Hearts of the Chocolate British Longhair

The heart, with its two lobes and pointed end, is the universal symbol of love embellishing everything in the approach of Valentine’s Day. Yet, we must wonder why such an abstract shape has come to represent one of our principal interpersonal emotions and why cats would possess almost ten of them. Here, I presentsome theories and explanations for these phenomena are accompanied by a recipe inspired by the heart itself and all its meanings, alongside embodying the nine lives a chocolate British longhair would possess if the popular myth of cats having nine lives was anatomically correct; nine chocolate bread hearts with chunks of dark chocolate suspended throughout their pillowy forms-the perfect Valentine’s Day gift for the feline fancier.

A popular explanation for the origins of the iconic heart outline is drawn from antiquity with a large fennel plant, Silphium. Now extinct by excessive cultivation, Silphium was sourced from the North African coasts by the Ancient Greeks and Romans for use as a spiceand as a botanical birth control, with the shape of its seeds providing the basis for the loveheart design we know today.

This primary connection to human intercourse is not so distant from the heart’s modern connotations, as sex and love are typically intertwined with one leading the other, but it is not an exact parallel with the heart’s associations being a purely emotive love separatefrom carnal passion and desire. The territorial conquest of the Roman Empire would have transplanted a lot of culturally Greco-Roman ideas with them taking root in the European mind with the teachings of Ancient Greece and Rome serving as the foundation for European education.

The collapse of the Western Roman Empire in 530, silenced the narrative of Greco-Roman Mediterranean cultural influence and the direct connection of these symbols to their original meanings was severed. Over seven hundred years later, the symbolic heart finally returned in an appearance in an illustration of the 1250 poem, ‘The Romance of the Pear’. A manuscript of rich illumination, the poem details a love story set within a pear orchard, with the central scene of a maiden and her suitor deskinning a pear with their teeth. The accompanyingillustration depicts the suitor offering the maiden his heart fresh from his cavity, the heart itself bearing the familiar shape of two lobes and a pointed end.

The residual Greco-Roman ideas of the heart and its connection to human intimacy survived the winter of civilizational collapse, emerging from centuries-long hibernation to the heart symbol adorning the whole of the European continent. From this point on, lovehearts featured in all areas of civil society, from its inclusion in architectural facades, appearances in art, engravings upon tombs, incorporation into heraldic crests, woven into clothing and etched onto pendants, with the charm of the loveheart is still as vigorous now in 2020.

Cats are said to have nine of these hearts, one for each of their lives, but the point of origin of this belief is forever lost in the mists of time. A notable theory for these beliefs widespread popularity was a reference made in William Shakespeare's 1591 work, ‘Romeo and Juliet’, where in Act 3 Scene 1 of the play, Mercutio, kin of Romeo Montague, taunts Tybalt, kin of Juliet Capulet:

‘‘ TYBALT: What wouldst thou have with me?

MERCUTIO: Good King of Cats, nothing but one of your nine lives. ’’

Mercutio refers to Tybalt’s name being similar to the character ‘Tibert the Cat’ in ‘Renard the Fox’, another late 1200s poem, and makes the feline connection of them having nine lives. The popularity of Shakespeare’s works would have planted this seed of thought into the readers’ minds. Published in the late 1500s and early 1600s, these notions have grown into independent beliefs of their own, which would explain why various cultures possess beliefs that cats have multiple lives with the exact number varying. Spain, for example, believes that they have 6 lives and in the Arab world it is commonly believed that cats have 8 lives. A second theory is that the traits universal to cats, their intelligence, pliability, agility and evasiveness have provided a substrate from which organic, yet similar, beliefs that cats have more than a single life can grow forth, in a method of conveying that cats have the ability to cheat death.

Irrespective of the origins, the following recipe is in honour of these myths and heritage of love and felines.

Ingredients Dried active yeast: one teaspoon Cocoa powder: two tablespoons Lukewarm water: 250ml Maldon salt: half of a teaspoon Caster sugar: two tablespoons Melted unsalted butter: 25g Strong white bread flour: 350g 75% cocoa chocolate: 100g

Method Before starting, measure all of the ingredients and have them at hand. Begin with activating the yeast; placing the yeast, caster sugar and lukewarm water into a bowl and allowing to stand for 10 minutes to give the yeast time to come alive. I recommend rinsing the bowl under very hot water before the contents are added, as it will give heat to the ceramic and prevent it from becoming cold whilst itstands, placing away from a window to avoid wind leeching away heat from it. It is necessary that the yeast is vigorous and awake for it to produce the carbon-dioxide bubbles within the resting dough and do resist the temptation of purchasing ‘fast-acting’ yeast because that type is specifically for bread-making machines.

Whilst the yeast mixture is standing, place the flour and salt into a large bowl, sieving in the cocoa to remove any lumps itmay have before mixing well. I use Maldon salt as the crystalline formations mean that less salt is actually used per measurement in comparison to the use of granulated table salt, which is prone to over-salting. Think of it as the primary school explanation of spatial area with rocks versus sand in the tall, glass column. However, Maldon salt directly from its shimmering box will not dissolve into the dough, so I recommend taking the half-teaspoon

With the 10 minutes passed, check that the yeast has expanded and taken on a form similar to a mound of wet sand beneath the water. Do not fret if the bowl is lukewarm now, the previous precautions were made to foster the conditions to ensure the yeast would have the ability to take this form. Melt the butter either by melting it on a low heat over the stove within a butter-melting pot or subjecting it to medium heat for 20 seconds in the microwave, as it is essential for full incorporation. Form a well in the centre of the floury mix and pour in the water-sugar-yeast mixture along with the melted butter. Mix well with a large spoon until the dough is soft and sticky, bordering on wet. Resist the temptation to add flour in an attempt to dry it because the dough will absorb some during the kneading process.

Scrape the dough onto a floured surface and knead well for 10 minutes or until the dough is smooth and slightly tacky, appearing in the way we are familiar with how a bread dough should be. Kneading will be difficult at first due to its gelatinous composition, but I urge you to persevere. To those who have never made any type of bread before, kneading is very much in the muscle and not the mind so I recommend watching a demonstration video from the internet.

Once the desired consistency has been achieved, place this dough into a large bowl greased with unsalted butter and leave to rest in a warm place for an hour to allow it to rise. Cover the bowl with clingfilm to prevent the air drying out the dough's surface. I recommend cleaning the large bowl used in the previous mixing process and rising it with hot water before drying and greasing to heat the inside ceramic of thebowl to get the rising process started ten yards in front. I also grease the clingfilm that may come into contact with the risen dough to prevent it from sticking. It can be difficult to find a perpetually warm place in Scotland, so I create one; turn the oven to 100 Celsius and allow it to heat for 5 minutes, before opening the door widely to allow the bundled heat to escape. Test the internal atmosphere with your hand until you're comfortable with the temperature before placing the covered bowl in the centre of the oven. Usually, I open the door again 5 minutes after placing the bowl as steel body of the oven radiates the considerable heat it absorbed during the warming stage, allowing an excessive level of heat to collect. You needthe chamber to be warm, not hot as too high a resting temperature will cause the surface of the dough to form a crust.

Whilst the dough is rising, break the 75% cocoa chocolate into roughly 1cm shards. I wouldn’t recommend a higher cocoa content as it would be too bitter, disrupting the sweetness of the treat, and I would refrain from going any lower as the chocolate flavour would be too mellow and thus lose the speciality warranting its inclusion. When the hour is up, the dough should have doubled in size and may or may not be touched in clingfilm depending on the dimensions of your large bowl. It will look very greasy, but just turn the dough on onto a lightly floured surface and knock the air out of the inflated mass, I do this by punching it, before kneading for 5 minutes, incorporating the chocolate shards a handful at a time. Divide the dough into 9 equal spheres, they will look very small but they will triple in size during the next rising process, and roll them out into a teardrop shape before flattening them down. Cut a line from the bulbous end of each flattened teardrop to their centres, separating the two newly formed lobes. They will look ridiculous, but you must have faith in me when I say they fill out into a proper heart shape during the next rising. Do this on three separate baking trays lined with parchment each holding three well-spaced lovehearts. You need to account for their drastic increase in size because if you overcrowd the tray they will inflate, coming into contact with each other, preventing a proper heart formation, and morph into whatever, non-loveheart shape they happen to form. Cover each tray will a large sheaf of parchment and place all three into a warmed oven for an hour.

After the hour-long incubation, withdraw each tray from the oven and lift off the parchment. Each loveheart should have risen well, tripling in size shaped like the iconic loveheart, with their dark forms studded with the semi-melted shards of chocolate. Pre-heat the oven to 175 Celsius for fan-assisted ovens, 195 Celsius for conventional ovens, or gas mark 3½ for gas-supplied ovens. Place however many trays your oven can hold on its centre level and bake for 10 to 12 minutes, allowing them to cool on a wire rack. The lovehearts surface will feel hard but will soften as it cools. As a gift, the hearts of the chocolate British longhair can be presented encased within a copper-tin with magnificent crenulations, lined with pink tissue paper flourishing from its lid. They are best enjoyed with the warmth of the oven, theirpillowy bodiesever so soft and the dark chocolate chunks melted. Serve accompanied by coffee, tea and with raspberry jam of the highest quality.

Composed by,

Maurice Alexander, Undergraduate of Business Management