Chocolate-Caramel Pot de Creme: a plated dessert component

The other day a commenter asked if I would post the recipe for the chocolate-caramel pot de creme I made in lieu of the Hotel Chocolat recipe which did not work because of a recipe writing mis-hap. I said that I would but I had little time to write out all the instructions. If you know how to make creme anglaise, you will have no problem with this recipe.

I am going to do something I have rarely done-- I am giving you the recipe straight out of my little plated dessert component book. I keep a notebook on me for recipe writing and testing and notes and dates to keep track of changes and particulars. When we have a recipe we know works and we know all the details of the plated dessert: production notes, portion sizes, servings per recipe etc., I type it up and put it in the master book binder.

There are little to no method/ instructions in the book-ette because unless a method is completely new to me and my staff, we all know the basics of (Western centric) baking and can figure it out after its list of ingredients, especially if the order was thought out in terms of the method. See more information on this subject here.

I realize not all of you will be able to follow this recipe, but I figure it will be a new one for the repertoire for those who can and something to look forward to for those who come and eat my desserts or learn more about baking. Without further ado:

CHOCOLATE-CARAMEL POT DE CREME

73% CHOCOLATE   12 oz
55% CHOCOLATE   3 oz

WHOLE MILK   1.5 C
HEAVY CREAM   3 C
SUPERFINE SUGAR  dash

YOLKS   8 ea
CREAM CARAMEL   125 grams
DARK BROWN SUGAR   .25 C
KOSHER OR LIMA SEA SALT   to taste (more if the caramel is not salted)

* finely chop chocolate and set in large wide mouthed bowl
* attach chinois or fine meshed sieve over this bowl
* bring dairy & dash of sugar to boil (do not whisk or stir!), shut off heat
* whisk yolks with caramel, dk brn sugar and a large dash of salt,
* temper yolks with hot liquid, spatula into pot again and bring to nappe-- you can err on overcooking anglaise a bit.
* pour anglaise into chinois and over chocolates
* let bowl of liquid/chocolate sit for a few minutes before whisking in tight concentric circles, from the middle out, until uniform
* pour into desired vessels, taste for further seasoning, and refrigerate overnight

I am serving this component in a glass ramekin with salted cream caramel, spiced red wine poached Black Mission figs, fig poaching jus, caramel chantilly, and a chocolate-almond salad.

Enjoy!

Comments

[Jennywenny]

Looks great! Perfect for my thanksgiving meal, I was thinking of some kind of custardy thing but I'm not too hot on regular custard.

Do you have a caramel cream recipe that you might share?

[MEJ]

Yum. This sounds so good. But I am not sure what is missing -- seems as if plenty of instruction here, and I am no expert! Thanks.

[Tommy]

Sounds tasty. Instructions seem adequate. Will give it a try...

[mel]

Can you clarify what you mean by cream caramel? Thanks.

[shuna fish lydon]

Jennywenny & Mel,

Look here for a recipe for and explaining cream caramel.

Tommy! Wondrous to hear from you!! Lemme know how it goes!

Maybe you'll want to wear it on your naked body during the next naked PDX bike ride?

[John]

"Whisk in tight concentric circles from the middle out" What does this specific type of mixing bring out?

I don't know how to make my question less agressive. :-(

I love th blog (and your desserts!)

John

[shuna fish lydon]

John--

It's important to do this to get maximum emulsification. When you just try and mix the whole thing together it all has to work harder, it might break and the chocolate might not be able to marry with the anglaise as well.

It's a ganache trick, but I find that then there's a larger amount of liquids than solids, it's a good technique to know.

[kayenne]

from what i understood from the cream caramel link, it's a basic caramel sauce without the butter?

aside from preventing crystalization, what else would the corn syrup do? would it help keep the emulsion from breaking? i sometimes have this problem when adding butter to caramel sauce.

i'm getting dizzy just reading the recipe... i could almost feel the silkiness sliding down my throat. this would be wonderful with mangosteen sauce!

[John]

Shuna:

thanks for the explanation! (writes furiously in his notebook.)

John

[Brian]

Thanks for posting this! At first I read it and was like, this seems very essential to sit among your other desserts, but then you describe the rest of the plate and it not only made sense, but was like, oh! A neat insight into your thought process when building a new entire dessert.

On that topic, I'm totally stealing your poached pears / buckwheat cake / brown butter creme anglaise for a dinner party I'm having this weekend. Well, or creating it based just on that description and what I know how to do. I swear, it's imitation=flattery in this case. Half the reason I'm making it is because I didn't get to have it when I ate there, and the other half is I want to impress my guests. :)

Buckwheat's a funny grain. I never thought of it as being so pronounced, just kind of warm and grainy with a bit of green or bitterness or something. But then I started testing recipes and found I have to use it very sparingly combined with AP flour or else it's totally unpalatable. Kind of like using mesquite flour -- but I know mesquite flour (or meal or whatever) is like that, totally overwhelming. I never thought of buckwheat in the same way.

I had a lot of fun buying one each of all the varieties of pears I can get here and poaching them ala Alice Waters. And then even more fun eating them. The winner was the Concorde, of what I could get here in Austin.

Maybe adding roast chestnuts if those have made their way down here from California by then. It's hard to cook what I think of as "autumn/winter" in Austin because the produce in season here is nothing like what I'm used to. I'd just be eating okra and jalapenos if I stayed local.