Barberry and white chocolate bar

Barberry and white chocolate bar

Berberis vulgaris

Barberries were once a very important culinary ingredients in the UK, providing an essential sourness when lemons were not really available readily.  Two things happened to ensure barberry disappeared from both our cuisine and our landscape - improved trade with our neighbouring countries improved availability of lemons, and the increase in wheat production in the UK meant that farmer grubbed barberry bushes from the hedgerows as it harboured a wheat rust.  Until I found a few barberry bushes locally, I had always associated barberries with Middle Eastern recipes.

We have dried the berries and ground them into a Chocolat Madagascar 37% white chocolate.  The tartness of the berries is tempered a little by the sweetness and creaminess of the white chocolate, and the berries have turned the whole confection into a dusky pink colour. 

Ingredients: Cocoa solids 34% min: cocoa butter, cane sugar, whole MILK powder, SUNFLOWER seed lecithin, dried barberries (8%)