Dark Chocolate Raspberry Hearts for Food 'N Flix December Pick: Clueless {#FoodnFlix} {#JaneAustenBites}

It's deadline day for this month's Food 'n Flix event and as usual, I am dashing in under the wire for no reason other than I procrastinated until the very last moment. Our movie, selected and hosted by Food 'N Fix's founder, Heather of All Roads Lead to the Kitchen (see her announcement post here), is the 1995 film, Clueless. 

Although I am a decade and a half or so from being the target audience of this movie, it is a favorite, partly due to my love of all things Jane Austen and it being a fabulously done remake of Emma and also because even if you don't know and appreciate the original work, it's a sweet, fun, and funny film on its own merits. I liked it so much I bought the book about the making of the movie (although it sadly sits in my TBR pile--one of these days I'll get to it.)

Alicia Silverstone stars as Cher Horowitz, a Beverly Hills teen, a bit spoiled and superficial and frankly, pretty clueless when it comes to most things. After successfully bringing together two of her teachers for the purpose of making them happy enough to give better grades, Cher enjoys the feeling of a match well done and starts in on the new girl, Tai, (Brittany Murphy) with her best friend Dionne's (Stacey Dash) help. Cher also falls for the new guy at school and undertakes other "do-gooding" projects as her cute stepbrother Josh (Paul Rudd) looks on in amusement. 

If you haven't seen it, it is well worth a watch for the funny and quotable lines, good performances, great music and fashion, and as it turns out... for the food. There is a decent amount of food in Clueless from the product placement (Diet Coke, Starbucks, Minute Maid, Special K, McDonald's, Godiva Chocolates, Snapple, Snickers...) to the lunch and dinner scenes where glimpses of different foods can be seen--iced coffee drinks, fresh squeezed orange juice, carrots, salads, fruit and yogurt, the makings of a turkey sandwich, bread sticks, school lunch with broccoli and potato, chicken, pie, milk, a slab of cookie dough burning in the oven, chips, cereal, a bunch of canned goods and red caviar. 

For my film-inspired dish, I decided to go with chocolates. In a plan to gain the attention of the new boy in school, Cher send herself flowers and a box of Godiva chocolate offering the advice; "Anything you can do to draw attention to your mouth is good." I made some dark chocolate hearts with assorted fillings last year for a book review and my favorite were the ones where I placed a fresh raspberry inside. Simple but so fresh and delicious.

The raspberries with their bright color, capture the pink that I associate with this film and I decided to add some bling by melting a white chocolate with strawberries candy bar and drizzle it on top of my hearts. It did end up a bit globby (although more Jackson Pollock splatters than Monet "She's a full-on Monet. ... It's like a painting, see? From far away, it's OK, but up close it's a big old mess.") ;-)

Dark Chocolate Hearts with Fresh Raspberries
By, Deb, Kahakai Kitchen
(Makes about 1 Dozen filled chocolates--depending on the size of your molds)

8 oz dark chocolate (I used a local Waialua Estate 70% cacao from Whole Foods), chopped
1 Tbsp coconut oil
fresh raspberries, washed and drained--patted as dry as you can get them
chocolate molds or silicon molds--clean and completely dry
1.25 oz white chocolate (I used half of this bar with strawberries) 

Place chopped chocolate and coconut oil into a microwave safe bowl or microwave safe large glass measuring cup and heat for about 45 seconds. Stir carefully and repeat heating in 20 second increments, stirring in between until chocolate is completely melted and smooth. (Alternatively you can melt the chocolate in a double boiler on the stove top.)

Once chocolate is melted, carefully pour a small amount into the bottom of your molds (fill about about 1/3 to 1/2 of the mold--depending on the size). Carefully tap your mold on the counter a several times to make sure the chocolate covers the bottom part completely and there are no air bubbles.

Place your raspberries into the half-filled molds--using a toothpick to push them down towards the bottom if needed. (I used one raspberry per heart mold.)

Using a small spoon, carefully add the remaining chocolate to each mold, covering the raspberry filling. Once all chocolates are filled and covered, carefully tap the mold against the counter a few times again, allowing the chocolate to settle and completely cover the filling with no air bubbles. If chocolate settles, add additional chocolate as needed to ensure each mold is filled to the top evenly. Carefully tap the mold a few more times. The melted chocolate should spread itself out fairly smoothly with the tapping, put you can smooth it out with the back of your spoon if needed.    

Place filled molds in your refrigerator for about 30 minutes for chocolate to harden. When chocolates are almost firm, melt white chocolate bar (if using) in a small microwave-safe bowl--using the same process as for the dark chocolate.
 
Once chocolates are completely firm, carefully remove them from the molds. The chocolates pop out pretty easily from the silicon molds; you may have to sharply tap plastic chocolate molds on the counter to loosen the chocolates.  

Using a spoon, drizzle the white chocolate over the dark chocolate hearts in a random pattern. Place the chocolates back into the refrigerator for about 15 to 20 minutes until white chocolate has firmed up. 

Store chocolates, tightly covered in the fridge. I lay paper towels in an airtight container to absorb any moisture. Chocolates containing fresh berries will keep best for just a couple of days--if they last that long.

Notes/Results: With the exception of my drizzling could have been better--I should have thinned the white chocolate a bit--these turned out really well. And I'm going to pretend there is a certain charm in the drizzle. ;-) The pairing of fresh, sweet but just a bit tart, raspberries with good-quality dark chocolate--it is just so good. The white chocolate drizzle with the touch of strawberry flavor and slight crunch from the strawberry crisp in the bar adds additional flavor and sweetness. I deliberately made a small batch of these (one dozen) because with the fresh fruit, they are best eaten within a couple of days--something I shall strive to do. I will happily make these again. 

As mentioned, the deadline for this month's Food 'N Flix is the end of the day, today--but if you like food, movies, and foodie movies, join us for January where our film pick is Wreck-It Ralph, hosted by Amy of Amy's Cooking Adventures. 

 
Heather is also hosting this month's Fandom Foodies event where the theme is #JaneAustenBites -- food inspired by Jane Austen's books and movies or books and movies inspired by Austen--so I am linking these chocolates up there. (See Heather's post for the linkup and details!)

And I will am linking up this review and recipe to the Weekend Cooking event at Beth Fish Reads, a weekly event that is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share. For more information, see the welcome post.

Happy Aloha Friday!