CHOCOLATE BUTTER

I recently splurged on a big bag of Lindt dark couverture chocolate and have felt driven to find as many ways to use it as possible.  I was poking around the internet looking at chocolate this and chocolate that when I stumbled across something that really made me sit up and take notice.  What is this attention getting thing you might ask?  Well, set your face to thrilled because mine was.  Are you ready?  Two companies in New Zealand have united to create and sell........CHOCOLATE BUTTER!  Did you get that?  CHOCOLATE BUTTER people! As soon as I read of this I had to know more. So I checked out the product ingredients.  I read a pile of foodie blog posts about it.  Then I read lots of blogs of people who had tried to create it.  So, armed with all this knowledge, I set off to the kitchen.  I am pleased to say that I only wasted two lots of ingredients had two unsuccessful attempts before hitting on a recipe that met my expectations.  One thing I learned in the first attempt is that putting vegetable oil in the chocolate butter is disgusting (quite a few bloggers did this) as it tastes yuck and has a horrible mouth feel.  This recipe gives a lovely silky and beautifully chocolatey butter that looks and smells great. This is a great treat for those who have a nut allergy and can't have things that are nut based like Nutella.  It is also great because you don't need expensive, wanky ingredients.  You can use it any way you see fit - the only limit is your imagination. Put it on pikelets, pancakes, toast, bread, spread it on a cupcake, stick it on a crumpet, put it on ice cream, pile it on a waffle or use it as a cake filling.  As the primary ingredients are butter and chocolate and both can be stored safely at room temperature, you can keep it in the bench or in the pantry.  However, if you live in our hotter climates, I would recommend storing it in the fridge and bringing it out to warm up when you want to use it.  It will solidify in the fridge.  Without further ado, I give you CHOCOLATE BUTTER!!!!

CHOCOLATE BUTTER

1 cup of chocolate (approx 180g) (the best you can afford - dark chocolate is best)
250g of unsalted butter, diced and soft (it is worth splurging on Devondale or Lurpak as no name brands have a high water content)
2 tbsp icing sugar
2 tbsp cocoa
Good pinch of sea salt

1. Place the chocolate in the bowl with the kneading blade.
2. Select Speed 3 Temp 80 degrees Time 3min. Stopper out.
3. After 1 min, pause the program and scrape down the sides of the bowl. Resume program.
4. Once chocolate is melted leave to cool for 15 minutes with the lid off.
5. Place remaining ingredients in the bowl.
6. Select Speed 9 Time 1 min.
7. After 30 seconds, pause the program and scrape down the sides of the bowl. Resume program.
8. Place the chocolate butter into a clean jar.

Note: This makes about 1 1/3 cups of chocolate butter. It should keep for up to two weeks....if it lasts that long.