Chocolate Pots de Crème, Baked Slow in a Water Bath
A pot de crème is a baked custard with no crust, no starch and nowhere to hide. It is cream, egg yolks, a little sugar and a good dark bar, baked slowly in a water bath until the edges set and the center still trembles, then chilled until it turns dense and spoonable, somewhere between a mousse and a truffle. The chocolate does most of the work, so the bar matters. A 70 percent single-origin bar gives the custard a flavor you can name, and the craft chocolate guide is the place to choose one. The arithmetic is convenient: three 56-gram bars, such as the Dandelion, make 168 grams, and that is one batch of six.
The water bath is the method. Water cannot get hotter than its boiling point, so the bath shields the outside of each pot from the oven's heat while the center catches up. At 5,280 feet that ceiling drops, and the recipe below allows for it.
Ingredients, for six
- 170 g (6 oz) dark chocolate, 70 percent, chopped fine; three 56 g bars is 168 g, close enough
- 360 ml (1 1/2 cups) heavy cream
- 120 ml (1/2 cup) whole milk
- 5 large egg yolks
- 50 g (1/4 cup) granulated sugar
- 1 pinch fine sea salt
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract, or the seeds of a quarter of a vanilla pod
- To serve: lightly whipped cream and a few flakes of sea salt
For the bar, a Dandelion Kokoa Kamili 70% (shop Dandelion Kokoa Kamili 70%) leans bright and fruity; an Amano Dos Rios 70% (shop Amano Dos Rios 70%) tastes of orange and bergamot. For the vanilla, extract is fine, and a whole pod steeped in the cream is better.
Method
- Set up. Heat the oven to 300 °F with a rack in the middle. Put the kettle on. Set six 4-ounce ramekins or pots in a baking dish with sides at least as tall as the ramekins.
- Melt the chocolate into the cream. Put the chopped chocolate in a heatproof bowl. Bring the cream, milk and salt (and the vanilla seeds and scraped pod, if using) just to a simmer, then pour it over the chocolate. Wait one minute, then stir from the center outward until smooth and glossy. Remove the pod.
- Combine gently. In a second bowl, whisk the yolks and sugar just until combined. Stir rather than beat, because air whisked in now becomes bubbles on the finished surface. Pour the warm chocolate cream into the yolks in a thin stream, stirring the whole time, so the yolks warm gradually. Stir in the vanilla extract, if using.
- Strain and fill. Strain the custard through a fine sieve into a pitcher, skim off any foam with a spoon, and divide it among the ramekins.
- Build the bath. Put the dish on the oven rack first, then pour hot water from the kettle into it until the water comes halfway up the sides of the ramekins. Pouring in the oven avoids carrying a sloshing pan across the kitchen. Cover the dish loosely with foil so the tops stay soft and do not form a skin.
- Bake and test. Bake 30 to 40 minutes, or 35 to 45 in Denver. Start checking at 30. Nudge the dish: the edges should be set and the center should wobble in a circle about the size of a quarter, like a just-set gelatin. An instant-read thermometer in the center of one pot should read at least 160 °F. The custard keeps setting as it cools, so a pot that looks fully firm in the oven will be overdone in the fridge.
- Chill. Lift the ramekins out of the water with tongs or a towel, let them cool to room temperature on a rack, then cover and refrigerate at least 3 hours, until cold all the way through. Serve cold, with a spoon of barely whipped cream and a few flakes of salt.
At altitude
Two things change in Denver, and both are about the water. First, the bath is cooler. Water at 5,000 feet boils at about 203 °F instead of 212 °F, so the bath protects the custard from a lower ceiling. The pots can take a few minutes longer to reach the center temperature, and the Denver time range above allows for that. Second, water evaporates faster at elevation, so check the bath halfway through and top it up from the kettle if it has dropped below a third of the way up the ramekins. The oven temperature stays the same. More on the physics is in the cooking at altitude guide.
Why it went wrong
| Symptom | Cause | Fix |
|---|---|---|
| Grainy or weeping, with liquid around the edge | Overbaked; the egg proteins tightened and squeezed out liquid | Pull the pots while a quarter-sized center still wobbles. Start checking at 30 minutes |
| Still liquid after chilling | Underbaked, or the bath water was cold | Bake until the center reads at least 160 °F, and fill the bath from a just-boiled kettle |
| Bubbles or foam on the surface | The yolks were beaten, not stirred | Stir gently, strain, and skim before filling. A kitchen torch passed quickly over the tops pops the rest |
| A thick skin on top | No foil over the bath | Cover the dish loosely with foil during baking; cover the pots in the fridge |
| Too sweet, flat | A low-percentage bar with the full sugar | Use a 70 percent bar; the sugar here is balanced for it. The chocolate percentage guide explains what the number means |
| Bath nearly dry in Denver | Faster evaporation at elevation | Check at the halfway mark and top up with hot water |
Notes and variations
Make ahead. The pots are better the next day and hold, covered, in the refrigerator for up to three days. That makes this the dinner-party dessert that is finished before the guests arrive.
Vanilla. A pod steeped in the hot cream reads as warmth rather than as vanilla, which is the point. The full story of the pod and its cure is in Vanilla: The Complete Guide. Coffee. A teaspoon of instant espresso stirred into the hot cream deepens the chocolate, and at that amount the coffee barely registers. Orange. Steep a strip of orange peel with the cream and remove it before pouring. Salt. The flakes on top are not garnish. A few crystals against the cold custard are the best bite in the pot.
Halving. The recipe halves to three pots: use 85 g of chocolate (one and a half bars), 180 ml cream, 60 ml milk, 25 g sugar and 3 yolks (rounded up from 2 1/2), and start checking at 25 minutes.
The chocolate and the vanilla are at 263 Josephine Street in Cherry Creek, Denver, and ship nationwide from theambrosianpantry.com.
Sources & Further Reading
- Harold McGee, On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen (Scribner, 2004), chapter 2, "Eggs": custards and creams
- USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service: Shell Eggs from Farm to Table
- USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service: Leftovers and Food Safety
- Colorado State University Extension: High Elevation Food Preparation Guide
- Rink and Thibodeaux, Introduction to Baking and Pastries (LibreTexts), 1.6: Custards
- Crafty Baking: Waterbath, Water Bath or Bain Marie
- The Pantry Dispatch: Craft Chocolate, The Complete Guide
- The Pantry Dispatch: Cooking at Altitude
