Did January have to start with a Desert ? Even the name is a mouthful “Bittersweet Chocolate Pudding Pie with Crème Fraîche topping”. It doesn’t end there, even after reading and re-reading the recipe it seems like a lot of work. Perhaps start with the Feb issue ? Oh well – I guess I’m committed.
I think the key to a desert like this is to break it up into phases. When you can do something ahead of time – go for it. That way you can be more relaxed and even enjoy yourself. I choose to do the crust and the filling 2 days before, on a relaxing Thursday night.
The Crust. Cookies and a food-processor are fun ! It gets better – I then add chopped chocolate on top of the baked cookie crust. I love this already ! By time the chocolate is on the crust – this already smells better than many deserts. Perhaps I could have spread the chocolate a little more evenly – but oh well.
The Filling. Ok this is the hard part. Stirring a pudding while it sets seems a little intimidating. Plus there were numerous comments on Bon Appetit’s site about the length of time being more than 5 minutes, horror stories of puddings gone horribly wrong etc. So I admit I was a little anxious here. I go for it – it’s really not too bad. It took about 7 or 8 minutes, and it was clearly getting more set and pudding like. The edges weren’t quite bubbling – but I was at the point where it looks like we were heading for the pudding to start to really stick and burn.
I call it good, take it off the stove, and add my vanilla and my El Dorado 15 year rum (good stuff!). Normally I’m religious about cooking a recipe exactly as printed the first time – but I choose to mellow the bittersweet chocolate, and go with 3 oz. bittersweet, and 1 oz. semi-sweet.
1 response so far ↓
1 Richard Alcazar // Jan 11, 2008 at 5:33 pm
Wow – reading this makes me hungry! I need to remember not to read your blog on mornings that I skip breakfast.
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