I love chocolate! There, I said it! If there is chocolate involved (Except mint chocolate..sorry to mint chocolate lovers!) I am usually right there. Random searching and I found an article about pot de creme. My first though: Pot of cream? Ok, so after reading about it, I found that it is a far more luxurious version, of the humble pudding. Of course, I had to make some. So, I decided to surprise my husband (who asks me to make more dark chocolate–healthier), with this fancy treat. I served it in these cute little espresso cups, that I had received from my wedding (Thank you, Ari and Joe!) and topped it with some soft whipped cream.
Ingredients:
4 oz of dark chocolate (GOOD Quality baking chocolate), chopped finely
1/2 teaspoon of instant espresso
pinch of salt
1 cup of heavy cream
3 tablespoons of sugar
1/2 teaspoon of vanilla extract
1/4 cup of heavy cream (for whipping later)
Cocoa powder (for decoration)
Directions:
- Placed chopped dark chocolate in a mixing bowl
- In a saucepan, bring 1 cup heavy cream to a boil (Important, make sure you stay with the pan…heavy cream has a tendency to boil over)
- Once it is boiled, lower the heat and add espresso, salt, sugar and vanilla extract and stir well.
- Pour hot cream over chopped chocolate and whisk until all the chocolate is melted
- Pour mixture into small espresso cups and tap the sides of the cup, to remove any bubbles
- Refrigerate for at least 5 hours
- When ready to serve, whisk 1/4 cup of heavy cream until foamy and pour over each pot de creme
- Dust tops of cream with cocoa powder.
If refrigerated enough and you boil the cream properly, you should get a rich, thick chocolate pudding. Mine came out delicious, although it didn’t set..I have some ideas on what to do next time. I believe that I did not allow the cream to actually boil (a mistake I sometimes make with custards). I also didn’t use a very good quality chocolate (it was all I could find at the store) and the dessert had a bit of grittiness to it. But the flavor was absolutely wonderful. I am definitely going to make this again.