French Inspiration: Petits Crèmes Café-Vanille

Little coffee and vanilla creams

As I still had a fair amount of cream left over from my 'chocolate and tea mousse', I decided to try something else from my french foodie mag 'Saveurs'. My dessert of choice was this creamy little beauty (sorry, I've been watching too much Nigella and now I'm on adjective overload!). I have to confess that they were partly chosen due to the fact that the recipe involved boiling cream... and I thought this'd be a good idea as I wasn't entirely sure if the cream was on the turn (I feel I ought to add here that I was only cooking for myself... and those who love me enough to forgive me if I served them unintentionally sour cream!). So with any brewing bacteria killed off... sorry, I'm not giving you the best picture here am I? I'll start again: So with my super fresh cream from my friend the farmer (one can dream!), I was ready to cook. Somewhat surprisingly, all went well. I found that I had to make my own judgements on cooking times as there was more than a slight wobble when my timer went off for the first time. I'd use the time given as a minimum and keep them cooking for longer if necessary, until they just wobble in the middle (you need a little stability otherwise they'll be pourable). To me, they tasted a little like a coffee flavoured crème caramel without the sauce, whereas my mum said that they resembled 'Junket'... having lived my childhood entirely ignorant to junket, this meant nothing to me, but perhaps this comparison will more relevant to others. Either way, to me, this definitely qualifies as comfort food and requires a comfy sofa and a chick flick to be enjoyed at its best!


Ingredients (Serves 4):

50ml very strong coffee
1tsp coffee extract (if you have it, I didn't, so I made do without)
1 vanilla pod or 1tsp extract/bean paste to make it easier
2 whole eggs and 1 extra yolk
150ml milk (I used semi-skimmed but full cream may be better still)
150ml single cream
40g castor sugar


Method:

1. Pre-heat oven (fan ideally) to 120 degrees c
2. Heat cream and milk in a pan until they boil, vanilla extract/paste and leave to cool (if using pod, leave it whole and leave it all to infuse for 20mins)
3. Add the coffee (and extract, if using).
4. Whisk the eggs, extra yolk and sugar together then stir into the cream, ensuring that all is completely mixed.
5. I hit the bowl on the work surface a few times here, as you don't want lots of bubbles.
6. Pour into 4 ramequins and cook in a bain marie for 35mins (or until it begins to solidify, but there's still a wobble in the middle).
7. Once cooked, leave to chill for at least 3 hours.

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French Inspiration: 'Mousse Chocolat-Thé'

(Chocolate and Tea Mousse)

Whilst pondering through my recipe books this morning (an almost daily activity) I came across this recipe for chocolate mousse in the french foodie magazine 'Saveurs'. I realised then that my only chocolate mousse experience came, rather depressingly, in the form of a plastic pot from Tesco. This needed to change. As a wannabe linguist, the recipe translation was somewhat interesting, but being a hopeful French and Italian uni student, I felt duty bound to ban myself from the internet and attempt the translation myself. After a little confusion over quantities I was well on my way (it seemed a little odd to be using almost a litre of cream for a three person serving... until I eventually understood that 1 french 'cl' meant 10 english 'ml'). I'm pleased to say they were all devoured pretty swiftly, so my translation must have worked!

Ingredients (serves 3):

100g dark chocolate
2 eggs, separated
12g butter
10g caster sugar
1 small espresso cup of white tea (the herbal type, not normal tea with milk) - I used slightly more tea               than their original recipe as I found that it gave an even lighter texture (an accidental discovery after a mistranslation!).
A very small pinch of salt


Method:

• Bring cream to the boil, take off the heat, stir in the tea and leave to infuse for 10 mins (until needed - stir occasionally to stop a skin from forming).
• Melt the chocolate over a bain marie, add butter once chocolate is melted and stir in to melt. Remove from heat and leave to cool to room temp.
• Whisk egg whites to soft peaks then add yolks, sugar and salt and whisk for only a few seconds (just to combine).
• Mix the cream into the cooled chocolate/tea mixture, then fold delicately into frothy egg mix.
• Pour gently into ramekins/small cups and leave to set in the fridge for at least 2hrs.

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