Chocolate Hazelnut Espresso Custard Bruleed

I hate the term Creme brulee.. It always sounds so French and hard! It often congers images of tiny portions of boring custards from over priced restaurants

I roughly used a recipe from http://www.dianasdesserts.com/index.cfm/fuseaction/recipes.recipeListing/filter/dia/recipeID/3794/Recipe.cfm

Ingredients:
4 egg yolks
1/3 cup +1 tbsp. granulated sugar
1 1/4 cups heavy cream
2 tsp. hazelnut extract or 1 vanilla bean (I used Kahlua)
(if you do not have the vanilla bean then use 1 tsp. vanilla extract)
4 oz. dark chocolate, chopped (I used bitter sweet chocolate chips)
1 1/2 cups hazelnuts, ground into a paste (this can be easily done in a food processor) I used http://www.bobsredmill.com/hazelnut-flour-meal.html I didn't grind it or anything just put it in
1/3 cup freshly ground espresso (tell the person at Starbucks or Caribou that you need it ground into powder for baking) (I used about 3 tablespoons Instant espresso)
Sugar for topping and bruleeing (is that even a word?)

Preheat the oven to 300

Prepare a double boiler. If you don't have one use a pot of water and a heat proof bowl. (just a little water about an inch in the bottom of a pan then place the other pan or bowl on top and let come to a simmer but not a boil the point is low slow moist heat on the container so it doesn't burn the chocolate. Don't let this part scare you its not as hard as it sounds!

Instructions: Preheat oven to 300 degrees F/150 degrees C. In a double boiler, slowly heat cream, hazelnut or vanilla or Kahlua , espresso, and hazelnut paste (or hazelnut meal) for 10-15 minutes, While this is heating In a separate bowl mix the egg yolks and 1 tablespoon of sugar until smooth and creamy. At this point stir in the chocolate (if you used a vanilla bean remove it now). Stir until melted and the mix is shiny. (this will not be smooth if you use the hazelnut meal but it will be yummy) Remove it from the heat. Then temper the eggs, add a little of the chocolate mix to the eggs and whisk it in, then a little more and a little more until it looks like a lighter version of the chocolate, then combine the remainder. I made one more addition Bottom crust: 1 cup Hazelnut meal 1/3 cup of sugar 3 tablespoons of butter melted Mix them all together and pressed them into the bottom of each of the bowls*. Anyway this filled 4, 4 oz bowls, glass baking dish these fit nicely in placed the bowls inside then filled the bowls. Place the whole thing in the oven and slowly poured hot water in the bottom until it comes about half way up the bowls. I baked this at 300 for about 30 mins. Remove from the water bath and let sit (I used a towel) for about 20 mins to cool (you can let these chill in your fridge but I have no idea how long this will take because I can never wait) Then Lightly coat this with sugar (shake off any excess) if you don't lightly coat it the sugar will puddle and it with taste icky (yes that's a technical term). You can skip this step it will be just as yummy just have a slightly different texture. Okay if you added the sugar, you can use a blow torch if you have one of move the rack in the oven to the highest setting and place the dishes on a baking sheet and turn on your boiler but WATCH because it will burn in the bad way fast! *Ok I have these great little bowls made by pyrex I got years and years ago, they are about 4 ounces and oven safe I use them for soo many things, my favorite is baked eggs. Enjoy! Okay so this is a long complicated recipe with many steps and most people won't even try it. You should know it really is very very easy! It's worth every single step.