All I really need is love, but a little chocolate now and then doesn’t hurt! ~ Lucy Van Pelt in Peanuts by Charles M. Shultz
Who says March is a low-holiday month? Sure, you’ve got St. Patrick’s Day, but the whole month is also dedicated to the celebration of chocolate, one of the most popular American passions. March is National Chocolate Month and the Historic Inns of Rockland are celebrating by featuring some of their best chocolate recipes. In fact, chocolate is such an important part of the month for the four Historic Inns of Rockland – Granite Inn, Captain Lindsey House Inn, LimeRock Inn and Berry Manor Inn – they’ve packed their cookbook with recipes featuring chocolate.
Copies of INN-DULGENCES, Recipes from the Historic Inns of Rockland are available from each of the four member inns. This wonderful collection of recipes brings great recipes for your favorite sweet and savory (and chocolate!) treats together in one cookbook.
Just yesterday a search of the ten healthiest foods showed chocolate in the number three spot. Many researchers report chocolate can guard against strokes and heart attacks by thinning blood similar to the way aspirin does. “Now research shows that solid chocolate, however it is used, is an antioxidant, like red wine and blueberries. The darker the chocolate, the better,” says Joe Vinson, professor of chemistry at the University of Scranton in Pennsylvania. “Weight for weight, milk chocolate has twice as many antioxidants as blueberries, a potently healthful fruit, while DARK chocolate has five times as much. Cocoa powder contains TWICE as much antioxidant effect as even the dark chocolate.” However, Vinson referred to white chocolate as “just fat and sugar”.
You’ll find chocolate recipes throughout the Historic Inns of Rockland’s cookbook. Here’s one from the LimeRock Inn for a chocolate nut cake to die for! One bite and you’ll be a nutcase for this nutcake!
LimeRock Inn Mocha Nutcake
Ingredients
CAKE
5 eggs, separated
1 cup sugar
½ cup flour
½ cup hazelnuts, finely ground
1 Tablespoon instant coffee powder
Preheat oven to 325°. Grease and flour a 9-inch tube pan. Beat egg whites until soft peaks form. Add sugar gradually until mixture is stiff. Beat egg yolks separately until thick and light; fold in.
Blend together coffee, flour and nuts. Gently but thoroughly fold coffee mixture into egg white mixture until no white streaks remain. Spoon into tube pan and tap on the counter to remove air bubbles.
Bake for 50-55 minutes. Cool on a rack and then split cake into four layers. Fill with mocha cream and sprinkle with confectioners sugar over the top.
MOCHA CREAM
1 Tablespoon instant coffee
1 Tablespoon Amaretto
2 cups heavy cream
2 Tablespoons confectioners sugar, plus some for topping
Dissolve coffee in the Amaretto. Beat cream until thick. Blend in sugar and the coffee-Amaretto mixture. Stir until smooth and spread between cake layers.
Makes one 9” cake.
