A Perfected Pot De Crème Recipe
A classic French dessert, chocolate pot de creme has a rich, silky smooth texture and luxurious taste. I like to think of it as the chocolatey, un-bruleed cousin to creme brulee. If you’ve ever wanted to make pot de creme but felt too intimidated to, this recipe is for you! I’ll walk you through each step of the way and provide plenty of tips and tricks so you can make this impressive dessert with ease.
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
Fancy, yet approachable. If you love desserts that look impressive, but are actually quite simple to make (like profiteroles or cheesecake bars!) you’ll enjoy this recipe, too. Incredible creamy texture. While I avoid using water baths where possible, a water bath (bain-marie) proved to be essential to preserving the creamy texture here. Great for making in advance! Make it the day before, then add any toppings and serve the next day. Smooth, never grainy results, thanks to my tested technique. I talk a bit more about this below.
Many recipes will have you finely chop your chocolate and pour steaming cream overtop to melt it. This method works fine… sometimes, but unfortunately it can also leave you with tiny, unmelted grains of chocolate. These end up making an appearance in the final product, which ruins the silky smooth texture we’re aiming for. I found a work around by first melting the chocolate by itself, then gradually adding the steaming cream mixture to it. It’s simple, effective, and results in the perfect texture.
Ingredients
This pot de creme recipe keeps the ingredients to a minimum with just seven required.
Chocolate. The quality of your chocolate is so important here – don’t use chocolate chips! High quality baking chocolate is best. I recommend 60% cacao, but you can use semisweet if that’s all you can find (your chocolate pot de creme will just be sweeter!). Cream and milk. I like to use a combination of milk and heavy cream for a perfect texture; I found that using all cream made the resulting custard a bit too thick for my liking. Eggs. Ideally these will be at room temperature, but if you forget, use my trick for bringing eggs to room temperature quickly. If you don’t want to waste your egg whites, save them to make my angel food cupcakes or lemon cake! Toppings. Fresh berries, mint sprigs, edible flowers, a dusting of cocoa or powdered sugar, or whipped cream and chocolate shavings – all are great toppings for this chocolate pot de creme recipe.
SAM’S TIP: For an even darker/more bitter flavor, add a pinch of espresso powder when you pour the cream and milk over the chocolate. Remember, this is just an overview of the ingredients I used and why. For the full recipe please scroll down to the bottom of the post!
How to Make Chocolate Pot De Crème
SAM’S TIP: Since this is a rich dessert, feel free to use smaller ramekins (I use 8oz). Just note that your baking time will likely be reduced. You could also use glass jars or espresso cups. Enjoy! Let’s bake together! Subscribe to my newsletter to be notified of all the newest recipes, and find my free recipe tutorials on YouTube 💜
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