Feasting on the (chocolate) dishes

Not content to fiddle with the food, Heston got creative with the cutlery and transformed his tableware into a medieval feast. At the risk of biting off more than we could chew, 4Food went a-smelting to see if we could rustle up a chocolate spoon.

Given you can’t pick up a newspaper at this time of year without passing a pyramid of edible bunnies, I imagined sourcing a mould for chocolate cutlery would be a piece of cake. I was wrong. Chocolate stilettos – sure; chocolate hammers – you got it; chocolate spoons – that’s just silly.

When the world has let you down there’s only one place to head – that palace of artistic inspiration, the local pound shop. There amid the St Paul’s snow shakers and glow-in-the-dark loofahs lay the just the thing for my culinary quest – vacuum packed cutlery.

After removing the real cutlery and soaking the packaging in hot, soapy water I melted 400g of milk chocolate in a bowl over a pan of hot water. I took it off the heat to cool slightly but kept stirring so the paste wouldn’t set before spooning it into my chocolate ‘moulds’. Feeling flash, I melted white and milk chocolate, creating cutlery designs Habitat would be proud of.

With the deluxe range setting in the fridge, I set my skills to cocoa crockery. Without the luxury of a pound shop plate I grabbed one from the kitchen, wrapped it in tin foil, smothered it in freshly melted chocolate paste and popped it in the fridge with the others.

Now for the cocoa candle: I melted five 100g bars of white chocolate, lined an average-sized mug with tin foil then poured in my mixture and left it in the fridge to set. Unfortunately it set a little too well. After four hours in the fridge the chocolate wax was jammed hard in the mug. Drawing on my GCSE chemistry I dipped the vessel in hot water, and out slid the candle – a little sticky perhaps, but nothing five more minutes in the fridge couldn’t fix.

I adorned the lantern with a dark chocolate wick and, taking Heston’s lead, piped some would-be wax trails down the side with a bit more melted chocolate and a make-shift piping bag.

The rest of my cutlery took less than two hours to set and I was pretty pleased with the results. The fork was a little wonky and the plate had a slight anaglyptic effect but hey, I call that style. And best of all, as I tucked in to some steaming rice pudding and my spoon began to melt into my dessert, I rejoiced at the fact I was eating the washing up.

Chocolate cutlery recipe

Makes a knife, fork, spoon and teaspoon

Ingredients
500g milk chocolate or 250g milk and 250g white
Water to boil

Method: How to make chocolate cutlery
Break the milk chocolate into chunks and place in a heatproof glass bowl over a pan of boiling water. Heat the pan and chocolate over a medium heat and stir until the chocolate is a silky smooth paste. (If you’re doing white chocolate and milk you’ll have to repeat the process for the white chocolate in a separate bowl.)

Take the chocolate off the heat and allow to cool slightly but keep stirring so it doesn’t set. Pour the chocolate into your moulds then place in the fridge to set for about 2 hours. If using both chocolate types, pour the milk chocolate into the top part of the mould and the white into the bottom handle-shaped part. To limit the chances of snapping make sure you place ample amounts of chocolate on the overlap, preferably before either type has begun to set.

When the chocolate has set it should pop out of the moulds pretty easily. If the cutlery is close together the chocolate may have merged together but can be easily separated if you take a sharp knife and gently carve the pieces apart.

Chocolate plate recipe

Makes one plate

Ingredients
300g milk chocolate
Water to boil

Method: How to make a chocolate plate
Break the milk chocolate into chunks and place in a heatproof glass bowl over a pan of boiling water. Heat the pan and chocolate over a medium heat and stir until the chocolate is a silky smooth paste.

Cover a small plate in tin foil then cover with the melted chocolate paste taking care to make a thick covering of the plate lip and sloping side, as these are the hardest parts to set.

Leave in the fridge to set for about 2 hours. When completely set, carefully turn the plate upside down and the chocolate version should slip easily away.

Chocolate candle recipe

Makes one candle

Ingredients
600g white chocolate
20g dark chocolate
Water to boil

Method: How to make a chocolate candle
Break 500g of the white chocolate into chunks and place in a heatproof glass bowl over a pan of boiling water. Heat the pan and chocolate over a medium heat and stir until the chocolate is a silky smooth paste.

Meanwhile line the bottom and side of a cylinder shaped mug with tin foil, so the foil sits about 2cm higher than the rim of the mug. Pour the chocolate mixture into the mug and leave to set in the fridge for at least 4 hours.

When set, ease the tin foil and chocolate away from the mug. If it has set hard, place the mug in a jug of hot water and the chocolate should begin to give slightly, so you can slip it out without losing its form then quickly place it back in the fridge to re-set.

Melt the remaining white chocolate following step 1 above then spoon into a piping bag or a cone of baking parchment snipped at the point. Squeeze dribbles of white chocolate down the edge of the candle to represent dribbles of wax.

Finally, melt the dark chocolate as instructed above and, using a knife, gently place a peak of melted chocolate in the centre of the candle’s top to represent a wick.

Find out how Heston did it on Heston’s Medieval Feast.

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