About Nama Chocolate
What is nama chocolate? Well it's a Japanese phenomenon. It's a soft chocolate with a high pure cream content so that it needs to be refrigerated. It is sold by the brand Royce and name simply means "raw" or "fresh" which in this case is the cream. Served as small cocoa dusted rectangles, you take one of their little plastic picks to pick up a soft square where it melts in your mouth.
I was first introduced to it by a kind NQN reader Anne-Maree who was so smitten by it that she gave me some from her Japan travels to taste. As a bonus, it is also very easy to make. And those learned cooks may look at the ingredients and surmise that it is like a soft ganache and you would be right.
I found the recipe on Nami's blog a while back and thought that I'd save it for Valentines Day. Then I bought some Amedei Chuao chocolate to use in it. For those unfamiliar with Amedei Chuao, it is one of the smoothest dark chocolate without a hint of bitterness.
Tips for Making Nama Chocolate
1 - Use the best quality chocolate you can find or your favourite chocolate.
2 - Make sure to keep to the ratios of chocolate to cream. This recipe is for dark or bittersweet chocolate and sets it perfectly in the fridge. White chocolate will have a different ratio of cream to chocolate as it contains no cocoa solids and milk chocolate has less than dark chocolate. If you want to make this with white chocolate try my recipe for Nama chocolate using white chocolate and matcha.
3 - You can melt the chocolate in a double boiler or in the microwave. If microwaving, heat at 70% power in 30 second intervals making sure that the chocolate doesn't burn (if it burns, it is unrecoverable, sorry!).
4 - Always store nama chocolate in the fridge.
5 - This makes an excellent Christmas or housewarming gift!
Ingredients for Nama Chocolate
Chocolate - Use a good quality chocolate as the flavour of the chocolate really shines through with such few ingredients. I used Amedei Chuao in this recipe.
Cream - Thickened or heavy cream is ideal in this recipe.
Butter - I like using salted butter to balance the sweetness of the chocolate.
Honey - Just for a little added sweetness. Can sub with rice bran syrup or agave. Maple can also work but has a stronger flavour. You can omit this but I'd recommend tasting the chocolate before deciding and if it needs sweetness add it. That's the beauty of making things from scratch-you make it to your personal taste!
Liqueur - This is optional but you can use Frangelico or a coffee liqueur like Mr Black to give it a distinct flavour.
Cocoa powder - To sift on top and give it that signature cocoa dusted look. Use Dutch process cocoa.
Nama Chocolate
Recipe adapted from Just One Cookbook
- 400g/14oz best quality chocolate
- 250ml/8.8oz fresh cream
- 20g/0.7oz butter
- 1 tablespoon honey
- liqueur of your choice (optional)
- cocoa powder for sifting
Step 1 - PREPARE - Line a square tin (20x20cm or 8x8 inches) with baking parchment on the base and sides.
Step 2 - MELT - Chop the chocolate into pieces to make it easier to melt and place in a large bowl along with the butter and honey. Heat the cream until almost boiling and then pour over the chocolate mixture, stirring to combine until smooth. Stir in the liqueur if you are using it. Pour into the prepared tin and allow to set in the fridge.
Step 3 - CUT - Cut into squares with a hot knife - this is to prevent the chocolate from splintering when you cut it. Run knife under hot water and dry on a tea towel before each cut to get a clean cut. Dust in cacao powder and store in the fridge.
Personal Note
Friends are essential to an enjoyable life and every now and then, you may come across one that ends up being your very best friend in the world. Conversely, you may also come across ones that you befriend only for a very short while before realising that they weren't quite right for you. I used to have a very strange friend. Our friendship didn't last for very long and it was during the start of High School so it was a tumultuous time at best but she was one of those friends that delighted in laughing at you, not with you.
One time, we went to the movies. We picked her up from her Double Bay apartment. I wondered what her place was like as she was always proclaiming that she would become an interior decorator and that her apartment was faaabulous, but before I could get out of the car and ring her doorbell she bounded down the front stairs. We bought snacks before settling in at the cinema. I bought a bag of Twisties-we were only allowed chips at parties so these were my first item of choice. I don't even remember the movie but when we came out we went shopping for a while before she turned to me and pointed at me and laughed hysterically.
"I didn't tell you but you have a bright orange ring of cheese around your mouth!!!" she said pointing at me in the middle of the street and laughing bent over.
I tried to scrub it off as quickly as possible but that only made her laugh harder. "You look SO stupid! You're such a dork! Loser!" she said wiping away tears and still pointing at me.
Flushed and embarrassed, I quickly decided that this was not the friendship for me and we never hung out again. To me, friends tell each other when there is spinach in the teeth.
By the way, I did see this friend again. She was selling tickets on a public transport system. "Is that you B?" I asked her. "Yes" she answered tightly crossing her arms defensively, I guess perhaps waiting for me to say something. I didn't, I mean decades had passed, although it made me think that I guess life doesn't always turn out how you want it!
So tell me Dear Reader, do you tell friends when they have spinach in their teeth? And what's your favourite chocolate?