Notes on chocolate: alpha alfajores

Sur Chocolates – of mainly alfajores fame – have brought out a special Christmas edition called the Baubles collection, £35.

Their Eggnog bauble is a cinnamon biscake and eggnog ganache covered in a 33% white chocolate. Is there a little marshmallow inside it? It looks like it. This was the sweetest of the three. Our favourite was probably the Alfa-Jaffa, a 70% dark organic Peruvian chocolate with a vanilla biscake, orange ganache and jelly – very Christmassy and I can never get enough of orange-flavoured things in winter. Monkey Puzzle is a 63% Arriba Ecuadorian chocolate with a monkey puzzle seed-layered biscake and the alfajor’s famous dulce de leche.

I hate to sound like a record, but these make cute host gifts if there aren’t too many of you (there are six alfajores in a box) and I also like to lay them out with the cheese and crackers at the end of a meal and a card explaining what each one is. You’re really meant to eat an alfajor in one go, but it can withstand being portioned up (use a sharp knife).

While we’re on the subject of orange and chocolate – and rarely do I like to be off it – stock up on Asda’s Extra Special Orange Dark Chocolate, £1.85/100g. At 52% cocoa solids, it’s dark enough to have some interest while still being a crowd-pleaser. If you’re stuck for a dessert, this makes a cracking chocolate mousse. I make mine using just melted chocolate (100g) plus two eggs – melt the chocolate, let it cool, beat in room-temperature egg yolks; separately whisk egg whites and fold in, spoon into glasses, chill – but you choose your fave recipe.