Baked Chocolate Custard

This is a creamy, smooth and decadent dessert similar to a chocolate crème brulee or pannacotta. Perfect for the very occasional dessert treat when wanting to impress guests, yet still keeping things reasonably healthy.  

You can use unsweetened or 90% dark chocolate instead of regular dark chocolate and sweeten the dish to taste with stevia or xylitol to reduce the sugar content should you wish. For a dairy free version, use coconut oil instead of butter and whipped coconut cream for topping instead of dairy cream. 

Ingredients

Makes 6 portions (it can be stretched to 8 if ramekins are very small or you want smaller portions). 

·       180 grams dark chocolate (chopped)

·       3 tablespoons virgin coconut oil

·       3 tablespoons unsalted butter

·       1 tsp vanilla extract/essence

·       300 ml coconut milk

·       2 large eggs

 Method:

1. Pre-heat oven to 150 degrees Celsius.
2. Grease 6 ramekins with butter or coconut oil.
3. In a double-boiler, melt the chocolate, coconut oil and butter and whisk until dissolved and blended. If using xylitol or stevia add now.
4. Remove from heat and add vanilla extract and coconut milk.
5. Add eggs one at a time and whisk.
6. Pour mixture into the ramekins and place in a metal or glass pan.
7. Pour boiling water into the pan to create a bain-marie. Careful you don’t pour water into the ramekins.
8. Bake for 30 minutes on middle rack.
9. Remove from the oven, cool and chill in the fridge for 2 hours before serving.

Serve with fresh whipped cream and a plump ripe strawberry.

Recipe courtesy of Primal Perks. Click here for a printable PDF of the recipe.