for my almost-monthly dinner with my not-so-baby baby cousin last weekend, i was responsible for bringing dessert.
remember blancmange? easy, quick and delicious vanilla pudding.
always up for a challenge, i decided to try making a dark chocolate version. (“noirmange”?)
the original recipe wants you to melt 2 ounces of unsweetened chocolate in the hot milk to make it chocolaty, but since i didn’t have any of that, i had to take a different route. what i did have was some delicious “special dark” dutch processed cocoa.
as i have mentioned here before, dutch processed cocoa is different from regular cocoa and it’s not smart to substitute one for the other. regular cocoa has a raw flavor that is absent in dutch processed. for that reason, dutch processed is better in recipes where the cocoa doesn’t cook much or at all, like chocolate hummus. use it in this recipe, too.
so in my “dry” ingredients, i substituted 3 of the 4 tablespoons of sugar with cocoa and instant coffee powder.
instant coffee is known to be a great addition to any chocolate recipe. in the right amount, you don’t taste the coffee – it just makes the chocolate taste more chocolaty. and there’s nothing wrong with that, right?!
so if you happen to have it around substitute one teaspoon of instant coffee for one teaspoon of the cocoa.
to your cocoa/coffee powder, add 3 tablespoons corn starch, a pinch of salt, 1/4 cup milk and a teaspoon of orange liquor, if you have it. (if not, use vanilla extract) stir well.
heat one and 3/4 cups milk in a sauce pan until very hot but not boiling. add the cocoa mixture, stirring constantly.
keep stirring while you cook it on low heat for 15 minutes.
take off the heat and stir in another teaspoon of orange liquor (omit if using vanilla).
divide into four ramekins and chill until serving. if i had had whipped cream, i would have dolloped some on the top.
but since i didn’t, we added some orange zest and a pinch of sugar to a little ricotta cheese
and dolloped that on top instead!
