Chocolate-verbena cream

A recipe from cooking-ez.com

For 6 people, you will need:

• 1 300 g milk
• 2 300 g cream
• 3 2 handfuls Verbena
• 4 80 g dark chocolate
• 5 1 teaspoon powdered cocoa (optional)
• 6 4 egg yolks
• 7 100 g caster sugar
• 8 40 g cornflour
• Total weight: 900 grams

Times:

Preparation	Resting	Cooking	Start to finish
20 min.	1 hour	45 min.	2 hours 4 min.

Step by step recipe

• 1: Pour 300 g milk, 300 g cream and 2 handfuls Verbena leaves into a saucepan.
  Place over medium heat and bring to the boil.
• 2: Turn off the heat once the mixture has reached boiling point, then blend.
  The aim is to distribute the vervain evenly in the milk-cream mixture, to capture the flavors.
  Cover and leave to stand for a good hour.
• 3: After this time, strain the mixture through a fine sieve, pressing the vervain well to release all its flavour, then pour back into the rinsed pan, discarding the vervain.
• 4: Return the pan to a low heat, and gently stir in 80 g dark chocolate in small pieces or pistoles and 1 teaspoon powdered cocoa.
  When well blended, turn off the heat and cover.
• 5: In a bowl, mix 4 egg yolks and 100 g caster sugar, then add 40 g cornflour and mix well again.
• 6: Pour everything into the pan and mix well.
  Preheat oven to 180°C (360°F).
• 7: Divide the mixture between ramekins and place in the drip tray of your oven.
  Add enough boiling or hot water to reach halfway up the ramekins.
• 8: Bake for approximately 30 minutes.
• 9: Leave to cool after removing from the drip pan, and enjoy warm or cold.

Remarks

The milk-cream-verbena mixture in step 2 can be made in advance, even the day before, to allow the verbena flavors to diffuse.
You can make a milk chocolate version, replacing the dark chocolate, in which case I recommend reducing the weight of powdered sugar a little (80g).

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