Dark Chocolate Pots de Creme for Valentines

When we lived in our French hideaway in the Gascony countryside, we started a
Valentines tradition. In the post Christmas seasonal lull we start planning.

First we choose a cuisine, then independently plan our designated courses for the menu, to be cooked together in the kitchen on Valentines night.

Having planned, shopped and opened the wine, we work around one another in the kitchen lending a hand here and there during the execution of our courses.

With the advent of a family, we rarely have the opportunity to cook together so we’re grateful for a tradition to maintain.

Our menu this year has gone a little off piste with Italian French fusion, but the dessert choice for me was easy. In honoring our commitment to a heart healthy month, these make ahead Petits Chocolate Pots de Creme use the finest cocoa and dark chocolate satisfying any requirement for a Valentines treat. I love that once this goes into my slow cooker I am free to concentrate on my appetizer.

The American Heart Association reported this health benefit of dark chocolate

• the unsaturated fat in chocolate actually helps raise good HDL cholesterol levels and that is good for the heart, possibly lower risks of heart failure

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

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

Oil your ramekins and set aside. Place a piece of aluminium foil into the bottom of your slow cooker, replace the lid and turn onto high.

Pour the milk into a saucapan with the vanilla essence. Heat just until it boils and turn it off.

Stir the cocoa powder and melted 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.

* If you prefer the cream version, you can substitute 2/3 cup of the milk for heavy cream instead.

Zen Toolkit
Pour your leftover egg whites into a small ziploc bag, squeeze out all the air, seal and freeze. You can defrost at a later date and make meringues.

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