Desserts – Ginger Chocolate Crème Brûlée

Chocolate and ginger are made for each other, oh yes they are. Raised on an annual Christmas treat of chocolate covered glacé ginger, I have always loved the stuff and could happily keep it as a sweet treat all year round.

Still, sometimes – but only sometimes -  a little moderation is a wonderful thing. And besides, it’s crème brûlée and that surely wins the prize for Dessert that Consistently Punches Above It’s Weight.

Now, you can easily over do it when striving for a good balance of flavours in a crème brûlée. There has to be a good balance between smooth custard and hard toffee, between the flavour of the custard and the slightly bitter toffee that adds an end note. Ginger, combined with chocolate, has all that covered.

What are you waiting for?

Makes 6

INGREDIENTS

1 vanilla bean; 375ml thickened cream; 125ml milk; 2 tbsp roughly chopped glace ginger; 150g dark chocolate; 1 tsp ground ginger; 4 egg yolks; 150g caster sugar; 50g caster sugar, extra

METHOD

Pre-heat oven to 160°C. Place six half cup (125ml) ramekins on a cake rack set within a roasting dish.

Slice the vanilla bean lengthways and scrape out the vanilla seeds. Place vanilla seeds, milk, cream,scraped out vanilla pod and glace ginger in a saucepan and heat over medium heat. Bring the milk to the boil, then turn off the heat immediately and let the milk steep for 15 minutes.

Place chocolate in a bowl over a saucepan of steaming water and melt the chocolate, stirring occasionally. Add the ginger and stir until smooth and glossy.

Place egg yolks and 150g sugar in a bowl and beat with electric beaters until the mixture is pale, about two minutes. Place a sieve over the egg mixture and pour half the cream-milk mixture into the eggs (the sieve will help remove the unwanted vanilla pod and ginger).  Mix well with a balloon whisk, then add the remaining milk and the melted chocolate. Mix well with a balloon whisk until smooth.

Carefully pour half a cup of the mixture into each ramekin. Boil the kettle and gently pour boiling water around the outsides of the ramekins, to come up the sides to the level of the custards. Cover the entire roasting dish with foil and place int he oven for 30 minutes. The custards will be wobbly and soft but also just set. As they cool down they will firm some more.

At this stage, you can place the custards, still in their ramekins, and store them in the fridge for up to two days before finishing them off.

When ready to serve, pre-heat the grill to very high. Sprinkle the custards with 2 teaspoons of extra caster sugar in an even layer. Place the ramekins, on a tray, as close to the grill element as you can and grill for two to three minutes. DO NOT walk away, but instead be ready to remove the brulée as soon as the sugar melts and browns. It will continue cooking for a while longer, so you need to act immediately before the sugar burns.

As the sugar cools down it will harden. Serve within the hour, before the toffee softens.

COST

$10.00 for six people