A few weeks ago, I rattled my suitcase down London’s Moorgate. I used to live near here and it was a fairly unforgiving place as a new mother. I fainted when, newly pregnant, I went shopping in the local M&S, still insisting on eating chicken breasts and broccoli – this soon gave in to baguette, frankfurters and crisps as I built a baby. I also remember, later, pushing a pram through a sea of office workers, stern and monochrome in their busyness and disdain.
Things have changed and the City is relatively empty some days, as so many work from home. I was here, ostensibly, to go to a press day and taste and talk about chocolate. I did a lot of the latter and very little of the former because it was 10am and even I have boundaries. But I did taste something which I thought much about for days afterwards, until I got my own, which is Hotel Chocolat’s new offering for autumn: The Nice Slice (great name), which will go on sale in stores tomorrow and has been online for a week.
It’s a 350g slab of milk chocolate praline (hazelnut and almond) stuffed with little bits of cornflakes, rice crispies and caramel flakes, pressed into which are caramel-milk penguins. The whole thing (£16.95) begs to be brought to a difficult meeting, sliced and shared. Who could be mean eating this? But it also makes a great dessert offering, for you or someone else, when you just can’t be bothered. It benefits from being in the fridge for an hour or so before portioning up.
But if you can be bothered and want to make an epically delicious dessert, I recently discovered Nigella’s tahini, chocolate and banana pudding, which is easy, fast and drenched in cream, and really makes your corner of the world OK.
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