Pots de Creme

Okay, remember how I said I was looking for some comfort food? This was not it. In fact I couldn't even get this to become "food" in the first place. I made a half batch because with only my little family I didn't want 10 mason jars of chocolate sitting around for me to eat :)

I followed her ingredients and instructions completely except that I used very hot, very strong hot chocolate instead of coffee. But I have to say that I've made pots de creme before and I was really surprised that she didn't have any cream and/milk or extra sugar and didn't cook it. For several reasons...1) I had a really hard time melting the chocolate with the just really hot chocolate, 2) It wasn't really sweet, 3) Milk is a pretty common base for pudding and pots de creme-pots of cream is the English translation, 4) Pots de creme is traditionally a cooked dessert unlike pudding which is cooked over the stove, 5) There is no earthly way that this recipe would make 10-12 servings unless they were medicine cup sized, and 6) Did anyone notice the picture above step 3? The blender definitely has some sort of milk or cream in it.

I think that this recipe is missing some ingredients and some steps. So just don't try it. Trust me it will not work. FAIL. :(

Below I did post the recipe from Dorie Greenspan (my authority for all things baking), in case you still wanted to try these, I've done this before and know for sure that it works. (Compare it to Ree's version).

Ingredients:

4 oz bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped
1 1/2 cups heavy cream
1 1/2 cups whole milk
1 large egg
5 large egg yolks
Pinch of salt

Directions:

1) Center a rack in the oven, preheated to 300. Line a large roasting pan with a double thickness of paper towels the put 8- 4 ounce ramekins in the pan. Fill a teakettle with water and boil it.

2) Put the chopped chocolate in a 2 qt glass measuring cup. Bring 1/2 cup of the cream to a boil. When the cream is just at a boil, pour it over the chocolate and wait for a minute. Using a rubber spatula and starting in the center of the bowl, gently stir the cream and the chocolate until the ganache is smooth; set aside.

3) Stir the remaining1 cup of cream and the milk together in a small saucepan and bring to a boil.

4) Meanwhile in a large glass bowl, whisk the egg, yolks, sugar, and salt together until pale and slightly thickened. Still whisking, slowly drizzle a little of the hot liquid into the eggs to temper them. Slowly pour in the remaining liquid and then slowly whisk the egg mixture into the ganache, stirring gently to incorporate.

5) With a spoon skim off the foam, then pour mixture into the cups. Pour enough hot water from the teakettle into the roasting pan to come halfway up the sides of the cups. Cover the top of the pan snugly with plastic wrap, poke 2 holes in 2 opposite corners and slide into the oven.

6) Bake for 35-40 minutes, until the the tops darken and they jiggle a little only in the center when tapped.

7) Remove them from the oven and place on a cooling rack. Let them rest in the water bath for 10 minutes, remove the plastic wrap and then move them to the cooling rack. When they're room temp move them to the fridge.