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Custard creams easy to make

The Columbian
Published: February 24, 2015, 12:00am

To serve a dessert worthy of the Inn at Little Washington might seem like a stretch for a novice cook, but chef Patrick O’Connell’s chocolate custard creams are just that easy to pull off.

He’s been making some version — a mashup of crème caramel and chocolate pot de crème — since the inn opened in Washington, Va., in 1978. O’Connell always found the caramel of the classic French custard too sweet, so he replaced it with cooked honey, which effectively eliminates the scary part for amateurs: creating and cleaning up a pot of scalding sugar syrup.

The individual chocolate custard creams are luscious, yet not too rich and can be refrigerated for a few days in advance.

Present them simply with a sauce, or make them as stylishly appointed as the inn itself.

Chocolate Custard Creams

8 servings

2½ cups whole milk

½ cup sugar

Scrapings of ½ vanilla bean

3 ounces coarsely chopped bittersweet chocolate (at least 64 percent cacao)

3 large, fresh eggs

3 large, fresh egg yolks

1 cup mildly flavored honey

Cooking oil spray

Fresh raspberries

Whipped cream

Chocolate curl

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Combine milk, sugar and vanilla bean in a saucepan over medium. Bring to just below a boil (scald) and turn off the heat. Stir in chocolate until melted.

Whisk together eggs and yolks in a mixing bowl. Gradually add the milk-chocolate mixture, whisking constantly.

Cook honey in a saucepan over medium heat for three minutes, or until it bubbles, darkens and becomes slightly thicker. Turn off heat.

Grease eight 6-ounce ramekins with cooking oil spray. Spoon about 1 tablespoon of the cooked honey into each one; swirl to coat the bottoms. Invert the ramekins over a bowl or sink to let any excess honey drip out. Arrange them in a 4-inch-deep baking pan. Ladle about ½ cup of the chocolate custard mixture into each ramekin. Fill the pan with enough boiling water to come a quarter of the way up the sides of the ramekins. Cover the pan loosely with foil. Bake for 20 to 30 minutes, until the custards are barely set.

Carefully transfer the ramekins to a platter; cool, then refrigerate until well chilled.

To serve, dip the bottom of each ramekin into hot water, then run a hot knife around the inside edge. Invert the custards onto individual plates. Top with fresh raspberries, a dollop or piped rosette of lightly sweetened whipped cream and a chocolate curl.

Serve at a cool room temperature.

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