Sticky, Chewy Chocolate

Have you ever noticed that there are no “vanillaholics”? That no one prescribes eating strawberry ice cream to mend a broken heart, or sends lemon drops to woo a new lover on Valentine’s Day?

Now, I’m not saying that vanilla isn’t a wonderful sidekick, even the elusive perfume dabbed behind the ear of every great dessert, or that strawberry ice cream and lemon drops aren’t completely delightful—but chocolate is different. Chocolate is special. Chocolate has the power to elicit the passionate devotion of a starry-eyed acolyte. Perhaps it’s chocolate’s versatility that causes such admiration. Chocolate desserts can be, by turns, elegantly pure—in a dark bittersweet gâteau, thin and unctuously moist, with a sleek layer of ganache glossing its shoulders—or it can be earthy and homey—in a simple walnut-studded fudge brownie, served warm with a big scoop of vanilla ice cream melting dreamily beside it. Whatever incarnation chocolate assumes, from a velvety mousse to a thick-as-pudding cup of hot chocolate to a crisp, buttery cookie to a festive four-layer birthday cake, black with cocoa and topped with loopy swirls of rich buttercream, when it comes to anything chocolate, there really is no substitute. And we just can’t get enough.