A pot de creme = homemade chocolate pudding. It’s creme brulee, with chocolate, without burnt sugar. It’s richer and more grown-up (but, conversely, less comforting) than regular, cooked chocolate puddings.
I used this recipe on New Year’s Day.* Although it only coughs up eight tiny, miniscule, itsy-bitsy, possibly even fussy (because you really should use separate containers, to prevent 1) overcooking and 2) fights) little puddings, think of it as eight large pieces of cake worth of calories, condensed. And totally low-carb.**
Now, the important element here is the chocolate. I used two bars of Green & Black’s Maya Gold. Dark, dark chocolate, still my biased favorite. The pots de creme were dark. Ray didn’t like it; it was too bitter. I loved it. Everyone else, I think, was too full to care, and, admittedly, they don’t like chocolate as much as I do.
But it almost called out for more bitterness. Coffee bitterness. I’m thinking you could really get down into the primal flavor of coffee + chocolate with this stuff. What’s your favorite espresso drink? (Well, honestly, mine’s a good cappuccino, but that’s almost more about the texture and the way it sinks into the cockles of your heart like a good chicken noodle soup than it is about a particular flavor. Almost.) But anyway, the interplay of chocolate and coffee should be pretty yummy here.
If I live, I will let you know.
*Alterations:
- I melted the chocolate with the milk and did not quite reach a simmer; did not strain through sieve as the temp never hit high enough to mess with the milk proteins.
- Didn’t use boiling water, only hot (which may have affected cooking time).
- I raised the temperature to 350F after 45 minutes of the damned things not setting up. I’m halfway up a mountain; YMMV.
- I normally throw creme brulees almost immediately in the fridge and end up with small cracks, which the sugar covers. I actually left the pots out on the counter for an hour as directed, no cracks. La! Let the light shine through the crack in my head 🙂
**Ha! I almost had you there, didn’t I?