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Chocolate Walnut Sauce
1 cup milk 2 tablespoons health cocoa 2 tablespoons sugar 2 teaspoons cornstarch 1/4 teaspoon vanilla 1/4 cup chopped walnuts A few grains salt Heat the milk to boiling in a double boiler. Mix together the sugar, cocoa, and cornstarch. Stir the hot milk into this mixture, return to the double boiler, and cook five minutes. Add the remaining ingredients.
A thin cornstarch-thickened chocolate sauce for puddings, ice cream or plain cake. It comes together in about ten minutes and needs only attention to the starch.
- "Health cocoa"Almost certainly plain unsweetened cocoa powder, the term probably reflecting the book's health-food framing rather than a distinct product; the recipe itself does not explain it. Use plain natural or Dutch-process cocoa; Dutch-process gives a darker, mellower sauce.
- Dry-mix the starch firstThe hinge of the recipe is combining sugar, cocoa and cornstarch dry before any liquid touches them. The sugar keeps the starch grains apart so the sauce thickens smoothly instead of lumping.
- Double boilerUsed here because milk and starch scorch easily over direct heat. A heavy-bottomed saucepan over low heat works if you stir constantly, but the water bath is more forgiving.
- Five minutes means five minutesCornstarch reaches full thickening power only after it has been held at a near-boil, and undercooked starch tastes raw and chalky. Over a water bath the mixture will not reach a hard boil, so give it the full time and stir.
- Vanilla and nuts go in off the heatVanilla and nuts go in last -- the recipe adds them after the five minutes' cooking, though it does not say to take the pan off the heat. Doing so is sensible: vanilla aroma is volatile and the walnuts go soft if simmered.
- WalnutsToasting the chopped walnuts in a dry pan for a few minutes before adding deepens the flavour and reduces any bitterness from the skins.
- YieldAbout one cup, enough to sauce four to six servings. It thickens noticeably as it cools; thin with a spoonful of hot milk if you want it pourable.