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Chocolate chestnut log
Serves 6-8 Desserts and puddings
Ingredients
- 100g dark chocolate, 70 per cent cocoa solids, broken into pieces
- 50g unsalted butter, diced
- 1 x 435g tin of unsweetened chestnut purée
- 75g golden caster sugar
- 100g extra-thick double cream
- 1tsp vanilla extract
- chocolate leaves, for decorating
- icing sugar, for dusting
- whipped cream, to serve
- 20cm x 8cm stand or plate
Method
Place the chocolate and butter in a bowl set over a pan of simmering water and gently melt them, stirring now and again until smoothly amalgamated. Remove the bowl from the heat and set aside to cool to room temperature.
Place the chestnut purée, sugar, cream and vanilla extract in the bowl of a food processor and whizz until creamy, then add the chocolate and butter mixture and whizz again until you have a silky purée. This should be the consistency of whipped butter icing – that is, firm enough to pile into a log. If the mixture seems too loose, transfer it to a bowl, cover with clingfilm and chill until it firms up sufficiently to shape.
Wrap the stand in foil and pile the chocolate chestnut mixture along its length. Run the tines of a fork along the length of the log so it resembles wood, and smooth the ends with a palette knife.
Decorate the forked surface with chocolate leaves, and place in the fridge for several hours, or overnight until set. Remove from the fridge about 30 minutes in advance, then dust with icing sugar just before serving with whipped cream.
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