This is a really easy, delicious thing to make. Yes you do need a) chocolate and b) kumquats in the house to make this exact one, but the idea is that with a bit of imagination, you have a really easy, original gift to make for someone at the last minute. Perhaps you’ve been invited round to someone’s house and want to take a little gift.
I used kumquats, because that’s what I saw in Martha Stewart Living. This decision also resulted in perhaps my most middle class quest of the year: going in search of them (Sainsbury’s had them). It was worth it because kumquats lend themselves really beautifully to this idea and weren’t madly expensive. A packet that would have made this twice over cost £1.50. Plus they look festive, colourful and this was absolutely delicious: like a grown up, not too sickly, Terry’s Chocolate Orange.
But if you don’t have kumquats, or don’t like them you can put anything on top of the chocolate: slices of stem ginger, roasted hazelnuts, sliced pistachios, what ever takes your fancy, you get the idea.
For this I used a mixture of Green and Black’s milk chocolate and Waitrose Continental 70% cocoa chocolate, because I wanted it to be quite creamy. You want the slab to ‘snap’ when you serve it so don’t go too milky chocolatey, even if you want to serve it to children. To make it really grown up and ‘snappy’, make it out of all 70% cocoa chocolate. I used about 250g of chocolate in total to make this slab, which fed sixteen at after lunch coffee.
Melt in a bowl, over boiling water, then pour onto baking parchment on a baking tray. Scatter over your topping of choice. Put in fridge to set. If giving as a present – and not serving at your own dinner party – then break it up and put it in cellophane bag or if you have food-grade cellophane wrap (naturally, ahem, I do) then you can wrap the whole thing in one piece.
That’s it. So easy and looks so impressive.
Pane Amore e Cha Cha Cha 
It looks gorgeous, and am most tempted to pick up some kumquats on my 7am trip to Lord Sainsbury’s tomorrow. One problem I always have with making choc things myself is getting that white bloom when the chocolate sets, any advice on what I am doing wrong?
Explanation here:
http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2011/apr/15/how-why-temper-chocolate
Choc slab looks lovely, wonder if I can send the children out to shops …
Explanation here:
http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2011/apr/15/how-why-temper-chocolate
Looks lovely, wonder if I can send children out for kumquats tonight …
Oh do Ali! I only get white bloom when my chocolate comes into contact with moisture/water before it’s set. Can you tell me how you melt it? The kumquats do let out moisture here but it happens after the chocolate has set so I didn’t have any problem with white bloom here (next time am going to try to semi-dehyrate the kumquats first to see how that turns out).
Thanks Mabel, that’s really useful. I always temper my chocolate but I do it without a thermometer. It’s the one thing I can seem to do ‘by eye’ and I rarely, rarely get it wrong. I think it’s probably because I’ve been melting chocolate for forty years (yes since I was tiny!). I always melt over boiling water in a bowl. Only ever use metal utensils (wooden ones can harbour moisture). Once melted I take it off the heat and add more chocolate and stir slowly.
I made slabs of this for Christmas using Lindt Cooking chocolate with 51% cocoa and a bit of 70% thrown in. Dangerously delicious. Thank you for yet another Christmas treat.
Completely thrilled! I made it again with slithers of stem ginger and it was delicious.