Three superb recipes for chocolate fiends
(and their friends)
Hello! You’re either bored of me talking about chicken and Peckish. Or you switched off ages ago and aren’t reading even as far as this top line …
Either way, it’s time for something sweet today. And I’m very happy that I’ve got 3 fantastic chocolate-fronted recipes for you, each by the supremely talented (and nice) Edd Kimber.
These all come from his new cookbook, Chocolate Baking; which is a seriously impressive (and tempting) set of bakes and desserts where, you guessed it, chocolate is the feature ingredient. If you’re doubting whether you need a whole book on this subject, banish those thoughts right now: (a) you do; and (b) this one features a brilliant (and BEAUTIFUL) collection of recipes.
Incidentally other new cookbooks I’m excited about and will try and feature here and on Instagram in the near future include:
Cooking Made Simple by Alexandra Dudley;
Weeknight Vegetarian by Joe Woodhouse;
Fired Up by Melissa Thompson;
Centrepiece by Helen Graham; and
The Racine Effect by Henry Harris.
Check them all out. It’s really only the beginning of this year’s cookbook releases, so there’s lots more to come. Yet I’m confident that come the end of the year, these’ll still be near the top of the ‘best of this 2026’s titles.
Onwards to chocolate
If you’re looking for something to serve after your Easter main course (perhaps one of the spatchcock chicken options in Peckish?!), then keep scrolling because there’s a strong chance the answer is starting right back at you. They really are spectacular, so keep scrolling. There’s also a fun Q&A with Edd after recipe #1.
Enjoy, and see you next time, Ed
p.s. I’ve been receiving lots of messages with people already cooking from Peckish. So cheering – thank you. If you’ve got it and rate it, please do head over to wherever you bought it from and leave a 5* rating.
And if you haven’t got it yet, here’s this week’s nudge… if not for you, then it’ll be much better gift than a mediocre Easter egg.
Chocolate Baking: The Ultimate Guide to Cakes, Cookies, Desserts & Pastries
by Edd Kimber (Quadrille, £28.00)
LAZY BAKED ALASKA
Baked Alaska traditionally consists of a cake base, an ice cream filling and a meringue topping that is placed in the oven, under the grill (broiler), until browned. This version is more of a quick assembly job; one that utilises a couple of shop-bought elements plus a couple of simple homemade ones. The recipe is very much a guide. Using the meringue and ice cream as your base, you can make versions with all manner of ingredients. Brownie offcuts for the base, for example, leftover caramel instead of chocolate sauce or even jam instead of the compote. Whilst I like to make this with vanilla ice cream it would also be wonderful with the Salted Dark Chocolate Sorbet (page 118) or the Milk Chocolate Liquorice Ice Cream (page 121).
Serves 2
Blueberry Compote
50 g (1¾ oz) blueberries
2 teaspoons caster (superfine) sugar
1 tablespoon lemon juice
Milk Chocolate Sauce
20 g (½ oz) milk chocolate, 40% cocoa solids, finely chopped
30 ml (2 tablespoons) whipping (heavy) cream
Swiss Meringue
1 large egg white
50 g (¼ cup) caster (superfine) sugar
small pinch fine sea salt
¼ teaspoon vanilla bean paste
To serve
20 g (2 tablespoons) salted pretzels or salted peanuts, roughly chopped
2 large scoops vanilla ice cream
For the compote, put everything in a small saucepan, place over a medium heat and cook for 2–3 minutes or until the fruit has broken down and the liquid is thick and syrupy. Scrape into a small bowl and set aside until needed. It can also be refrigerated for a couple days before using, if needed.
For the chocolate sauce, place everything in a small bowl and heat in a microwave, using short 15-second bursts, until the cream is hot. Stir everything together to form a smooth sauce. Set aside until needed. The sauce will thicken as it cools, so stir to loosen when needed. The sauce can also be refrigerated for a couple days before using, but once refrigerated it will firm up and will need heating slightly to loosen.
When ready to serve, make the meringue topping. Add everything to a heatproof bowl and place over a pan of simmering water. Whisk until the mixture is hot to the touch and the sugar has fully dissolved. Remove and use an electric mixer to whisk until the meringue holds stiff glossy peaks, about 3–4 minutes.
To assemble, divide your pretzels/peanuts between two coupe/ martini glasses or other small bowls. Top with a scoop of ice cream and use an ice cream scoop or spoon to press down on the ball of ice cream to create a small well. Add the compote and then the sauce atop the ice cream. Spoon or pipe over the meringue. Use a kitchen blowtorch to burnish the meringue until it’s as dark as you want.
Serve immediately.
Q&A with Edd
Ed Smith: Hi Edd. In Chocolate Baking (which I love), you go into plenty of detail about the ins and outs of chocolate and cocoa; what makes good chocolate, origin, tempering tekkers and so on. But come on, spill the beans:
(a) what’s your go-to chocolate brand to use when cooking;
(b) what’s the treat option; and
(c) what brand do you snack on???
Edd Kimber: Hi Ed! Cutting straight to the chase! (a) the chocolate brand that makes the most frequent appearances in my kitchen is Guittard from San Francisco, I buy it in bulk and it works out cheaper than buying 100g bars at the supermarket and it’s much better quality.
b) I also absolutely love Pump St from Orford. I use their 85% Ecuadorian chocolate in pastry cream and buttercream and it’s dreamy
c) not a brand per se, but if there is a bag of caramelised white chocolate in my kitchen it does magically seem to disappear quite quickly!
ES: There are quite a few recipes involving white chocolate. Which is one of the few foods I dislike! How would you change my mind?!
EK: I think white chocolate gets a lot of undeserved flack. Yes it’s sweet, and low quality versions can also be cloying. But when you get one made with a high percentage of cocoa butter it can be delicious, especially when the brand avoids using deodorised cocoa butter which has very little flavour. But if even if you don’t like its flavour it’s an excellent functional ingredient, it can balance out the harsher edge of matcha, or be the base for a whipped mascarpone ganache that makes for a really simple dessert. One of my favourite ways to use it is in the whipped caramel ganache used on the coconut cake. Adding the white chocolate to the caramel gives it structure and body that in turn give it the perfect texture to decorate a cake with.
ES: You are the OG Bake Off champion. An amazing achievement. But I’m pretty sure you’re a vastly better baker now. How have you upskilled and continued to improve your skills?
EK: Thanks! I don’t ever watch back the series but whenever a clip randomly appears on the tv or online it does remind me that I’ve put a lot of work into being someone that is always trying to learn. I remember meeting Claire Clark, the former French Laundry pastry chef, just after the show had aired and one thing she said has always stuck with me. A chef that thinks they know everything shouldn’t be in the kitchen. Now I never call myself a chef but I think it’s a good mantra to live by. If we stop learning everything slowly becomes stale and boring. I hope that by keeping that mindset, I’ve become a better baker, a better writer, and hopefully better at teaching people to bake.
ES: I frequently crave dark chocolate after I’ve been testing savoury dishes for my books? What, if any, savoury foods fuel you / do you really crave when you’re testing loads of sweet things?
EK: Oh I definitely crave savoury things when I’m working, especially salty things. Any salty snack will do, but I’m partial to salted pretzels, those moreish smoked and salted almonds or pretzel chips!
ES: Nice. Finally, personally my answer would be one of the three recipes extracted below (maybe the meringue tumble, or perhaps the easy Arctic …), but which of the recipes from Chocolate Baking would you serve this Easter?
EK: I will be working all of Easter as I’ll be heading off to America on my book tour straight after. But if I was baking up a storm I think I’d make the Dinner Party Cake. It’s a twice baked flourless chocolate cake so the base layer is dense and the top layer is basically a chocolate mousse. I like to serve it with a nutmeg creme anglaise, the nutmeg goes so well with the flavour of the cake.
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Chocolate orange meringue tumble
Whenever you need a crowd-pleasing dessert that will elicit plenty of oohs and aahs, this is the recipe to go for. Inspired by a dessert made by chef Jeremy Lee, at London’s Quo Vadis, this is a giant pile of cocoa-swirled meringues sandwiched together with cream and dotted with orange segments. Table side, it is adorned with lashings of vanilla crème anglaise and a chocolate orange sauce, then finished with a generous scattering of chopped hazelnuts.