What can I make with this chocolate sludge?

September 27, 2019 12:26 PM

I was melting chocolate chips for a recipe, added about a teaspoon and a half of margarine (Earths Balance if it matters) so it wouldn’t cool too hard, and for some reason it seized up into a thick chocolate sludge (somewhere between cookie dough and fudge in texture and density. I have about 1/2 - 3/4 cup of it. What can I bake that will incorporate this?

I know I can just pull up a spoon and eat it (tastes great in tiny doses), but I’d love a recipe that could incorporate it in some way. It seems ideal for a filling, or for something chewy like a peanut butter cookie? Bonus points for recipes that don’t include dairy (not vegan - eggs are fine). Thanks!

posted by Mchelly to Food & Drink (12 answers total)

Does it harden up at all when cool, if so it could be like a ganache. It's been a while since I've made any but I seem to recall it was just melted chocolate mixed with something goopy like milk or cream or butter. You might also be able to use your delicious sludge to make some kind of chocolate truffle. Adding a little bit of dry into the mix should thicken it into a shapeable form.
posted by GoblinHoney at 12:35 PM on September 27, 2019 [1 favorite]

Have you tried beating it with an electric mixer? Ganache (usually made with cream, but can be made with many things, inc butter and margarine) can be shipped into an excellent fluffy, creamy frosting or filling.
posted by she's not there at 12:38 PM on September 27, 2019 [4 favorites]

So what happened is too much moisture got into the chocolate and it seized (this happens more with margarine than butter). To reliquify it, put it in a double boiler and add a tsp of hot water at a time and stir after each addition until it smooths out. It won't work for baking like regular melted chocolate, but you can add an equal amount of heavy cream to make a ganache or hot chocolate concentrate. Then just add equal parts milk and concentrate and heat for rich hot chocolate.

You can also just pour it as sauce once its liquified or make the ganache and refrigerate it for truffles. You roll little balls up and coat with cocoa powder to make them (store in the fridge or serve right away).
posted by ananci at 12:57 PM on September 27, 2019 [15 favorites]

Spread it on bread. Or eat it with a spoon.
posted by zadcat at 1:02 PM on September 27, 2019 [1 favorite]

Sounds like you're just a can of sweetened condensed milk away from making 3 ingredient fudge...
posted by Redhush at 1:15 PM on September 27, 2019 [8 favorites]

Chop it up and use it as chocolate chips?
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 1:25 PM on September 27, 2019 [3 favorites]

That sounds a lot like the inner core of truffles, I agree. If you're not picky and it in fact sets when chilled, you could just dust balls of it in powdered sugar and call it a day.
posted by teremala at 1:33 PM on September 27, 2019 [2 favorites]

I make a version of Nutella with pumpmin seeds instead of almonds. I use dry cocoa, but there is a phase where the cocoa is wetted with olive oil and vanilla, a little lemon juice. So you could grind pumpkinsl seeds in a blender with water and some of the chocolate goo, like about 3/4 cup, considering the volume of chocogoo you have, and work out your balance of invredients until it is smooth enough, sweet enough, thick enough the machine will barely blend anymore. Then refrigerate and my pumpkin seed nutella ends up thicker than regular nutella, a little less sweet, no dairy, and no cholesterol.
posted by Oyéah at 2:08 PM on September 27, 2019 [1 favorite]

I add a half cup of melted dark chocolate (that has a little bit of melted butter in it) to chocolate cake batter, or to brownie cookie dough. The cake comes out richer. The cookies run a bit more when they are first baking, so I make my cookie dough fairly thick to ensure it doesn't turn into a sheet of cookies. Makes the end result richer. Make sure you don't combine molten chocolate with raw egg or you'll get scrambled egg scraps in the batter. The chocolate should be cool enough to not burn your fingers before you let it near any raw egg so it generally goes in the batter and is given a chance to cool before the eggs go in. This melted chocolate can render a cake mix cake into something rather nicer than if you don't add more chocolate. Most chocolate cake mixes have so little cocoa in them that you can't tell they are chocolate by taste alone. With the addition of melted chocolate it becomes a denser cake with much more chocolate flavour.

This chocolate and margarine mixture can also be heated to a liquid consistency again and then drizzled off a spoon over fruit such as canned pears, or over plain coconut macaroons.
posted by Jane the Brown at 2:44 PM on September 27, 2019 [1 favorite]

I’d do freezer pop fudgecicles, maybe by remelting or just forcing it into an ice tray with some toothpicks.
posted by SaltySalticid at 5:28 PM on September 27, 2019

I'm pretty sure your chocolate seized from your description; I'd look up "things to do with seized chocolate" or "recovering seized chocolate" for a few ideas.
posted by Lady Li at 12:17 AM on September 28, 2019 [2 favorites]

You can try melting it again and add cream cheese for a chocolate cheesecake
posted by The_imp_inimpossible at 9:44 PM on September 28, 2019