My first official challenge! And what better a theme than chocolate? Holly has graciously started a challenge entitled “Art You Eat” and the premise is on making food presentation as important as taste. As I said before, this is my first official challenge, and this is also the first time I’ve taken pictures of my food with the real emphasis on presentation. I hope that one day I’ll be as good as Donna Hay’s photographer, but I imagine that he/she has a degree in that subject and a far better camera But we’ll do our best, right? The recipe goes like this…

Ingredients:

• 1 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup light corn syrup
• 1 1/2 cups lightly salted peanuts, whole or halved
• 3 tbsp unsweetened dutch process cocoa
• 1 tbsp unsalted butter
• 1 tsp vanilla bean paste (or good vanilla extract)
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 2 cups of bittersweet or dark chocolate shavings/chips/chunks
• decoration/coloring of choice

Instructions:

1. Have a large or medium (doesn’t matter which) baking sheet ready, lined with parchment paper.
2. In a medium sauce pan, bring sugar and corn syrup to a bubbling boil over medium-high heat. After bubbling throughout, add the peanuts.
3. When the peanuts and sugar syrup turn a light brown, add the cocoa, butter, and vanilla paste. Mix thoroughly for about 2 minutes, then bring in the candy thermometer.
4. Keep stirring as the temperature approaches 300 degrees Farenheit.
5. When temperature reaches 300 degrees, remove sauce pan from heat, and quickly stir in baking soda. Once baking soda is combined, pour entire mixture onto prepared sheet pan. Acting quickly, spread as evenly as possible, and quickly pour on the chocolate, again spreading evenly.
6. While chocolate is still warm and melted, add the decoration of your choice (or leave simply fantastic as plain).Feel free to experiment with different chocolates and peanuts. Hazelnuts and cashews are always a hit!

Thank you very much, Holly, for starting this challenge! This will really inspire me to try to take great pictures of great foods!  The Round-up and top three (we need your vote!) for all of these fabulously artful foods can be found here!