Wednesday 16 February 2011

Crème au chocolat à l'ancienne

Old fashioned chocolate cream is a real family favourite in France. You can buy it in the supermarket in little individual plastic or glass pots, and my laitière (local dairy farmer who delivers) makes it on the farm and I buy it occasionally from her when she calls.

Prior to adding the water to the bain-marie (water bath).
It's very easy to make though, and lately that's what I've been doing (and it's suitable for coeliacs). It's also an unpretentious and trouble free alternative to chocolate mousse.

In the oven, gently steaming.
This recipe serves 6. It takes about 15 minutes to prepare, 45 minutes to cook and 3 hours of refrigeration.

Ingredients:
90g dark chocolate
600ml whole milk
4 egg yolks
60g sugar
Vanilla extract

Method:
  1. Preheat the oven to 180ºC.
  2. Break up the chocolate and melt in the microwave with 100ml of the milk.
  3. Beat the egg yolks and sugar until creamy.
  4. Mix in the melted chocolate.
  5. Add the milk and vanilla and beat well.
  6. Divide into 6 heat proof glasses or ramekins.
  7. Put them in a bain-marie and cook in the oven for 30 minutes.
  8. Leave to get cold and put in the fridge for at least 3 hours before serving.
A finished pudding.
Since I don't have 6 heat proof glasses or ramekins at my disposal at present, I use an assortment of jam jars. One advantage of this is that I can then just screw the lids on and pop the jars in the fridge. We eat them straight out of the jar with teaspoons.

Susan

11 comments:

ckb said...

That looks really good and the jars are a great idea. I have many many jars available for such uses...

Creme caramel would be good done that way too.

Tim said...

I agree with Ken... the finished result looks really tasty!
And I love the jam-jar idea.... I think we'll have to make some very soon. Have you tried the other flavours: Caramel, Vanilla and Coffee?

Diane said...

Mmmmmm that just makes my mouth water. Diane

The Beaver said...

The jars are a great idea, Susan and Thank you for the recipe.
What do you do with the egg whites? I usually make Congolais with mine.
http://www.linternaute.com/femmes/cuisine/recette/279291/703393817/congolais.shtml

Anonymous said...

"La nécessité est la mère de l'invention" or necessity is mother of invention. Very good idea to use jam jars for that specific purpose, or many others that you can come up with. I'll keep that in mind.

chm said...

As usaul went too fast. It was me above. Sorry!

GaynorB said...

I've never made this, but I am tempted to try it out.

Jenny said...

I have a couple of pesky questions....what if I don't have whole milk? Is it awful if I mix my low fat milk with some heavy cream? And what is the texture....pudding like? mousse like? Because they look simply delicious...I definitely like the jam jar idea....and I want to make them this weekend. Thank you.

Anna Johnston said...

What an awesome idea Susan, love the jam jar thing too. I'm so going to make this up soon (I've got a bit of a love affair going on with chocolate at the moment) :)

Susan said...

Ken: yes, I must try crême caramel too.

Tim: we've had caramel and coffee from the laitière but not vanilla. I haven't made any other flavours.

Beaver: my life is an endless search for things you can do with egg whites. I freeze them, but still find they build up. Our mini oven doesn't cope well with things that are mostly egg white, but in London I made meringues and angel food cake a lot. I'll put congolais in the back of my mind to try once we get a proper oven. My mother made them a lot when we were children.

Jenny: I would try your low fat milk - I bet it works fine. The texture is not moussy, it's more like crême caramel. I think what you call pudding is some sort of custard, what I call pudding is like a cake served hot, or a generic term for dessert. I think they probably are like American style pudding. Ken may be able to provide more detail.

Nicole said...

I love 'chocolate pots' it is a smooth creamy pot of yum.... I hardly make them as hate being left with excess egg whites so I end up making mousse au chocolate...have a one pot recipe which is quick and reliable...sometimes frothier than others but depends on the enthusiasm of the small people whisking ;D

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