Just desserts - Q.E.D…

I first wrote this post – or at least a similar one – about a month ago, but before I could publish it disappeared into the ether. When this sort of thing happens I tend to get a bit discouraged and lose heart… which I did, and am then reluctant to do it again… which I was! Anyway, today I was looking for a tasty pudding and remembered this.

The gist of my previous blog had been to discuss how sometimes adapting recipes can cause problems. In this case the problems weren’t necessarily with taste but with appearance, although taking a look at the cookery book again I notice that the one in the book didn’t look much better!

In May we were at Le Pre Vert and friends were coming for lunch. I’d decided on a James Martin inspired croissant and butter pudding. The recipe suggested white chocolate but I had a fancy to use very dark chocolate and spiced orange. Actually this was what I had in my store cupboard!

As usual, I also took some short cuts with the recipe so this is my version.

To serve 6 people you will need:

• 500 ml milk
• 500 ml double cream – brought from the UK in my travel fridge.
• 3 whole eggs and 6 egg yolks.
• 200g caster sugar.
• 6 large croissants.
• 25g butter.
• 175g dark chocolate
• 75ml cointreau
• A few teaspoons of marmalade – I used some delicious homemade seville marmalade, given to me by a friend.
• 1tsp vanilla extract or 1 vanilla pod.

To make:

• Pre-heat the oven to 180C or gas mark 4
• Whisk together the milk, cream, eggs, vanilla extract and sugar gently. The original recipe suggested heating the milk, cream and vanilla pod to gradually bring to the boil and after removing from the heat to add the eggs, sugar and the white chocolate. As I was using dark chocolate I didn’t want a ‘mud coloured mix’ so didn’t heat my mixture. It also adds to the washing up!
• Add the cointreau.
• Slice the croissants and place into a greased oven-proof dish.

• Slice the butter into thin slivers and sprinkle over the croissants.

• Place this in the oven for about 4 minutes to melt the butter. You could of course melt the butter and pour this over the croissants, but this adds to the washing up… again!
• Spoon the marmalade over the croissants.

• Sprinkle the pieces of chocolate over the top.

• Pour over the creamy mixture and bake for about 25 minutes until almost set, but still a little gloopy.
• Serve with creme fraiche or vanilla ice cream. Custard could also be added but I thought this might make the dessert a bit too rich.

My pudding didn’t need the suggested blowtorch treatment to ‘finish it off’, The oven did the job for me! However the melted dark chocolate made the top a bit darker than it might have been. Next time I'd poke the chocolate into the croissants to prevent any bitterness that might come from the chocolate burning rather than just melting.

The taste panel…

I rarely follow a recipe fully – sometimes to my downfall, but this tasted fine.

At school I remember having to prove theorems and we’d always write Q.E.D at the end, an abbreviation of the Latin ‘quod erat demonstrandum’. This shows just how good our Latin was, we thought it stood for ‘quite easily demonstrated’. Now I know better!

So….

Q.E.D.