Chocomazing chocolate delights!

By Fathima Riznaz Hafi

Chocolates are Dionne Weeraratne’s best friend. She absolutely loves them and anything made from them and has been baking chocolate delights from the time she first learnt how to make chocolate biscuit pudding during home science class back in school. 

“I love baking so I found recipes, developed them and came up with just a few basic products according to my personal taste in chocolates,” she said. “I look up recipes from the internet but don’t like to take it as it is; I just take the base recipe and develop it into what I want.”

After several failed attempts, she achieved perfection and moved on to brownies and kept developing from there; it soon became a hobby. Seeing her passion, a friend of hers who is a home baker suggested that she become one too and that’s how ‘Chocomazing’ came about. 

For the moment she makes four main products: Chocolate fudge brownies, soft-centred chocolate cookies, chocolate biscuit pudding and choc-o-shock. 

This is what I thought of her chocolate goodies…

Chocolate Fudge Brownie

This was splendid! Dionne says it’s the ultimate chocolate brownie that she has come up with – after a lot of experimenting and a lot of trial and error she decided this is the consistency that she wanted. It was rich, sticky, fudgy and gooey, with that intense chocolate punch. It was also crunchy on top while soft and tasty on the inside and I appreciated that the edges weren’t burnt. It is ideal not only for individual indulgence but also for birthday and office parties. Offering overall great texture and flavour, this brownie is a winner!

Soft-centred chocolate cookie

This cookie is baked with fudge in the centre so it is crisp on the outside and chewy on the inside, with a sweet fudgy touch in the centre, making it even more of a scrumptious treat. 

The cookie with fudge in the centre is the original soft-centred cookie that she started off with but since then she has created quite a few ranges, modifying the centre according to the customer’s preference. If the customer requests white chocolate she replaces the fudge with white chocolate. She also replaces it with milk chocolate, dark chocolate or any other filling that is requested.

Chocolate biscuit pudding

Dionne offers something different from the regular chocolate biscuit pudding as her signature chocolate biscuit pudding consists of layers of fudge in between the layers of chocolate and biscuit. She says the fudge here is of a less dense consistency because fudge tends to get very hard; she therefore dilutes it a bit before adding it to the layers. She normally adds a layer or two of fudge, depending on how tall the dish is. If the client doesn’t want that she does it without the fudge. 

I adore the regular chocolate biscuit pudding but was open to this slight variation because fudge is always welcome in my desserts. The fudge could be tasted in the bites and it was a subtle touch without altering the original taste too much. She completes the dish with chocolate sprinkles on top. 

Choc-o-shock

This is just pure, delicious fudge, moulded to different shapes. Currently she moulds it into the shape of a small flower but if the customer requests it in a different shape and she has the mould she does it. 

It certainly did have the ‘shock’ effect with the first bite being an instant mood booster. Simply melting in my mouth, it offered a soft, smooth, sweet indulgence, with the taste lingering for a while. It was a small piece but just enough to give that instant chocolate fix.

Unless you have self-discipline, I wouldn’t suggest you buy in bulk – as one could keep going for more and more – I know I would! 

Conclusion

Chocomazing has my approval and I give double thumbs up for the Chocolate Fudge Brownie and Choc-o-shock. 

The brownie most certainly satisfied my sweet tooth and the Choc-o-shock is what you could reach for when you need an instant mood upliftment. 

Dionne doesn’t deliver so you can pick the goodies up at her place in Nugegoda. She caters to individual as well as large orders but because she does the baking alone and balances it with a full-time job, she has to plan ahead and therefore requests that orders be placed two or three days in advance, depending on the size of the order.

Pix by Upul Abayasekara

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