Chocolate Cream Pie

Lately I've had a sweet tooth. If you're a regular reader you'll probably realise that there are more savoury recipes than sweet but recently I have found my love for everything sweet again. Chocolate cream pie for two? yes please.

I first realised chocolate cream pie was actually a thing was while watching one of my all time favourite movies 'Julie and Julia'. Instantly I felt a connection with Julie Powell but to be honest had no clue who she was until I saw the movie. Once seeing the movie I went out and bought Julia Child's 'Mastering the Art of French Cooking' and read Julie Powell's blog starting from the very beginning when she first started her project of cooking through the famous cookbook.

If you haven't seen this movie... shame on you. Go out and hire a copy now but make sure you watch it while eating food. Now not popcorn or ice cream food. Make yourself a feast and sit down and watch it because this movie will make you HUNGRY! I am not kidding. I always watch it with food and then have to pause it to go and find more food to eat.

The scene that really got me was when was when Julie (played by Amy Adams) makes Chocolate Cream Pie. She comes home after a horrible day at work and says...

"After a day when nothing is sure, and when I say nothing I mean, nothing, you can come home and absolutely know that if you add egg yolks to chocolate and sugar and milk, it will get thick. It's such a comfort."

Ever since then Chocolate Cream Pie has been on my mind. Yes I realise that this was about 5 (maybe 6) years ago and I am only making it now. But to be honest I have never found a recipe that I truly wanted to make. Yeh yeh there are probably hundreds out there and if you are from America you have probably stopped reading but Chocolate Cream Pie is not common here in Australia.  I googled recipe after recipe for one that tickled my fancy and I even downloaded a virus on my work computer by clicking on a not so trust worthy link (a story too inappropriate for this blog) and eventually gave up. Until I saw this on Bon Appetempt's youtube channel.

I was hooked again on the idea of this pie. That it can fix anything. If it can fix Julie's terrible day and also look this fun and easy to make... then why am I still only dreaming about this and haven't made it yet?

A couple of weekends ago this all changed. My world changed. I made Chocolate Cream Pie.

And it was FRICKIN' AMAZING!

It was a shame that only Tristan and I were there to eat it... haha not.

Give it a go seriously. Your world will be changed as well. I don't think there are words to describe how amazing this pie is. I can't do it justice so just go out and buy the ingredients and make it. Make it after a terrible day at work, or for friends coming over for dinner or just for the one you love on a rainy night because really you don't need an excuse to make this.

Chocolate Cream Pie

Serves 10 

(or 2 incredibly greedy people for a couple of days)

Recipe found here on Amelia Morris's blog Bon Appetempt adapted from Jeanna Kelly's cookbook 'Salad for Dinner' (the only dessert recipe in the book).
(Recipe adapted into metric measurements)

Crust
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup whole raw almonds, toasted and finely chopped
6 tablespoons raw caster sugar
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder, sifted
1/4 teaspoon table salt
85g unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly

Filling
2/3 cup raw caster sugar
1/4 cup cornflour
2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder, sifted
a pinch of table salt
4 large egg yolks
3 cups milk
225g dark chocolate, chopped (I used cadbury old gold)
1 tablespoon dark rum (I didn't have any so I used 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract instead)

Topping
1 cup chilled pure cream
2 tablespoons raw caster sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

For the crust:
- Preheat the oven your to 375F or 190C and butter a 9-inch pie dish. 
- Combine the flour, chopped almonds, sugar, sifted cocoa powder and salt in a medium bowl. Using a fork, stir in the melted butter until the mixture resembles moist sand. 
- Press the dough firmly and evenly over the bottom and up the sides of the pie dish. 
- Bake the crust until just browned at the edges, about 11 minutes or until it starts to smell like rich chocolate. 
- Let the crust cool completely before filling it.

For the filling:
- In a large saucepan, combine the sugar, cornflour, sifted cocoa powder and salt and whisk to combine. 
- Beat in the egg yolks then gradually whisk in the milk. 
- Whisk the filling over medium-high heat until the mixture thickens and continue to whisk and let it bubble for about 1 minute to make sure you cook the cornflour out. 
- Remove the filling from the heat and immediately stir in the chopped chocolate, whisking until the chocolate melts and the filling is smooth. Stir in the rum (or vanilla). 
- Pour the filling into the cooled crust and smooth the top. Place a layer of clingfilm over the top (touching the filling) to stop getting a skin. 
- Let the pie cool to room temperature and then chill the pie until cold, at least 2 hours or overnight.

For the topping:
- Whisk the cream, sugar, and vanilla in a large bowl until firm peaks form. 
- Spread the topping over the pie, sprinkle with some extra grated dark chocolate (optional) and serve.

Plum crumble for two.

Happy Easter everyone!

This long weekend has been 4 days of being a hermit inside and lots and lots of eating. Even though the shops were closed most of the weekend it hasn't stopped me cooking and eating... as I write this there is a chocolate pie chilling in the fridge, waiting to be dressed in vanilla whipped cream (blog post to come soon). It's been a rainy weekend and all I felt like was comfort food.

At about 7 o'clock last night, I decided I wanted dessert. But on Thursday night after work when everyone was raiding the local supermarket before the long weekend like they were stocking up for a zombie apocalypse I avoided the shops. This meant I was stuck with what was in my cupboard until they reopened which was the basics of basics. 

So what do you do with fruit that is over ripe, the scrapings of the butter, some sugar, flour and oats? Make a crumble of course!!!

So rich and decadent for such simple ingredients and I got to use my new little pots.

I adapted Nigella Lawson's recipe 'Jumble-berry crumble' from Nigella Express but used plums instead of berries. There was probably an excessive amount of crumble on top for two and could have been split over 3 ramekins but it was still the long weekend so why not indulge and over eat?! (I am sure next week I will crave salad, salad and more salad).

This dessert is also great to prepare in advance for dinner guests. Just bung it in the oven about 40 minutes before you want to eat dessert. It's super simple too, all I did was cut the plums into wedges and divide them between the ramekins, mix them with 1 teaspoon of raw sugar then top with the crumble mix. You can also freeze the crumble mix in zip-lock bags (if you make too much or want to double the recipe) so you have crumble in seconds next time. You can also substitute the plums for different fruit or a combination of fruits. Apple and plum is a delicious combo!

I hope this simple but indulgent recipe satisfies your craving for comfort desserts on a rainy night in or impresses some dinner guests. Serve with some good quality vanilla ice cream and you can't go wrong!

ps. I'm pretty sure I could have bribed the zombies with this crumble and would have definitely survived the apocalypse. 

pps. Can you see it? Can you see it??? new name :)

Plum Crumble for two.

Serves 2 greedy people

(Recipe adapted from Nigella Lawson's Nigella Express cookbook. Find original recipe here)

For the crumble:

80g plain flour

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

50g unsalted butter, cold and diced

20g rolled oats

3 tablespoons of raw sugar

For the fruit:

5 small plums, cut into wedges

2 teaspoons of raw sugar

- Place the fruit into two ramekins then mix one teaspoon of sugar into each. Set aside.

- For the crumble mixture; place the flour and baking powder in a bowl and rub in the diced butter using you're finger tips until you have a lumpy sand texture. Stir in the oats and sugar until combined then divide the mixture on top of the two ramekins.

- Bake in a 180C or 350F pre-heated oven for about 30-40 minutes or until the fruit starts to bubble at the edges and golden on top.

- Serve with some good quality vanilla ice-cream. Enjoy.

Rachel Khoo's Creme Caramel from The Little Paris Kitchen.

Lets just say this dessert saved the day.

Last night for dinner we had a friend over. We're having Roast Chicken Marylands with potatoes, carrot and onions. Sounds great, right? It was in a red wine marinade and all baked in a tray.

There it is. Did you see it? "all baked in a tray" these recipes are around to try me. You'd think that I'd have given up by now but no. I'm still persisting but this disaster of a dinner may have just done the trick for a while. If it was just Tristan and I for dinner I wouldn't have worried too much and shrugged it off as a bad dinner and been happy with Vegemite on toast but we had a guest. Yes, you read this right. We had a guest for dinner and it was a DISASTER!

First the chicken had gizzards inside which I didn't expect. Now I'll admit I'm a little squeamish with offal but if I'm prepared for it I can handle it. This I was not prepared for.

The potatoes even said boil them for 2 minutes and I did thinking I'm super safe with this recipe, the potatoes will definitely be cooked. Nup. Crunchy potatoes anyone?

I'm terrible at time management. It wasn't until 8:30pm that I revealed this monstrosity of a dish which had huge hunks of chicken. That were raw. Long sticks of raw carrot. Yes some were still just as raw as when I snacked on them before I put them in the baking tray, raw onions and did I mention crunchy potatoes?! Oh and the chicken was raw... I think I said that but I'll repeat it again. I served raw chicken to a dinner guest. It was a DISASTER! I hung my head in shame and hardly ate a thing. I kept saying sorry and I could feel myself getting sheepish and what I wanted to do was hide. Hide and hang my head in shame.

One day I will be able to master a chicken tray bake. Goodness knows what will happen if I try roast a whole chicken... dear oh dear I might resuscitate it instead of cook it!

At least I had this amazing dessert I made the night before to finish the dinner off with... hopefully it left a better last mouthful of dinner and the horrible roast chicken was erased from everyones memories. Mine might be scared for a while.

Creme Caramel is my favourite dessert I think of all times. I can guarantee that I will post more than once a recipe or review on a creme caramel. I'm even caught sometimes buying the ones pre-made in the supermarket cold section... They remind me of going to the local leagues club with the family and having my favourite dinner of all time. Spaghetti bolognese and a creme caramel. I have so many variations of this classic dessert and I've tried a couple but always go back to the simplest ones.

The recipe I chose was from one of my favourite cookbooks and cooking TV shows...

Rachel Khoo's Creme Caramel (Vanilla Cream with Caramel Sauce) from The little Paris Kitchen is sooooooo good! Such simple ingredients cooked in a perfect way. It did take alot longer in my oven than it was meant to but I'm thinking I'm going to have to double the time on everything I put in the oven.
Does it get any simpler than milk, vanilla, eggs and sugar?

This recipe wasn't overly sweet like some are and you get that rich bitterness through the caramel sauce by melting the sugar in a dry saucepan rather than with a little water. The recipe also says to cook it until it looks like the colour of cola. I have a guilty hungover pleasure for coca cola and I definitely don't want my caramel to look like that. It would taste burnt. I've have cooked caramel to that colour before and smoked the place out. Maybe more of a crimson sunset colour I would say.

To make your caramel in a dry pan make sure you don't add all your sugar at once and start with a clean dry pan. (I have learnt the hard way when I first started working in a kitchen and I had to google how to make a dry caramel during service. Not a very fun memory. Lots of sticky, burnt, crystallised pots). Start by adding a sprinkle in the bottom of your pan and place on a medium heat. Once that starts to melt sprinkle over a little more. Never put a spoon in the caramel, as temping as it is. Swirl the sugar in the pan gently but never stir it. Gradually add more, a little at a time making sure the last bit of sugar has melted and continue adding it until you have added all your sugar. The sugar can burn very quickly so when I first started making it I would take it on and off the heat so that if I thought it was getting away from me I could control it and allow the sugar to melt in the residual heat. Sounds complicated but it's not. If you a little hesitant to make it this way you can alway add some water to the sugar and boil it till golden. The difference in flavour is that when you melt the sugar in a dry pan you get more rich intense flavour where as when you add water to start with it has a sweeter taste and far less intensity.

The rest is easy peasy. That was the hard bit.

Rachel Khoo's Creme Caramel from My Little Paris Kitchen.

serves 6 (or as many ramekins you own - I made 8 small ones in various sizes)
(recipe adapted slightly - no cola colour here!)

For the Custard -
500mL milk
1 vanilla pod, sliced in half lengthways and seeds scraped
60 grams of sugar
3 eggs plus 2 egg yolks

For the Caramel -
250g caster sugar
2tbsp water

Preheat your oven to 110 degrees celsius.

Start with the Caramel. 
- Melt the 250g caster sugar in a clean dry pan gradually (see above for more details) until it becomes a crimson sunset colour. Add your 2 tbsp of water and stand back. This will spit and splutter and might seize on you. Let it calm down and get your self a heat proof spoon/spatular and dive it a little stire. Because all your sugar is added and melted it is ok to stir now. Never before.

- Divide caramel up into the ramekins evenly.

For the Custard.
- Boil milk and vanilla pod and vanilla seeds together and let sit to infuse while you whisk the eggs, extra yolks and 60g sugar together in a bowl. Careful not to over mix or you will get bubbly creme caramel bottoms.

- Pick out the pod from the milk. Pour the milk into the egg mixture whisking as you go so you don't scramble your eggs. Make sure it is all combined and then divide between the ramekins.

- Place the ramekins in a roasting try with a thin tea towel on the bottom (I was taught this trick at TAFE to regulate the cooking and so they don't rattle around in your tray). Pour cold water into the baking tray until it comes half way up the sides of the ramekins. Place into the oven until the custard is set around the edges but it still has a sexy wobble going on. Rachel says 30-40 minutes but I'm coming to terms that in my oven you have to double the amount of time they are in the oven.

I baked mine for about 60 - 70min but kept checking because I had a variety of sizes cooking toether. Ideally you want all the same sized ramekins.

- Remove from the water and allow them to rest in the fridge overnight or for at least 4 hours... I waited maybe an hour. Make sure you cover them in the fridge well or they will take on what ever your fridge smells of at the time... onion creme caramel isn't very tasty.

- To serve, run a knife around the edges and dip in hot water for about 30 seconds then invert onto a serving plate. Enjoy these delicious little morsels of custardy goodness!

Nigella Lawson's Chocolate Chip Bread Pudding from Kitchen.

On Thursday night this week we had a dinner date. For dinner we had a choice of 'Steak and veggies or Lamb shanks? Ps. Pete makes pretty good Lamb Shanks :)' Well I think there was a clear winner even before we were given the choice, we were sold on lamb shanks. Not that there is anything wrong with steak and veggies but Lamb Shanks mid week, I was not passing that up!

It was my job to bring pudding so thats exactly what I did. Travelling pudding.

Now I LOVE bread and butter pudding but ew yuk to sultanas! I have an aversion to dried fruit in some things. They are allowed in a couple of things and thats it. Christmas Pudding, yes. Hot Cross buns, sometimes. Bread and Butter pudding, hell no! So when I saw Nigella Lawson 's Chocolate chip bread pudding from Kitchen, how could I resist? It was so easy to transport too and just put it all together when we got there and bung it in the oven for 45 min. The melted chocolate chips throughout it made it so decedent and rich. When it says it serves 4-6, it definitely can serve 6 unless your still hungry from dinner as its very filling. There was four of us and only a tiny bowl of left overs and we were all supporting food babies after.

All I kept thinking after making this is the endless possibilities which can be made with the simple custard mixture and bread... you can add frozen raspberries which would give a lovely sharp tang to the smooth vanilla flecked custard, or make Nutella sandwiches out of the bread and then drown it in custard, you could add chopped nuts on top to give more crunch, or zest lemons into the custard and fill the bread with lemon curd, or add cocoa powder to the custard and make a chocolate based custard, use brioche/ croissants/ hot cross buns or finger buns instead of plain bread... the variations are unlimited!

I substituted a few things in this recipe and added a vanilla pod and seeds because when there is an opportunity to add vanilla I jump on it. I also used 300mL of cream instead of 125mL as suggested because I didn't want half a carton of cream to sit in my fridge and go to waste, this made the custard richer than it should have been but I hate wastage. If I was to make it again and I knew the rest of the cream wasn't going to go to waste I would have followed the recipe exactly and only put in 125mL of cream and 500mL of milk.

Nigella Lawson's Chocolate Chip Bread Pudding. (BYO Style).
(Recipe adapted)
Serves 4 hungry people or 6 for dessert

250g white bread, cubed (Nigella suggests to use stale bread but I just used plain bread from the freezer, thawed)
100g chocolate chips
3 eggs
40g brown sugar
2 tbs dark rum (I used a spiced rum called The Crackin')
300mL pure cream
325mL milk
1 vanilla pod, scraped
4 tsp raw sugar (Nigella uses demerara sugar but raw sugar is very similar and alot cheaper)

- Start by buttering the oven-proof dish your going to bake the pudding in (I used a 23cm diameter x 6cm deep dish) and put your cubed bread in there to sit while you make the custard.

- In a bowl, whisk the eggs, brown sugar, cream, milk and vanilla seeds and pod in a bowl until well combined. If you are making this to bake straight away add your rum now too. I added mine right before I put the pudding together in case it started to cook the eggs. (Pour into a leak-free container if taking this dessert BYO.)

- I scaled my rum in a jar, raw sugar in a little container and chocolate chips in a zip-lock bag. Covered my dish of bread, packed my pink enviro bag with everything and off we went.

- When I got there I added the rum to the custard mix, took the pod out, tossed the chocolate chips with the bread then poured the custard mix over the bread and chocolate chips. Let it sit for about 20min then put it in a preheated 170 degrees Celsius oven for 45 min.

- Allow it to sit for 10min. Then dig in! Be warned... VERY RICH!