CHOCOLATE GIVEAWAY - ENDED

OK, it is officially the start of the count down to Christmas, we have opened No.1 on the advent calendar and I am panicking even more about the lack of christmas shopping I have done.  

What better way to kick off the festivities that a giveaway.  To help you with your shopping I have the perfect gift CHOCOLATE!

Thanks to the extremely generous Bala Croman from The Chocolate Cellar in Liverpool I have a very chocolatey give away for you all.

I have 1Kg of 70% Belgian Chocolate and if that's not enough there is also a bottle of Rubis Chocolate Velvet Ruby wine.  This wine has the most sumptuous and decadent taste, rather like a dessert wine with a touch of caramel and rich chocolate.

I was very excited to get my hands on the chocolate wine and thought long and hard about a suitably luxurious recipe that would do justice to such an extravagant ingredient.  In the end I decided it would have to be poached pears.  Pears lend themselves brilliantly to chocolate and poaching them in red wine  

 is a classic.  I've also added a bit more christmas with some star anise and it worked big time.

First peel 6 Pears but keep them whole with the stalk intact.  I used fat juicy ripe ready to eat pears.  Using hard pears means they will need to cook for longer.  If you can be bothered you could core them too but it's not crucial. Put the whole bottle of chocolate wine (minus that sip you had) in a saucepan with 230g Sugar and 2 Whole Star Anise.  Warm this through till the sugar has melted then gently lower in the pears ensuring they are covered in the wine.  Cover the pan with a lid and poach for 30 minutes. Once the pears are tender and cooked through, remove them from the pan and simmer the wine till it has reduced by half.  Leave it to cool and it will become thick and syrupy.

Serve the pears with a little syrup poured over them and whipped cream or ice-cream.

To Enter this giveaway simply take a photograph of yourself covered in chocolate....oh no, that's not right, sorry!

You need to do one or more of the following:

  a) Follow this Blog and leave a comment telling me what you would make with the chocolate and or wine.

  b) For another chance of winning,  LIKE my Facebook page - Yasmin Limbert - Pieces of Rainbow and let me know you are entering this giveaway.

  

c) And just incase you want to enter 3 times, Follow Yasmin Limbert on Twitter and leave me a tweet letting me know you've entered.  

Good luck to you all.

I shall be drawing the winner at random on Friday 9th December.