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Basil Bette Noir

Basil and chocolate go very, very well together. Bette Noir is a thick, delicous pure chocolate experience. By introducing the basil a more complex flavor is introduced and no one will believe its basil that's been included.

Ingredients

Conversions to European measurements can be found here!

For 4 people:

1/2 Cup sugar, plus 2 T extra
250 g dark chocolate (70% cocoa solids), finely chopped
1/2 Cup unsalted butter, chopped
3 eggs
1 vanilla bean, halved lengthwise
1 bunch fresh sweet Italian basil(enough to equal 1 cup pureed)
Cocoa for dusting

Procedure

Preheat oven to 350°

Puree the basil in your cuisinart. Cover with plastic pushed down to touching the surface of the pureed basil to prevent the basil from changing color. Set in the fridge until needed.

Combine sugar and 1/4 C water in a small sauce pan and stir over medium heat until the sugar is dissolved. Remove from heat and add the chocolate. Stir until smooth, then add the butter. Stir until melted. Transfer to a bowl.

Beat eggs, extra sugar, basil puree, and the scraped seeds from the vanilla bean with an electric mixer for 5 to 7 minutes, or until tripled in volume and the mix holds a trail. Fold 1/3 into the chocolate mixture until combined. Gently fold in the remainder until just combined. Pour into a greased base-lined round 20cm tin.

Place the tin in a large baking dish. Fill the baking dish with enough boiling water to come half way up the side of the tin. Bake at 350° for 45 minutes or until the Bette has risen in the center and is slightly domed (should be soft to the touch).

Note: the toothpick method will not work with this recipe. If you stick a toothpick in the center, it should come out gooey.

Remove from the water, cool, then refrigerate overnight. Cut with a hot, dry knife, and dust with cocoa.