Easy Valentine's Day Desert : Baked Chocolate Custard

Happy Valentine's Day Everyone! Hope you have a day full of love and joy today. Whether you spent the day at a fine dinning restaurant or just a quiet dinner at home with your love one, I'm sure it's a wonderful one. For people like me that is married with kids, probably have lesser chance or time to appreciate this day. But just think of it this way, so long as you and your love one enjoy the time spend together, any day can be Valentine's Day! Most importantly is to cherish one another. (^o^)

Today I would like to introduce a lovely and delicious desert that is sure to melt your love ones' heart when they get a taste of it; Baked Chocolate Custard.

I got this wonderful recipe from a cookbook from Donna Hay. Its been ages since I used it and am glad I did this time! All thanks to Zoe who has this "Cook like a Star" blog hop thing that got me digging through my cookbooks. However the event will only starts in March so I guess my post is too early for it. :P Nevertheless, I am sure this recipe will be an excellent treat to have whether its Valentine's Day or just any day! Plus it is so so easy to whip up too! Check out the recipe:

Ingredients for Baked Chocolate Custard (makes 6 x 4oz ramekins)

1 cup whole milk (I used 1/2 cup chocolate, 1/2 white)

1 cup (single or pouring) fresh cream

100g dark chocolate, chopped (I used Valrohna 70% cocoa)

2 eggs

2 egg yolks

100g caster sugar (you can reduce if using milk chocolate)

1.5 tsp pure vanilla extract

• Preheat the oven to 150C. Place chopped chocolate, milk and cream in a saucepan over medium heat and stir well till all the chocolate has melted and mixed in. Continue to heat till hot but not boiling. Remove from fire and set aside for use later.
• Place the eggs, yolks, sugar and vanilla in another mixing bowl and mix well till combined. Slowly whisk in the cream and milk mixture in to the egg mixture until all is combined.
• Grease 6 x 4 oz ramekins. Pour the hot custard into the ramekins through a fine sieve / strainer. Place the filled ramekins into a baking tray and pour in enough hot water to fill about halfway up the side of the ramekins.

• Bake for about 35 minutes or until just set. Serve warm or cold.

I think I took at most a little over an hour to get this done. Really so easy to whip up, I think even my 7 year old can do it, lol! I much preferred it chilled since it taste like thicken chocolate pudding / cream that is so smooth and chocolaty...heaven! Be sure to use the best quality dark chocolate you can find, it makes all the difference. (^_^)

My whole family loved it! Top with ice cream or whipped cream? You don't need any of those, because it is already so good on its own. Try it out and you will soon be scooping and scraping to the bottom of the ramekins to get to the very last bits of it. ;)

Okay everyone, that's all I have for you all today. Hope your Valentine's Day celebration was a lovely and memorable one! Cheers all!

German Style Cheese Pudding Tart (德式乳酪布丁塔)

My kids love tarts, especially my elder daughter. Whenever we are at bakery stores (yes, I still buy bread and pastry even though I bake so often), she would choose tarts over bread or buns. So that is why I am always on the look out for good delicious tarts that are not too hard to whip up. Just over the weekend, I had some free time (thanks to my husband) and found a good one from Carol's site. It's call 德式乳酪布丁塔, loosely translate as German style Cheese Pudding Tarts.

This recipe incorporates both Parmesan and Cheddar Cheese into it, so it has a nice evident cheese taste in it, just right and not overpowering at all. I love it very much and so are my kids. In fact this is the first time I have this kind of sweet and savory taste tart, really delicious and unique. :))

These tarts have this distinct char look on the top of the cheese custard surface. However I am no fan of charred food, so I try to minimize the charring, lol! I will post my version of the recipe since I did make some modifications to it. But if you are interested in the original recipe and need to see more detail pictorial steps, pls refer back to Carol's site.

Ingredients for German Style Cheese Custard Tarts (makes about 4 or 5)

Pastry:

100g cake flour

30g confectioner's sugar

50g cold unsalted butter, cut into small cubes

1 tbsp grated Parmesan Cheese

1 large egg yolk (Original calls for 2, one was suffice for mine)

1/4 tsp salt

• In a large mixing bowl. sift the cake flour and confectioner's sugar in. Add in the Parmesan Cheese and salt and mix in. Then knead in the cold cubed butter pieces using your fingertips until it resembles breadcrumbs.
• Lastly add in the egg yolk and knead till everything comes together to form a soft pliable dough. Wrap in plastic and chill for 30mins before use.
• In the meantime, grease and dust with cake flour the tart shells and set aside.
• After 30 minutes, remove the chilled dough and divide it equally into 5 portions (4 if bigger tarts). Then press the dough portions into the prepared tart shells. Then chill in fridge until needed.

Cheese Custard Filling:

80ml fresh milk
2 slices of Kraft Cheddar Cheese
24g caster sugar
80ml dairy heavy cream
1 egg yolk + 1 whole egg
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
3 tbsp raisins soaked in warm water and drain after 10 minutes

• In a heat proof sauce pot, add in the milk, sugar and tear in the cheddar cheese. Place over medium low heat and stir constantly till the cheese and sugar melts and well combined. Remove from heat.
• In another bowl, beat the egg and egg yolk together and add in vanilla extract and the heavy cream and stir well.
• Slowly add the egg mixture into the warm milk mixture and mix well till well combined.
• Preheat oven to 180C.
• In the pastry tarts, place about 4 to 5 raisins at the base. Then distribute the custard filling equally among the 4 or 5 tart shells to about 85 to 90%.
• Bake the tarts in the preheated oven for 30 to 40 minutes till the top is browned and doesn't wobble when shaken.
• Remove from oven and let cool completely before unmolding. You can glaze the surface with some warm fruit jam.

The pastry is buttery and cheesy, I love it! The custard filling is sweet, savory and cheesy cream texture, yum yum! The raisins inside is like a sweet bonus. I will definitely make this again, and double the recipe. :)) Do try this out if you like cheese and tarts, its highly recommended!

Have a good weekend all! Cheers!

Fresh Strawberry Vanilla Custard Cream tarts & Happy Easter!

I am so glad that this is a short week. For this, it means longer weekend and more rest and quality time with family. Yippee! Although we didn't have much planned up for this Easter holiday weekend, but my little ones are sure looking forward to it...pronto! Why? That's because my hubby and I had promised them an Easter Egg hunt at home! Sounds like fun isn't it...well, at least for the kids. :) But before I show you folks what I have install for my kids, lets first get on to today's recipe: Fresh Strawberry Vanilla Custard Cream Tarts. Sorry if you were expecting some Easter bake from me. :P Maybe next year?

I got this wonderful recipe from none other then Carol 自在生活. This is such a wonderful sweet treat! Refreshing strawberries, nice creamy perfectly sweeten vanilla custard cream and a light flaky pastry crust that didn't turned soft the following day. That's important right? It's a big deal for me!

The pastry not turning soft means I can make a day ahead and it still taste heavenly when served. Sweet! The trick? Read on for the recipe, roughly translated:

Recipe for Fresh Strawberry Vanilla Custard Cream Tarts: (makes about 16)

Vanilla Custard Cream:
a: 300ml fresh milk, 1/2 vanilla pod

b: 3 egg yolks, 60g caster sugar, 30g cake flour

Method:

• In a small mixing bowl, add the egg yolks and caster sugar and mix well. Add in the cake flour and mix till everything comes together into a thick creamy consistency.
• Pour the milk into a heat proof sauce pan and add in the vanilla seeds that has been scraped out from the pod.
• Place sauce pan over medium low heat and stir constantly and keep watch not to over boil. Once there's tiny bubbles appearing on the edges, remove from heat.
• Slowly and carefully add the heated milk into the egg yolk mixture and stirring constantly at the same time. When all the milk has been added in, whisk well and strain the mixture through a fine sieve back into the sauce pan.
• Place the sauce pan over medium low heat again and stirring constantly and be watchful not to over cook it. Once the mixture thickens and reaches ribbon stage, remove from heat. If over heated, the mixture will turn clumpy and not smooth...not good eats. :P



Vanilla Custard Cream

• Pour the mixture into a clean bowl and cover it (in contact with the surface) with plastic wrap to prevent the "skin" from forming. Set aside or chill until when needed.

Sweet pastry dough:
130g cake flour, 60g cold unsalted butter, cut small, 50g confectioner's sugar, 2 egg yolks, 1/8 tsp salt

Method:

• In a large mixing bowl, add in the cake flour, powder sugar and salt. then using only your finger tips, work the cold butter into the flour mixture. Alternatively, use a mixer to combine the ingredients till it resembles bread crumbs.

• Next add in the egg yolks and gently work the dough but not over kneading it. Over kneading the dough will make it hard and not flaky.
• Chill the dough in plastic wrap for at least 30 mins till ready to be used.
• Grease the mini tart tins. After chilled, take out the dough and divide the dough into 10 equal portions, about 25g each.
• Preheat the oven to 170C.
• Roll out each dough portion into a circular disc about the size of the tart tins. Then use your fingers to gently press in the pastry dough to shape it nicely to the tin shape.
• Prick each of the dough base with tooth-pick or fork to prevent the dough from puffing up while baking. Repeat till all the pastry doughs has been shaped into the tins.
• Bake the pastry tarts in the preheated oven for 10 minutes, then reduce the temperature to 160C and bake for another 3-5minutes.
• Remove the pastry from oven and let cool completely. In the meantime, melt the semisweet chocolate and let cool for 10 minutes before using.
• Brush the cooled chocolate to the base of the pastry tarts so as to prevent the tarts from turning soft when it is topped with the custard later. (That's the trick folks!)
• Chill the chocolate base coated tarts in the fridge till the chocolate set. Then take them out to assemble the topping. Note that all the above steps can be done days ahead and chill in the an airtight container up to a day or 2.
• Scoop or pipe about 1.5 to 2 tbsp of the vanilla custard cream into the cavity of the tarts. Then top with sliced fresh strawberries. Glaze the strawberries with warm jam to finish it off.

The final product. Chill it for another 2 hrs before serving.

These tarts were very well received. In fact I will be making it again next week for the family, I'm very sure my kiddos will favor that idea. :) Thanks again to Carol for this great recipe. :) Please head over to her website for more step by step detail recipe.

This recipe is quite versatile, you can top it with any fruits you like. Meaning you can substitute strawberries with seedless grapes, kiwi, mango and even blueberries and raspberries! Yum! Try it, you'll love it. :)

Back to Easter Day fun. Check out the little eggs I've prep for my kids!

I've stuffed them with chocolates, candies, toy rings, dollar coins and even coupons for game time and hugs, heehee! I bet my kids are gonna have so much fun scavenging for them in the house tomorrow. Nothing grand but pure kids fun...hope it'll give them fond memories in the future. :) So what have you planned up for this holiday? Easter dinner feast or a mini get away?

So before I sign off, I hope everyone has a nice relaxing long weekend and Happy Easter to All!

Chocolate Pot de Crème

Ever had an elegant desert finishing off a delicious meal? I bet you have. But, here is my good suggestion to you, Chocolate Pot de Crème. This is to me, a no fuss, ever so easy and yet all so delicious French desert which is basically a chocolate custard. I have been making this desert for the longest time because it requires some of the most basic ingredients and it's really very easy to prepare! The most important thing to this desert is to get the best chocolate you can find, which will ultimately give you the best result and taste. :) I happen to have some Valrhona chocolate bar left and so Vola!

Ingredients for Chocolate Pot De Crème :

2 cups heavy whipping cream
6 oz quality semi-sweet chocolate, coarsely chopped (I used Valrhona)
75g caster sugar
4 beaten egg yolks
1 tsp vanilla extract

Garnish:
1/4 chocolate shavings
fresh strawberries

Method:

• In a medium saucepan, combine the heavy cream, chocolate and sugar. Cook and stir over medium heat until mixture comes to a full boil and thickens.
• Gradually stir all of the hot mixture into the egg yolks; stir in vanilla extract. Divide chocolate mixture evenly into 8 cups.
  
• Cover and chill for at least 4 to 24 hours before serving.
  
• When mixture is firm, if desired, garnish with chocolate curls and fresh strawberries on top. Enjoy!

Let me try my best to describe to you how this decadent desert taste like; its a thick, rich chocolaty custard that easily melts in your mouth. Your mouth will be bursting with chocolate heaven and with the combination of juicy fresh strawberry will be perfection! This will definitely be the next best thing to have if you have yet to get your ice cream machine, haha! Mine is thousand of miles away, stuck in California, in a storage place. *sigh*

If you like a healthier version, you can always substitute half of the heavy cream with full cream milk and perhaps add 1/2 teaspoon of gelatin to the mixture to firm the mixture if you do not wish to have a watery consistency.

So looking forward to desert tonight. Okay...just say "Arrr...."!