In honor of Tu B’Av, we are presenting you with two fabulous, very easy chocolate recipes.

When I was a little girl, my mother worked as a sales lady at David’s World of Fashion, a chain of fashion boutiques in the western and southern suburbs of Sydney, owned by her younger brothers. She worked at different stores, most located in Westfield Shopping Centres, malls founded by two Jewish immigrants, John Saunders and Frank Lowy, a survivor of the camps. In those days, the “shmata” business was dominated by European Jews, many of them Holocaust survivors.

Whenever it was the school holidays, my mother would work at Miranda Fair, which was close to our house in Kirrawee, and Rafi and I would accompany her. The malls would entertain the children with musical shows, fun activities and giveaways, so that their mothers would still come to shop. 

Every afternoon there was “teatime,” when my mother and the Australian sales ladies (with names like Mrs. Dixon and Mrs. Burton) would put the kettle on for a cup of tea accompanied by a slice of cake or biscuits (cookies). As a treat, my mother would buy a huge “family” block of Cadbury’s milk chocolate. She would unwrap the signature purple wrapping and hand each of us a row of chocolate. I would savor each square of that chocolate as it melted in my mouth. 

When the Australian economy took a downturn and real estate became difficult for my father, my uncle Anthony convinced him that he could make money selling dresses at the “markets.” Anthony, his brother Roger and his father Dennis were all very successful clothing manufacturers and they supplied my father with their overstock. Every day there was a different market where my father would rent a stall and set up racks of dresses. On weekends, we would all go to help him. 

Soon my parents were able to open their own dress shops. On Thursday nights, all the stores were open until 9 pm, so I would go to work there. After school, I would take a train from Central Station to Merrylands or Liverpool. But first I would grab a small bar of Cadbury’s Hazelnut Chocolate, my favorite thing in the whole world.

Then my family moved to Los Angeles and I experienced the five stages of grief. At first, I was in denial — Hershey’s chocolate wasn’t that bad! Then anger — why wasn’t the American Cadbury chocolate as good as the Australian product? Then bargaining with everyone who traveled to Australia to bring me back my beloved Cadbury‘s. Then depression that I probably wouldn’t be eating Cadbury’s so often. And finally, acceptance that I probably didn’t need to eat Cadbury’s so often. 

—Sharon

Author’s Note — Baruch HaShem, my mother has just returned from Sydney and she has brought me back huge slabs of Cadbury’s Hazelnut Chocolate.

While Sharon might not be fond of American chocolate, the cocoa bean is native to the Americas. In 1520, the ruthless Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés encountered chocolate in the court of the Aztec Emperor Moctezuma II. The Mesoamericans drank a chocolate drink blended with chiles, vanilla and achiote and Moctezuma was reputed to drink 50 cups a day!

In 1544, Dominican friars brought a delegation of Q’eqchi’ Maya nobles to meet the future King Phillip II and they brought with them beaten chocolate as a gift. The Spanish nobility soon developed a taste for this new drink, which was warm, spicy and sweet. When women of Spanish nobility married French aristocrats, they took cocoa with them, helping to spread cocoa’s appeal. 

Although the Inquisition forbade Sephardic Jews and conversos from traveling freely, many found their way to Brazil, Suriname, Guyana, Venezuela and the Antilles, where they became integral to the trans-Atlantic cocoa trade. They were also involved in developing methods for processing sugar and vanilla, which helped make bitter cocoa the wonderful chocolate treat we know and love today. 

Coming up on the Jewish calendar is Tu b’Av, an ancient and modern holiday. In ancient Israel, unmarried women would dress in white and dance outside the walls of Jerusalem under the light of the full moon and their suitors would come and dance after them. In modern Israel, Tu b’Av is a day of love, celebrated with red hearts and chocolate bonbons.

In modern Israel, Tu B’Av is a day of love, celebrated with red hearts and chocolate bonbons.  In honor of this holiday of love, we are presenting you with two fabulous, very easy chocolate recipes. 

In honor of this holiday of love, we are presenting you with two fabulous, very easy chocolate recipes. 

Sharon’s daughter Alexandra was inspired by the recent internet kanafe chocolate trend. She made chocolate cups stuffed with strings of crispy kataife pastry and tahini sweetened with maple syrup. 

I made chocolate molten lava cakes. A riff on a chocolate soufflé, they are gooey and melted on the inside. This dessert is surprisingly easy to make. But the crucial part is not overbaking them and getting them to the table straight out of the oven while they’re hot. When that dark chocolate starts oozing out of the center, your guests will oooh and aaah!

We hope you indulge in these sweet desserts. After all, dark chocolate is a rich source of zinc (linked to virility), magnesium (a mineral that helps us relax), and quercetin (an anti-inflammatory flavonoid that improves blood flow). 

Isn’t it romantic?

—Rachel 

Chocolate Kanafe Cups 

1 cup kataifi pastry
1/4 cup tahini
2 tbsp maple syrup
12 ounces semisweet chocolate chips
2 Tbsp avocado oil

Line a cupcake sheet with paper cupcake holders.

Toast shredded kataifi in a dry pan over low heat. 

In a small bowl, blend the tahini with the maple syrup, then add the toasted kataifi. Set aside. 

In a glass bowl, melt the chocolate chips with the oil in the microwave in 30 seconds increments. 

Pour the melted chocolate to fill the bottom of the cupcake liners. Then spread up the sides. 

Fill the chocolate cups with the kaitafi tahini mixture, then cover with another layer of melted chocolate. 

Refrigerate until ready to serve. 

Decadent Chocolate Lava Cakes

6oz bittersweet chocolate
4 oz butter or avocado oil
3 large eggs
1/4 cup sugar
¼ cup flour or two tablespoons potato starch
1 tsp vanilla extract
½ tsp cinnamon
½ tsp Instant coffee or espresso powder optional

Preheat oven to 400°F. 

Generously butter and dust 6 (4 oz) ramekins with cocoa powder or sugar; set aside.

In a medium microwave-safe bowl, melt chocolate and butter in 30-second increments.

In a separate large bowl, whisk the eggs and sugar until pale and fluffy. Whisk in the melted chocolate along with the flour, vanilla, cinnamon and instant coffee.

Divide batter into ramekins and place them on a baking sheet. Bake 10 minutes or until the edges begin to pull away from the ramekins but the center is still jiggly.

Remove from oven and serve immediately with ice cream or whipped cream.

If you do not have ramekins, divide into six well-greased muffin cups.

Sharon Gomperts and Rachel Emquies Sheff have been friends since high school. The Sephardic Spice Girls project has grown from their collaboration on events for the Sephardic Educational Center in Jerusalem. Follow them
on Instagram @sephardicspicegirls and on Facebook at Sephardic Spice SEC Food.