As we drove home after a Sunday roast pub lunch, with my youngest exclaiming that the cloud in front of us looked like ‘an upside down tiramisu’, I wondered if any dining establishment is able to produce a Yorkshire pudding that’s not incinerated and pulverises on contact. I’ve yet to find one.
My Zia Bianca, Italian by birth but anglicised by marriage, made the very best Yorkshires and, of course, I’ve sought their like ever since. We would eat them, pillowy in girth and pancakey in taste, in her giant kitchen in Clerkenwell, while Uncle Richard would undo his braces to ease his Sunday lunch’s passage.
But all I could really think about was finishing the bar of Bullion Hallmark Ecuador Santo Domingo 44% milk chocolate, £6, that I’d opened the day before. Cocoa milk of 44% is, need I say, still dangerous territory. That’s still a lot of sugar. But because the cocoa is good and strong, it does pull you back from the abyss (which is why there was still some left from the day before). The taste is malty and satisfying, everything you hope a good milk chocolate will be.
Bullion is a Sheffield-based, single-origin, bean-to-bar producer. The Hallmark is part of their Enriched range and the others mentioned here are £6.50 each. I didn’t test them all (Golden Nuggets and Hazelnut, I’m coming for you), but the Mocha was wonderful and there’s Seville Orange, Whisky Nibs and Candied Ginger. If booze is your thing, look at the Bullirum, £30, a cocoa nibs liqueur that apparently makes a great espresso Martini.
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