Recommendations
Coffee natillas with El Candado Pedro Ximenez Valdespino
The little dishes contain coffee natillas: egg yolks with milk and espresso, infused with cinnamon, vanilla and lemon zest and stirred thick au bain-marie. The Pedro Ximenez sets against it an almost black, very sweet wine that comes from the same mocha register.
From the shelf
The bottle
El Candado comes from Valdespino in Jerez de la Frontera and is a Pedro Ximénez. The grapes are harvested overripe and then laid in the sun on esparto grass mats to turn to raisins; this asoleo lasts at least two weeks and concentrates the sugar so strongly that the wine ends up at about 400 grams of residual sugar per litre, almost double the 212 grams that the Consejo Regulador names as the lower limit for the style. The ageing is fully oxidative, about ten years in old American oak casks in the system of criaderas and solera. The colour is dark mahogany, the bottle is 17 percent ABV and comes in 75 centilitres. The name refers to the little padlock with which the bottle is traditionally closed.
The combination
Why this works together
Coffee in a dessert is a bitter component, and that is exactly where a very sweet wine belongs. The sweetness settles over that bitterness without taking it away, so that the coffee stays flavour instead of sharpness; with about 400 grams of residual sugar per litre, this wine has ample weight for that; with a dessert that is also the condition, because a wine that is less sweet than the plate comes across as harsh and sour. The second layer is aromatic: ten years of oxidative ageing in old oak gives a Pedro Ximenez a dark, almost toasted tone in which mocha, molasses and raisin lie side by side; that is the same register as the espresso in the custard, and the cinnamon and the lemon zest in the milk form the link. Finally, the egg and milk dilute the syrupiness of the wine in the mouth. The Consejo names desserts with lightly bitter components for Pedro Ximenez.
At the table
The dish
- For 4 people
- Ready in 45 minutes, plus a few hours of cooling
- Type dessert
What you need
- 350 ml whole milk
- 150 ml strong coffee or espresso
- 4 egg yolks
- 75 g sugar
- 1 tablespoon cornstarch
- 1 cinnamon stick
- half a vanilla pod
- 1 strip of lemon peel
- 1 pinch of salt
- 4 dry biscuits, to place on top
How to make it
- Put the milk with the cinnamon stick, the split vanilla pod and the lemon zest in a pan. Bring it to just below the boil and then take the pan off the heat.
- Let the mixture stand for fifteen to twenty minutes and then strain it.
- Make the coffee and stir it into the strained milk.
- In a bowl, whisk the egg yolks with the sugar, add the cornflour and a pinch of salt and whisk until smooth.
- Pour the milk and coffee mixture in a thin stream while continuing to whisk, so the mixture stays smooth.
- Heat the whole in a bain-marie, without the water boiling, and keep stirring with a whisk for about ten minutes until the mixture thickens.
- Pour the natillas into small bowls, place a dry biscuit on each bowl and chill them in the fridge for a few hours before you serve them.
In the glass
Serving
Serve this Pedro Ximenez at 12 to 14 degrees according to the Consejo Regulador, in a catavinos or a white wine glass. Keep the serving small: with about 400 grams of residual sugar per litre, a quarter to a third of a glass alongside the dessert is enough. An opened bottle keeps well for a long time; for oxidatively aged sherry the Consejo counts on about two months with the bottle closed and stored cool, and because of the very high sugar content this wine in practice keeps even longer.
Everything about El Candado Pedro Ximenez ValdespinoBack to Recommendations from ’t Bockje
Wij verkopen geen alcohol aan personen onder de 18 jaar. NIX18