Caramelized White Chocolate

1. Preheat oven to 120 ° C, convection/fan-assisted oven. Line a baking tray with parchment paper.
2. Chop the chocolate and place onto the baking tray. Bake for 10-15 minutes (not longer at a time!), and take tray out of oven.
3. Using a spatula or a spoon, swirl and stir the chocolate around. Don’t worry if it is grainy, the melting process will fix that. Place the tray in the oven again, bake 10-15 minutes, take out, stir, etc. Totally I do this about 3-6 times, so between 45 minutes and 1 1/2 hours.
4. When finished with the caramelisation process, let the tray sit at room temperature for the chocolate to cool down a little. Then place the tray in the fridge for the chocolate to fully harden.
5. Depending on the recipe, you will need to break the caramelized chocolate into little shards, or melt it down again. If you haven’t taste-tested too much, you will have some left-overs, which pair nicely with dark chocolate or vanilla ice-cream.

Chocolate Fudge Cookies

1. Preheat oven to 160°C convection. Line a baking tray with parchment paper.
2. In a bowl, cream together the butter, sugar and vanilla. After 3 minutes, add the egg.
3. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, cocoa powder, salt and baking soda. Slowly fold into the creamed mixture. Optional: add the nuts. (If the dough is too stiff, add 1 tablespoon of milk).
4. If your chocolate isn’t runny/melted yet, proceed to melt it in the microwave or over a bain-marie, as explained in the blog post.
5. Whilst your chocolate is melting, form dough balls of about 35 grams. Place the balls on the tray, leaving enough space in between them, as they do spread.
6. On each cookie ball, pour a tablespoon of the caramelized white chocolate. It is okay if it runs down the sides; it will bake into the cookie and make for a crinkle-y top. Yum!
7. Bake for 12-15 minutes. Remove tray from oven, and sprinkle a little bit of salt onto the still soft chocolate. Let cool. These cookies are very fudgy, and are almost better on the second day – that is, if they last so long! 🙂