Lindt Chocolate Book Review

It's never too early to think about Christmas presents and for chocolate loving bakers like myself this book is the ultimate present. Lindt Chocolate Bar, published by Jacqui Small, looks like a real Lindt chocolate bar but is actually a fantastic little book packed full of recipes using Lindt Excellence as the main ingredient in each one.



There is a great selection of recipes including chocolate meringues (main picture above), chocolate banoffee pie and chocolate macaroons. The recipes also vary in skill so there is something that everyone can enjoy making, from beginners to the more experienced bakers.

I had a go at making this recipe, a soft-centred chocolate cake, which was amazing! I could probably have baked the cake for five minutes longer than I did as the centre was a little sloppier that it should have been but it tasted heavenly and I enjoyed eating the squidgy chocolatey middle! Have a go yourself and let me know how you get on!

Ingredients

250g Lindt Excellence Chocolate (Cocoa 70%)
125g unsalted butter, plus extra for greasing
8 eggs, separated
1 pinch of salt
180g caster sugar
50g plain flour
icing sugar to decorate

Method

- Preheat the oven to 240C (475F/Gas 9).
- Roughly chop the Lindt Excellence chocolate and butter into small pieces. Melt them in a bowl in a bain-marie, stirring frequently with a wooden spoon. Alternatively, heat the chocolate in the microwave at 30 second intervals, stirring at each interval. When the chocolate has nearly melted, add the butter and heat again at 30 second intervals until everything has melted.
- Add the salt to the egg whites and beat until stiff.
- In a large bowl, mix the sugar with the egg yolks and beat with an electric mixer until pale in colour, light and fluffy. Still using the mixer, beat this mixture into the egg whites.
- Add the melted chocolate and butter mixture. Beat well. Gently fold in the flour, then beat again. The mixture will reduce slightly in volume.
- Butter a 22cm (8.5") springform cake tin. Pour in the mixture and bake for 5 minutes. Reduce the oven temperature to 150C (300F/Gas 2) and cook for 20 minutes more.
- Check for doneness - a skewer inserted into the cake should come out with chocolate on it.The aim is not to cook the mixture until dry. If there is a lot of chocolate on the skewer bake for a further 5 minutes and test again. The cake should have a slight wobble in the middle but be solid around the edges of the cake.
- Turn the cake out onto a wire cooling rack. Sprinkle with icing sugar and serve warm.

I'd recommend Lindt Chocolate Bar recipe book for all bakers as it has some delicious recipes and the gorgeous photographs inspire you to bake the recipes. If I didn't have this book already it would definitely be on my Christmas list!

You can buy Lindt Chocolate Bar from Quarto Knows or Amazon.