Why Doesn’t the Doctor Say, “Take 2 Chocolate Bars and Call Me in the Morning?”

I just heard that scientists are telling people that chocolate is good for them, especially dark chocolate.  At first I thought someone was reading my mind.  Then I realized that nearly everyone I know believes in the healthy power of chocolate.

 

Photo by Jenny Craig

Even movie and TV stars adore chocolate.  I know this from personal experience.  Yes, I write cookbooks, but in my other job I interview celebrities for newspapers
and magazines around the globe.  Seldom do my two worlds collide, except in the case of chocolate.

Photo by Jenny Craig

Julia Louis-Dreyfus and I spent many happy minutes together recently talking about her HBO series “Veep” and the good old days of “Seinfeld.”   Then she happened to let slip that she enjoys baking.  Soon she was telling me about a chocolate icing recipe she loved that used semisweet chocolate, milk chocolate, whipping cream and instant expresso powder.  Unfortunately it required 3 hours of chilling in the fridge before using. 

I countered with my 2-ingredient superfast chocolate icing recipe that’s ready in 10 minutes (see below). 

 

Over the years I’ve asked many notables about their relationship with chocolate.  Only one admitted he was immune to its charms.  

Sandra Bullock: “Chocolate is the greatest gift to women ever created.  It’s something that should be had on a daily basis.” 

Ron Howard: “I love Hershey bars, Butterfingers, ice cream, chocolate sauce on top of the ice cream, brownies and chocolate chip cookies.  I’m lucky I’m not 200 pounds.”

Anjelica Huston: “I like dark, bittersweet chocolate, preferably Swiss.  It’s one of the great reasons for living.”

George Clooney: “Everyone should have chocolate on a regular basis.  Chocolate cake is the best of chocolates.  Chocolate chip cookies are okay.  Chocolate candy is good, but chocolate cake is the way to go.  What’s the icing? It better be chocolate.  Some people do that vanilla thing.”

Scott Wolf: “I love chocolate cake with vanilla frosting.   Chocolate cake with chocolate frosting is good, but I’m a vanilla man.”

Jackie Collins: “I love chocolate.  I’ll go to the drugstore in the middle of the night to get Almond Joy and Peanut Butter Cups.  I’m not addicted to anything else, but I get chocolate cravings.”

Jodie Foster likes chocolate so much that she admitted: “I don’t eat it because otherwise I remember how much I love it, and I’d eat it every day.”

Only Timothy Dalton, who played James Bond in “The Living Daylights” and “License to Kill” in the late 1980s, dismisses the joys of chocolate: “I don’t eat chocolate daily by any means.  There are lots of things I like better than chocolate.”

Photo by Jenny Craig

To satisfy your chocolate craving, here is a quick fix. 

Two-Ingredient Chocolate Icing – enough for a 2-layer cake or large sheet cake
(adapted from my book “Chocolate on the Brain”)   

1 1/4 cups chocolate chips
1 cup sour cream 

Melt the chocolate in a heavy frying pan over very low heat, stirring constantly.  When the chocolate is almost melted, turn off the heat and set aside to cool.  The heat of the pan will melt the remaining chocolate. 

Stir in the sour cream and mix thoroughly.  If the chocolate separates into flecks, resume heating over very low heat for about 30 seconds, or until the mixture warms up enough for the chocolate to blend into the sour cream. 

Remove from the heat and let cool to room temperature before spreading over the cake.

                         For more chocolate recipes get “Chocolate on the Brain”