Ingredients
* 180g of Peruvian black
* 150g Good-quality granola ( E.g. Lovedean )
* 3tbsp clear honey

Method
Cut the chocolate into pieces and melt with the honey in a heatproof bowl over a pan of simmering water. Remove from the heat and stir in the granola. Line a tray with silicone or grease-proof paper and drop teaspoonful-sized pieces on to the paper, flattening slightly with the back of the spoon. Leave to set in the fridge then remove the paper and serve, or keep in an airtight container in a cool place.

Result

Haloween Cocoa Crunch Cookies

With Easter Round the Corner how could we leave you without a recipe to make your very own home made easter eggs!

You will need an Easter Egg Mould available Here

Ingredients
6 teaspoons gelatine
60ml hot water
60ml cold water
30g 100% cocoa
125 ml condensed milk

Method
Add the gelatine to the hot water and stir briskly with a fork until dissolved. Make a paste with the cocoa and cold water. Add to the gelatine solution, mixing thoroughly to dissolve the cocoa. Add a little condensed milk stirring until combined. Thoroughly blend into remaining milk until smooth. Pour into easter egg moulds and refrigerate until firm. Unmould and place the two halves together to form one egg.

Serves 8

Ingredients

* 8 oven-ready partridges
* 75g goose fat
* 4 tbsp cacao, finely grated
* 4 shallots, peeled and sliced
* Olive oil
* 24 slices pancetta
* Thyme sprigs

Method: How to make partridge basted with chocolate

1. Preheat oven to 200ºC.

2. Place the goose fat and cacao in a small pan and heat until the goose fat has melted, stirring occasionally. Remove the pan from the heat and leave to cool.

3. Heat a little olive oil in a large frying pan. Add the shallots and fry until soft.

4. Season the partridges then add them to the pan, along with the shallots. Fry the birds until golden brown then remove from the pan. Leave to cool slightly, reserving the shallots and cooking juices for gravy.

5. Use a pastry brush to paint the birds with the chocolate goose fat. Wrap 3 slices of pancetta around each partridge, sprinkle over the thyme and roast for 25-30 minutes. Leave the birds to rest before serving with gravy and roast vegetables.

Ingredients

• 80g Plain Four

• 250g Grated Cacao Chocolate

• 300g Butter

• 8 Eggs

• 100g Raw Sugar Cane

Method: How to make the Brownies

1. Preheat Oven to 180 C
2. Melt the Cocao and the butter in a Bain-marie
3. In a separate bowl mix together 6 whole eggs and only the egg yokes from the remaining 2 with the Sugar Cane
4. Add this to the melted chocolate and then fold in the flour lightly
5. Pour into a baking tin and place in over for 25 Minutes

Serves 6

Ingredients

For the black beans

4 tbsp olive oil
2 onions, diced
3 garlic cloves, finely chopped
2 red peppers, de-seeded and finely chopped
300g black beans
Chicken stock (about 300ml)
2-3 tbsp cacao

For the arepas

600ml warm water
½ tsp salt
450g Masa Harina (corn) flour

Method: How to make black beans and arepas

1. Heat the olive oil in a large pan. Add the onions, garlic and peppers and fry until soft.

2. Tip in the black beans and pour over enough chicken stock to cover. Simmer for 45 minutes.

3. Meanwhile prepare the arepas. Preheat a griddle pan. Place the flour and salt in a large mixing bowl and gradually add the warm water, mixing to form a stiff dough. Leave to stand for 5 minutes.

4. Knead the dough for a couple of minutes then form into small balls. Flatten with the palm of your hand.

5. Place the arepas in the hot pan and fry 3-4 minutes, either side.

6. Before serving the black beans, stir in the cacao. Season and serve with the arepas.

Serves 4

Ingredients

· 180g Grated Cacao

· 6 Eggs

· 125g Caster Sugar

· 50g Light muscovado sugar

· 100 Ground Almounds

· 250g Butter

Method: How to make Cloud Forest Chocolate Cake

1. Melt grated cocao and butter, half the caster and muscovado sugar in a bain-marie.

2. Add almonds.

3. Blend half the caster sugar and eggs until tripled in size.

4. Fold into the cacao mixture and cook for 25 Minutes at 160C

5. Cool in tin

6. Ice with truffle mix ( See Truffle Recipe and double the amount of cream)

Makes about 40 truffles

Ingredients

* 250ml double cream
* 150g caster sugar
* 180g cacao, finely grated
* Cocoa powder, for dusting

Method: How to make truffles

1. Heat the cream and sugar in a small pan until almost boiling.

2. Stir in the cacao, then remove the pan from the heat.

3. Transfer the truffle mixture to a plastic container. Cover and place in the refrigerator until cold and firm.

4. To shape the truffles, scoop a teaspoon of the mixture and roll quickly between your palms. Dust the truffles in cocoa powder and store in the fridge until ready to serve.

Serves 4

Ingredients

1 large red pepper, halved and de-seeded
1kg very ripe tomatoes, de-seeded and diced
½ onion, diced
2 garlic cloves, peeled and diced
½ large cucumber, peeled, de-seeded and chopped
10 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
3 tbsp white wine vinegar
3 tbsp caster sugar
3 tbsp cacao, finely grated

Method: How to make gazpacho

1. Roast the red pepper under a grill or on a griddle until the skin has blackened slightly.

2. Place the pepper, tomatoes, onion, garlic and cucumber in a food processor and begin to blitz. While the processor is going, pour in the olive oil.

3. Blitz the gazpacho until smooth.

4. Combine the vinegar and sugar in a small pan and heat until the sugar has dissolved. Stir in the cacao and continue to heat until the cacao has melted.

5. Remove the pan from the heat and leave to cool slightly.

6. Pour the cacao syrup into the gazpacho. Season and serve.

Serves 2

Ingredients

25g cacao, finely grated
100ml water
Honey or sugar, to taste

Method: How to make Venezuelan hot chocolate

1.Tip the cacao and water into a small pan and bring to the boil, stirring frequently.

2.When thick and well combined, remove the hot chocolate from the heat.

3.Add honey or sugar to taste. You can thin the hot chocolate by adding extra water or vary it by adding a splash of milk or rum. Vanilla, chilli, cinnamon and nutmeg also make great additions.

Willie Harcourt-Cooze is on a mission to be the first chocolate producer to grow and make 100 per cent cacao from bean to bar. From his work on the Venezuelan plantation to his humble Devonshire factory Willie is determined to elevate chocolate from delicious dessert to an essential cooking ingredient. Hannah Williams caught up with the chocolate crusader to find out just what’s fuelling this cacao passion

So you’ve finished filming your tv series. How has it all gone?

We launched at Selfridges last week and I think we sold something like £700 worth of our products. I made three different types of truffles and people were walking out with all three. They all totally got the concept.

You’re obviously a very accomplished cook. Where does that come from? Is it something you learnt from your family?

My sister is also a really good cook. I guess we both got it from Southern Ireland where we grew up when we were young. We went to live in Ireland when I was two and lived on a small farm.

We were the original brown bread nutters in the 60s. My earliest memory is being in Streatham in a health food shop above a railway line. I remember it because I must have been scared when the trains rattled by underneath.

In Ireland we grew everything; wheat, grain. I remember catching amazing fish and milling grain on the back of the tractor. We had bees for honey. It taught me the value of everything.

Then I travelled around a lot in my early twenties, in South America and later in Asia and I always found myself in the kitchen, if I’d been out catching fish or something. You end up picking up little titbits; how to make curry paste in Thailand, or how to cook guinea pigs in Peru. It’s always been something I’ve just picked up.

Restaurant food was not as great 20 years ago as it is now so I didn’t eat out much. And when I was a student, not having much money, and cooking for friends, someone had to do the cooking and it always happened to be me.

Sadly the farm in Ireland was sold and I guess I’ve always been looking for a new Ireland with the same abundance that there was then. I suppose I’ve been trying to follow in my father’s footsteps.

So where does the chocolate come in? Do you remember where the obsession was first sparked?

Cacao is great because you can use it so many different dishes. I started experimenting and it just mushroomed. Cooking with chocolate is not necessarily new, they use it in Mexico and the Aztec countries but it’s not a very common cookery ingredient in this country.

If you’re interested in cooking using chocolate is very exciting. It’s like someone coming out and saying ‘this is salt’ for the first time. I would liken it to that.

How does your chocolate differ to what we’re used to with standard chocolate?

It’s a lot more full bodied than normal chocolate. It has a real lingering flavour.

Chocolate is often placed in the ‘naughty but nice’ box. Is eating it with such frequency good for you?

Chocolate should be in the ‘nice’ box. The misconception about chocolate being bad for you is because of the sugar. Some chocolate spreads are 40 per cent sugar. The great thing about what I’m doing is, with my chocolate, you won’t have that high sugar content. Chocolate can be good for you.

I’m not a doctor but I’ve read a lot about chocolate. They say chocolate that hasn’t been processed is full of anti-oxidants, vitamins and minerals. If that’s true, my chocolate has got to be the healthiest chocolate in the world.

The program mentions that you’ve had some orders from top chefs, can we hear anymore about that?

Well I’ve been selling it to Marco (Pierre-White) for months. I know Neil, the head chef at the Yew Tree (Marco Pierre-White’s restaurant) has been using it. I think they’ve been making a chocolate jus.

And the reaction from people at the launch who previously knew nothing about it was brilliant.

In the future I might make money from it. If I commercialise it. But I’m not doing this to become a millionaire. It’s a passion.