I wanted to end the month with chocolate, I’ve managed to stay off it the entire month which is quite a feat for me! Wanting to make a slight twist rather than a ‘plain old’ chocolate ice cream I decided to make a sorbet instead. So, as a bonus this is dairy and egg free, assuming you’re using an appropriate chocolate, it’s vegan and lactose free, and it’s still yummy!

This really is nice and simple to make. Bring the sugar and water to a boil, add the cocoa powder and whisk it together. Here is where I failed a little and didn’t boil it out. My recipe said boil to get rid of the alkali taste, since I was using Dutched cocoa I didn’t think it would be necessary. Turns out I was wrong and it also gets rid of the powdery taste that the cocoa leaves otherwise.

I decided to up the chocolate and use the (specially imported by my Mum) 100% chocolate from Willie’s Cacao. This made it very dark, so not necessarily to everyone’s taste, but this recipe is good with semisweet (milk and white requires different ratios). Chop up all the chocolate and put it into a bowl, pour over the boiled cocoa mix.

Let it sit for a minute or two then whisk together. Bring up to volume with some ice, this helps cool it down, and gives the right ratio of water. It can be churned as soon as it is cooled, or it can be chilled overnight. If you do chill it overnight it may separate out but it’ll whisk back together just fine.

It does seem to get very hard once frozen, but it is very tasty and rich.

I wanted to serve this with something a little more interesting. Brandy snaps are something I’ve served ice cream in many times, their predominant ginger flavour would work nicely with the chocolate (unlike the sorbet they aren’t vegan). They’re very simple, just brown sugar and butter melted together.

Add some brandy and the mix will bubble right up. Stir together and add some flour and ginger. Spoon onto a baking sheet and bake for 8-10 minutes until they have become all lacy.

They will come out very soft and you need them to cool a little so you can pick them up and then mold them over a bowl (or in any shape you like, round a wooden spoon handle will give nice little tubes) while they’re still soft. Once they’re cool they will harden. Store in a cool, airtight container if you aren’t using them straight away.

Serve the ice cream in the brandy snaps, add fresh raspberries, et voila, a dessert fit for a king!