We have been spending a lot of time these days talking about chocolate, and being chocoholics there are worse conversations to have!
Over the last six years, we have had an on-going discussion about Valrhona vs. Callebaut. We originally used the Callebaut for everything, then switched to Valrhona two years ago. The difference in 
taste is immense – the Callebaut is deep and rich, the Valrhona is clean and simple on the palate. Valrhona is a much smaller company, and they have a top reputation among the gourmet community. In terms of eating chocolate, we wouldn’t touch another. But things get complicated with ice cream. Often “cruder” flavours taste better when they are combined with the ice cream mix…
In any case, we did a test for chocolate sauce using both, and liked the Valrhona better on its own, but the Callebaut better when served over vanilla ice cream.
If you want to try our recipe, here it is:
Murphys Ice Cream Chocolate Sauce
- 150 gm chocolate (Valrhona Araguani or Callebaut 72% is what we used. If you can’t find either, just use a very good quality bittersweet chocolate. Note that it will only taste as good as the quality of chocolate you use!)
- 75 ml cream (42% fat)
20 gm cocoa (We use Green and Black Organic)
175 ml milk
75 gm sugar
Follow these instructions carefully if you want a velvety, glossy result:
- Melt the chocolate in a double boiler to between 34 and 45C (you can use a mixer bowl in larger pot with water in it)
- Mix together the sugar and cocoa.
- Put in a pan with the milk and warm to about 45C until dissolved.
- Add the milk mixture to the melted chocolate in small parts, mixing in between until it’s incorporated. Keep this up until you have a smooth emulsion. (The chocolate will clump at first and look dreadful, but don’t worry, trust the process!)
- Add the cream.
Technorati tags: chocolate sauce, cocoa, chocolate, ice cream, recipeÂ
Less than 12 hours after I told my wife about this sauce recipe, she had made it for pancake day. It was fantastic, thanks!
Catherine was having some more of your sauce last night and she passed comment that she’d love to be able to buy it in the shops.
Any plans to offer it for sale in the freezer cabinet with your ice-cream? Or are you doing that already.
It’s definitely something that we have considered, but given that there are a whole range of sauces out there, we’re not sure there is a demand for it. Also, would it be weird to have sauce in the ice cream cabinet?
Ah but most of those sauces are horrible nasty things 🙂
If your sauce had a similar branding to the ice-cream and was beside it, I know I’d grab it as an impulse buy. And I’m not even the chocolate fanatic in this house!
thanks for that
I have been using Valrhona for a couple of years and love it. I’m starting to look at Callebaut because it is cheaper. I mainly using Valrhona for hot chocolate and I like that Valrhona does not have a thick consistency when it is melted. I’m wondering if Callebaut is thicker than Valrhona?
deliciuos recipe, I’m going to try it out now.
Looks like a fantastic chocolate sauce recipe. I’ll definitely try and make it one day.