This is a very simple and elegant little dessert to throw together. It smacks of something that took a whole lot of effort, but really it took me about ten minutes total. I think it’s also going to be a nice way to cover up the not-so-great flavour of winter berries. Since my husband is allergic to most fruits, we have no choice but to eat those less than ideal berries. The red wine is a nice touch in the chocolate and they both go with raspberry very nicely. It’s a stunner on the plate, too. Just make sure the raspberries you choose are firm, otherwise they won’t hold up to the pressure of the piping bag filling them with chocolate.
The chocolate ends up like a very thick glaze, so that means it’s very silky and smooth. The trickiest part is not to overfill the raspberries, but do it once and you’ll have learned your chocolatey-mess lesson. I’m also positive you could just dip and cool other pieces of fruit, but I love the surprise of a stuffed raspberry. I made them for my husband on one of our first dates – though I suppose you could describe most of our dates as that since we got married so quickly. Romantic or something (what do I know?).
Chocolate and Red Wine Stuffed Raspberries
Makes a whole lot
1 pint raspberries
1 teaspoon non-dairy margarine
1/4 cup semi-sweet non-dairy chocolate
1 tablespoon red wine (something sweet would be absolutely heavenly in here)
1/4 vanilla bean, scraped (optional)
In a double boiler or in the microwave, melt the non-dairy margarine and chocolate. Whisk in the wine and cook for an additional minute or so, just so the alcohol can start to evaporate. Take off the heat and whisk in the vanilla bean, if using. Fill a squeeze bottle, or piping bag, fitted with a thin tip with the chocolate and fill each raspberry. Set aside and let cool. You can cover and place these in the fridge to set more, but it’s not entirely necessary.
