-Is anyone there? Can someone read me?...
+Cricket’s sound…
-Well, I haven’t been away for that long… don’t exaggerate…
+YES!! YOU WERE AWAY FOR ALMOST 2 WEEKS!!
-Well, ok I have been away for quite long, I’m sorry… But I have something for you...
Well, ones again after a horrible story and a while out, I want to say something…
I’m so sorry for my absence I know I haven’t been around for a while but I catched a cold and also I was a little too much complicated with some university stuff, the last couple of weeks were so much crazy, a lot of work, so much coffee, almost no time to sleep… pure happiness… But… that was the last week!!! Now after 2 days sleeping (I’m joking hahaha) I feel much much better; Soooo I can start writing some stuff again, so my beloved followers lets go right into a new post.
This time I will share with you one of my favorite recipes. Chocolate Marquesa, as it is call here in Venezuela. This dessert was the one that show me how beautiful was to cook. I learned it when I was just 12, It is one of my favorite desserts.
This one is not exactly from Venezuela, the original one comes from France and it’s called “marquise au chocolat” (that can be translated to chocolate marquesa) but besides it is not original from here, in Venezuela it is very common to eat it, even we have a delicious brand that only sales marquesa in a lot of presentations (from coconut to lemon) it is called “que marquesa” and it is in sale nationwide.
Here in Venezuela we don’t prepare it equal (in fact there are some records that locate Venezuelan variant here in the country earlier than 1900); the French one its prepared only with chocolate, butter, sugar and eggs, in the Venezuelan one we add Marie biscuits.
This variant of the original marquesa is the one that its extremely popular here in Venezuela to the point that a lot of people think that it’s original from here and take it as a traditional dessert. Well the original one can’t be considered as a traditional food from here but this variant and a lot of the other ones (if you want to know the others let me know in the comments) can easily be considered as one of them.
This dessert is a cold cake it is form by layers of Marie biscuits and chocolate pudding, one over the other. I will stop talking and start explaining how to prepare it
As I said at the beginning it is very easy to prepare. To fill a mold of from about 30x20cm and about 3-4cm high you will need:
-1Lt of milk.
-Liquor (rum, whiskey, whatever this one is optional).
-1 spoon of vanilla flavor/extract or any flavor you want to add (this depends on your preferences, could be more could be less).
-300gr/10.5oz of chocolate (dark or milk chocolate this depends of you).
-100gr/3.5oz of sugar.
-54 Marie biscuits (375gr/13.5oz this will vary depending on how thick you want the layers).
-4-5 teaspoons of cornstarch (this will depend on how liquid your mixture looks, if it’s too liquid add the other).
-100gr/3.5oz of butter or margarine.
-4 egg yolks.
NOTE: I will recommend to bring some extra Marie biscuits and milk, because if you like a more cakey than a creamy marquesa you will need and extra of this ingredients.
Into pot warm up 800ml of milk (NOT BOILING IT, JUST HEAT IT A LITTLE) and add the sugar and vanilla, then mix until sugar dissolves. Keep it into the oven low heat so it can keep warm for the next mixture.
Into a double boiler (This time I didn't use it because I was a little to short in time; but I wil not recommend to do it without because you can burn the chocolate), melt the chocolate and the butter together stirring until it turns into a smooth and silky mixture, then take it from fire, let it cool a bit and start adding the egg yolks, add them one by one while you keep mixing.
Add the chocolate preparation slowly into the milk mixture, remember to keep stirring (do not remove the milk from fire keep it low heat).
Into a small bowl mix the last 100ml of milk with the 3 teaspoons of cornstarch. Add this mixture to the previous one and without removing it from the heat keep stirring until the mixture begins to thicken, this will take from 10 to 20 minutes. If you notice that it is taking too long you can add the extra cornstarch, I will recommend to dissolve it into some extra milk so you don’t get disgusting cornstarch balls in your preparation.
Take one little bowl and fill it with the lasts 100ml of milk (keep a little bit more in hand just in case it is need it) and then add some liquor (I will openly recommend some rum) or flavor if you wish. In this bowl you will be sinking the biscuits to create the layers of the marquesa.
Grab a big spoon and start spreading some of the chocolate mixture to the bottom of the mold (be careful remember that you have to work with the hot mixture). After you end up spreading the chocolate you can start making the first layer of biscuits. Grab some of the biscuits and sink them in the bowl with milk and start to put them horizontally one next to each other until you cover the chocolate layer (if you like you can make biscuit’s layer thicker by adding another extra ply over the last) then you repeat the process until you are out of mixture.
Finally, let it chill a bit (a lot if you use a tempered glass mold) and take it to the fridge, leave it there for about 4-5 hours.
It is also delicious with m&m's....
Well, an average writer would be adding some king conclusion to its post, but I will not, I think my opinion was expressed at the beginning of this post, so… I will let you this one to you guys… What do you think about this recipe? Did you like it? What will you add to it? Would you like to see another variant?
Leave your opinions bellow and enjoy your new creation.
