As we step into the final month of the year, the spirit of Christmas has begun to fill the air with joy and excitement. This holiday season is special for me as it marks my first Christmas celebration in Vancouver since I arrived in April this year. Though I miss my family’s annual gatherings back home, I can’t wait to experience Christmas with my new family and friends in this beautiful city.
One of my favorite “traditions” during Christmas is making a simple homemade treat and sharing it with my friends and family. When I think of what treat I would make this year, the image of Royce’s famous Japanese Nama Chocolate keeps coming up. Dreaming of its smooth, creamy, fudgy texture and decadent flavor, I knew I wanted to recreate this delicious treat to sweeten up my Christmas this year.
The first time I tasted Nama Chocolate, I immediately fell in love with its taste and consistency that effortlessly melted on the tongue. After some research, it turns out that replicating this chocolate doesn’t require complex techniques and tenth lists of ingredients. I learned that the key to making this chocolate lies in the chocolate quality and the ratio of fat-containing ingredients used in the recipe—which will determine the chocolate’s creamy and almost fudgy consistency. I decided to go with the white chocolate as my base chocolate and add a fruity twist to it.
Without further ado, let’s make this simple yet special treats together:
Ingredients
180 g good quality white chocolate or chocolate couverture
100 ml whipping cream (33% fat)
30 g unsalted butter
25 g of strawberry marmalade or jam
Cocoa Powder for Dusting
Instructions
- Prepare all ingredients.
- Heat 100 ml of whipping in a small saucepan over medium-low heat until the cream almost boils (not boiling). When you see a small bubble on the saucepan’s wall, remove the cream from the heat.
- Add the heated cream to a bowl with the white chocolate and butter. Mix until white chocolate and butter are melted and blend with the cream uniformly. You can also put the mixture bowl on top of the hot water bath bowl to stop the mixture from getting solidified before they all blend uniformly.
- Once the mixture is well mixed, add the strawberry jam to the mixture and mix well until uniform.
- Pour the chocolate mixture into a baking dish/pan (16 x 10 cm) lined with parchment paper. Tap the baking pan/ dish to create a flat chocolate mixture surface.
- Refrigerate the mixture overnight.
- When the chocolate gets solidified, detach the chocolate from the parchment paper and transfer the chocolate to a flat surface, ready to be sliced.
- Slice the chocolate carefully into uniform cubes or squares (with the knife, run under hot water). Dust the cocoa powder on top of the chocolate. Enjoy or serve it as a gift to share with friends and family!
