The Post Mortem

and Christine's Tahini Chocolate Pots de Crème

Last weekend was a dream.¹ Twelve of us gathered together for a day of writing prompts, sharing, eating, walking, laughing and reflecting. We made new friends, saw old ones, and through it all explored writing through the lens of food, my favourite thing to do.

I’m now sitting in my little room,² executing a post mortem on the event. It sounds morbid, naming the critique of an event after an autopsy, but it’s important to note what made it great and what we can tweak for next time while the body is still fresh. I begin with hostessing details:

- Lindsay, make sure you have milk and cream ready by the coffee twenty minutes BEFORE people arrive, not five minutes after

-bring an apron, if not you’ll end up in a faded Thelma and Louise number found at the bottom of the tea towel drawer

-allow more time for lunch, and more time for walking after lunch

And perhaps not a post mortem item, but I also scratched down,

-make Christine’s tahini and chocolate pots de crème

Christine made the little desserts the night before and slid them into the fridge before I knew what was happening. This meant that after a generous lunch³ of salads and seared scallops as fat as tea biscuits, she stole away and topped each dessert with a quenelle of whipped cream and a crumbling of sesame snaps. It was a ‘fast-fancy’ moment, as Christine would call it - velvety smooth milk chocolate custard with a hint of sesame served in my mother-in-law’s gold-rimmed tea cups.⁴

Earlier that morning we explored early food memories. Certain scenes were fresh in my mind, like the chewy granola bars my sister Sally and I had seen on American television commercials and desperately wanted them for ourselves. I have no idea how we watched those commercials with the three local channels on our television, but we were obsessed. Every Saturday after highland dancing lessons we’d walk home via the grocery store and comb the packaged snacks aisle, me in a maroon Sassoon sweatshirt and leg warmers, Sally in a yellow sweatsuit. Hard, crunchy oatmeal bars were all we knew as tiny consumers. Someday this new taste sensation, laden in something malleable to make the ingredients soft for months of the shelf, would come north to our east coast city and we wanted to be there the moment it happened. This was the early ‘80’s; Sally was nine, she even had a purse.

Over lunch last weekend, as I savoured the smooth chocolate custard topped with a crunch of sesame, my early memories of scouring for American groceries were replaced with something else- sesame snaps. I knew about those thin little crispy sweet wafers sold in single-serving plastic packages growing up, but I rarely ate them. Were they too in the packaged snack aisle of the grocery store? How were those little packets sold anyway? I can’t recall, but I do remember snacking on a pack in my boyfriend’s university dorm room one afternoon. I had found them on his desk, innocuous enough, and helped myself. It was the perfect post-lecture crunch and sweetness I needed. “My sesame snaps!” he cried as he walked into the room. I didn’t know they were his favourite snack and a rare delight sent by his mother in Ontario. By then the grocery borders were wide open and most things, including sesame snaps, had reached our east coast grocery shelves. I found a replacement package at the corner store near campus. That was the last time I ate sesame snaps.

And now that sweet, crunchy taste was taking on a new role in this dessert: teasing out the tahini in the chocolate custard and adding crunch to the whipped cream on top. And this, I thought as I savoured each delicate bite, is the power of food as a tool for memory. A simple thing like chewy granola bars or crisp candied sesame seeds can take you to another place, another time, and another version of yourself.

Tahini Chocolate Pots de Crème having a Wayne Thiebaud moment Photo: Aimée Wimbush-Bourque

Here it is friends, Christine’s Tahini Chocolate Pots de Crème from her latest book, Easy Does It. Christine calls this sort of dessert fast-fancy. My sister Jessie made it earlier this week for a family dinner and wow, it was fancy and fast. I sat at my kitchen counter in a lovely reversal of roles, watching as she whizzed chopped milk chocolate and tahini with the warm custard and poured the mixture into little glass cups. And like Christine, when it was time for dessert she pulled the little cups out of the fridge with ease and grace. Such a hit.

TAHINI CHOCOLATE POTS DE CRÈME - from Christine Flynn’s latest book, Easy Does It

Makes 8 Pots de Creme

2½ cups (625 mL) heavy cream

6 egg yolks

2 tablespoons (30 mL) sugar

Pinch of salt

9 ounces (255 g) milk chocolate

2 tablespoons (30 mL) tahini

Whipped Cream and Toasted Sesame Seeds to serve (or Sesame Snaps!)

In a medium saucepan over medium heat, combine the cream, egg yolks, sugar, and salt. Whisk to combine. Using a spatula, stir briskly while the yolks thicken. Continue stirring until the mixture coats the back of a spoon. Remove from heat.

Place the chocolate and tahini in a high-speed blender. Pour the cream mixture over top. Turn the blender on low speed and gradually increase the speed to high. Let the blender run on high for about 2 minutes, until everything is fully combined and smooth. Divide the mixture evenly among 8 individual ramekins, martini glasses, or cups. Place them in the refrigerator to set for at least 4 hours or overnight.

Top with additional whipped cream, toasted sesame seeds and/or a dusting of cocoa!

1. Let me know if you’d like to be put on the list for next time :)

2. This room from last week…

3. Soak it up over here

4. Thank you Rose for sharing your house with us. Tell me, where did that Thelma and Louise apron come from anyway?