The Breakfast Challenge – Chocolate Custard Cups

This recipe is very similar to the 5 Minute Pressure Cooker Baked Custard featured in the Breakfast Cereal Challenge series back at the beginning of winter.  So it’s kinda nice to have the last of the winter recipes in the same vein.  A warm bowl of custard is the ultimate in comfort food, and with eggs, low fat milk, a small amount of sugar and anti-oxidant dark chocolate, it’s a healthy high protein low GI breakfast.

The recipe is super easy once you have sorted the right utensils to fit.  Besides a pressure cooker (which is one of my treasured kitchen tools) you need a ceramic bowl or cup per person, with a lid to fit.  I can fit 4 tea cups in my pressure cooker, with saucers from expresso coffee cups as lids  (The tea cup saucers won’t fit).

Ordinary tea cups are fine in my pressure cooker. If you are worried, you may need to do a test run with some cups or bowls that you won’t be upset to break.

The Recipe:

For a single serve.  Multiply by the number of cups you can fit in your pressure cooker.

Put the pressure cooker on with a cupful of water in it.

In a small saucepan, heat  2/3 cup milk (full cream or semi skim).

Break in one square of 70% dark chocolate and stir until it melts.

Meanwhile, blend together 1 egg and half to one teaspoon of treacle. It doesn’t need much sweetening – I like a scant half teaspoon, but if you are a sweet tooth you may like a little more.

With the blender going, add the chocolate milk.

There are two tricks to this.

1. You need to blend before the egg starts to cook, so it needs to be quick.  I get the egg and treacle ready in the blending bowl while the milk is heating, pour in the milk, and blend.
2. Ideally you want to create the least possible amount of froth so you have that silky texture right to the top.  I find with my stick blender, if I submerge the blender before I hit the trigger it does this nicely.

Pour the mix into your cups or bowls.  Cover with lids, and sit them in the little tray on top of the trivet in your pressure cooker.

Put the lid on, bring to pressure, turn down the heat so it is just burbling and cook for 5 minutes.  Then turn the heat off and let off the pressure slowly, ie, by releasing the pressure valve, not by running under cold water.