings of a banana and chocolate cream dessert, depending on what you add to it.


PS! If the bowl in the picture looks "messy", it's because I melted the chocolate and mixed the cream in it. If just making a small batch (a quarter or half of the recipe above) for yourself, it means less washing up if making the cream in the same bowl you intend to eat it from. Just don't choose a bowl that's too small or it will be hard to mix the cream.