Remember how excited I was a few months ago when Joanna sent me some Willie’s Cacao? The 180g blocks were enormous fun to play with, but at £6 each, plus £4 freight (A$16.50 in total), they really were too expensive for day to day use.
I was pretty chuffed when my foodie friend Sharyn (known affectionately at Chefs’ Warehouse as “Shazza”) put me on to the Callebaut equivalent. This pure, unsweetened 100% cacao from Belgium costs $22/kg, comes in versatile callets, and provides a far more affordable option for experimenting with!
Apart from all the US recipes that call for “unsweetened chocolate”, there’s also an emerging food trend to add cacao to savoury dishes. Last weekend, I tried it in a mushroom risotto with surprisingly delicious results – watch out for more posts on this in the future.
Fellow Sydneysiders, Chef’s Warehouse can order this product in for you on request – it’s known as Callebaut Cocoa Mass, and is available in 2.5kg bags.
Fig Jam and Lime Cordial 
Funny you should write this – I did my first baking with Willie’s 100% cocoa yesterday and was thoroughly annoyed at the mess I made trying to cut up the solid block! I made the Cloud cake from the recipe on the back of the wrapper but do have to say it was truly delicious.
I also bought a small block of Willie’s 70% chocolate. I was very impressed – very smooth flavour but still intense chocolate. Think he has lower sugar than other 70% chocolate?
Savoury wise I’ve had chocolate added to boeuf bourguignon and with hare but the most amazing was a duck salad with small chunks of chocolate. The dressing had a honey base – but not overly sweet at all.
Anna
Anna, I tried it in our brownie recipe last weekend (made gluten free for our friend Pete) and it was sublime. I only used it in the melted chocolate part, the pieces scattered over the top were still 54%, but it was enough to impart a deep, rich flavour to the brownies while tempering the sweetness of the finished bar just a little.
Duck salad with chocolate! That would have been a fascinating combination!
I really need to get to Chef’s Warehouse, my list of things to get is getting bigger and bigger. I am also playing around with savoury and chocolate dishes- my husband came home with an amazing chocolate book that every recipe just begs to be made. Bit of a problem that….
Duck salad with chocolate sounds every interesting!
Hahaha…I know exactly how you feel! I’m always like that when I go too – loooong list of things at every visit…
Now that sounds really useful – I wonder if I can find anything similar at an affordable price over here. I’m still on my first bar of Willie’s – it cost so much I can’t bring myself to use it for more than grating over things. I have just bought myself his book though, so I might just have to use it!
One of the things I was going to do for my blog was experiment with cocoa in savoury food, but I don’t seem to have got very far with it other than using it in refried beans and grating it on to the odd dish – must try harder!
That looks like a really good product Celia – I haven’t bought any of Willie’s Cacao yet, it just seems so expensive for what it is!
I think the only time I’ve really had chocolate in savoury food is in a venison casserole – works well (just a couple of squares of 70%).
Choclette, I was exactly the same, and some of the recipes in his book call for a whole block! There’s nothing so lovely as having enough to play with abandon.. :)
C, it’s very nice, I’ve now used it in a risotto and in two batches of brownies – fascinating what a difference it makes. Venison sounds like it would be a great match. I’m thinking of a spaghetti bolognese next – there’s a recipe in Willie’s book!
What a great find Celia! I always find that when I get precious and expensive things from overseas I really tightly ration them hehe :P
Lorraine, that makes me very happy! I get so much info from your blog, it’s nice to be able to reciprocate in a tiny way! :)
[…] mass (also called unsweetened chocolate or 100% chocolate) comes all the way from Fig Jam and Lime Cordial where Celia uses it just as one could use Willie’s cacao. Since there is nothing like […]