Spicefreak

Hey there chilli lovers, it’s the weekend again and, this week, I feel like paying a little tribute to one of my fellow bloggers.

Not a pure food blogger this time, like I’ve Got Cake’s Dana (who inspired my superhot brownie recipe), but one who I’m a big fan of all the same. One who’s stunning pictures of the australian landscape feed my love of bright colours through winter just as much as their recipes make me hungry throughout the rest of the year.

Today, we’re looking at Eat Live Escape and the simple tweaks that turn their recent Dark Cherry Chocolate Bark into an insanely hot, chilli lover’s treat.

Do be warned before I begin, though: This isn’t for the faint of heart or tongue. Today’s recipe uses one of the world’s hottest chillies and winds up reaching a crazy

7.5/10

Heat

that comes close to double the strength of my own hottest past recipes, let alone what restaurants will typically serve. And it’s not like you’ll just be putting a little bit on your meal like with a sauce, either.

If you’re sure you know what you’re getting into, feel free to click on through to the recipe but don’t say I didn’t warn you. For even most chilli fans, ELE’s original recipe will likely be more suitable. My chocolate bark really is just for the select few who eat things unreasonably hot.

To make it, you will need:

200g dark chocolate

25g dessicated coconut

2 dried Dragon’s Breath chilli (or 3.5g flakes)

A simple set of ingredients made yet simpler by the fact that, to pair with the chilli, you don’t want the fancy chocolate that ELE uses. It’s actually better if you get a cheaper dark variety with more sugar, since the pepper itself has a bit of reaper-like sourness to it that the sweet offsets.

The only difficulty here might be in sourcing those potentially record breaking chillies but I can take the work out of that for you, too. Just click the link in the sidebar (or down below if you’re on mobile) to visit The Chilli Pepper Company. As far as I’m aware, the only seller of the dried fruit.

And, as I mentioned in my review of the pepper, this one really is a fruit. More so than any other chilli that I’ve tasted.

Its savoury, peppery side comes out against the chocolate in this recipe but it still tastes quite noticeably of freeze-dried raspberries. Which is why I thought it would make a great replacement for cherry.

To begin, you’re going to want to put on some disposable gloves, since this chilli is obscenely strong and you do not want it getting trapped under your nails or leaving residue on your hands. Trust me.

Then, if you didn’t buy them pre-flaked, you’re going to want to spend a little time shredding your peppers. By hand, since the ol’ coffee grinder would turn them to dust.

It’s a time consuming process but that’s what it takes to make good chocolate with such an unorthodox ingredient. And you don’t want to half-ass this step or you’ll be suffering as much as I was when I first tasted this strain.

Here’s what the pieces should look like mixed in with your coconut:

Which is, by the way, the next step.

After that, it’s time to melt your chocolate. To do this, we’re going to use the same method from my chipotle orange truffle recipe: We’re going to break it into a bowl, heat up some water in a pan and float the chocolate-filled bowl on top. Use a sieve or colander to keep the bowl from falling in if you have to but make sure that its base is still submerged – we need that contact warmth to heat the contents.

Then, once all the lumps are gone, we can lay down a baking tray and cover it in grease-proof baking paper to spread the chocolate over. Sprinkle on your coconut and chilli mix and you’re pretty much done:

All that remains is to refrigerate your confection for an hour or two and cut it into rough squares for a tasty, peppery yet sweet and fruity snack with just the right amount of coconut.

One which I’m sure that you’ll thoroughly enjoy if you can handle the heat but, even if you can, I’d recommend exercising a little self-control when it comes time to chomp down.

It is, after all, extremely easy to overdo this dragon’s breath bark.