Family-Style Chocolate Pots-de-Creme: Yes You Can

I am really fond of baked custard in its many manifestations because it’s both easy and satisfying without generating lots of dirty dishes to clean. Now when we talk about custard, it’s basically milk or cream mixed with sugar, vanilla (and sometimes also chocolate and other flavorings) and thickened with eggs or egg yolks. Flans, pots-de-creme, and crème brûlées are all examples of custard. The custards made with cream are the most rich and the ones made with egg yolks are the most tender. Custards that are meant to be unmolded (such as flan) are made with the addition of whole eggs because the whites make custard firmer. Cheesecake and key lime pie are also in this category. I am not sure how scientific this classification is, but I do know that, no matter how you spin in, a custard is a custard is a custard, and as long as you mix a dairy product with eggs and bake it long enough in a hot water bath, custard you will get. Heck, you can even use eggnog – you won’t believe how good the results are! And, unlike cakes, the exact proportions are really not that important. So if you never made any (and I, for instance, didn’t make any until I was 29), try it! The only way to screw up a custard is by adding your hot cream or milk to your eggs too fast, and as long as you are careful during that step, you are good.

The recipe we’ll be making today is for chocolate pots-de-creme. Now pots-de-creme, or “pots of cream” in name-this-language, are 100% the same as crème brûlée only without the layer of burned sugar on top, as both are made with 100% egg yolks (no whites) and 100% cream. The difference is that the former also comes in chocolate (as well as caramel and other flavors), which makes it particularly thick and rich. Not to mention chocolaty.

It all starts with eggs… my chickens laid these.

Organic Valley is a major hometown business which employs a large number of people in the area, including my husband’s sister. Between that and top quality, I am forever loyal to the brand. But of course any cream will do.

These pots-de-creme use milk chocolate, and I find that cheap kind works as well as any. However, you can make it with bittersweet (add 1-2 T of sugar to the eggs if you do), 50/50 semisweet and bittersweet, 50/50 milk and bittersweet, or whatever other combination suits your fancy. I think the very best approach is to make it with a full 4.4-oz milk chocolate bar and 2 oz of Ghirardelli bittersweet, but, in this case, I decided to go all Hershey’s. Not exactly a hometown brand, but then again, chocolate never is. Not in Wisconsin, anyway.

How 100% pure vanilla extract can contain corn syrup is beyond me, but we were shopping at Woodman’s, and that’s what you get for doing that.

The bottle, however, is exceedingly photogenic, don’t you think?

Anyhow, separate six egg yolks into a bowl. Reserve the whites for another use… or don’t.

Add a little salt… 1/4 t, to be precise.

Add a generous dash of vanilla, and mix everything together in a heat-proof vessel. Set aside.

I am using one-and-a-half 4.4-oz bars here (this is your standard bar, not “giant”).

Cut up the chocolate about so and place it in a bowl. A large Pyrex measuring cup with a pouring lip is ideal.

Now pour 2.5 C of cream into a pot and bring to a simmer.

Pour over the chocolate in a bowl and let stand for 5 minutes, after which stir it until smooth.

Next step (not shown): Very carefully drizzle the hot chocolate-cream mixture into the eggs, whisking vigorously the entire time. Be sure to drizzle the cream in and not pour it so you don’t cook the eggs prematurely, or bad things will happen.

Now pour the mixture through a sieve into a casserole dish big enough to accommodate all the liquid.

This is why you need a sieve – the undissolved pieces of chocolate and chunks of egg must go.

Place your casserole dish into a larger casserole dish.

Now pour boiling water into the larger dish to come half-way up the dish holding the cream-egg mixture.

Bake at 325 degrees F until the knife plunged in the center comes out clean except for a thin film (= with no chunks of the actual custard clinging to the blade), approximately thirty to forty minutes. The center will still be a little wobbly at that point, but it will set as the custard cools.

Remove the custard from its hot water bath and cool completely, then refrigerate for three to four hours. A skin will form on the top. If you don’t want the skin, cover your custards with saran before placing in the fridge. Break through the skin to reach the luxurious, smooth, creamy substance underneath. Serve with whipped cream.

Note: The finished custard shown above is my watered-down version (see recipe below). If you follow the master recipe given here precisely, expect your custard to be darker in color.

Chocolate Pots-de-Creme

Adapted from Martha Stewart Living

• 2.5 C heavy cream
• 6 egg yolks
• 1 1/2 4-oz bar of Hershey’s milk chocolate (this will be really sweet), or 1 bar of Hershey’s and 2 oz of Ghirardelli bittersweet baking chocolate, or 50/50 bittersweet and semi-sweet – your choice. You can also use 100% bittersweet but be sure to add 2 T of granulated sugar to the egg mixture in the recipe.
• 1/4 t salt
• a dash of vanilla

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Place a casserole dish big enough to accommodate the custard  (8 x 8 square or 8″ round) inside a larger dish to hold the water for the hot-water bath.

Place the yolks into a large bowl and whisk in salt, vanilla, and sugar if using. Chop the chocolate and place it into another bowl. Heat cream until it simmers and pour over the chocolate. Let stand for five minutes and then stir until smooth.

Very slowly and carefully drizzle the hot cream-and-chocolate mixture into the egg mixture, whisking constantly. Pour into the smaller casserole dish through a sieve to capture the unwanted chunks of egg and unmelted chocolate. Pour boiling water into the larger dish to come halfway up the inner dish. Bake until the knife inserted in the center comes out clean safe for a thin film (you don’t want chunks of custard). The center will still be a little wobbly at that point. Remove from the water bath and let cool completely, then refrigerate for three to four hours. Serve with whipped cream.

Variations: for a “weaker” custard (if, for instance, you are planning on feeding little kids whose having chocolate results in a mild case of demonic possession), increase the amount of cream to 3.5 C, but expect the chocolate flavor to be somewhat watered-down (which is the point). You do not need to increase the number of yolks, but you might need to bake it a little longer.