At my local CrossFit gym I pulled my bar off the rack preparing for my next rep sequence of jerks until I hear Chris; one of the trainers, call my name from the distance. Thinking it was urgent I re-racked the bar and turned around and he immediately says “have you ever tried dark chocolate with sea salt?”. The cool thing is that he is totally into the healthy eating and Paleo scene but I was slightly stunned by the question because I’m all about chocolate with crunchy sea salt on top, but he didn’t know that so I’ll let him off this time.

Once I got home my mind was clouded by incessant thoughts of salted chocolate. There is nothing quite as enjoyable as that perfect salty sweet contrast that meets the tongue along with a nice crunch that comes with salt studded chocolate. I don’t know how anyone came up with it but it was obviously a genius move. Either that or they were walking with an open salt shaker in one hand and a square of dark chocolate in the other as our solar system’s planets aligned perfectly causing them to trip and spill the salt over their chocolate. Cosmic magic resulting in culinary magic.

With the many nuances that chocolatiers like to add to their chocolates like herbs, spices, chiles, fruit, and of course salt; I felt that there was a necessary nuance that could fit well in addition to being salted. My cousin Jenny introduced me to Mexican Hot chocoalte a few years ago which is essentially just a hot chocolate but with chilies and cinnamon added to it. The chilies give it a slight peppery taste along with just a slight bit of heat which combines wonderfully with the fragrant cinnamon.

With those two additions in mind I felt the best way to do this combination justice was to make it into a thick ganache. It’s quite hard to go wrong with a ganache. Even the name sounds amazing, it just seems to roll off the tongue in such a sophisticated manner. Sometimes I like to just say it in super slow motion just because I can’t help it. Whether you choose to play with the word ganache or just make it is up to you, by personal preference I do both.



