Coffee Caramel Pots de Crème
Pots de Crème is a classic Paris Dining Club dessert. Our signature is milk chocolate pots de crème, but for our Sunday Supper in Dijon menu, we’re serving coffee and caramel.
These “pots of cream” can be made a few days ahead of time, making them ideal to serve for a relaxed Sunday evening dinner party. When the time feels right, pull them from your fridge and set them out for your guests to help themselves.
Coffee Caramel Pots de Crème
Serves 6-8
Our tips for success:
This recipe uses the wet sand method for making caramel. And it’s exactly what it sounds like: add water to the sugar until it has the look and texture of wet sand. Once you begin to heat it, don’t stir and don’t walk away! The caramel can go pretty far (but not burnt!) until it’s deep amber in color. Be sure to have your cream and milk mixture warm as adding cold cream will seize the caramel.
A good substitution is to use instant coffee or instant espresso to the warming cream. Feel free to adjust the amount to your liking.
One last tip: be sure your espresso or tea cups are oven-safe. Ramekins will work, of course, but we think the espresso cups are just darling.
Ingredients
1 cup sugar (for the caramel)
water as needed (for the caramel)
¾ tsp corn syrup (for the caramel)
2 ¾ cups cream
1 cup milk
½ vanilla bean, scraped
3 tbsp + 2 tsp sugar
3/4- 1 tsp salt (to taste)
9 egg yolks
1 tsp coffee extract (or 3-4 tbsp instant coffee)*
Equipment
2 sauce pans
mixing bowl
whisk
oven-safe espresso or tea cups (or ramekins)
baking pan
aluminum foil
Preparation
Scald the cream, milk, vanilla bean and pod, 3 tbsp + 2 tsp sugar, and salt to a simmer over medium heat. If you're using instant coffee, add it now.* Remove the vanilla bean pod. Keep the cream warm on low heat. Taste the cream and adjust with the instant coffee.
Whisk the egg yolks in a bowl until smooth.
Meanwhile, use the wet sand method to make a caramel: add 1 cup of sugar to a pot with the corn syrup. Add just enough water (about 1/4 cup) to the sugar until it looks like wet sand.
Place the pan on medium heat and allow the wet sand to slowly caramelize. Do not stir. If needed, swirl the pan gently to distribute the heat. You can also use a pastry brush dipped in water to brush down sugar crystals from the sides of the pan.
When the caramel is evenly a deep amber, immediately remove from the burner. Add in about half of the cream as the mixture will begin to bubble up. Whisk, add the remaining cream, and whisk until smooth.
Pour half of the caramel cream into the egg yolks, whisking until smooth. Add the rest of the cream to the eggs and whisk again. If you're using coffee extract, add it in now to taste.*
Pass the coffee caramel custard through a chinois or fine-mesh strainer.
Preheat the oven to 325ºF.
Evenly space espresso or tea cups in a 9x13" cake pan or other baking pan with higher sides. Fill the espresso cups with the coffee caramel custard, leaving a little room before the lip.
Cover the cake pan with aluminum foil, leaving one corner unsealed. Poke a few holes in the top to let out steam. Open the door to your oven and slide out the rack. Place the pan on the rack.
Add hot water (a kettle works great for this!) to the pan until the comes halfway up to the espresso cups. Seal the aluminum foil and carefully slide the oven rack back. Close the oven door. (Adding the water while the pan is already in the oven avoids blindly sloshing the water into the cups, which would ruin the custard.)
Bake the pots de crème for 18-25 minutes or until the custard is set with a slight jiggle in the center. Remove from the oven and remove the aluminum foil. Allow to cool for 10 minutes in the water bath before removing. (If you're worried you slightly overcooked the pot de crème because the center is completely set, remove from the water bath immediately.)
Transfer the espresso cups to the fridge. Allow to chill for 2 hours before serving. If you're making them ahead, chill for 2 hours or until fully chilled, then wrap each espresso cup with plastic wrap to avoid any skin forming.
Serve the pots de crème on saucers with a demitasse spoon. Garnish with a few flakes of finishing salt.
Questions about the recipes? Email britt@parisdiningclub.com
