As both a TCK and a new cook, I’m open to trying new things. Just recently, one of those things is chocolate gnocchi. During the height of my parent’s vegan phase, I ate a range of desserts: raw pies, sweet kale smoothies, creamed banana ice cream, and (most interestingly) a chocolate pudding made from mashed potatoes.
It was the latter that inspired me to try making chocolate gnocchi. Potatoes are often used in savoury foods, but we forget what they are at their core: soft, creamy, and mostly flavourless until you add seasoning. A blank canvas, begging to be painted.
I’ve made gnocchi before- it’s one of the few recipes where I don’t mind getting gloopy sticky stuff stuck to my fingers, because the end result is always so delicious and so malleable. You can put pretty much any sauce with a portion of homemade gnocchi, and it’ll taste good.
So, the challenge was on: is chocolate gnocchi possible? And more importantly, how does it taste?
Yes, and it. Is. Delicious.
You will need:
For the Gnocchi:
2 large potatoes
85g plain flour
Half a bar of chocolate (any kind, I used regular milk)
1 egg
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground cardamom (optional)
For the sauce:
1/2 to 1 full cup of berries (I used blueberries and cherries, but any sweet berries will do)
1/4 block of butter
1/2 cup of sugar
1 pinch of coconut shavings (optional)
Water (as needed)
What to do:
Step 1: Bake your potatoes until cooked, then peel and mash them until smooth. Grate up your chocolate and mix, adding the flour, cinnamon, cardamom, and egg and mixing by hand until you have a thick, slightly sticky dough. Don’t overwork your dough too much or it won’t expand when you boil it later.
Step 2: On a well-floured surface, roll your dough into a long cylindrical shape (like a cigar) until its diameter is about 3-4 cm.
Step 3: Flour both sides of your knife before you cut your dough into bite-size pieces, around 2 cm thick. (The flour on your knife will prevent the dough sticking to it). When it’s in pieces, use your finger to gently press a dent into each piece, as if they are pillows someone’s head has rested on. These dents allow the gnocchi to carry more flavour when things get saucy later.
Step 4: Bring a large pan of water to the boil, add a little oil to ensure the gnocchi doesn’t stick together, and gently feed in your gnocchi pieces, being mindful that nothing is sticking to the bottom of the pan (as gnocchi is wont to do). Keep the water at a light simmer until all your gnocchi starts to float. When it’s floating and fluffy-looking, that mean’s it’s cooked. Don’t worry if the water turns a little bit brown.
Step 5: While you’re waiting for your gnocchi to float, we can make a start on the sauce. This is a simple berry compot so don’t feel anxious. Begin by melting your sugar in a sauce pan. When it’s all melted, add your butter and mix.
Step 6: Cut your berries into bite-size (or smaller) chunks as needed, and add to the sugar and butter mix. If/when your sugar melted parts of it solidified into weird pieces, add a little water and simmer the mixture for no more than 5 minutes, which should melt even the more stubborn pieces of sugar. When your mixture is berry-colour and shiny, it’s done. Don’t let it bubble for too long or it will burn both the sugar and the butter (which smells good at first but really messes you up down the line).
Step 7: Remove your floating gnocchi from the pan and drain for a moment, taking time to contemplate your life choices. This shouldn’t take more than a few minutes, and then you can move on to heating up a little oil in a pan and frying those bad gnocchi boys until golden brown (ish) and crispy.
Step 8: Time to plate up! Put as many pieces of gnocchi as you want on a plate as fancy as you deserve, and drizzle with the compot. Make sure you get some of those berry pieces on there. For an extra bit of colour you can add coconut shavings to the top, or maybe some ground almond powder. Really it’s all decoration, and it doesn’t matter as long as it’s delicious.
And that’s it, the secret of the chocc gnocc, or the choccy-gnocchi, as my family calls it. It might seem like a weird thing to do, but it’s worth a try. The end result tastes something like a fried-up brownie, with hints of cinnamon that mix beautifully with the berry mixture. It is the definition of comfort food.
Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m off to eat enough choccy gnocchi to kill a man.
If you try this recipe and enjoy it (or hate it) please let me know in the comments below!
Culturally Confused 