Chocolate Pots De Crème for Valentines

Dark Chocolate Pots de Crème

Desserts with benefits. This is an inspired Dark Chocolate Pots De Crème for Valentine’s which will not only perk up your tastebuds but has health benefits too.

When we lived in our French hideaway in the Gascony countryside, we started a Valentine’s tradition. In the post Christmas seasonal lull we would begin to plan. This was pre-children so all of spare time outside of work was spent outdoors or planning our next sumptuous meal with friends! It always began with aperatif hour a three-courser and our recipe this week is a nod to the traditional French dessert Chocolate Pots De Crème.

Benefits of Chocolate

While not a “health food” good quality dark chocolate does have some benefits, and can improve risk factors for heart disease.

The American Heart Association reported this health benefit of dark chocolate

• the unsaturated fat in chocolate may help raise good HDL cholesterol levels.

Heart UK reports

• plant chemicals called flavanols are antioxidants which occur naturally in cocoa beans and can be beneficial to heart health.

In addition, Reader’s Digest reports that dark chocolate

• can improve your mood as it stimulates the production of endorphins, chemicals in the brain that bring on feelings of pleasure and the chemical serotonin, which acts as an anti-depressant

Print Recipe

Dark Chocolate Pots de Crème

Servings: 4 Servings

Ingredients

• oil or cooking spray
• 1 ⅔ cups/14 fl oz 2% milk * or heavy cream
• ¼ tsp vanilla essence
• 1 tbsp cocoa I used Van Cortlandt
• 2 oz 80% cocoa dark chocolate broken into small pieces
• 3 egg yolks
• 1 egg
• 3 oz caster sugar

Instructions

• Oil your 4 ramekins and set aside. Place a piece of aluminum foil into the bottom of your slow cooker, replace the lid and turn onto high.
• Pour the milk into a saucepan with the vanilla essence. Heat just until it boils and turn it off.
• Whisk the cocoa powder and chocolate into the milk.
• In a separate bowl mix together the egg yolks, egg and sugar. Pour the just boiled milk and chocolate mixture over the egg mixture stirring well.
• Pour the mixture carefully into 4 oiled ramekins and set in your slow cooker.
• Cook for 1 hour on high. Remove, cool and refrigerate.
• Sprinkle with cocoa before serving.

Notes

* If you prefer the cream version, you can use a mixture of milk and cream, it may have a slightly lighter texture to finish but will work all the same

Chocs away! We hope you enjoy a relaxing Valentine’s day.

Zen moment

“Love is a symbol of eternity. It wipes out all sense of time, destroying all memory of a beginning and all fear of an end.”
-Author Unknown