MY 10 BEST CHOCOLATE RECIPES
It's almost Valentine's Day, for which you might want pavlova, deep dark chocolate cheesecake, and other chocolate treats. The best of the best from my chocolate files.
Good Morning!
Happy February! This is supposed to be my week off Substack, but I’m still weaning myself off my habit of sending you a post every week, even though I promised to use one week each month to focus on other work, like my next book. What can I say—I really like you all. Plus, it’s nearly Valentine’s Day, and I can’t, in good conscience, let you start this month without chocolate.
We are big chocolate people over here; some days, it feels irrational how much my son loves dark chocolate (about as much as his mama). I’d made almost every chocolate dessert under the sun at home for years—except cheesecake. There’s plenty of joy to be found in the classic cheesecake (or lemon), and when it comes to chocolate, we’re more of a mouse, pudding, molten chocolate cake breed of chocolate lovers.
Until I found out my daughter loves cheesecake—the kind of thing you discover on vacation that you never notice at home. You know, when you’re at dinner, and the waiter asks if you’d like to see the dessert menu, and your (then) nine-year-old daughter smiles confidently and says, “Yes! Do you have cheesecake?”
Astounding, I had never made or served cheesecake at home. It was as if she had been born fully formed with her own ideas! As if I had nothing to do with raising her, and somehow she had gone out and found her way in the world while I wasn’t looking.
Maybe it’s genetic. Cheesecake was my childhood dessert of choice at every restaurant, every time, even though my mother also never made it for me. Life is funny.
I’ve told you about my ultra chocolatey, mousse-like cheesecake with a perfect dark, crumbly chocolate wafer crust before (photo above). This is a reminder that it’s here for you, along with creamy pudding, flourless chocolate cloud cakes, the most luscious and show-stopping stracciatella pavlova, and the richest blondies we make on repeat. My full list of 10 of my chocolate favorites to make/bake for your Valentine’s is below, with two guest stars from friends.
Now, will you tell me about your Valentine’s traditions? Or that thing you always made/make for your little ones or your love? Or maybe it is a tradition your mom made or did for you?
My husband doesn’t blink at these holidays, but, bless him—on the very first Valentine’s we were dating, he sleuthed and made reservations at the most exclusive table in NYC at the time, which would have cost our combined weekly salary to pay for. That was the last time we ate out on Valentine’s Day (17 years ago!).
These days, I spend my time making heart-shaped pancakes, filling school valentines with chocolate treats, and this year—visiting my sister in California. She’s one of the first people I ever belonged to in the world. Sister love is a gift.
xx
Sarah
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10 CHOCOLATE TREATS to make for your loves
Flourless Chocolate Brownie Cake
Chocolate Chip Cookies (for Modern Times)
Deep Dark Chocoalte Cheesecake
Bittersweet Chocolate Tart with Sea Salt
Chocoalte Stratiatella Pavlova
Gluten-Free Double Chocolate Blondies
Miso Dark Chocolate Chip Cookies (recipe from Elizabeth Van Lierde)
Double Chocolate Crinkle Cookies (this recipe comes from the files of trusted baker, friend and leading Gluten-Free cookbook author, Aran Goyoaga).
Too hard to choose a favorite...so the only thing to do is to make them all.
Just a note to tell you that the Newlywed Cookbook is my go to present for wedding s and showers. In fact, we’re having a shower for our choir member this week and we’ve all signed it for a special remembrance!