Chocolate Covered Latkes

Ingredients:

• 2 lbs Burbank Russet Idaho Potatoes
• ¼ cup all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 8 ounces good quality dark chocolate (60% cacao)
• flaky sea salt

Directions:

1. Peel the potatoes and grate either by hand on a box grater or using the shredding blade on your food processor.
2. Place the grated potato in a large bowl fitted with a tea towel instead and squeeze all excess liquid from the shredded potatoes.
3. Remove the liquid from the bowl, trying to leave the potato starch at the bottom if possible and add the potatoes.
4. Mix in the flour, salt and baking powder. Toss to coat evening.
5. Heat a cast iron skillet over medium heat with enough oil to cover the bottom, have a sheet tray ready lined with paper towels and heat your oven to 250 ° to keep the completed latkes warm.
6. Check to see if the oil is hot enough by placing a small amount of potato in the skillet, if it sizzles immediately you are good to go.
7. Scoop about ¼ to ⅓ cup potato mix from the bowl, squeeze to drain any excess moisture that may have accumulated and flatten into a round disc. Gently place in the oil and fry about 3-4 minutes per side or until crispy.  Depending on the size of your skillet, fry about 3-4 latkes at a time.  You do not want to crowd the skillet while cooking.
8. Once finished, transfer to the paper towel lined sheet tray and sprinkle with kosher salt. Keep warm in the heated oven.  Repeat with the remaining potatoes.
9. While the potatoes are keeping warm in the oven prepare the chocolate. Melt 4 ounces’ chocolate in the microwave or in a double boiler until it reaches 114-118 °.  Chop up the remaining chocolate and whisk into the melted chocolate until it is completely melted, continue to whisk the chocolate, checking the temperature until it drops down to 88-89 ° F.  At this point the chocolate is tempered and ready to dip.  With tempered chocolate the chocolate will set within a few minutes after dipping the latkes and won’t be messy to eat.  You can skip this step and just melt chocolate and dip but please note the chocolate will not set once you serve the latkes.
10. If you do temper the chocolate, dip about half the latke in the melted chocolate and transfer to a parchment lined sheet tray or a cooling rack to set, sprinkle with flaky sea salt immediately after dipping. Within a few minutes the chocolate will cool and set.  Tempered chocolate will be shiny and have a nice snap to it. 
11. Serve the latkes immediately after dipping in chocolate.