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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