26 Chocolate Desserts To Eat All Year Plus a Bonus Bundt Recipe
Who doesn’t love chocolate desserts?
Chocolate is romantic, dramatic, purported to have healing properties, and is absolutely delicious. The wonderful flavor is representative of devotion and love. Chocolate can come in so many forms that even those who don’t consider themselves chocolate fanatics almost always find a chocolate treat to love.
A Primer on All Things Chocolate
In this article, we will cover all things chocolate, so you can learn all the tips and tricks for baking with chocolate. Below, you will find a primer on the different types of chocolate, answers to frequently asked questions, and 26 of our favorite chocolate desserts.
Types Of Chocolate
Chocolate is made from the cacao tree and comes in the form of cocoa powder, bar chocolate, and chocolate chips, chunks, or feves discs.
* Cocoa Powder: Made from drying and grinding cocoa solids. We most often use Dutch-processed cocoa powder, which means it has been alkalitreated, making it less acidic and darker.
* Solid Chocolate: The percentage you see on packaging refers to the combined amount of cocoa butter and solids in the bar.
* Chocolate Chips, Chunks and Shavings: These are the classic little chocolate morsels that most of us think of in chocolate chip cookies.
Frequently Asked Questions About Baking with Chocolate
Most Foolproof Way to Temper Chocolate?
We learned how to temper chocolate in culinary school and did some chocolate work when we were working in restaurants, but it isn’t something we do often and is a skill that requires practice to get in the swing of it.
How to Reuse and Store Leftover Tempered Chocolate?
Store chocolate in a cool, dark place. Chocolate can always be melted and retempered.
What is Your Preferred Chocolate Brand for Ganache? Tips to Getting it Right?
We list our favorite chocolate brands below in this post. We have a whole section of our Cake Academy in Zo Bakes Cakes about making and trouble shooting ganache.
My Favorite Chocolate Products
* Valrhona cocoa powder
* Droste cocoa powder
* Guittard cocoa powder
* Valrhona bars
* Callebaut bars
* Scharffen Berger bars
* Guittard bars
* Valrhona feves
26 Decadent Chocolate Desserts
1. Best-Ever Chocolate Zucchini Bundt Cake
Bless whomever first thought to combine zucchini and chocolate. These two unlikely partners make fantastic cake together.
2. Flourless Chocolate Hazelnut Cake
This is like the most elegant brownie-cake you’ve ever had.
3. Triple Chocolate Mousse Cake
Fanny Lam’s original recipe was pure and simple, which is a lovely thing in a day of over-complicated recipes, but we decided to add a bit of coffee flavor to this Triple Chocolate Mousse Cake, to recreate the flavor of our childhood memory.
4. Chocolate Microwave Mug Cake
This chocolate microwave mug cake is one of those cakes you’ll rely on when you need to indulge at midnight.
5. Guinness Chocolate Cake with White Knight Frosting
This Guinness Chocolate Cake with White Knight Buttercream, based on recipes from Zo Bakes Cakes, was inspired by our trips to Ireland and features amazing Irish butter.
6. Milk Chocolate Peanut Butter Pie
This peanut butter pie recipe is oh-so delicious.
7. Bittersweet Chocolate Tart with Irish Cream
This chocolate tart is so delicious, we want to make it a new tradition at the holidays.
8. Hot Chocolate Cake
With hot chocolate as its inspiration, this hot chocolate cake has layers of Devil’s food, slathered with a deep, dark, luscious chocolate icing, that is like whipped ganache, but better, then we topped the whole thing in homemade marshmallows.
9. Devil’s Food Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Icing
This Devil’s Food Cake from Zoe Bakes Cakes is the best chocolate cake recipe we have ever tried.
10. Brownies – 4 Ways
These are the brownies we made for a care package for our son, Charlie, and his roommates at college.
11. Chocolate Mousse with Toasted Meringue
This is a super simple and quick chocolate mousse recipe you can whip up at the last minute.
12. Chocolate Mousse Bars with Feuilletine Crunch
Looking for a simple but absolutely delicious chocolate bar for a party?
13. Chocolate Peanut Butter Cakettes
These darling chocolate peanut butter mini cakes are inspired by many recipes from Zo Bakes Cakes.
14. Churros with Chocolate Sauce
Adapted from Husbands That Cook by Ryan Alvarez and Adam Merrin.
15. Chocolate Macarons
These chocolate macarons are both light, as a macaron should be, and fudgey, like a brownie.
16. Chocolate Dipped Macaroons Recipe
Shared with permission from Rick Nelson from The Great Minnesota Cookie Book by Lee Svitak Dean and Rick Nelson.
17. Chocolate Fudge
This is a simple and rich fudge that is sure to be a hit with everyone in your house.
18. Valentine’s Day Chocolate Cake
We make these mini chocolate cakes shaped like hearts for Valentine’s Day.
19. French Silk Pie
This pie from Shauna Severs’ book, Midwest Made, is all about the deep chocolate flavor.
20. Chocolate Soufflé
Do we dare say this soufflé has never failed us?
21. Devil’s Food Cake with Champagne Buttercream
Get the recipe.
22. Chocolate Fudge Cake with Strawberry Salsa and Candied Flowers
This warm, super fudgy, chocolate cake recipe is from Chef Neal Fraser.
23. Chocolate Chestnut Bread Pudding
Bread pudding is one of those desserts that also doubles as breakfast, like pie and cake!
24. Chocolate Glazed Praline Cheesecake with Candied Hazelnuts
The hazelnut candies adorning this glazed cheesecake look like delicate little jewels and add a wonderful sweet crunch to the smooth and rich chocolate cheesecake.
25. Chocolate Pumpkin Swirl Bundt Cake
We made this Chocolate Pumpkin Swirl Bundt Cake with our friend Andrew Zimmern last year.
26. Chocolate Icebox Cake with Caramel Cream
Get the recipe.
Bonus Chocolate Bundt with White Chocolate-Raspberry Cream
This chocolate bundt with white chocolate-raspberry cream is the perfect party cake. Bundts are easy to make, and the white chocolate and raspberry filling adds a bright and creamy element.
Chocolate Bundt with White Chocolate-Raspberry Cream
Ingredients:
* 1 chocolate bundt
* 7 oz white chocolate chips or chunks (use a good brand, NOT coating chocolate)
* 1/4 cup raspberry juice (strain 1 lb of thawed frozen raspberries through a fine mesh sieve; you’ll use the remainder of berries and juice for sauce)
* 2 tbsp strained raspberries (just the fruit, not the juice)
* 1 cup heavy whipping cream
* 1 lb frozen raspberries (what remains from the steps above)
* 1 cup sugar
* Cocoa for dusting (use a quality dark cocoa)
Instructions:
1. Bake the bundt cake as instructed.
2. After the cake has baked, allow it to cool for 10 minutes before removing from the pan.
3. Let the chocolate bundt cake cool to room temperature.
4. While you wait for the cake to cool, wash and dry the Brilliance Bundt Pan.
5. Once it’s cool, slip the cake back into the Bundt pan. Hollow out the middle with a Round Pastry Cutter that creates a trench that is about 2 inches wide. You’ll need to carve into it slowly, and make sure that you don’t get too close to the sides or bottom.
6. In a bowl, melt the white chocolate and raspberry juice, over a double boiler or in the microwave. Stir until smooth.
7. Whip the heavy cream until just soft peaks, it should be thick, but still VERY soft. Fold that into the white chocolate mixture. Fold in the fruit.
8. Place the Raspberry cream in a large piping bag, fitted with a large round tip and pipe it into the hollowed out cake.
9. Replace the top of the cake, cover and refrigerate for at least an hour. This can be done several hours before serving.
10. Heat the remaining raspberries and juice in a pan with the sugar, until the juices have thickened to the consistency of maple syrup. Use anHand Blender to puree the fruit.
11. Run the mixture through a fine mesh Conical Strainer.
12. Dust the finished chocolate bundt cake with cocoa and serve with the coulis.
Chocolate is made from the cacao tree and comes in the form of cocoa powder, bar chocolate, and chocolate chips, chunks, or feves discs.
What is the most foolproof way to temper chocolate?
We learned how to temper chocolate in culinary school, but it requires practice. The article suggests learning techniques in culinary settings.
How should leftover tempered chocolate be stored?
Store chocolate in a cool, dark place. Chocolate can be melted and retempered.
What are some of the favorite chocolate products mentioned?
Valrhona cocoa powder, Droste cocoa powder, Guittard cocoa powder, Valrhona bars, Callebaut bars, Scharffen Berger bars, Guittard bars, Valrhona feves.
Can you provide the recipe for the Chocolate Bundt with White Chocolate-Raspberry Cream?
Ingredients: 1 chocolate bundt, 7 oz white chocolate chips, 1/4 cup raspberry juice, 2 tbsp strained raspberries, 1 cup heavy whipping cream, 1 lb frozen raspberries, 1 cup sugar, cocoa for dusting.
Instructions: Bake the bundt cake; cool it. Hollow out the middle. Mix melted white chocolate with raspberry juice. Fold whipped cream and fruit in. Pipe into the cake. Refrigerate. Make and strain raspberry sauce. Heat sauce, puree, and strain. Dust cake and serve with sauce.
