That has to be the longest title ever for this blog so far. This recipe was submitted for the Freshly Blogged challenge. The ingredients that had to be used were Amarula, dark chocolate, pears and blanched almonds. A selection of pantry ingredients could be used and one fresh ingredient added, but the kicker was that it had to be custard-based. Eep. I fail at most sweet dishes, and I was dreading the inevitable sweet challenge and the doom it would unleash on my kitchen, so I approached this challenge with trepidation level set to Oh Dear.
Personally, I don’t think I did too badly. I originally attempted sugared pear chips but I burnt them to cindered crisps in the oven as I had over sugared them and cooked at too high a heat. Sugar is combustible, y’all!
The ice cream was dead easy and tasted amaaaaazing! Extra vowels added for extra flavour! And from now on custard should only be made with Amarula. End of. Anyway, below is the recipe. If you feel up to it and find it worthy, give it a vote here and I will be most grateful. Having said that, Im grateful that you’ve taken the time to read this far.
Ingredients
For the ice cream:
4 pears, peeled, cored and chopped
3/4 cup sugar
1 cup Amarula
For the chocolate pots:
250ml fresh cream
100g dark chocolate, crumbled
2 egg yolks
2 tsp sugar
30ml Amarula
Handful of toasted blanched almond flakes
For the custard:
500ml milk
6 egg yolks
100g castor sugar
50ml Amarula
Ice cream:
Add the chopped pears, sugar and Amarula into a small saucepan and bring to a boil. Allow to simmer for 15 minutes or until pears go soft and smushy, stirring occasionally.
Allow to cool for a few minutes and then blend in a food processor for 3 minutes, in 1 minute batches. Some blenders will call it quits if you leave them running for 3 solid minutes.
Pour into metal loaf tin and store in the freezer. Stir with a fork after two hours and return to freezer. Leave for at least 4 hours or overnight.
Chocolate pots:
Preheat oven to 140 degrees.
Bring cream to a simmer on a low to medium heat. Add chocolate and stir until its all melted. Remove from heat and add Amarula. Pour into glass jug through a sieve.
Beat egg yolks with sugar until light in colour. Slowly add in warm chocolate mix.
Pour into 4 ramekins and place into a bain marie: fill a deep oven-safe pan with boiling water reaching the same level as the chocolate.
Bake for 45 minutes.
Allow to cool. This can be placed in the fridge overnight or up to 3 days.
When serving, sprinkle with the toasted flakes.
Custard:
Bring milk to a boil, but careful not to let it burn. Beat egg yolks and sugar together until light. Slowly mix in milk and return to stove over low heat. Stir until mixture thickens enough to coat back of a spoon. Remove from heat. Allow to cool. Add Amarula.
The chocolate pots sound amazing!