Chokotoff sauce

For ➍
150 g chokotoffs, crudely chopped*
a bit of milk or cream*

Put the chokotoffs in a microwave safe jug.
Add a bit of milk or cream.
Put in the microwave for 3 m at 650 W.
Serve hot with ice cream, or as a topping over tiny crèpes with ice cream.

*Alternatively, mix 150 g of chopped chokotoffs, 1 chopped bar of dark chocolate, 10 cl fresh cream and a pinch of salt in a small pan. Melt everything on low heat. Serve with ice cream.

'Chokotoff' (from 'chocolate' and 'toffee', and a wordplay on the Brussels' 'tof', meaning 'great!') is a Belgian sweet, invented in 1934 by famous Belgian chocolate-makers Côte d'Or. It has a half-soft caramel inside, covered in crispy dark chocolate. Each piece is wrapped as a small present, featuring the Côte d'Or elephant. It is a national institution, and the news that production would move from Belgium to Lithuania caused quite a stir. New owners, Kraft Foods, and Mondelèz  introduced a milk chocolate version, a white chocolate version (abandoned) , and a choco spread with the same taste (abandoned) .
Read another Côte d'Or chocolate inspired dessert: parfait glacé Dessert 58.

No-churn coffee ice cream

For ➓ dl
30 cl heavy or double cream, well-chilled*
175 g sweetened condensed milk
2 tbs instant espresso powder
2 tbs espresso liqueur

Whisk all the ingredients together just until the whisk leaves trails of soft peaks in the bowl, and you have a gorgeous, caffe-latte-colored airy mixture. Fill two 50 cl airtight containers, and freeze for 6 hs or overnight. Serve straight from the freezer.
Serve with a chocolate sauce or with little brioches.

*Or use mascarpone.
**Variations:
-vanilla flavour: 1 ts vanilla extract
-ginger flavour: 100 g stem ginger, chopped, plus 4 tbs syrup from the jar
-coffee & brandy flavour: 2-3 tbs coffee essence, 2 tbs brandy
-raspberry flavour: 15 cl sieved raspberry purée (you could also use strawberry)
-rum & raisin flavour: 100 g raisins soaked in 4 tbs rum for 2 h

White witch

For ➊ drink
3 cl vodka
3 cl crème de cacao
12 cl vanilla ice cream

Mix in blender until smooth.

Serve in chilled coupe glasses.

There is a long tradition of concoctions, supposedly drunk by witches of all kind. Though we may never know what brew the three witches cooked for Macbeth, evil was one of the main ingredients. In the sixties' cocktail culture, people went wild over the rather over-sweet and quite disgusting Witch's Brew, based on classic Italian strong herbal liquor Strega ('strega' meaning 'witch', the village of the distillers is believed to be a gathering place for all Italian witches), pernod and crème de menthe. As the good wicca took over, it was time for a more sophistaced and gentler witch's brew, such as this one, though there is still magic in the air.

Banana frozen yogurt

For -/+ ➊ l
3 large mashed ripe bananas
2 ts lemon juice
50 cl vanilla yogurt or strained (Greek) yogurt
1-2 tbs honey or to taste

In a large bowl, combine bananas, lemon juice, yogurt and honey.

Chill at least 4 h.

Pour into ice cream maker and follow directions for freezing.

Serve with preferred fruit. Or with caramelized pineapple.

*Alternatively, mix 700 g Greek yogurt, 2 tbs sugar, 1 ts vanilla extract in a shallow bowl or plastic box, fit for the freezer. Put in the freezer. Every 45 m, spoon through the mixture. It would be ready to eat after 2.5-3 h. Scoop the frozen yogurt in serving bowls. Serve with pieces of mango, strawberry, berries, chocolate, etc.

Sauce au rhum (French rum sauce)

For ➍-➑
60 g sugar
10 cl heavy cream
60 g butter
2 tbs dark rum

In a saucepan, bring the sugar, cream, and butter to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer gently for 5 m. Remove from the heat and stir in the rum.
Serve over ice cream or use it to glaze a fruit tarte.

Matcha ryokucha aisukurimu (matcha green tea ice cream)

For ➍-➏
20 cl milk
2 egg yolks (room temperature)
5 tbs sugar*
20 cl heavy cream, whipped
1 tbs matcha green tea powder*
3 tbs hot water

Mix hot water and green tea powder together in a bowl. Set aside.

Lightly whisk egg yolks in a pan. Add sugar in the pan and mix well. Gradually add milk in the pan and mix well. Put the pan on low heat and heat the mixture, stirring constantly.

When the mixture is thickened, remove the pan from the heat. Soak the bottom of the pan in ice water and cool the mixture. Add green tea in the egg mixture and mix well, cooling in ice water.

Add whipped heavy cream in the mixture and stir gently. Pour the mixture in an ice cream maker and freeze.

Or, pour the mixture in a container and freeze, stirring the ice cream a few times.

*When using a sweet green tea mix, lessen the sugar. When matcha is not available, make 1 tbs/3 ts finely ground green tea from about 6 green tea bags.

Parfait glacé Dessert 58

For ➍
200 g chocolate bar Dessert 58**
2 eggs, yolks & whites separated, room temperature
25 g powdered sugar
2 dl cream***
3 tbs warm strong coffee

(Cut out 4 chocolate elephant vignettes to decorate the parfait. Set aside.)
Break the chocolate tablet(s) into small chunks. Prepare a bowl for a bain-marie. Heat the water. When warm, put the warm coffee in the bowl, add the chocolate chunks and melt them with the coffee. Let cool a bit.
In a clean bowl, beat the sugar and yolks until foamy white. Mix with the chocolate.
Beat the egg whites and spoon through the mix.
Whip the cream*** until almost stiff and spoon through the mix.
Fill 4 glasses with the mixture and put 3 h in the freezer.
Remove 10 m before serving and add the vignettes.

*Based on a recipe from the Belgian Côte d'Or website.
**A good milk chocolate bar with a good praliné filling might do the trick, but not the magic.
***Reduce amount of cream to have a less creamy texture and a richer taste. You can save the cream to serve with dessert.

Dessert 58 is a speciality chocolate bar created by Belgian chocolate manufacturer Côte d'Or in 1958 to celebrate the Brussels World Fair. Rich milk chocolate enrobes a creamy mixture of, originally, hazelnuts and almonds. Nowadays, the Dessert 58 is made with almonds and cashew nuts.
The illustration shows an early wrapper for Dessert 58, with a modern logo.
The Côte d'Or elephant trademark is a reference to the African Golden Coast, now Ghana, where much of the cacao beans were imported from in the 19th century. In 1870 Belgian chocolatier Charles Neuhaus started a chocolate factory in Brussels, depositing the name in 1883, selling the factory and the name before the end of the century. The elephant logo was created in 1908, with palms and very non-Ghanaian pyramids. Côte d'Or is now part of the Kraft group.
A parfait, French for perfect, is a frozen custard dessert made with eggs, sugar, whipped cream and flavourings such as a purée, liqueur, coffee or chocolate.
Try another Côte d'Or chocolate inspired dessert: ice-cream (crèpes) with chokotoff sauce.

Baby Eskimo

For ➋ drinks
4 tbs coffee liquor*
2 scoops rich vanilla ice cream, out for 10 m**
20 cl milk

Pour liquor* in shaker. Add slightly melted ice-cream**. Add milk. Stir with chop stick. Pour into suitable glass, like a coupette.

*Use the quick coffee liquor method instead.
**Use a thick condensed variety, like Ben & Jerry's.

Illustration from Belgian underwear Eskimo...