Happy Valentine’s Day everyone!Â
In our house, we aren’t too fussy about Valentine’s Day. We give one another a hug, a kiss, and a card. That is pretty much it. Yeah, we are pretty chill.
But this year it was going to be different. In all seriousness, I was going to be that awesome Valentine’s girl. I was going to roll up my sleeves, get my hands dirty, and make something stunning. I was going to bake my heart out and appear on the other side with the most glorious miniature cakes ever made out of the tastiest red, pink, and white extra sparkly decorations needed to make the perfect Valentine’s treat. I was going to conquer the holiday. Was…was…was…
Yeah, well, obviously that didn’t happen. Call it fate, call it life, call it whatever you want, but St. Valentine was sooooo not on my side. Hey, sometimes you win. Other times, life has another plan for you.
A few of the things that happened this weekend that broke into my cake-conquering time:
- Our bunny, Clementine, chewed through some major household cords. This included the wifi.
- I broke a vase
- Someone in our apartment building forgot to turn the gas off on their stove. The fire trucks came and we were evacuated because of gas build up in the building. It took half of Sunday away… It was raining…
- I baked biscuits that came out totally wrong. Eww gross!
- I ruined a new jacket
These are but a few of the smaller mishaps during the weekend. The larger I won’t mention here.
All in all, it was a seemingly horrid weekend. But with the downs comes a reminder not to sweat the small stuff and live in the moment. A vase may break, but that shouldn’t stop you from making a beautiful bouquet; the wifi may go out, but it allows for some peace and quiet from the world; the biscuits come out wrong, but who needs the calories anyway? Don’t let the small stuff get you down! Take that St. Valentine!
Somehow I scraped together a recipe in all of this madness called life! It isn’t sparkly with decorations or colorful in the Valentine’s spirit, but it will make your loved ones go YUM! This is 100% inspired by the pot de crème at my favorite restaurant in Annapolis, Maryland named Preserve. Once you spoon into the delicate chocolate there will be a hidden surprise of a fruit jam beneath the surface.
For our recipe we chose to use a strawberry jam (you can use whatever flavor that tickles your fancy). Actually, it is more like jelly because the texture is smooth. You will want a smooth jelly without the seeds because the texture of the chocolate is so smooth.
Topped onto the Pot de Crème is some cacao nips and salt. Everything is extremely sweet. Adding the cacao nibs adds some bitterness, and the salt adds a further depth in flavor.
Chocolate and Strawberry Pot de Crème
4-6
servings10
minutes20
minutes2
hoursÂ30
minutesIngredients
4.5 oz of semi sweet chocolate
3/4 cup whole milk
1/2 cup heavy cream
3 egg yolks
2.5 Tbs sugar
1/8 tsp salt
Strawberry jelly
Pinch of rock salt
Pinch of cacao nibs
Directions
- Chop up the chocolate and place into a blender.
- In a small saucepan over medium heat, combine the milk, cream, egg yolks, granulated sugar, and salt. Whisk together and continue stirring with a spatula while the mixture heats (Don’t let the eggs cook at the bottom of the sauce pan. Continue to stir!) Stop when the mixture is about to boil, around 5-6 min, and has thickened.
- Immediately pour the mixture over the chocolate in the blender. Close the lid and blend until smooth. Scrape down the sides of the blender as needed.
- Put a thin layer of strawberry jelly at the bottom of each ramekin, then carefully pour the blended chocolate over the jelly. Place in the refrigerator for 2-3 hours to set.
- Sprinkle some cacao nibs and rock salt sparingly over the Pot de Crème before serving.
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