Valentine’s day is just around the corner and love is totally in the air and why not, in the oven! If you’re planning a nice evening with your significant other or even a group of friends, this is a chocolatey and easy to make dessert you won’t want to miss out on. The chocolate crème brûlée teams up in an incredible way with the pistachios that add a slight crunch and also a bunch of flavour.
Of course if you don’t like pistachios or prefer not to add them it won’t make any difference to the chocolate crème brûlée. Also, if you’re interested in another flavour you can check out my Chai Latte Crème Brûlée.
This dessert is perfect for valentine’s day because it’s not too heavy and in that way you can have a few appetizers, then a nice meal and still have space for dessert without feeling horrible about yourself. Also, it has chocolate which is an aphrodisiac… you know the rest.
If you don’t have a blowtorch, fear not. You can still get that lovely caramelized top by putting the crème brûlées with the sugar on top into an oven with the broiler on at maximum heat. Place it really close to the top because we don’t want to cook the crème brûlée more. Keep an eye on it though because the sugar will caramelize pretty fast.
To decorate these crème brûlées I used chopped dark chocolate (but you can use your favourite, even truffles would look nice!), a small flower and a few chopped pistachios. If you’re going to put chopped chocolate on yours as well remember to let the caramel on top cool down before you lay it on it because otherwise it will melt.
You can make this dessert up to 4 days ahead and keep it in the fridge. However you do need to caramelize the sugar on top at the very moment you want to eat it because it melts in the fridge.
Ingredients
- 250 ml whipping cream
- 250 ml whole milk
- 45 g sugar + more for the caramelized crust
- 4 egg yolks
- 80 g pistachios (weight with shells, half amount if peeled) + more to decorate
- 2 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
- optional: chopped chocolate and flowers to decorate
Instructions
- Peel the pistachios if they have shells on and rinse them if salted. Toast in a preheated oven at 180C until fragrant (5-10min) and then chop once cooled down.
- Put the cream and milk in a pot with half the sugar on medium heat until a nice amount of steam comes out (don't let it actually boil).
- Whisk the other half of the sugar into the egg yolks and do it as soon as you mi them because if not the egg yolks form a skin that cannot be dissolved. Also add the cocoa powder to the yolks in small amounts. Sift it as you do so to trap any large lumps of cocoa.
- Add about a third of the steaming milk onto the yolks and whisk really fast to incorporate. If you take too long the yolks will cook into lumps.
- Add the rest of the milk confidently as now the yolks won't scramble.
- Mix half the pistachios into the mix and fill the ramekins up to the line they have inside. Then add the rest of the pistachios into each mould and carefully mi them in.
- Take to a preheated oven at 120C on a bain marie with boiling water for 40-50min or until it only jiggles slightly if you move it.
- Let them come to room temperature and then take them to the fridge for at least 4 hours and a maximum of 4 days.
- Take them out and add a teaspoon of sugar on top. Move it around tapping it gently so the sugar spreads in a thin layer. Clean the edges if sugar has stuck there.
- Blowtorch until caramelized or take to the top shelf in the oven with the broiler on maximum (keep an eye on it, it happens fast!)
- Wait for the sugar to cool down and decorate.
