Mocha Creme Brulee

A silky custard with notes of coffee and chocolate topped with a crisp sugar crust.

10 g espresso roast coffee beans, lightly cracked but not ground
2 oz semi-sweet chocolate
2 2/3 C cream
5 egg yolks
5 T sugar
2-3 t vanilla extract
light brown sugar to top

Pre-heat the oven to 300 degrees. Heat the creme, chocolate, and coffee beans in the top of a double boiler while mixing with a whisk to combine. Continue to heat the double boiler (without boiling the cream) until the coffee flavor has been introduced; meanwhile, whisk the egg yolks and sugar until light. Slowly pour the cream in to the egg yolks, whisking continuously to prevent cooking the yolks. Whisk in the vanilla. Strain the mixture to remove the coffee grounds before pouring in to ramekins. Place the ramekins in to a pan and pour hot water around the ramekins to about half way up their sides. Bake these until a knife inserted in the center of the custard comes out almost clean (there should be some custard on it, but metal should be visible). This takes ~40 minutes, depending on oven and ramekin size. Remove from the oven and allow to cool before refrigerating for at least 3 hours.
To serve, apply a thin layer of brown sugar to the top and caramelize with a cooking torch; this can be done under a broiler, but the results will be inferior. Alternatively judicious application of a workshop propane torch could also work.