While the addition of olive oil to coffee sounds intriguing, in France, this ingredient has long been making its way out of the store cupboard and into culinary creations like desserts.
After the Provençal pompe à huile—a dessert made with olive oil, sugar and orange blossom—and the olive oil brioche made by pastry chef Christophe Michalak, in recent years, olive oil has increasingly been paired with chocolate.
Juan Arbelaez—working closely with the brothers behind Kalios olive oil, used in all the Colombian-born chef’s restaurants—has been instrumental in bringing olive oil to sweet dishes, through his creamy chocolate dessert with olive oil and salt, or his dark chocolate cookies, in which some of the sugar is replaced by olive oil.
And olive oil producers are only too happy to oblige. In Provence, at the Château d’Estoublon, a variety of olive oil has already been made from the maceration of cocoa beans in the precious liquid (although this not available via firm’s the online store). Still, the chocolate/olive oil duo is not unique to France. In the United Kingdom, the cooking show presenter Nigella Lawson also has a recipe for chocolate cake with olive oil.