02 Jul Celebrate World Chocolate Day
Last week was the celebration of World Foods and this week, on 7th July, will be time to celebrate what a lot of people will class as their favourite food in the world, chocolate! We’re sure the chocoholics out there don’t need much of an excuse to enjoy chocolate and 7th July must seem like another Christmas to them.
Chocolate is great, but we often think too much of it isn’t good for us or associate it with sugar and therefore think of it as being bad for our teeth, and waistline! But did you know that chocolate also has a long list of health benefits? When we say chocolate is good for our health, we’re not talking about most of the bars that line the shelves which are full of sugar, but instead dark chocolate which has higher cocoa content and therefore lower sugar content.
Some of the benefits of eating dark chocolate are:
- Dark chocolate is nutritious and contains fibre, iron, magnesium, copper and other minerals.
- Cocoa is full of many different antioxidants, in fact it has more than most other foods which is why it’s great to get a dark bar which has a high cocoa content.
- Improvement in blood flow and decrease in blood pressure can also be put down to the consumption of cocoa.
- It’s also been suggested that this improvement in blood flow could also help protect your skin from the sun.
- Eating chocolate can reduce the risk of heart disease.
So, next time you’re shopping for a chocolate fix why not go for a darker bar, preferably with 70% or more cocoa, so that you not only get that delicious taste but also that health kick too!
But celebrating chocolate isn’t all about it’s fabulous health benefits, so this World Chocolate Day we’re sharing with you a more indulgent treat which might not be so great for your health but it’s only World Chocolate Day once a year!
This World Chocolate Day we’re teaching you how to make Chocolate Truffles at home in two simple steps!
What You’ll Need:
150ml double cream
100g milk chocolate
100g dark chocolate
2 tbsp butter
3 tbsp golden syrup
1 tsp mint extract
2 red bird’s-eye chillies
50g blanched almonds
What You’ll Need To Do:
- Pour the cream into a pan and heat until just steaming, but not boiling. Chop your milk and dark chocolate and put in a bowl along with the butter then pour over the hot cream, and stir until smooth. Chop the chillies and add these, the golden syrup and mint extract to the mixture then pop in the fridge until firm, this will take around 2 hrs.
- Chop and toast the almonds. Using a melon baller roll into 1 tsp balls. Roll the balls in the almonds and set on a tray. Cover and chill until serving.
We can teach you how to make many other delicious dishes with chocolate in them at one of our private cooking lessons, simply contact us today to find out more.
