Olive Oil Chocolate Shell

Ok, I have a lot of dessert hot takes, but one of them is that an olive oil chocolate shell is FAR superior to any other kind of chocolate shell. Hear me out – coconut oil gets too hard and too oily, and any other oil has no flavor! Olive oil is the way to go. And it’s not just because I also love drizzling olive oil on my gelato…ok it might be because of that a little bit 😉

I first got hooked on this idea after going to Caffe Panna – this absolutely amazing gelato spot in New York City. There you can get one free “drizzle” and topping on a scoop, an I always get the olive oil drizzle and flaky salt. Before you say it sounds weird, olive oil on ice cream is absolutely heavenly. It’s rich, it has an earthy, luxe flavor to it, and it automatically elevates any flavor of ice cream. I can’t get enough, and with an olive oil chocolate shell, it’s like you get the best of both worlds.

What you will need to make an olive oil chocolate shell

I love a sweet-and-simple dessert recipe. For this one, you’ll only need a few things!

• 3/4 cup Guittard 74% Chocolate Baking Wafers, or any 60-75% cocoa chocolate
• 1/4 cup high quality extra-virgin olive oil, I like Brightland’s infused olive oils for this
• Flaky salt optional, for topping

Of course, all the ingredients I listed above are truly just suggestions. You can use whatever version of those ingredients that are available to you!

The best kind of chocolate to use for a chocolate shell

The most important thing for the chocolate in this recipe is you’ll want a chocolate that is ready and eager to melt. Try to avoid standard chocolate chips, because those have stabilizers in them that will make melting a generally *clunkier* process. I like the Guittard wafers I linked above, because they melt easily and don’t have any of the extras that other chocolate chips tend to have.

In terms of flavor, I like to go for a chocolate within the dark to semi-sweet range, think 60-75% cocoa. It gives your chocolate shell a richer flavor, and it pairs nicely with the olive oil, where sometimes I think milk chocolate can get in the way.

Why it is so important to only melt the chocolate over the heat source

Olive oil is a beautiful ingredient, but it can get a bit temperamental in heat. Heat changes olive oil’s flavor, just by the nature of the chemical reactions going on in the compounds. Heating olive oil is not a bad thing (we cook with it all the time!), but what it does is it tends to dull the bright, herbaceous flavor of a good olive oil. That’s not a good thing for this recipe, seeing as our whole goal is to keep the olive oil flavor as present as possible!

The work-around for this is to melt the chocolate first, then whisk in the olive oil after the chocolate is off the heat. This maintains the flavor in the olive oil chocolate shell, and makes sure to protect the olive oil, too.

Types of olives oils to use (and a few of my favorites!)

The best part of olive oil chocolate shell is that unlike other oils, there are so many INFUSED options to choose from! Not only does using an infused olive oil automatically elevate your dessert, it also lets you play around with subtle flavors in your chocolate shell that you wouldn’t be able to get anywhere else.

A few infused oils I love to use are:

Brightland’s Lemon Olive Oil – great to use on citrus sorbets, vanilla ice creams, strawberry-swirled ice creams, or any vanilla cakes!

Brightland’s Basil Olive Oil – great to use on raspberry-swirled desserts, any desserts that have notes of other herbs in them (think a lemon-thyme whipped cream!), or any fruit flavors that go well with basil, like strawberries, melon, etc. I love it with this Preserved Lemon & Strawberry Whipped Cream, too.

Frankie’s Calabrian Chili Oil – amazing on rich, chocolate ice creams, or really anything you want to add a surprising kick of sweet-heat to!

Looking for other dessert ideas?

I usually go towards baking, but here are a few no-bake ideas from the blog!

And that’s it for this Olive Oil Chocolate Shell recipe!

If you make it, please tag me on Pinterest or Instagram so I can see! It’s my favorite thing to scroll through stories and see what you all are making.

And of course feel free to leave any questions, comments or reviews! This is the best place to reach me, and I’d love to hear from you <3

Watch the recipe here

The video may not fully represent the recipe. For best results, follow the instructions as written.