Chocolate Pot de Creme with Almond Cream and Ginger Shortbread

A thrown together fridge raid dessert

Hello friends…

As you might have noticed, if you’re following me over on instagram, I’ve been out of the country, enjoying a much needed break in Mallorca (more on that next week). A week of sun, sangria and lots of tapas was the perfect tonic and I was incredibly loath to return. A three hour delay at the airport was probably a sign from the universe that coming home was also the wrong decision.

We went away for my birthday so I haven’t yet made my yearly birthday cake, which I’ll make and post next week, but I didn’t want to leave you high and dry, so have something perfect for the long weekend ahead. Before we left my boyfriend Mike and I cooked for the family, a thank you for looking after the pooch, and I knocked together a really quick dessert, a cupboard raid sort of dessert. I had no plans on sharing the recipe; I was, for once, just baking simply to bake (that happens less than you’d imagine), but the dessert was so good I had to write it up. I then went on holiday and promptly forgot all about it! Let’s say the sun went to my head. So finally here it is.

Pot de creme, literally pot of cream, is a classic French dessert which is another member of the set cream category of recipes. Unlike panacotta, which is set with gelatine, or posset which is set with acid, pot de creme is a classic custard set with eggs. Often this is in the form of a baked custard but I wanted to make something a little less fiddly, no water bath, no baking, and also quicker. So this version is made entirely on the stove. The texture of this is unbelievably smooth and silky, the definition of unctuous (is this like moist, is unctuous a food word people hate?). The flavour is relatively simple, rich and chocolatey so, to serve alongside it, I topped the pots with a little whipped cream spiked with a little almond liquor and garnished with grated chocolate. I also quickly whipped up a batch of ginger shortbread biscuits to use almost a little like spoons.

The great thing about this dessert is it’s incredibly flexible, you can adapt it to change the type of chocolate, you can flavour the cream a myriad of different ways, and you can add all manner of toppings. At its heart though, this is a great back pocket recipe when you need something easy and crowd pleasing.

Dark Chocolate Pot de Creme with Amaretto Cream and Ginger Shortbread

Serves 6

300ml whole milk

200ml double cream

2 tsp vanilla bean paste (or extract if that’s what you have)

4 large egg yolks

50g light brown sugar

175g dark chocolate (60% cocoa), finely chopped

1/4 tsp fine sea salt

75g plain flour

1 tsp ground ginger

pinch of fine sea salt

25g caster sugar

50g unsalted butter, chilled and diced

To make the pot de creme custard, add the milk, cream and vanilla to a large saucepan and place over medium heat and bring to a simmer. Meanwhile, add the yolks and brown sugar to a large bowl and whisk together until smooth and pale. Place the chocolate into a large jug and set aside.

When the milk mixture is at a simmer, remove the pan from the heat and pour over the yolk mixture, whisking as you do so, to prevent the eggs from scrambling. Pour the custard mixture back into the pan and place over low heat. At this point, you want to stir the custard constantly to prevent it catching on the bottom of the pan, cooking the yolks. You want to cook the custard until it has thickened, just enough to coat the back of a spoon; the custard is also fully cooked when it reaches between 75-80C if you prefer to use a thermometer. Remove the custard and immediately pour it into the jug containing the chocolate; leave the custard for a couple minutes before stirring together with the chocolate to make a rich and thick chocolate custard. Pour the finished mixture into 6 glasses or vessels and refrigerate for a couple hours or until set.

For the shortbread I really wanted to use little chunks of candied ginger but all we had available was ground ginger so we went with that. If you’ve got it, I’d use the candied ginger because the flavour and texture will be better but the powdered worked in a pinch.

Preheat the oven to 170C (150C fan).

Line a 9x5 inch loaf pan with a strip of parchment paper so the excess hangs over the long sides of the pan. This just makes it easier to lift the shortbread from the pan.

Add the flour, sugar, ginger and salt to a bowl and mix together. Add the butter and rub into the flour until is resembles coarse breadcrumbs. Tip the mixture into the prepared loaf pan and compact into an even layer. Use a knife to score lines into the shortbread, dividing the dough into six fingers. Dock each finger with a fork and sprinkle with a little sugar.

Bake the shortbread for about 25-30 mins or until golden. Remove and set the pan aside for 5 mins before carefully lifting the shortbread onto a wire rack to cool completely. Once cooled use a sharp knife to cut into fingers (the scoring you did before baking should make this easy to do neatly)

To serve the pot de creme, top each dessert with a little cream, whipped to soft peaks with a little almond liquor added to taste. Dollop the cream atop the dessert and garnish with some grated chocolate, serving with a piece of shortbread.