For all you new readers out there, let’s back up a bit. A few months ago my co-conspirator Kelly Neil and I decided to form the Halifax Food Bloggers as a way to strengthen and support our strong blogging community. Now in it’s sixth month, we’re partnered with East Coast Organic Milk and Just Us! Coffee to bring our bloggers a third recipe contest. In case you hadn’t heard, that last contest all about sausage? Nailed it. More a black box, or rather, brown bag challenge, this time the ingredients were a surprise.
When I first opened my bag, I admit I was a tad perplexed. Homogenized milk, dark chocolate, organic sugar and, the real stumper, rooibos tea. Being a coffee fiend, it’s rare I enjoy a cup of tea let alone cook with it. After much thought, I decided on a rooibos flavoured tres leche cake even going so far as to make both evaporated and sweetened condensed milk with the ECOMilk. That’s when things went terribly wrong. It was time consuming, involved far too many steps, and, sadly, not very tasty. A whole cake left uneaten? Devastating I know.
This just had to be simpler especially since a win would mean the recipe printed on cards for the Halifax community to enjoy. Enter dark chocolate pots de creme, the easiest recipe of all time and according to Brent one of the best things I’ve ever made. Though, cooking for him for 8 years now, I’m not quite sure if that’s a good thing or bad thing. What makes this so damn easy is that instead of cooking the custard, it is simply made in a blender. The result is a truly decadent, albeit cheater, pots de creme that’s more like pudding than creme brulee. We each ate two and didn’t look back.
But how, you ask, do I take home the win again? Well, head on over to the East Coast Organic Milk facebook page and give the post with the link to my recipe a like or share or both. Then head over to their twitter account and do the same. A win gets me a big ol’ basket of local goodies. If you help me win, I may just share. Bribe? What bribe?
- 1 cup homogenized East Coast Organic Milk
- 1 tablespoon Just Us rooibos tea
- 1/2 cup whipping cream
- 3 yolks
- 1/4 cup Just Us organic sugar
- 1 teaspoon orange zest
- 2 teaspoon finely grated ginger
- 1/4 teaspoon vanilla bean powder
- 5 ounces Just Us dark chocolate
- 1/2 cup whipping cream
- 1 tablespoon Just Us organic sugar
- candied ginger, finely grated
- In a saucepan, scald milk over medium heat . Add rooibos and remove from heat. Let steep 3 min. Strain.
- In a saucepan, whisk together cream, yolks, sugar, zest, ginger, and vanilla. Slowly whisk in 3/4 cup of the hot milk. Heat, whisking often, until thickened. Be sure not to let the mixture boil.
- Add chocolate to a blender and pulse til chocolate is broken up. With the motor running, slowly add custard mixture. Blend about 3 min. Pour into ramekins or desired dishes and refrigerate 2 hours.
- When cool, whisk or beat whipping cream with sugar until thick. To serve, top each pot de creme with a dollop of whipped cream and some candied ginger.
