Chocolate Flan with Mango and Physalis

Ingredients

• 3 sheets gelatin
• 250 g dark chocolate couverture
• 1 egg
• 2 egg yolks
• 20 ml cognac
• 300 ml heavy cream (at least 30% fat)
• 4 digestive biscuits
• 30 g softened butter
• 1 tbsp sugar
• chocolate shavings
• powdered sugar (for dusting)
• 1 ripe mango (peeled and sliced into thin strips)
• 8 physalis

Instructions

1. 1.

   Soak the gelatin in cold water. Melt the chopped chocolate over a hot, non-boiling water bath. Whisk the egg and yolks over the same water bath until frothy, then stir in the melted chocolate. Add the drained gelatin dissolved in cognac to the chocolate-egg mixture. Stir smoothly and let it cool to hand-warm temperature. Beat the cream stiffly; fold in one-third of it with a rubber spatula, then fold in the rest.

2. 2.

   Fill the mixture into four small molds (about 200 ml each). Place the digestive biscuits in a freezer bag and crush them with a rolling pin. Mix well with softened butter and sugar, flatten on a work surface, cut circles to fit the molds, and place as lids. Cover the molds with foil and refrigerate for at least four hours until set. Before serving, briefly dip the molds in hot water and release onto dessert plates. Decorate with chocolate shavings and powdered sugar, then garnish with mango strips and physalis berries.