If you’ve ever made pot de crème, you’re likely comfortable baking with a water bath: setting vessels filled with custard (egg + milk) in a larger pan, filling the pan with hot water, then setting the pan in an oven to bake slowly. There’s nothing hard about it, but it does require planning: custards typically bake for 45 minutes to an hour, then often chill for about 8 hours before serving. Last fall, I had hoped to make chocolate pot de crème for a French bistro cooking class I was teaching at the Hillsdale General Store. If I made them the traditional way, it would have been a logistical challenge: making one batch ahead of time, shlepping it to Hillsdale, making a fresh batch, shlepping that one home.
A Faster Way to Pot de Crème
My dilemma made me wonder: is there a faster way to pot de crème? It turns out yes. After a bit of Googling, I found two recipes, one from Fine Cooking, the other from Cook’s Illustrated, each calling for making the custards stovetop. What I loved about the Fine Cooking recipe was that it was written to serve 2 people, so if it didn’t turn out well, it wouldn’t have been a huge investment in ingredients. I made it immediately, and it worked beautifully — easy to throw together, and after an hour of chilling, it was ready. For the class at Hillsdale, we made the pot de crème first, and by the end of class, they were ready. Everyone raved, and I’ve since made the recipe for many occasions.
Stovetop Chocolate Pot de Crème
The beauty of making pot de crème on the stovetop is:
No need to plan ahead: You can make whisk this together just before dinner, and it will be ready to be served by the end — an hour in the fridge is all it needs.Scalability: you can make it for 2 or for 20.Keeping power: If you have the time to plan ahead, these can be made several days in advance and stored in the fridge until needed.
Happy Valentine’s Day, Lovebirds! PS: More Desserts here | More Valentine’s Day ideas here Here’s the play-by-play: Gather your ingredients: Separate the yolks from the whites; you need 8 yolks. (Save the whites for angel food cake.): Temper the yolks: slowly whisk the hot cream and milk mixture into the yolks: Return the custard to the stovetop and cook until it coats the back of a spoon: Add the chocolate, sugar, and vanilla: Whisk to combine: Strain to remove any curdled egg: Pour into glasses and chill until ready to serve: Meanwhile, make the whipped cream: Whip until thick… then spoon it into the glasses: Shave chocolate over top if you wish: If you’ve made the pot de crème ahead of time, bring them to room temperature at least 30 minutes before serving. 5 from 20 reviews See notes below if you’d like to make this for only 2 people. I recently made a double batch of this for a Valentine’s Day dinner at the Vischer Ferry General Store. For a double batch, I added 1/2 cup Grand Marnier, and I thought it turned out especially well. I also use Guittard 72% chocolate wafers, which also attributed to its especially nice flavor. These are the glasses I used to serve the pot de crème in: 5 oz. Libbey Lexington Juice Glass. You have to buy a case, which has 36 glasses, which is a lot, but they are so handy for water, wine, all sorts of desserts. I’ve split a case with a friend in the past only to buy another full case to have on hand. If you want to buy fewer glasses, these are similar and you can buy fewer (12).
