Conference turris::cooks

    Have you looked in the Chocolate notes file?  There is an entry
    for CHOCOLATE RASPBERRY DECADENCE that sounds like it is right
    up your alley!

        As  a  dessert  in a Swiss/French restaurant I had a very simple
    combination  of  chocolate,  raspberries,  and  heavy cream.  It was
    a  ring  of  chocolate somewhere between milk and semi-sweet with an
    outside  diameter  of  3  inches and an inside diameter of 2 inches.
    The ring of chocolate was placed on a shallow dish filled with about
    1/8  to  1/4 inch each of raspberry puree and sweetened heavy cream.
    The  cream  and  puree  were  seperated  to form a sort of ying-yang
    design.                                  
    
        The  chocolate  must  have  had something else in it because you
    could  cut  it  with a fork without breaking the ring completely and
    spraying  cream  and  raspberries  all  over  the place.  It was the
    perfect ending to a magnificent meal.
    
    ASP

From Gourmet magazine (Gourmet had a few chocolate/raspberry concoctions 
but boy, are they hard to make!  This was the *easy* one...  If you want 
the hard ones, let me know!)

    

Crust:

1 1/4 cups graham cracker crumbs
1/4 cup softened butter (half a stick)
1/4 cup chopped walnuts
1 Tbsp. Sugar

Combine and press mixture firmly onto the bottom and sides of a lightly
buttered 9-inch pie plate and bake the shell at 375 degrees for 8 minutes.
Place on a rack and cool.


Pie Filling:

10-ounces frozen raspberries 
1 cup heavy cream
1/2 cup softened butter (1 stick)
1/3 cup sugar
2 oz. unsweetened chocolate, melted and cooled
2 eggs

Thaw the raspberries in a colander set over a bowl, reserving the juices.  
In a separate bowl whip the cream until it holds soft peaks.  In the bowl of an 
electric mixer cream together butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
Stir in chocolate and 1 egg, and beat at high speed for 3 minutes.  Add the 
other egg and beat mixture at high speed for another 3 minutes.  Fold in 
the cream and raspberries.  Spoon the flling into the shell, making a 
slight edge, and chill the pie for 2 hours.


Sauce:

1/3 cup currant jelly
Thawed raspberry juice 
1 Tbsp. cornstarch dissolved in 2 Tbsp. water
2 Tbsp. cassis

In a saucepan heat the currant jelly and the reserved raspberry juices 
over moderately low heat, stirring.  Stir in cornstarch mixture, bring 
the liquid to a boil, stirring, and simmer until thickened.  Remove from
heat, stir in the cassis, and let the mixture cool to room temperature.
Pour the sauce onto the center of the pie and garnish the edges with 
walnut halves.

    Cassis is a liqueur made from fruit and is stocked by most liquor
    stores.  
    
    Let me know your mailstop and I'll send the challenges on...  Good
    luck!

    Specifically, cassis is a liqueur made from currants.  
    
    Cassis is one of the ingredients of Kir, a popular
    before-dinner drink.  The other ingredient is a dry
    white wine.  (Kir Royale uses champagne.)     
    
    The proportions are left to individual tastes, but
    differences of opinion are vast and strong.
    
    					Working from memory,
    					    Andrew
                                               

Found another recipe:

			Chocolate Raspberry Squares


1/3 cup softened butter or margarine
1 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
1 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 1/4 tsp. baking powder
1/8 tsp. salt
3/4 cup raspberry jam
1/2 cup semisweet chocolate bits

In large bowl, beat together the butter, sugar and eggs
until ight.  Sift flour with baking powder and salt and
stir into beaten mixture.  Add jam and chocolate bits.  
Spread mixture in greased 9-inch square pan.  Bake at 
350 degrees for 30 minutes, or until tested done.  Cool
on wire rack.  

    I don't have the recipe in front of me but I think I remember it
    (I've made it enough times!). Its always been a crowd pleaser.
    Make a 13x9" pan of brownies (I've found the packaged mix turns
    out just as good as from scratch and now with the "gourmet" brownie
    mixes you can comeup with some real decadent stuff). After the brownies
    have cooled, put them in the fridge for an hour or so to make them
    easier to cut. Cut the pan of brownies in quarters and remove from
    the pan. Cut each quarter in half horizontally and place the bottom
    half back in the pan. Spread raspberry jam over the bottom half
    of the brownies and replace the top half over the jam. Make a frosting
    of 1 1/2 squares of baking chocolate, 1/3 cup raspberry jam, 1 cup
    confectioner's sugar and 2 tblsp. butter. I'm not positive about
    the proportions on the frosting but you get the idea. Spread the
    frosting on top of the brownies and chill. Cut into normal brownie
    sizes and serve. Pure heaven!!
    

    RE .4
    
    I made this pie for desert on Easter.  Boy, was it rich!! Just a
    few comments.  I assumed that when the recipe called for frozen
    raspberries it was suppose to be the kind that came frozen in a
    pouch with syrup. Didn't matter because I went to 5 different stores
    looking for them and finally ended up with a plain bag of frozen
    raspberries (I think it was a 16 oz bag).  I defrosted the whole
    bag and used it except I added just enough sugar so that you didn't
    end up with a permanent pucker. I also cheated by using a Keebler
    graham cracker crust because I didn't have enough crumbs to make
    my own.  It really wasn't that difficult to make or take that much
    time.  I think next time, I may add just a little more sugar though.
    
    Manina

re: Note 571.3 by LASSEN::PURMAL
                 -< Simple chocolate, raspberries, and cream. >-

>        The  chocolate  must  have  had something else in it because you
>    could  cut  it  with a fork without breaking the ring completely and
>    spraying  cream  and  raspberries  all  over  the place.  It was the
>    perfect ending to a magnificent meal.
    
The chocolate sounds like a genache (reference chocolate truffle
recipes), it is a mixture of chocolate, butter and cream and is a soft
confection.