How lucky am I? Several weeks ago I received an email from Ryan who works for POM. You know, the luscious pomegranate juice folks. He said that he enjoyed my blog and wanted to send me a case of pomegranate juice. Hell, yes! So I feel it is only appropriate or some may say quid pro quo to use some of my POM in a recipe.

Several weeks ago, I made a very good dessert with plums. At the time I thought that peaches would have made a super substitute for the plums. That same recipe called for a chocolate sauce, which I didn’t feel was necessary. But, now with the POM, I thought I could make a chocolate/POM sauce to accompany the peach dessert. How good could that be?

But, before I get on to the recipe, let me just say a few words about the priciness of POM juice. I think you have to approach the cost of pomegranate juice as you would buying a latte. At the moment I am typing this, Paul is at Caribou buying coffee for Kye and himself. With the tip (the tip rant is for another day, don’t get me wrong I believe in giving big tips...I can’t get into it now...) Paul will spend ten bucks for two specialty coffees. You could buy two good size POMs for that amount.  Plus, with the POM you get a butt load of nutrition. I sound like I am whoring myself because I got free POM, but, I have thought this long before my free case arrived. Really, I did. I did. I DID! Ask anyone.

So all of this sounds like a great plan, right? I am going to substitute plums for peaches and add a pomegranate chocolate sauce. But, as always, there was a glitch. My peaches were a “tad” overripe. Meaning, that there were just bits and pieces I could use. No problem, I had giant plums that we bought at Costco, because, really, what other types of plums would be at Costco besides giant?

Of course, that didn’t solve my problem, because the plums were so huge, there wasn’t going to be enough dough. So instead of making eight servings, I cut it down to six. What to do with the mushy peaches? I blanched them first, to remove the skins, cut out the bruised bits and squishy parts and put the remaining pieces on top of the plum halves. What could be better than that? Plums and peaches, with a bit of orange in the batter and a chocolate/pomegranate sauce. Let’s just hope I change my mind about using the sauce. Because before, I decided I didn’t need it. Will I say anything for free stuff?

The Recipe:

You can find the recipe here for the plum dessert. For this version, I added bits of peaches on top of the plums.

Chocolate/pomegranate sauce:

1/4 cup POM juice

4 ounces semisweet chocolate, chopped

2 tablespoons unsalted butter

2 tablespoons sugar

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Place all ingredients into a microwavable bowl and microwave for one minute. Remove from microwave and stir the sauce until the chocolate is melted and the sauce is smooth and creamy.

Remove the plum/peach cakes from the custard cups and place on a plate. Drizzle with the sauce and serve with ice cream or whipped cream or both or none!

Final Thoughts:

Oh my. Oh my oh my oh my oh my.  To die for. Seriously. This may be the best chocolate sauce I have ever had and people, I have had a wheelbarrow full of chocolate sauce in my lifetime. Everything just melded together perfectly. The tartness of the pomegranate juice complimented the sweetness of the chocolate. I love it.

Since we are growing the super duper pricey but best in the world French Mara Des Bois strawberries, we piled them on top of  the dessert.  I love all the fruits with the cake. But, I don’t care for the chocolate sauce.  I think a simple scoop of vanilla ice cream or a dollop of whipped cream is a much better choice. Bottom line is keep the dessert plain, but, definitely make the sauce, but, use it on ice cream, or on top of strawberries or raspberries. Drizzling this sauce on top of a vanilla cheesecake would be divine!

Well, well, well, imagine my surprise the next morning when I removed the chocolate sauce from the fridge to discover it has the texture of truffles! Can you believe that? There is a cooking goddess after all!  I scooped out a tablespoon or so, rolled it into a ball and sifted cocoa powder over the top. Geez Lake Louise, what a discovery.  So now I have chocolate/pomegranate truffles. Carve my name next to Edison, Newton and Pasteur.