What's your favorite usage of chocolate as an ingredient?

Hmm, that’s a tough one! Chocolate is just soo good…

But I guess if I have to choose, it would be peanut butter chocolate cheesecake. I made that once, though I forget the recipe…but it was absolutely fantastic! It’s regular cheescake with Reese’s peanut butter cups in them, and then I did a chocolate drizzle on top…delicious!

@flyaway…definitely two great tastes that go great together!!

@McBean; I thought so! =)

Mole, hands down.

Honestly? My absolute favorite way to eat chocolate is to buy chocolate chips, melt them down and dip strawberries and bananas in it. So simple, so good.

@tinyfaery…I love mole! I think I just decided against ice cream for supper now.

This is probably one of those totally obvious things that I’m just out of the loop on, but what is mole?

@DD…I love melted chocolate on fruit, too! A great – incredibly easy – chocolate fondue recipe (the kind you can use in either a fondue pot or a crock pot on low) is to simply melt a bag of chocolate chips with a can of sweetened condensed milk. My son and his friends love chocolate fondue with assorted fruit, pretzels, and marshmallows. I sometimes put out graham cracker crumbs, shredded coconut and chocolate sprinkles for them to dip their chocolate-covered tid-bits in. It’s a party!

Milkshake.

Okay, what’s mole?

I love the combination of chocolate, bananas and peanut butter. I make banana ice cream with fudge swirls and peanut butter swirls and chunks of banana. I’ll have to find the recipe. It’s yummy.

chocolate fridge cake.

What is a chocolate fridge cake.

I’m starting to think my chocolate obsession is limited in scope. I see room for expansion here. ;~)

Mole (pronounced MO-lay) is a savory Mexican sauce made with dried red chile and other spices, sesame seeds (and sometimes peanuts or other nuts), unsweetened chocolate, onions and garlic. It’s slightly sweet (I actually use a bit of brown sugar in mine) and very spicy. It’s also very rich and absolutely delicious.

Sounds absolutely strange, yet really good!!

@mamasu… I’m guessing your picky eating doesn’t include most things chocolate?

Chocolate is my friend.

Oddly, my picky eating usually revolves around meats and a few veggies and fruits. I really should be a vegetarian just because I hate the texture of so many meats. Actually all except 2 or 3.

Chocolate, however, is the ultimate yum. Mole sounds yummy.

It’s amazing how chocolate can add to seemingly incompatible ingredients to make something heavenly. Original cincinnati style chili has chocolate and cinnamon mixed into the meat mixture, along with other ingredients. It’s really flavorful, though not chocolaty.

Chocolate syrup, drizzled on a woman’s body…. ;-)

oooooh….drooling….Mole, is probably one of my favorite things, in the entire culinary world!

I love my Grandma’s Buttermilk Chocolate Cake, with a Mocha/Coffee icing. The perfect amount of chocolate, and it’s not too sweet.

I love cheescake with dark chocolate swirled in. It’s one of the most requested cheesecakes I make.

High-five for mole.

@cak…sounds like a good meal to me. Mole over rice and one of your two cakes (maybe both) for dessert. How about a Yoohoo to wash it all down? Or would that just be wrong?

No, Yoohoo could never be wrong! I love that stuff…best chocolate drink ever.

yoohoo kicks ass!

Have any of you tried the Hershey’s chocolate drink that comes in a box? No, it’s not milk. I believe it may be even a tad better than a Yoohoo! And this is the bonus of having a young child. Plenty of opportunities to buy and try all kinds of stuff that adults shouldn’t buy.

Um, mole. Such depth, such complexity (and soooooo many recipes).

http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/recipes/recipe/0,,FOOD_9936_5261,00.html?rsrc=search

And if you don’t feel like whipping it up entirely from scratch, you can purchase it in a jar: http://www.mexgrocer.com/catagories-salsas-mole.html . Because of all the nut oils and ground chile, you’ll want to be very careful prying the metal lid off of the jar. If you splash that top layer of oil on you, you’ll never get it out of your clothes!

Once you take the lid off, pour the oil down the drain (you won’t need it) and dilute the thick paste with chicken broth. I also add a bit of brown sugar and cumin to round out the flavor. Saute chunks of chicken breast and then simmer them in the sauce. Serve it over white rice or saffron rice. It’s amazing.

I’ve also added a tablespoon of the jarred mole paste to my regular tortilla soup recipe. Don’t forget to top the finished soup with chunks of avocado and a dollop of sour cream (or Mexican crema) to temper the spiciness!

Now I’m very, very hungry for mole of some sort.

@McBean! Yoohoo! YUM! I haven’t had one of those in a very, very long time!

Oh no, probably just the perfect balance!

Cici’s Pizza used to have these chocolate-sauced/powdered sugar desert stick things. Once, I combined them on my plate and chocolate sauce got on my pizza. After I discovered that flavor sensation, 9/11 happened.

…but it was still delicious.

I’m boring… I love my mom’s icebox cake. Layers of chocolate pudding and graham crackers.

Also love Ovaltine with cold milk. Malted milk rocks!

It’s also fun to lick chocolate syrup off a friend.

use it for mole baby!

Tiny, I know exactly what you’re talking about! It’s the spices and stuff that are like saturated in oil that never come out! because I found that sometimes dish detergent will take the oil out of fabric…but not always, and if there’s spices in it (especially turmeric i’ve found) then that spot is going to be yellowish forever…and ever….
yeah, i’m a really clumsy person, i know way too much about stained clothing, carpets, couches….et cetera…

Is there a bad way to have chocolate….

I don’t think so. I love a good chocolate mousse, warm chocolate chip cookies right from the oven, smores when camping, hot fudge sundaes, a molten lava cake, and when I want a naughty late night snack there is nothing like a toasted english muffin with peanut butter topped with chocolate chips and put under the broiler.

Chocolate Fondue with Cointreau. Served with Angel Food Cake and Fresh Fruit for dipping. MMMMMMMMM!

@Carla: You may be the queen of chocolate!

I love it shaved on my pasta!

gooch: Really? Over the marinara? Or do you chocolate up your garlic butter?

Over the red sauce it’s awesome you need to try it I learned it in Italy

I love to melt white chocolate and mix it with merken (a kind of dried red chile,... from chile) delicious!

@manuel: Hmmm…I can see that being good. The creamy sweetness of the white chocolate playing off the spicy, sour, bitterness of the chile. Sounds like it would be pretty, too.