Simon Hopkinson's Chocolate pot with ginger

This recipe is adapted from Mr Hopkinson's BBC show The good cook. It is beautiful. Try it! Best to make it the day before as waiting for them to chill seems like an eternity. I adapted it a little to what I had in the cupboard: using more cream rather than milk, a dribble of vanilla essence rather than a pod, castor sugar rather than icing sugar and I left out the ground ginger. Oh and I only cooked it for half an hour, but as he said your waiting for the crust to form: so when you see it, whip the pots out. I also changed the method a little bit. So if you'd like to peruse his recipe, check out the link above. Below is my shortened, slightly lazier version which will make 2 delightfully rich and smooth desserts.

Ingredients

• 125ml/4fl oz double cream
• half a teaspoon of vanilla essence
• 70g/2oz dark chocolate broken into chunks
• 1 egg yolk
• 1 heaped dessert spoon of castor sugar
• 1 chunk of preserved stem ginger, finely chopped 

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 140C/275F/Gas 1.
2. Beat together the egg yolk & sugar in a bowl until fluffy. Add the vanilla essence and cream and mix.
3. Melt the chocolate in a bowl in the microwave and when completely liquid add the chocolate to the egg mixture, whisk quickly to blend to a gorgeous dark emulsion.
4. Place the chopped ginger into the bottom of the ramekins. Top with the chocolate mixture. Place the ramekins into a deep roasting tin and pour in enough hot water to come up to at least two-thirds up the side of the pots. Bake for around 30 minutes, or until a crust forms on the top and it feels slightly springy to the touch.
5. Remove the pots from the oven, allow to cool a little before extracting the pots from their water bath. Chill in the fridge for as long as you can bear (ideally at least six hours, one hour minimum) before serving.