Matching wine with chocolate is fraught with difficulty. Sweet, milky chocolate tends to make most wines taste lean and hard – unless the wine is much sweeter than the chocolate; and dark, high cocoa-content chocolate can be bitter and clash with any astringency and/or acid in wine. This is why the very best wine for chocolate and choc-based dessert tends to be very sweet, soft and rich fortifieds. Muscat can be good, tokay excellent, but the chocolate wine par excellence is Spain’s ‘black sherry’ – or other fortified wines – made from extremely ripe, raisined Pedro Ximénez grapes. Adding some citrussy, fruity, spicy flavours into the mix, as in this dessert, makes the match even more fabulous. – Max Allen
It’s a hard ask for a wine to withstand the sweet assault of chocolatey things, but Spain’s Pedro Ximénez fits the bill.
Ingredients
Chocolate pots
Pedro Ximénez-spiced sour cherries
Method
Main
1.For cherries, combine Pedro Ximénez, caster sugar, star anise and orange peel in a saucepan over medium heat, bring to the boil, reduce heat to low and cook for 5 minutes. Add cherries, increase heat to medium, return to the boil, then remove from heat and cool.
2.Heat chocolate, cream and Pedro Ximénez in a heatproof bowl placed over gently boiling water, stirring occasionally, until chocolate has melted and mixture is smooth.
3.Whisk egg yolks and sugar in a separate heatproof bowl placed over gently simmering water for 5 minutes or until thick and pale. Combine chocolate and egg yolk mixture
in the bowl of an electric mixer and whisk on high for 5 minutes or until mixture is thick and cool.
4.Divide half the cherries between six ½ cup-capacity ramekins, spoon over chocolate mixture and refrigerate for 1 hour or until set. Serve chocolate pots topped with remaining cherries and a glass of Pedro Ximénez.
Note Dried sour cherries are available from The Essential Ingredient and health food stores. Drink suggestion by Max Allen
