It's IMBB time again - brought to life by Alberto of Il Forno, this month's edition of this much-loved foodbloggers' event is hosted by Derrick Schneider who has An Obsession with Food. The theme he has set is "terrines": now, I've been collecting many recipes over the years and have had some good successes with a pork and spinach terrine and a fabulous vegetarian version involving super thin fried slices of courgettes, tomatoes and mozzarella - but the meat terrines and liver pates would feature in abundance, I thought, and our fabulous host himself had stolen my thunder by including a vegetarian one in his prologue which looked dangerously similar to mine, so I had to find something different. 
The answer was to make a sweet terrine, inspired by a recipe by Sara Jayne-Stanes of the Academy of Culinary Arts. It doesn't respond to the brief 100% as there are no real layers involved, but it uses a terrine mould and therefore certainly has the right shape for one, and who could resist chocolate anyway? I interlaced the chocolate and cream mixture with a prune purée and some roughly chopped almonds, but I am sure any dried fruit would work nicely - or even fresh fruit purée like passion fruit or mango... As I used chocolates (Hachez "Cocoa d'Arriba classic" and Michel Cluizel "Chocolat Amer Brut") with 77% and 72% cocoa solids respectively, the terrine ended up being rich, but not overly sweet - it's the intense flavour of top-quality dark chocolate enhanced by the compressed fruitiness of half-dry Agen prunes which makes this dessert a perfect finish for a wintery dinner party.
Prune & almond chocolate terrine
(makes 8 generous servings)
250 g top-quality dark chocolate (minimum 70% cocoa solids)*
160 g semi-dry Agen prunes
40 g blanched and skinned almonds (chopped)
284 ml whipping cream (at room temperature)
1 tbsp cognac
20 g ground almonds (for dusting)
1 terrine dish (with a capacity of ca. 750 ml)
Melt the chocolate in a bain marie or a bowl over simmering water, then set aside and leave to cool until it approximates room temperature. This is important: if it is too cold, it will not mix with the cream properly and if it is too hot, it won't set. In the meantime, stew the prunes in some water until soft, drain and purée with a blender, then stir in the cognac and chopped almonds. Spray your terrine dish with some cooking oil, then line with cling film.
When the chocolate has cooled down enough, whip the cream a little, you should still be able to pour it, but it should have stiffened just a little. Add half of the melted chocolate, combine well, then mix in the remainder. The chocolate will stiffen the cream and it will look a bit like chocolate icing. Loosely stir in the prune and almond purée and transfer to the terrine dish. Leave to set in the fridge for a minimum of 3 hours. It will keep for a week in the fridge.
When ready to serve, lift the terrine out onto a plate, dust with the ground almonds and serve with some fruits on the side - I used physalis, but raspberries or stewed apples work equally well.
*I used 150 g Michel Cluizel "Chocolat Amer Brut" (72%) and 100 g Hachez "Cocoa d'Arriba classic" (77%)
Hi Jo,
Bravo ! your terrine looks amazing and so tasty. I might make one soon. Do you think I can use a "moule à cake" with cling film ?
Have a nice day.
Posted by: Pascale | Oct 25, 2004 at 11:45 AM
oh, thanks pascale, of course a moule a cake works just as well, in fact it is what i used this time... you found me out!!!
Posted by: johanna | Oct 25, 2004 at 12:16 PM
That looks really fabulous! Chocolate, booze, prunes and nuts, what more could one possibly ask for?? And it looks fantastic sliced too - great pic!
Posted by: Jeanne | Oct 25, 2004 at 02:12 PM
I am trying to find a simple Austrian receipe for my brother to make for high school. He is having to make something that refers to his family history and since our family originally came from Austria, that is the country he has to find food for. Can you help?
Posted by: Heather | Sep 29, 2005 at 03:23 PM