If you have good cocoa, you can build great things!

How to Make Delightful Chocolate Whipped Cream

This is a chocolate shake with chocolate whipped cream on top.

This stuff is fabulous! Vanilla whipped cream is good. In the right applications, chocolate is better.

One day in the test kitchen, we had a load of chocolate whipped cream left over.  I dropped some off at the neighbor's on the way home.  They didn't just top off a dessert with it; it was the dessert.

"That's about the best thing we've ever tasted," they said.

Of course, you need really good cocoa to make really good chocolate whipped cream.

Top your desserts with chocolate whipped cream, not vanilla. You can make it with or without cream cheese. You can make it with cocoa or with melted chocolate. They’re all good.

On a Saturday, we made milk chocolate whipped cream. We also used Ramstadt Breda Medium Dark Cocoa because it has a softer tone.

Use the best heavy whipping cream you can find. We used Darigold 40% Heavy Whipping Cream that we bought from Sam’s Club. It whips faster and is more stable than lighter creams.

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Chocolate Whipped Cream with Cream Cheese

Ingredients

• 2 ounces cream cheese, softened
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon Madagascar vanilla
• 2 cups heavy whipping cream
• 3 tablespoons Ramstadt Breda Rich Dark Cocoa

Directions

• Whip the cream cheese and sugar together until blended. Add the rest of the ingredients and whip until stiff peaks form.

Chocolate Whipped Cream with Meringue Powder

Ingredients

• 3 tablespoons meringue powder
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon Madagascar vanilla
• 2 cups heavy whipping cream
• 3 tablespoons Ramstadt Breda Rich Dark Cocoa

Directions

• Whisk the sugar, dark cocoa, and meringue powder together. Set it aside. Whip the cream until soft peaks form. Add the dry mixture a little at a time. Add the vanilla. Beat until stiff peaks form.

A Favorite Hot Fudge Sauce

Quality cocoa is critical to this recipe. We used Ramstadt Breda Rich Dark Cocoa with three times the cocoa butter of most store brands. 

We made this both with 2/3 cup and 3/4 cup cocoa.  Both work.  Of course, you get a little deeper flavor with 3/4 cup cocoa. As with other hot fudge sauces, this thickens as it cools.  You can reheat it in the microwave.  You can also thin your sauce with additional cream.

Ingredients

• 2/3 cup Ramstadt Breda Rich Dark Cocoa or equal
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup butter
• 1 cup heavy cream
• 1 teaspoon vanilla

Directions

1. Mix the cocoa and sugar together in a small bowl. Melt the butter in the microwave.
2. Add the cocoa and sugar mixture to a small saucepan. Add the melted butter and cream. Heat, stirring constantly with a wire whisk, until the ganache starts to bubble. Remove from the heat.
3. Let the ganache cool to the desired consistency. Thin with additional cream if necessary.

The Ultimate Brownies

Uncle Bob’s Brownies are our bestselling brownies.. They're not fancy but they’re made with very good cocoa, much better cocoa than found in store brownies. The Ultimate Brownies have more chocolate, but they still use the same premium cocoa. 

The time stated in the directions should work, but using a thermometer is more precise and more reliable.

Baker’s Note: We want gooey, chewy brownies baked just long enough, to 180 degrees, not overbaked. We cut our brownies with a large pizza wheel, not a knife. We wipe the blade with a damp cloth after each cut, leaving the blade slightly damp for the next cut. The damp blade makes cleaner cuts.

We recommend Ramstadt Breda Rich Dark Cocoa or Belcolade Dark Cocoa.  

Ingredients:

1 cup Belcolade Dark Cocoa or equal
1 cup all-purpose flour
2 sticks (1 cup) butter, melted
2 1/4 cups sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
6 large eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 cups walnut pieces (optional)

Set the baking temperature to 350 degrees. You will need a 9 x 13-inch dark baking pan, two mixing bowls—one of them medium or large, and a whisk. (A dark pan will bake more quickly than a silver pan.) The larger bowl should be microwave-safe, so you don't have to wash it by hand.

1. Grease the dark pan with a little shortening and line it with parchment paper. The shortening will hold the paper in place. Set aside.
2. In the smaller of the two bowls, whisk the cocoa and flour together to break up any clumps and disperse the cocoa. Set aside.
3. In the larger of the two bowls, melt the butter in the microwave. Add the sugar and salt, then stir. Add the eggs and the vanilla and stir until mixed.
4. Add the cocoa-flour mixture to the liquid mixture. Stir until combined. Add the chopped nuts and stir.
5. Scrape the batter into the prepared pan with a spatula, then spread it evenly. Place the pan in the oven. After 20 minutes, check the brownies with your probe-type thermometer. The brownies should be approaching 180 degrees. Continue baking until they reach 180 degrees.
6. Place the pan on a wire rack and cool for 5 minutes, then, grasping the edge of the parchment paper, tip the pan over a wire rack and pull the cake onto it. Let cool for at least another 5 minutes, then transfer the cake to a cutting board for slicing.

Fudgy Chocolate Cake--with or without Zucchini

This is more than a bread loaf.  It's more like a pound cake--a very fudgy pound cake. The zucchini makes it soft and moist like a pound cake..

The chocolate comes from very good imported cocoa and good chocolate chips. The cocoa is not ordinary cocoa. Ordinary cocoa is 8 to 10% cocoa butter. This is 22 to 24% cocoa butter--almost three times as much. And there's lots of it.

No wonder it's so fudgy.

If it's not zucchini season in your neighborhood or you don't have a garden to spare, try our Fudgy Baby Cakes. We took our cream cake formula and loaded it with little chocolate pieces that melt in the baking. It's almost fudgy as the zucchini bread.

This strawberry fudge cake is a fudgy baby cake with fudge frosting, cut into squares, and crowned with strawberry whipped cream. You can get a can of fudge frosting from the store or get our fudge frosting mix.

Incredibly, not everyone likes stuff fudgy. (I have a son that doesn't like chocolate.) For that one that doesn't like chocolate, make this very fine Cinnamon Chip Zucchini Bread or our five-star banana bread.

You may also be interested in:

How to freeze zucchini.

How to make cinnamon chip zucchini bread.

Learn more about using cinnamon chips.

Ingredients:

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/3 cup Ramstadt Breda Rich Dark Cocoa or equal
• 1/3 cup dry buttermilk powder
• 3 large eggs
• 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 3/4 cup water
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 1 cup coarsely chopped pecans
• 1 cup dark chocolate chips
• 2 cups grated zucchini, drained

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Prepare a standard 9 1/2-inch bundt
2. pan.
3. Mix the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cocoa, and powdered buttermilk together in a medium bowl.
4. With your stand-type mixer, mix the eggs, sugar, vanilla, and water. Mix in about half of the dry ingredients and then the vegetable oil. Add the remainder of the dry ingredients and mix.
5. Fold in the grated zucchini, pecans, and about half of the chocolate chips.
6. Scrape the batter into the prepared pan. Sprinkle the remaining chocolate chips over the batter. Bake for 55 minutes or until done. Cool on a wire rack for ten minutes before removing the cake from the pan.