Springtime appetites can call for chocolate

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March, with its dreary remnants of winter set against its flirtation with spring, creates a culinary dilemma. The variable weather alternately inspires stick-to-the-ribs soups and ready-for-the-swimsuit lighter fare.

To top things off, there's nothing like a pelting rain to whet the appetite.

How can a Two's Company cook bring such disparate elements into a tasty recipe? Start with chocolate. It's the solution to everything March and early April throw at us.

Chocolate doesn't have to be outrageously fattening to soothe our frayed spirits. Cocoa powder, which delivers a powerful chocolate hit, has just 20 calories (or 30 for a premium variety) and a half a gram of fat to the tablespoon. Even an ounce of chocolate chips -- about 60 chips if you're counting -- has fewer than 150 calories. What's more, dark chocolate is loaded with antioxidants that ease any chocolate-consumption guilt you may harbor.

Of course, the raw ingredients can only provide a fraction of the satisfaction. The rest depends on delicious recipes.

The following offerings are modest in calories, yet generous with flavor.

The chocolate sorbet is adapted from Ina Garten's new book, "Barefoot Contessa at Home" (Clarkson Potter). Although the recipe yields more than two servings, leftovers will keep for several days if frozen in a container with an airtight lid.

Chocolate chip butter bites provide a tempting example of "less is more." The one-bite morsels may be just what you need as an afternoon snack. Like the sorbet, these cookies can be stored in the freezer.

However, if baking or ice cream-making are too time-consuming and you need instant solace, I recommend the new Cacao Reserve by Hershey's premium milk chocolate or dark chocolate truffles in a pocket-size tin. The entire package, with eight truffles, has 310 calories (milk chocolate) or 290 (dark), or you can ration them out at fewer than 50 calories per truffle. During early spring, you need all the chocolate you can get.

Chocolate rum sorbet