Dear Martha,

With Halloween just around the corner, I tried out a kind of darker type of exquisite chocolate the other day: with licorice. I used an old recipe of dark exquisite chocolate and added the licorice powder, which turned out to be a great combination. You don’t feel the licorice at first, but after a few seconds you get that smoky taste. Lovely!

You can buy the licorice powder in the hobby store or in the super market.

Here’s how you can make some Halloween Licorice Chocolate, Martha:

You’ll need
1 dl cream
0,5 dl milk
1 tsp honey
4 tsp licorice powder
200 g dark chocolate
50 g butter

200 g dark chocolate for topping
Gourmet salt

1. Mince the chocolate.
2. Pour cream, milk and honey into a pan and let it cook. Add the licorice powder and whip it good, as Devo use to say.
3. Pour the liquid over the chocolate. Stir until the mixture has all melted.
4. Add the butter in small pieces and stir until you’ve got a smooth consistency. The butter has to be of room temperature – you can’t melt it, the chocolate will curdle.
5. Pour the mixture into a small plastic bag, cut a hole in on of the corners and pipe into a tin (I’m using a tin for icing cubes).
6. Put the tin in the freezer for at least an hour.
7. Melt the remaining chocolate for decoration in the microwave and take the tin out of the freezer. Lose the pieces from the tin and dip the pieces in the melted chocolate. It’s easiest if you use a chocolate fork. Sprinkle salt over the pieces. Let dry on a plate.

Store the exquisite chocolate in the refrigerator.

Love, Josefin