Recipe: More Chocolate Durian Stuff

Apparently a week after the date I still have Valentine’s Day on the brain. After my last post about how to selectively pair durian and chocolates, and my durian chocolate truffles experiment, I’ve been wondering about more ways to combine my two favorite aphrodisiacs.

Turns out I’m not the only one who’s lain awake at night wondering what sort of chocolatey confection durian could be added to. There were so many recipes, I decided to wade through them all and select what I thought looked like the best 5 representations of the many ways durian and chocolate belong together.  The recipes vary a lot, from traditional Asian to Western fusions mainstream gourmet to raw vegan.

Here’s the rundown on recipes in this post. Click on each recipe and it will jump to the spot on this page. Isn’t it nifty? I made politely asked Rob to do this part for me.

1. Durian Milk Chocolates: Why use milk when you have durian? 

2. Chocolate Durian Snow Skin Mooncake: A delicious spin on a traditional Chinese treat eaten  during the Autumn Lunar Festival.

3. Durian Chocolate Pudding: A raw vegan dessert

4. Durian Chocolate Cheesecake: The most popular durian recipe on the web, it’s even better with chocolate.

5. Durian Chocolate Mylk: Got Durian? A vegetarian milk alternative.

Durian “Milk” Chocolate 

This recipe can easily be adapted to suit your dietary preference. For raw foodies, just forget about the double boiler and substitute in a scraped vanilla bean and a your sweetener of choice. I suggest either coconut sugar or date paste.

• 2 cups (220g) cocoa powder
• 3/4 cup (170g) butter, margarine, or coconut oil softened at room temperature
• 1/2 cup (100g) sugar (preferably powdered)
• 2/3 cup (150ml) durian puree, room temperature
• 1/4 cup (30g) flour
• 1/2 cup (235ml) water
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract (optional)
• 1/4 tsp salt

1. Sift the cocoa and blend with melted butter. It’s really important to sift the cocoa to avoid lumps and make the chocolate really creamy and smooth.

2. Heat the cocoa powder and butter in a saucepan on low, stirring constantly. If you feel fancy, use a double boiler. Fill sauce pan or double boiler about 1/4 full with water (1 cup). Do Not Stop Stirring! 

3.  Blend in durian, flour, salt, and sugar. Keep stirring until chocolate is super-smooth and creamy. Taste, and adjust with more sugar if desired.

4. Pour in candy molds or ice cube tray and refrigerate.

Durian Chocolate Snow Skin Mooncake

Whoever came up with this recipe is probably an evil genius. Snow Skin Mooncakes always look amazing, but the combination of chocolate and durian makes this calorie-dense dessert downright sinful. Read more about why all durian mooncakes are of the snow skin variety here.

• 1 1/4 cup (150 g) cooked glutinous rice flour
• 180 g Sugar
• 80 g shortening
• 100 ml Water
• 35 g Cocoa powder, sifted

Filling

• 750 g Durian paste filling

1. Mix glutinous rice flour, cocoa powder and powdered sugar together. Rub in shortening till the mixture is like crumbs.

2. Add in water and mix well. Knead it for a few minutes till it becomes a smooth dough.

3. Wrap the Snowskin dough in cling warp and let it rest for 15 minutes.

4. Roll the durian paste into balls of 75 g each.

5. Divide the Snowskin dough into balls of 50 g each. Flatten each
piece of dough and place one ball of durian paste into it. Enclose the
durian paste with the Snowskin dough and place inside the Mooncake
mold.

6. Remove from mold and refrigerate before serving.

Raw Vegan Durian Chocolate Pudding

This pudding would be great layered into a Parfait with some kind of white cream and strawberries. Mmmmm.


Ingredients:
Recipe by Moi

• 1 cup durian flesh
• 1/2 cup, more or less, cocoa powder (I like super dark chocolate, it’s up to you)
• 1/2 vanilla bean, scraped
• water to texture satisfaction

1. Blend all ingredients, adding water slowly so you don’t make it too runny
2. Put in a pretty bowl and enjoy!

Durian Chocolate Cheesecake

There are A LOT of durian cheesecake recipes. I’ve actually already posted one on this blog, by the squeaky Malaysian Chef Wan. I finally picked the chocolate durian cheesecake at Cuisine Paradise because the chocolate cookie base and that decadent, shiny chocolate frosting just looked too decadent to ignore. Other sites had prettier pictures, but ganache may be my one other weakness. Ganache and durian? You’ve got me by the toes!

• 225-250 gr Chocolate cookie, finely crushed. Oreo’s work, but scrape off the white cream.
• 150 gr Unsalted butter, melted and cooled

• 50 ml hot water
• 1 Tbsp Gelatin powder
• 250 gr Cream cheese 
• 70 gr Caster sugar
• 250 gr Durian flesh
• 125 gr Plain yogurt
• 200 gr Non-dairy Whipping cream( whipped)

Chocolate Fudge Ganache:

• 150 gr Semi bitter dark chocolate
• 100 ml Whipping cream
• 30 gr Unsalted butter

1. Crush the cookies in a 9 inch round cake pan. Drizzle the melted butter into the crumbs and mix until thoroughly combined. Press into a smooth and even layer, making sure not to tamp the crumbs down too hard.  Put in the freezer. 

2. Dissolve the gelatin powder in 50ml hot water and set aside.

3. Beat the cream cheese until soft and fluffy.  Add sugar and continue beating until
creamy and light. Mix in durian flesh. 

4. Pour in the melted gelatin mixture and yogurt then stir till combined.

5. Slowly stir in the whipped cream until the mixture is creamy and well mixed. For a smoother texture, use a mixer. 

6. Remove the cookie-crumble from the freezer. Pour the mixture on top and chill for at
least 3 hours or overnight.

7. Put all chocolate ganache ingredients in a pan/glass bowl over boiling water or use a double boiler.

8. Whisk the ingredients until the fudge is smooth and glossy.

9. Let the warm fudge cool down to room temperature before pouring into
the firm cheesecake top and tap the cake a few times to release any air
bubbles.

10. Put it back into the fridge and let the chocolate fudge set for about an hour or so before serving.

Durian Chocolate Mylk

Among the vegetarian savvy, “mylk” is a term often used as a replacement beverage for that cow stuff. “Mylk” can have a base of soy, almonds, oats, hemp, cashews, bananas, or pretty much anything plant-based you can think of.  The requirements are that it must be sweet, it must be creamy, and it must be white or off-white.

Durian meets all of those requirements. Of course when you add cocoa powder, it doesn’t matter. A variant on this is the Durian Chocolate Mylk Shake. Just use frozen durian flesh.

Ingredients:

Makes 2 servings (because who wants one serving of chocolate mylk?)

• 1 cup Durian flesh
• 2 cups water or nut mylk for a creamier, thicker beverage
• 1/3 cup Cocoa Powder (more or less, depending on your taste)

1. Blend all ingredients until smooth and frothy.