Fail: Chocolate Pot de Creme The Balthazar Cookbook

I love Balthazar Restaurant in New York, every time I have been I inevitably run into some working there who I worked with in the 1990s in San Francisco.  So they treat me nice, I like the space and while the food is not mind blowing it is typically consistently good.  So several years ago I bought their cookbook when it came out and it has sat on my shelves collecting dust ever since.

Yesterday I had a lunch for some friends so I decided to make Chocolate Pot de Creme, who doesn't love this dish?  It also happens that I found these really cute ramekin/pots over the weekend and wanted to use them.


One of the nice things about Pot de Creme is that it usually needs to be made the day before so it can set up / cool in the fridge.  This gave me the opportunity to test it out before I served it, and am I glad I did.


As I get further into this blog what I am finding is that someone has written and critiqued just about every recipe out there. I am often tempted to read comments, suggestions, tips, etc, but more than often don't so I am not swayed to correct any problems in advance.


I went to the market and bought the products to make these little guys.  I was very careful to follow all of the instructions closely, as a kid my sister worked in a small chocolate shop so I knew how tempering was such an issue. I was very VERY careful to slowly introduce the hot chocolate creme to the egg yolks so they would not cook.

I filled the pots carefully and then I put them into my version of a bain marie which was nothing more than a roasting pot filled with water covered with aluminium foil.  Now, what does this mean?  Well it means that you cannot look at them without taking the foil off, which means that the cooking process suddenly ends and restarting can be a bummer.  So I made sure the oven was at 250F with both the oven control and a separate thermometer.  I also had two timers set so it would cook the exact prescribed time, 1 hour 15 minutes.

At the exact time I took them out of the oven, removed the foil and alas they were wet and runny like water.  Not what they should have looked like according to the recipe.  So I had seen somewhere that when you take them out they are not set, that they have to cool so I let them come down to room temperature and then placed them in the fridge, 4 hours later I had cold chocolate creamy water!


So, I stated all over, but after reading other peoples comments on line, and looking at many different recipes, I decided to crank up the oven to 350F and added an extra 1/2 hour of cooking time.  And voila, this time they were perfect.

Everyone enjoyed them and they set up perfectly.  On both occasions I got to lick the spatula after I was done filling the pots and the taste and texture reminded me of fabulous chocolate pudding from my childhood.  So all in all the ingredients worked for this recipe but the cooking time and temperature are suspect.


INGREDIENTS for 6

1 1/2 cups heavy cream
1 cup whole milk
1/2 cup sugar
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
8 ounces Valrhona semisweet chocolate, coursely chopped (I used 1/2 Valrhona and 1/2 Sharffen Berger 70% chocolate)
6 large egg yolks

METHOD
Preheat oven to 250 degrees F.

In a medium saucepan, combine the cream, milk, sugar and vanilla.  Whisk to combine and bring to a boil over a medium heat.  Add the chopped chocolate and whisk until melted.  Remove from heat.

In a medium bowl, lightly beat the eggs yolks.  In a slow steady stream, add the chocolate-cream mixture, whisking until smooth.  Divide the mixture among 6 ramekins, small custard bowls, or espresso cups (about 6 ounces each) and place them in a large casserole or high-sided baking dish.

Make a bain-marie (or water bath), by pouring cold water into the casserole so that it comes halfway up the sides of the ramekins or custard bowls.  Cover tightly with foil and bake on the center rack for 1 hour and 15 minutes.  The custards shouls jiggle slightly in the center when finished.

Let cool to room temperature then place in the regrigerator.  Serve cool.

FAILURE!