I ♥ cake - Sinful chocolate/caramel dipping sauce

Today I had the pleasure to be invited over to my friends' house for dinner; as usual, the event involved a mountain of delicious food and overeating was inevitable... they had obviously been spending the better part of the day in the kitchen and whipped up an absolutely delightful menu. Their dinner parties are definitely something to look forward to! A few days ago, when I asked my friend if I could bring anything, she tentatively suggested I could, maybe, "if I could be ar*ed", make some madeleines... I jumped on the occasion and, the night before (to age them a bit), baked a full batch of madeleines to bring over. I was definitely in a dessert mood and thought a dipping sauce would be nice to help the madeleines glide down, so I used the dinner guests as my guinea pigs for the recipe below, which I adapted from a time-honoured vanilla pastry cream recipe. The sauce turned out with the exact creamy velvety consistency I was expecting and there was quite a lot of finger-licking going on around the table at dessert time, which I interpreted as a sign of enjoyment ;-)

The sinful dipping sauce, a whole bowl of it...

Sinful chocolate/caramel sauce (for dipping madeleines & more) – Serves 8 generously

13 carambars (or 110gr home-made butter caramel fudge)

125gr Valrhona 68% chocolate

4 egg yolks

50gr corn starch

50cl milk

1.5 tbsp black treacle

1.5 tbsp dark aged rum

60gr brown sugar, lightly packed

·       In a mixing bowl, beat the sugar and the egg yolks together with a whisk until the sugar has completely dissolved (no grains should be left) and the mixture is creamy.

·       Add the black treacle, stir until homogenous;

·       Add the corn starch, stirring until the mixture is smooth.

·       Stir in 25cl milk and reserve.

·       In a saucepan on low heat, melt the carambars (or fudge) in 25cl milk, stirring constantly and making sure the mixture does not boil or overheat;

·       Once the caramel is melted, remove the saucepan from the heat and pour very slowly over the eggs/milk/sugar mixture, beating constantly with a whisk.

·       Return the mixture to the saucepan on medium heat, add the chocolate.

·       Stir constantly with a wooden spoon until the chocolate melts and the mixture thickens. The thickening will happen quite quickly close to the boiling point; when you start feeling that the mixture has started thickening, make sure to stir vigorously, otherwise the mixture may form lumps or stick to the bottom of the pan. Let boil gently for a few seconds and remove from the heat.

·       Stir in the rum.

·       Cover the surface with cling film directly on the surface, to avoid the formation of a skin, and reserve until use – best used warm for dipping madeleines or other biscuits, leftovers will keep in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 24 hours (longer, and the sauce will start losing its flavour).