World Chocolate Day: Chocolatey Hot Pot, Chocolatey Pana Cotta, Choco Swirl Cake

Are you a chocolate lover too? Then this World Chocolate Day 2022, go exotic and indulge in the velvety, creamy and smooth flavours of these chocolicious recipes of Chocolatey Hot Pot, Chocolatey Pana Cotta, Choco Swirl Cake that have the power to unite people.

Ingredients:

100 ml chocolate flavoured syrup

4 tbsp cocoa natural unsweetened

110 gm butter

2 eggs

140 gm castor sugar

2 tbsp refined flour

½ tsp vanilla essence

2 tbsp refined flour

Equipment needed:

1 mixing bowl

2 ramekins

1 spoon

1 whisker

1 spatula

Oven

1 deep dish baking pan

Method:

Butter ramekins and keep aside. Mix all the ingredients in a bowl properly. Pour the batter into the ramekins and place it on the baking tray. Bake at 160 C for 7 minutes, until the tops are firm and cracked but the chocolaty layer beneath is hot and gooey. Serve hot with ice-cream

2. Chocolatey Pana Cotta

Ingredients:

200 ml milk

100 ml cream

1 tsp vanilla extract

4 tbsp chocolate flavoured syrup

4 gm gelatin

2 tbsp sabudana soaked and cooked

Equipment needed:

Cooking pot

2 glasses or ramekins

Method:

In a pan, add feel mava, chocolate flavoured syrup with water and heat. Add 80 gm of sev, vanilla essence and mix well to form a thick mixture. Turn the heat off and remove it to a bowl, add the leftover sev, and set in a square 6-inch ring mold. Garnish with dry fruits slivers.

3. Choco Swirl Cake

Ingredients:

1 cup butter, softened

2 cups sugar

3 eggs

2 tsp vanilla extract

2 ¾ cups all-purpose flour

1 ½ tsp baking soda, divided

½ tsp salt

1 cup butter milk or sour milk

½ cup caramel flavoured syrup

¼ cup chocolate flavoured syrup

¼ cup cocoa natural unsweetened

1 tsp powdered sugar

Equipment needed:

Oven

1 mixing bowl

1 baking pan

1 wooden pick

1 serving plate

Method:

Heat oven to 180°C. Grease and flour 12-cup fluted tube pan. Beat butter and sugar in a large mixer bowl until light and fluffy; blend in eggs and vanilla. Combine flour, baking soda, and salt. Stir together buttermilk and caramel syrup; add alternately with flour mixture to butter mixture.

Remove 1 cup batter and place in small bowl; pour remaining batter into prepared pan. Stir the chocolate syrup, cocoa, and remaining baking soda into reserved 1 cup batter; pour over batter in pan. Do not mix. Bake 1 hour and 5 minutes or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean.

Cool 15 minutes; remove from pan. Cool completely, dust with powdered sugar, and serve drizzled with additional caramel flavoured syrup and chocolate flavoured syrup.

* To make sour milk: Use 1 tablespoon white vinegar plus milk to equal 1 cup.

(Recipes: Chef Ranveer Brar)

Benefits:

Cocoa has the capacity to stimulate the brain to release endorphins that helps elevate one’s mood. The unsweetened cacao powder is a source of magnesium and other minerals and lacks the high-calorie cocoa butter or sugars found in garden-variety chocolate.

Apart from lifting up your mood in a jiffy or being a mood enhancer, chocolates’ reputation is rising for having antioxidant effects and reducing risk factors for heart disease courtesy its cocoa content. It has several other health benefits like being aphrodisiac and helping protect your skin against the sun by acting as a sunscreen.

Sabudana or sago pearls promotes strong bones and muscles, improves digestion, reduces blood pressure, reduces the risk of heart disease by lowering cholesterol and triglyceride levels and prevents stomach-related problems. It is naturally gluten-free, is a rich source of carbohydrates which give an energy boost to the body and is a cooling food item which has a cooling effect inside our body that in turn has an impact on our metabolism.