We find Rick Stein exceptionally reliable and when we needed a dessert for entertaining thought we’d give his recipe a go. Unsurprisingly they worked a treat and the result was a silkly, rich, and indulgent pot of chocolate to finish a meal with friends.
Wine Suggestion: Chocolate is notoriously difficult to pair with wine so we’d probably skip the wine altogether and go for a liqueur to complement this dish – Grand Marnier, Cointreau, Whiskey… choose your poison.
Petit pots au chocolate – makes 6
- 225g plain chocolate, minimum 60% coco solids
- 15g soft butter
- 4 egg yolks
- 150ml double cream
- 150ml full-cream milk
- 50g caster sugar
- 6 tsp crème fraîche and a little cocoa powder, to decorate
Break the chocolate into a heatproof bowl and melt over a pan of just-simmering water. Remove and stir until smooth, then stir in the softened butter and egg yolks.
Put the cream, milk and sugar into a small pan, bring to the boil and then stir into the chocolate.
Pour the mix into six 100ml receptacles (we used small glasses but you could also use espresso cups or ramekins) and leave somewhere cold to set, but don’t refrigerate.
Decorate the pots with a little quenelle of crème fraîche and dust with cocoa powder to serve.
(Original recipe from Rick Stein’s French Odyssey, BBC Books, 2005)