Dark Chocolate Pots de Crème
A baked custard, not a pudding — six ramekins in a water bath until the centers still hold a wobble.
- Serves
- 6
- Prep
- 15 min
- Cook
- 35 min
- Written
Method
-
Heat the oven to 300°F and set six 6-oz ramekins in a large roasting pan.
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Put the chopped chocolate in a heatproof bowl.
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Warm the cream, milk, sugar, and salt in a saucepan over medium heat, stirring, until the sugar dissolves and steam just starts to rise — don’t let it boil.
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Pour the hot cream over the chocolate and let it sit for a minute, then whisk from the center out until completely smooth.
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Whisk the egg yolks in a separate bowl, then slowly whisk in the warm chocolate mixture to bring the yolks up to temperature without scrambling them.
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Stir in the vanilla, then strain the custard through a fine sieve into a jug for a silky set.
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Divide the custard among the ramekins and pour boiling water into the roasting pan until it reaches halfway up the sides of the ramekins.
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Bake until the edges are set but the centers still jiggle like loose gelatin when nudged, 30 to 35 minutes.
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Lift the ramekins out of the water bath, cool to room temperature, then cover and refrigerate until fully set, at least 4 hours.
Notes
The water bath is the whole point: it keeps the custard at a gentle, even heat so the eggs thicken the cream instead of curdling into scramble. Pull the ramekins while the centers still jiggle — they firm up the rest of the way as they cool, and a custard baked to solid in the oven is already overcooked.
Bittersweet chocolate keeps this from tipping sweet; swap in semisweet if the table prefers it that way. They’ll hold covered in the fridge for up to three days, which makes this one of the few desserts here that’s better for having been made ahead.