Chocolate Bavarois

A Pudding.

A scrummy and luxurious pud, very similar to the classic chocolate mousse, but with a different texture. The recipe originates in Bavaria (hence the name, folks).


I've served a chocolate bavarois many times at the Millbrooker Towers' dining table and there's never any leftovers.

**************

Ingredients to serve 6.

3 eggs

2 tablesoons of cornflour (cornstarch, American readers)

2 tablespoons caster sugar

a teaspoon or more vamilla essence (according to taste)

450ml milk

100g plain chocolate (use at least 70% cocoa solids, preferably higher)

a sachet of gelatine (one sachet usually sets up to 1 pint)

4 tablespoons water

150ml double cream

What to do.

Whisk the eggs, cornflour and sugar together in a bowl keep going until the mix looks quite pale.

Add the vanilla essence and stir it in.

Melt the chocolate (it's probably easiest in a microwave, but the old fashioned method is to put the chocolate in pieces into a glass/pyrex bowl and put the bowl into water in a saucepan. Gently heat the water and keep stirring the chocolate until it's completely melted, then remove from the heat immediately.)

Heat the milk until almost boiling, then stir in the melted chocolate.

Pour the resulting choco-milk onto the egg mixture, stir well until everything is properly blended, and return the whole lot to the saucepan.

Cook over a gentle heat until the mix thickens enough to coat the back of a wooden spoon without running freely back off again.

Dissolve the gelatine in the water and then whisk that into the chocolate mix.

Finally whip the double cream until it thickens and then stir that into the mix as well.

Spoon the whole lot into a mould or straight into whatever you're going to serve it in, allow to cool and refrigerate for at least couple of hours (overnight is good).

Serve with a dollop of whipped cream, or perhaps with some summer fruit as a garnish.