Well, we were making the chocolate marquise for a dinner, and we came across a bit of a snag. Aki’s recipe was on the dead computer. Time to ad-lib. Aki did a bit of internet research and away she went. Something went wrong. We had a fair amount of extraneous issues going on, so that may have added to the problem. I call it a problem because what came out of the oven did not resemble Aki’s marquise. It was pockmarked on top and did not have the silky, velvety texture that we were expecting and wanting. So, we let it cool a bit and sent it for a spin in the blender. The mixture came back together, sort of. Aki said let’s add a touch of cream cheese to help the emulsion. We did, and the marquise became a fluid, silky chocolate base. We poured the base into a terrine mold. It set, and the result was a decadent, creamy terrine of bittersweet chocolate. We served the terrine with shiso leaves, pistachio circles, and vanilla salt.
The moral: don’t forget the blender or the power of cream cheese.
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