Chef Daniel Eardley's Budino
A fancy pants dessert to be served with friends and family. Everyone's oven works differently. Keep an eye on your budinos! This is a secret recipe Daniel shared with me. He was proud of it. He would always talk about how him and his friend Paulie figured out this recipe. I'm super proud to make it and share it with you.
Equipment
8 ramekins
2 stainless steel mixing bowls
1 pot that fits the stainless steel bowl over it
1 small sauce pot
1 9”x13”x2” cake pan
Silicone spatula
2 whisks
Chinois
Ladle
Ingredients
1 pt heavy cream
6 oz dark chocolate
¼ cup cocoa powder
¼ cup sugar
2 large eggs
Butter for lining the cups
Directions
Preheat oven to 350°. Make the caramel first by mixing the sugar and water in a pot. Boil on medium high heat. While you make your caramel, line the ramekins with butter and start the budino mixture. Mix heavy cream, chocolate, cocoa, vanilla beans and half the sugar in a stainless steel bowl and put on top of a pot that has a cup of boiling water. Lower the heat to simmer. With a whisk, continuously mix and heat until all of it is combined and the mixture is warm/hot.
While the chocolate mixture is cooking, carefully watch your caramel. When the color of the sugar is a golden color, take it off the heat. Pour enough caramel into the buttered ramekins to coat the bottom. Set aside. Note, caramel is HOT! It will continue to cook and turn a perfect amber brown.
In a separate bowl, whisk the eggs with the rest of the sugar. Temper the egg mixture by ladling some of the warm chocolate mixture into the bowl. Continue to ladle more warm chocolate as you whisk until the bowl is warm on the bottom. Pour the mixture into the warm chocolate mixture and continue to cook and stir on the double boiling system. When you can run your finger on the spoon and it doesn’t run down the spoon so easily, it is ready. This is called nappe consistency.
Put 1 cup of water in your cake pan. Place the ramekins in the cake pan. Fill the ramekins with the mixture up to ¾ of the way full. Cover with foil. Cook in a 350° oven for 30 minutes. When the middle of the ramekins are not liquid, your budinos are done. Take the ramekins out and cool on a plate.
For serving, put a plate on top of the ramekin. Using a towel to hold the hot ramekin, flip it over and shake the ramekin until the budino slides out onto the plate. You can also skip this step and just serve inside the ramekin.
Finish with Maldon’s sea salt and a mint leaf or a spoonful of whipped peanut butter.
Notes
These steps can be spread out into three days if you don’t have time. Day 1: Make the mixture. Day 2: Make the caramel and bake the budinos. Day 3: Reheat in the oven at 425° for 5 minutes. You should see bubbling on the sides and are then ready to serve.
This also spreads out the amount of dishes to clean. Budino mixture can be refrigerated up to 2 days. Budinos baked in ramekins can be refrigerated up to 2-3 days.
