Chocolate Creme Brûlée

I found a recipe for Creme Brûlée that called for white chocolate, which I find to be rather sweet.  So, I decided to live on the edge and go for semi-sweet/dark.  If you like your chocolate sweet, stick with the semi-sweet chips.  I did half semi-sweet chips and half 72% cacao bar, which I cut into little pieces.

Creme Brûlée is actually pretty easy to make and is a fantastic "make the night before" dessert.

Ingredients:

4 egg yolks (room temperature)
1/3 cup granulated sugar
2 cups heavy whipping cream (I'm sure Half & Half would work)
4 oz chocolate chips or chocolate bar cut into small pieces
1/2 tsp vanilla
2 Tbsp course sugar
fresh berries (optional)

Whisk together egg yolks and sugar in a medium bowl.
Bring cream to a simmer over med-high heat.
Remove from heat and stir in chocolate until melted.
Add a few tablespoons of the cream to the egg mixture, while stirring.
Then add the entire cream mixture to the egg mixture, stirring until combined.
Add vanilla.
Pour into 6 ramekins that have been placed in a 13x9 casserole dish.  Add water to the casserole dish to create a water bath.  I filled until the water was 1/2 way up the sides of the ramekins.
Bake at 300 for 45 minutes until set.
Chill overnight (or several hours).
Sprinkle course sugar over each ramekin and fire with a small kitchen torch.
If you don't have a torch, you can broil for 3-4 minutes until the sugar carmelizes/browns.
Re-chill for at least 10 minutes before serving.
This was amazing with fresh raspberries and strawberries.