Chocolate

Ever since I ate my first Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup, I’ve been a fan of chocolate and peanut butter, and I have a lot of fun taking that flavor combination to new levels. This dessert has many textures and flavor dimensions and is a winner in more ways than one. I entered this recipe in a Peanut Advisory Board competition, and it came away with first prize. This is one of my most complicated desserts. Make sure to read through the entire recipe before beginning. Freeze any leftovers: they will be fine for about one month, and you can eat them like frozen Snickers bars.

Late-night eating is one of those things that’s pretty much a fact of a chef’s life. Really late-night eating. And I often end up with friends at ’ino and ’inoteca, where they make the greatest panini in New York. One very late night, my cooks and I thought it would be fun to create a sandwich for the dessert menu. Here’s the result. The combination of chocolate with the tangy olives is addictive.

Just about every restaurant around has a version of molten chocolate cake on the menu, and many claim to be the original, but the cake that Jean-Georges developed at Lafayette Restaurant in New York is the most delicious, the one with the greatest contrast in textures. It’s the only dessert that stays on the menu year-round at Jean Georges. (The photograph is pages 144–145.)

For all the years I’ve been working with Jean-Georges, I’ve had his legendary molten chocolate cake on the dessert menu. Finally, I decided I had to do something to make the cake my own, so I took it apart and put it back together with white chocolate and a good hit of vanilla. This cake isn’t molten; it’s much more a lush, custardy soufflé. I love combining citrus with chocolate, hot with cold. The frozen mandarin orange refreshes and cleanses the palate.

Rich texture is abundant in this multiflavored, multilayered dessert. The pears are presented in three different forms—caramelized, as a creamy mousse, and as a tender gelée—and each opens differently on the palate.

Beets and raspberries complement each other perfectly, covering sweet and acidic, earthy and bright flavors. The chocolate in this dessert is the secondary flavor, reinforcing the earthiness of the beets and bringing two additional textures to the plate.

I often find myself reflecting back on principal recipes and techniques when I’m changing the menu at Jean Georges, then reworking them with modern flavor combinations. The fresh jam in this recipe makes a traditional tart more seasonal. Thai basil has a distinct flavor, so in addition to striking a modern note, it holds up well against the more homey notes struck by the cherries.

Inspiration here comes from my many Mexican friends who add chocolate to savory dishes. I thought I’ d return the favor and add chiles to dessert. This frozen chocolate cake has a gentle heat, tamed by the chocolate and its hidden apricot center.

Cacao nibs give the flavor of chocolate without added sweetness, and they’re a great side texture to this airy soufflé.

The flavor combinations here—particularly the strawberry and coconut—remind me of some Caribbean cocktail, the kind with an umbrella in it.

Chef Alex Lee of Daniel taught me his way of starting to create recipes: taking an ingredient and then making a list of all the other flavors or ingredients that go well with it. He also prompted me to start thinking about the possibilities of pairing vegetables with sweets. In this dessert, I match the earthiness of chocolate with the earthiness of beets. When you make the candied beets, use a mixture of red, golden, and chiogga (the candy-striped ones) for the prettiest presentation. You’ll need separate batches of Simple Syrup for each type of beet to keep the colors intact. You’ll be roasting more beets than you need for the cake. Use the extra puree to make Raspberry-Beet Sauce.

Amaretti is strictly translated as “little bitters,” but colloquially it refers to light, airy, crunchy, dome-shaped almond cookies. The cookies are great on their own, but I also love them as an ingredient in a cake; the soft cake batter and the crunchy cookie provide a wonderful contrast. So when you can’t decide whether to have cookies or cake, just have both.

The traditional zabaglione isn’t made with chocolate, but it is served either warm or cold, with fresh berries, as mine is. So why did I add chocolate? To make this something so incredibly rich and special that no one—absolutely no one—could resist it. Serve this before asking for a really big favor

A bit of mascarpone in the batter gives this cake just the slightest tang and keeps it moist, making it a good candidate for freezing. I always keep one of these in the freezer and when kids come to visit I pull it out and serve it with some strawberries and chocolate sauce for dipping.

A lot of steps go into putting this cake together but since it starts with a boxed cake mix, none of them is very difficult. All the effort goes into the creamy-crunchy filling, made from hazelnut brittle that is a delicious candy all on its own. It makes for a spectacular birthday cake.

Here’s another recipe in which just a few ingredients come together to make a big, big impression. It’s not as dense as the name suggests, because the beaten egg whites lighten it up considerably, as do the crumbled cookies. Think of this next time you’re looking for an unusual birthday cake; with its layer of marmalade and crumbled cookie topping it’s elegant enough for any important occasion.

Zeppole are little doughnuts that are sold on the street in Naples and at street fairs. They are usually served with a simple dusting of powdered sugar, but the combination of chocolate and orange in this version is just to die for. Eat these warm, because they become heavy and doughy once they cool (if they stay around that long!).

If you’re intimidated by the prospect of making a mousse, this recipe is pretty cool. Once you’ve warmed up the milk, just combine everything in the blender, then pop it in the fridge to chill. Desserts don’t get any easier than that. Top individual servings with any kind of flavored cream you like; I like orange with chocolate, but a cinnamon cream would be nice, too.

This is the chocolate lover’s answer to panna cotta. It’s quite similar to a mousse but the gelatin makes it a bit firmer.

I could eat this sandwich every day for the rest of my life and never get tired of it. The heat of the panini press melts the chocolate and Brie together, and the salty-sweet-gooey goodness that results is my idea of heaven. Sometimes I make these for a cocktail party, cutting each sandwich into four small squares, and it’s always a conversation starter.