Kitchen Notes-menue and chocolate cinnamon custard

Last night I had-

• Split Pea Soup with Ham Hock
• Savoy Cabbage and Carrot Slaw with Creamy Blue Cheese Dressing
• Chocolate Cinnamon Custard

The custard was a recipe from the Fanny Farmer Cookbook which I tweaked a bit. Here's what I did.

2 egg yolks

3 eggs

1/2 c. agava ( was sugar)

1/8 tsp. salt

3 c. scaled half and half (was milk)

1 1/2 tsp. vanilla

1/2 tsp. cinnamon (was nutmeg)

1 1/2 oz. unsweetened chocolate melted in milk while it is being heated

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Place 8 custard cups in a large pan and fill pan with hot water up to 1". (recipe buttered cups, I didn't)

Beat yolks and eggs together just enough to blend. Stir in agava or sugar, cinnamon and salt and slowly add hot milk and melted chocolate. (the chocolate didn't all melt, so next time I need to either chop up the chocolate in smaller pieces or melt is separately. Also the cinnamon didn't blend in it separated, so need to solve that problem. In the original recipe she sprinkled nutmeg on top.)

Add vanilla. Strain into a large measuring cup or bowl with a spout so you can pour it into the cups without spilling. (Barefoot Contessa says you need to strain because you can get a skin on the milk.) Bake for 30 mins. (Take out when it is still jiggly or it will be over baked, it will thicken up a lot as it cools.) (Next time I'm going to try this with the milk as it seemed a little too dense, but it may be because I did over bake it.)