A few months ago, I decided to tackle pots de creme. For anyone who doesn't know, a pot de creme is a baked custard; similar to a creme brulee, although typically with a lower fat content and of course, no brulee. While creme brulee is usually made with heavy cream only, pots de creme use a blend of heavy cream and whole milk. Although the process might seem a bit daunting to a first-timer, (I know using a water bath might seem threatening at first) they are actually very easy to make and the flavoring options are endless.
I'll do a variety of chocolate pots de creme on a different day, but for now, here is a lovely and different pot from Daniel Boulud's Cafe cookbook. I'm not going to reprint it because it can easily be found here at FoodNetwork.com.
You should try this recipe because the technique for flavoring the cream is important to learn, I think; making and breaking caramel. Making a caramel is essential to many recipes, namely gastrique (basically a sauce made by making a caramel and then breaking it with vinegar or other acidic ingredient - lemon, verjus, etc). I think learning this is important because when you make something with a lot of sugar, and you cook it too long - say you wanted soft ball but ended up with hard ball - you can save your mixture by adding more liquid to it to lower the temperature and bring the stage of caramelization back to where you want it to be, provided it hasn't burned. This happened the first time I made tri-pepper preserve. My first attempt ended up in a solid block. I put it back on the heat to melt it a bit, and then, by adding vinegar and water, brought it back into a liquid stage and then to a thread stage, where I wanted it. For really helpful information on cooking with sugar, check out the Sugar Association's website.
In this recipe, you roughly grind coffee beans together with cardamom pods, and then cook them with sugar until you have a dark amber caramel, at which point you add cream. The mixture seizes into a rock-hard lump; you might think that you will never get this mess off your pan, but relax; all that has happened is that the cold cream has shocked the caramel into hardening; as the cream heats, it will melt the caramel, distributing it throughout the cream, and releasing it from the pan. It's one of those times in the kitchen when you have to be fearless and realize that you are doing just fine.
These pots have a very unusual but endearing flavor; any fan of Middle Eastern cuisine will fall in love with their charm. Coffee and cardamom are such an intriguing combination; cardamom is completely underrated in American cuisine, as far as I am concerned. Serve along with a light, crisp cookie for a nice juxtaposition of textures; these pots are pure silk.
A note about the recipe: I was out of heavy cream, and instead substituted half and half for the heavy cream/whole milk mixture. This might have made the texture a little lighter. Also, if you are going to cover the pan with plastic wrap before baking, cover the pan first in plastic and then with aluminum foil, and then poke holes in the top. This will keep the plastic from melting all over everything. These are best after a 24 hour solidifying and flavor-blending period in the fridge, and should set out at room temperature for 20 minutes or so before eating. These really do pack quite a caffeine punch - a cup of beans in 6 servings - and would make a great end to a dinner that included a lot of wine!
Yum!
