welcome to yumblog.co.uk

The appearance of a dessert on the Yumblog table can mean only one thing. Yes, we had guests. Others who might judge our food. By the time we got to the dessert the assembled worthies had already eaten firsts, seconds, and in one case, thirds of a rather tasty roast lamb and accompanying roasted goodies. So what they really needed was a chocolate pudding described by its author Simon Hopkinson as ‘the richest little pot of chocolate you will ever eat’. Luckily we were in the presence of eaters (and Archaeologist T who is more a mouse to our collective elephants) and everyone ate it up, with Blogger D coming in last, albeit with by far the most thoroughly scraped ramekin.

Preparation time: 40 minutes plus baking and 6 hours refrigeration time
Cooking time: 50 minutes
Skill level: easy
Serves: 5

Ingredients

• double cream – 175 ml
• vanilla pod – 1/2
• milk – 75 ml
• dark bitter chocolate (as high a percentage as you can find, I used Green & Blacks 85%) – 125 g
• egg yolks – 2
• icing sugar – 1 heaped tbsp

Pre-heat the oven to 140C (gas mark 1). Gently warm through the cream with the vanilla pod, whisk to disperse the vanilla seeds, then cover and leave to infuse for 30 minutes.

Meanwhile, in a small saucepan, melt the chocolate in the milk. Beat the eggs yolks and sugar together and then add to this the chocolate milk and vanilla cream and blend thoroughly. Sieve (with a fine-meshed sieve) and pour into little pots or ramekins.

Bake in a bain-marie for 45 minutes to one hour or until slightly puffed and spongy. Cool thoroughly in the fridge for at least 6 hours before serving.

Verdict: Dense and chocolatey, to be eaten slowly with a very small spoon. Blogger R enjoyed it because it wasn’t too sweet – he’s like John Torode in that way.

Drink: Dessert wine served in stemmed Stolichnaya shot glasses.

Entertainment: The inane ramblings of Archaeologist T, sister to Blogger D and inadvertently long-staying house guest. She also provided the Cybermen masks.