So, the other night we had friends over after a picnic. Dinner was leftovers of antipasta pasta salad, fresh veggie garden salad, brats and chops on the grill. But having been out all day, I hadn't even thought about dessert. What to do, what to do....
Was pondering when my eyes caught the bottle of Mozart Chocolate Creme Liquor. The reason I had the Mozart Chocolate Creme was because a friend of ours introduced me to drinking it with some di Amore Raspberry. Together the two make a lovely cordial that you want to enjoy as a private moment. We had nicknamed it "Liquid Sex".
So having made a white chocolate cake with raspberry filling for the party the day prior, I had a half a can of raspberry cake filling. These pieces combined with some whole milk, half and half and chocolate chips made a whipped ganache topping that I put over some white chocolate instant pudding. It was delicious for a quick afterthought.
While at a friend's house to celebrate a soon to come home new puppy, we were at the store and she was wondering about dessert. I told her about how the drink had inspired a dessert and we then took it further into making it into a pie.
So at the store we bought a pre-made chocolate pie shell, Ghiradelli Milk and Semi-Sweet chocolate chips and a quart of heavy whipping cream along with a package of fresh raspberries (they didn't have the cake filling but fresh was better).
We started with 2 cups of heavy cream in a sauce pan and melted in 2 cups of chocolate chips, we did one cup each of milk and semi-sweet. Making a basic ganache. Then we get to add the the good stuff. Added in two ounces each of the Mozart Chocolate Cream and di Amore Raspberry Liquor to the chocolate mix. Making sure it was smooth and glossy, it was then moved into a mixing bowl and popped in the fridge for about an hour. In the meantime, we washed and dried the raspberries and put them in the bottom of the pie crust so that it was a lot of berry peaks. Of course several berries disappeared while we were waiting for the ganache to chill.
When the ganache was cool enough, an electric mixer provided all the oomph we needed to whip up the ganache to a rich creamy mousse like texture. This was then scooped into the pie crust on top of the raspberries and went back into the fridge.
Just before we were ready for dessert, we put the last two cups of whipping cream into a bowl, added just a hint of sugar (about 1/8 Cup) and a good tablespoon of pure Mexican Vanilla Extract and whipped it to fluffy white peaks. This was then put on top of the pie and it was ready for dessert.
One of the people sampling this was eating it so fast, we wondered if she was savoring it. She said it was just so good she couldn't stop! My friend and I wondered what to name it. Since we had dubbed the drink liquid sex, what follows that? Considering it was smooth, creamy and just gave you a sense of well being, it had to be named "Afterglow".
So hope you try and enjoy our Chocolate Raspberry Afterglow.
