This Pot de Creme is like a turbo-charged version of butterscotch pudding. The texture is like silk and the taste is sweet, with just a slight bitter edge from the burnt sugar in the butterscotch. Cooking the butter and brown sugar together until it is smoking hot is the key to the flavor. If you don’t bring them to the brink of burning, the pudding will be way too sweet for my taste. The creme fraiche (young sour cream) is unsweetened and the perfect balance for the pudding.
Butterscotch Pot de Creme Recipe
Makes: 8 servings
Prep Time: 40 minutes
Bake Time: 25 to 40 minutes
Level: Easy, with several steps
4 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 cup brown sugar, well packed
4 cups heavy cream
1 vanilla bean, scraped
1/2 teaspoon salt
8 large egg yolks
Creme fraiche for serving
To make the butterscotch:
In a medium-size, heavy-bottomed sauce pot, cook the butter and brown sugar together over medium heat.
Stir with a wooden spoon or carefully whisk (be sure to use the right kind of whisk, an egg whisk, or the sugar will get caught in the wires). The sugar and butter will separate at first, but as the sugar melts it will become easier to blend them together.
Cook and stir until the sugar melts and the butter/sugar mixture just starts to brown; it will start to smoke slightly, as well. This may take 15 to 20 minutes.
Slowly add the cream, a cup at a time.
It will sputter and seize up as you add the cold cream. Cook the butterscotch until the seized sugar dissolves again. Add the rest of the cream, vanilla bean and salt.
To make the custard:
In a bowl, whisk together the egg yolks. Slowly add some of the hot butterscotch cream to the yolks as you whisk them. Just add enough to warm the yolks slightly.
Once the yolks are warm to the touch, pour the yolks back into the pot of hot butterscotch cream and gently whisk.
Strain the mixture.
To bake the custard:
Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F.
Divide the custard into the eight 4-ounce ramekins. Place them in a water bath and loosely tent with foil. (It is important that the water in the pan is hot and comes halfway up the side of the ramekins, so that it will reach oven temperature quickly. Using cool water will prevent them from baking evenly.)
Bake for 25 to 40 minutes. This will depend on the temperature of the mixture when you put it in the oven. It’s best to check them after 25 minutes and gauge how much longer they need. Uncover them, jiggle the pan gently and check to see if they are set. They will move like set gelatin when they are done. Be careful not to over bake them or they will be grainy.
Remove the pan from the oven and allow the custards to cool in the water bath. Once they have reached room temperature, you can remove them from the bath, cover them and refrigerate for at least an hour, but they can be made a few days in advance.
To serve:
Spread a thin layer of unsweetened creme fraiche over the top of the custard.
I like the contrast of the unsweetened creme fraiche and the sweet pudding, but you can add a touch of sugar if it is too stark for your taste, or serve it with nothing at all.
Get the printable recipe here.
More Baking Recipes from Zoë:
- Beehive Cake
- Strawberry-Rhubarb Crisp
- No-Bake Strawberry Cheesecake
- Carrot Cupcakes
- Sweet, Cakey Banana Bread
- Chocolate Chunk-Peanut Butter Cookies
- Spring Cupcakes
- Lemon Meringue Cake
Zoë François, author of Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day, Healthy Bread in Five Minutes a Day and Artisan Pizza and Flatbreads in Five Minutes a Day, studied at the Culinary Institute of America in New York. She now calls Minneapolis her home, where she has worked with some of the top talent in the culinary world — Steven Brown, Andrew Zimmern and many chefs at the D’Amico company. In addition to writing, Zoë teaches baking classes and consults at restaurants. You can find her writing and recipe creations on Devour, on her baking blog, zoebakes.com and on the site, www.breadin5.com.
Awesome…
Right here is the right web site for everyone who would like to find out about this topic. You understand so much its almost tough to argue with you (not that I actually will need to…HaHa). You certainly put a fresh spin on a subject that has been wr…
Recent Blogroll Additions……
[...]usually posts some very interesting stuff like this. If you’re new to this site[...]……
Links…
[...]Sites of interest we have a link to[...]……
Cool sites…
[...]we came across a cool website that you might enjoy. Check it out[...]……
You should check this out…
[...] Wonderful story, reckoned we could combine a few unrelated data, nevertheless really worth taking a look, whoa did one learn about Mid East has got more problerms as well [...]……
Recommeneded websites…
[...]Here are some of the sites we recommend for our visitors[...]……
Sources…
[...]check below, are some totally unrelated websites to ours, however, they are most trustworthy sources that we use[...]……
Read was interesting, stay in touch……
[...]please visit the sites we follow, including this one, as it represents our picks from the web[...]……
Check this out…
[...] that is the end of this article. Here you’ll find some sites that we think you’ll appreciate, just click the links over[...]……
Recommeneded websites…
[...]Here are few of the sites we recommend to our visitors[...]……
Check this out…
[...] that is the end of this article. Here you’ll find some sites that we think you’ll appreciate, just click the links over[...]……
Third Flower…
My spouse and that i have already been now delighted that Albert could perform his scientific studies thanks to the ideas he had by your website. It is now and again perplexing to just often be making a gift of steps which lots of people might have bee…
carpet cleaning nyc…
[...]Wonderful story, reckoned we could combine a few unrelated data, nonetheless seriously worth taking a search, whoa did one learn about Mid East has got more problerms as well [...]…
Check this out…
[...] that is the end of this article. Here you’ll find some sites that we think you’ll appreciate, just click the links over[...]……
Links…
[...]Sites of interest we have a link to[...]……
smartmusic promo codes…
[...]just beneath, are quite a few totally not associated web-sites to ours, nonetheless, they’re certainly really worth going over[...]…
Blogs ou should be reading…
[...]Here is a nice post You could Find useful that we Encourage You to visit[...]……
Websites you should visit…
[...]below you’ll find the link to some sites that we think you should visit[...]……