Maida Heatter's Book of Great Chocolate Desserts (48 page)

Pour the custard through a fine strainer into a pitcher. Stir in the vanilla and salt.

Place six 5-ounce custard cups in a shallow baking pan—it must not be deeper than the cups. Divide the custard evenly among the cups—do not fill the cups all the way but leave a bit of room at the top of each. Then pour very hot water into the shallow pan to about half the depth of the cups. (If the shallow pan is aluminum, add about ½ teaspoon of cream of tartar to the hot water. It is not necessary to stir it around—just put it in. It will not affect the custard but it will keep the aluminum from turning dark.)

Place in the oven and cover with a cookie sheet or a large piece of aluminum foil.

Bake for 40 to 45 minutes or until a small, sharp knife gently inserted (not too deep—about ½ to ¾ of an inch is enough) comes out clean. The knife should be inserted halfway between the center and the rim. Test carefully. Correct timing is very important and can mean the difference between success and failure of the custard. (The baking time will vary according to the cups—heavy or thin, deep or shallow.) Do not overbake—custard continues to cook slightly from its own heat after it is removed from the oven.

Carefully remove the cups from the hot water and let them stand uncovered until they cool to room temperature. Then refrigerate; they may be covered in the refrigerator if you wish.

Custard should be served cold; it may be refrigerated for about 3 hours or overnight, but not longer than 24 hours. (Aside from the growth of bacteria, it begins to shrink in the middle and is not as attractive.)

This custard is served in the cups—not inverted or unmolded—with no topping.

NOTE:
If you are an experienced custard baker, you might wonder why this recipe says to cook it on the stove before baking. Here’s why: During baking the chocolate rises to the top, and without some stove cooking first to thicken it a bit the mixture may separate into two layers, a light-brown one at the bottom and a thin darker one on top.

Chocolate Pots de Crème

6
1/2-
C
UP
S
OUFF LÉ
D
ISHES OR
8 P
OTS
D
E
C
RÈME
C
UPS

Another creamy, smooth, extra-rich baked custard—this is one of the most classic and popular of all French chocolate desserts (my favorite!). It is quick and easy to prepare. Make it just a few hours before serving or make it in the morning for that night. It may be served with a simple salad luncheon or a swanky dinner, and, since it is made in individual dishes, it is easy to handle for a buffet. It may be made in pots de crème cups with covers, but I think those portions are too small—I use individual soufflé dishes (½-cup capacity). This recipe makes six ½-cup servings but it may be multiplied to make nine, twelve, or more.

2 cups light cream

4 ounces semisweet chocolate

6 egg yolks (from eggs graded large or extra-large)

2 tablespoons granulated sugar

Pinch of salt

1½ teaspoons vanilla extract

Adjust rack to the center of the oven and preheat oven to 325 degrees.

Place 1½ cups of the cream in a small, heavy saucepan over low heat. Place the remaining ½ cup cream and the chocolate in the top of a large double boiler over hot water on moderate heat. In a mixing bowl stir the yolks lightly just to mix—do not beat until foamy.

When the cream is scalded (a slight skin formed on the top) stir in the sugar and salt and remove from the heat.

Stir the chocolate mixture with a small wire whisk until perfectly smooth. Off the heat, very gradually add the hot cream to the chocolate, stirring constantly to keep the mixture smooth. Then gradually stir the chocolate mixture into the yolks and stir in the vanilla.

Return the mixture to the top of the double boiler over hot water on low heat and cook, stirring constantly with a rubber spatula, for 3 minutes.

Pour the mixture through a fine strainer into a pitcher. Then pour it into the individual soufflé dishes or pots de crème cups—do not fill them all the way, leave a bit of headroom.

Place in a shallow baking pan. Pour in hot water to about half the depth of the cups. Place a cookie sheet over the top to cover the cups or if you have used pots de crème cups put their covers on.

Bake for 22 minutes (individual soufflé dishes and pots de crème cups both take the same time). The usual test for baked custard is to insert a small, sharp knife halfway between the middle and the edge; when it comes out clean the custard is done. However, with this recipe, if you bake it until the knife comes out clean the custard will be too heavy and firm by the time it is chilled. If your oven is right, 22 minutes is correct. The custard will look too soft but it will become firmer as it chills, and it is best if it is still slightly creamy in the center when it is served.

Remove the cover or covers, remove the cups from the water and place on a rack to cool. Then refrigerate for a few hours.

Serve as is or with a spoonful of sweetened and flavored whipped cream on top.

Abby Mandel’s Boule de Neige (snowball)

8
TO 12
P
ORTIONS

This is a dense, dark, moist chocolate mixture completely covered with tiny rosettes of whipped cream. It is in a class by itself—not a pudding, not a mousse, not a cake, yet vaguely like all three. It looks elegant, tastes divine (Abby calls this her “most favorite chocolate”), and is easy.

It should be made at least a day before serving, or it may be refrigerated for 4 or 5 days, or it may be frozen, but the whipped cream should be put on the day it is served.

8 ounces semisweet chocolate

2 teaspoons dry instant coffee

½ cup boiling water

1 cup granulated sugar

½ pound (2 sticks) sweet butter, at room temperature

4 eggs (graded large)

1 tablespoon Cognac or dark rum

Adjust rack one-third up from the bottom of the oven and preheat oven to 350 degrees. You will need a round, ovenproof mixing bowl (for baking this dessert) with a 6- to 8-cup capacity; it may be glass, pottery, or metal, and it should preferably be deep and narrow rather than wide and shallow (I use a stainless steel bowl that measures 4½ inches high by 6 inches across the top, and has an 8-cup capacity—although a smaller bowl would do).

To line the bowl with aluminum foil, turn the bowl upside down, tear off a 12-inch square of foil and center it over the inverted bowl, and with your hands press down on the sides all around to form the foil into a bowl shape. Then remove the foil, turn the bowl right side up, and place the bowl-shaped foil into the bowl. Press it firmly into place and set aside.

Break up the chocolate and place it in a small saucepan. Dissolve the coffee in the boiling water and add it along with the sugar. Stir over moderate heat until the chocolate is melted—the mixture does not have to be smooth.

Transfer to the large bowl of an electric mixer and beat on low speed until smooth. Gradually add the butter and continue to beat on low speed until smoothly blended. Add the eggs one at a time, beating until smooth after each addition. Add the Cognac or rum and beat on moderate speed for about a minute.

Pour the mixture into the lined bowl and bake for 55 minutes. When done the top will be puffy with a thick, cracked crust. (If you have used a bowl with an 8-cup capacity, the mixture will not rise to the top.)

Let the bowl stand at room temperature until the dessert is cool—it will shrink as it cools and will shrink more in the center than around the rim. This will leave a hollow in the middle which should be eliminated. The following directions will seem unusual, but follow them. A few minutes after the dessert has been removed from the oven, place a piece of wax paper on top of the bowl, touching the dessert. With your fingertips, press down on the edges of the paper to flatten the raised rim of the dessert (the crust will crack—that’s all right). Repeat several times while the dessert is cooling in order to flatten the top as much as possible.

When the dessert is cool, cover airtight and refrigerate overnight or for a few days, or freeze.

A few hours before serving, when you are ready to unmold the dessert and mask it with whipped cream, remove its covering. Invert a flat
dessert plate over it (since the dessert will be solid white, a colored or clear glass plate will look better than an all-white one), invert the plate and bowl, remove the bowl, and then peel off the aluminum foil. Refrigerate.

WHIPPED CREAM

1 cup heavy cream

2 tablespoons granulated sugar

2 teaspoons Cognac or dark rum

You will need a pastry bag about 13 inches long and a medium-small star tube, or about a #4. Insert the tube in the bag, fold down a deep cuff on the outside of the bag, and set aside.

In a chilled bowl with chilled beaters, whip the cream until it holds a soft shape. Add the sugar and Cognac or rum and continue to beat until the cream holds a definite shape, but be careful not to make it too stiff or it might curdle while you press it out of the pastry bag.

Transfer the cream to the pastry bag, unfold the cuff, and twist the top of the bag closed.

Now you will completely cover the dessert with small pointed rosettes of whipped cream. Start at the center top and squeeze out one small rosette right in the middle. Then make a circle of rosettes touching one another around the one on top. Then another circle, etc.—the last circle should touch the plate.

Refrigerate.

(Traditionally, a Boule de Neige is decorated with a few crystallized violets and/or rose petals—if you use them, press them into the cream just before serving or they may run and discolor the cream.)

Serve small portions.

NOTE:
Abby Mandel, the beautiful and talented Machine Cuisine® cooking teacher, makes this in a food processor (in about a minute) as follows: Break up the chocolate and place it with the coffee and sugar in the processor bowl that has been fitted with the steel blade. Turn the machine on and off four times to start the processing and then let the machine run until the chocolate is finely chopped. With the machine running, add the boiling water through the feed tube and process until the chocolate is melted. Add the butter in small pieces and process until blended. Add the eggs and Cognac or rum and process about 15 seconds until well-combined.

Pour into the foil-lined bowl and continue the recipe as above.

Pavé au Chocolat

10 TO 12
P
ORTIONS

The translation of the French pavé is “paving-stone.” In this case it refers to the shape of this dessert: brick-shaped. This is a classic French recipe, deliciously semisweet, and the quickest and easiest of all icebox cakes. Icebox cakes are generally made by lining a form with lady fingers or sponge cake to make a shell which is then filled with a rich filling. In this recipe the ladyfingers and chocolate filling are simply layered over each other directly on a serving plate.

This can be made early in the day for that night or a day ahead, or it can be frozen (see Note). The recipe can be divided in half to make a cake half as long—or it can be multiplied by any number. (I once made this Pavé to serve fifty people. It was huge and a huge success.)

You will need a long, narrow platter or serving board; a chocolate-roll board works perfectly. The finished “paving-stone” will be 13 inches long, 3 inches wide, 2 inches high. And you will need room for it in the refrigerator.

6 ounces (2 3-ounce packages) ladyfingers

6 ounces (6 squares) unsweetened chocolate

6 ounces (1½ sticks) sweet butter

1 cup strained confectioners sugar

6 egg yolks

2½ tablespoons light rum, kirsch, or framboise

⅓ cup water

A 3-ounce package of ladyfingers has four rows of ladyfingers, six fingers to a row. Separate the strips of ladyfingers but do not separate each individual finger; it is easier to make this if the fingers are fastened to each other. Packaged ladyfingers are soft and squashy and absorbent; they work better in this recipe if you dry them out before using. Preheat the oven to 300 degrees. Place the ladyfingers on a cookie sheet. Heat them in the center of the oven for 6 or 7 minutes. Turn them over and bake for 6 or 7 minutes more, until they are almost crisp and dry—they will become crisper as they cool—they
should
be crisp. Let them cool while you prepare the chocolate filling.