Ischoklad

Here is another Swedish classic for Christmas - ischoklad, which translates to ice chocolate. It's readily available to buy in Sweden of course, but there is also a great attraction in making it at home.

I have vague memories of trying to make this lovely sweet years ago with my Mum and it was lumpy and split and horrible. But I think I know what the problem was - we used butter and we must have got water into the mixture causing the chocolate to clot.

Actually this thing is massively easy to do, to the point of running the risk of having it readily available throughout the year. Massive danger to any diet.

I had prepared by buying coconut fat from Sweden - this is sold in 500 g blocks, like any other solid fat. It is white in colour and if I remember what I learned at school correctly, is a saturated fat, making it solid at room temperature. A quick gander at Wikipedia confirms this and lately I've seen jars of coconut oil in our local supermarkets. I must get some and see if the ice chocolate works as well with that.

Basically the ice chocolate is a kind of ganache, but making it with coconut fat, means it's melting temperature is lowered from around 35 °C to 25 °C, which gives the sensation of ice melting on your tongue.

It can be made with any type of chocolate, my brief googling indicates that you use 2 parts of your choice of chocolate to 1 part of coconut fat. I recommend you start with this and experiment to find a combo that suits your taste. I decided on milk chocolate and white chocolate.

Ingredients
100 g coconut fat
100 g milk chocolate
100 g white chocolate
honeycomb crumbs
dessicated coconut
chocolate chilli sprinkles
chopped nuts
mint essence
etc...

Method

1. Divide the coconut fat into two equal parts.
2. Melt each part separately in a bain marie until completely melted.
3. Measure up the chocolates and break up into chunks or chop.
4. Remove each of the bowls from the heat, then add the milk chocolate into one of the bowls and the white chocolate into the other.
5. Stir each mixture until the chocolate dissolves completely. The resulting mixture will be fairy thin.
6. Line up mini muffin cases (preferably aluminium) on a tray (which will fit in your fridge), then add a small amount of filling - I used honeycomb crumble, dessicated coconut and chocolate chilli sprinkles.
   
7. Transfer the mixtures to a small piping bag, preferably plastic and disposable. Then carefully fill each case to the top.
8. Leave to cool down to room temperature, then transfer to the fridge and chill for a couple of hours.
9. The ice chocolates are now ready to eat, or can be transferred to a box to save space. Keep in the fridge as much as possible though, so they don't melt.

I used "baking" chocolate and the milk chocolate wasn't sweet enough for this, so I'd recommend adding some sugar to the mixture or using a regular milk chocolate bar, which tends to be sweeter. The white chocolate was OK, but as Lundulph commented, the added flavourings didn't quite come through, except the dessicated coconut. In fact the chilli chocolate was pretty whimpy, but it was a ready mixture I got from my Mum. I'll just add chilli powder next time.

The honeycomb crumbles weren't identifiable as such, but did give a nice crunchy texture to the sweets. I might try adding more next time.

I also think roasted, chopped hazelnuts would be good - some sort of praline even. Sadly I'd used up my last bag in the müsli the other week.

Or you can mix the white and milk chocolate varieties, but then you'll need to do one first, let it set, then top up with the other. My original plan was to pipe in parallel into each case, but with the mixture this thin, they wouldn't have stayed separate. So some planning ahead is needed.

Many of the recipes I looked at recommend adding some mint essence, which will enhance the sense of "iciness". I'm not entirely sure about this, it would have to be very little, so as to just enhance the sensation, rather than taste of mint.

The shop-bought variety is plain milk chocolate, so I recommend making it yourself, there's so much that can be varied, it's brilliant.

Lundulph's thoughts - some of the flavours were quite lost. The coconut was coconutty and overall the milk chocolate ones could have been sweeter, but then sugar isn't too good for you in large amounts.

Actually a word of warning - the cases are about 2 cm in diameter and do not eat too many! They're full of fat and it's very easy to get carried away. The above amounts should give around 50 pieces. I got just under 40 I think. And it just occurred to me - miniature marshmallows or meringues for decorating on top would work rather nicely too.