Pots de crème are a wonderful back pocket recipe for entertaining. They have a chic French name (pronounced poe de crème) which sounds like you went to way more trouble than they actually require. A little heating, a spin in the blender, a little bath in the oven. What you end up with is an impossibly creamy and delicate and lovely dessert with the added bonus that it can be made ahead. The serving and decorating can be as simple or as elaborate as you want. Delicate glass ramekins, small mason jars, mismatched espresso cups -whatever takes your fancy. For autumn, I flavor these with rich, pure maple syrup which gives them a lovely pale umber color and a very seasonal taste. They are a sweet, petite bite for the end of a hearty, comforting chilly weather meal.
I offer a couple of options here. A maple-tinged whipped cream and thin lacy maple tuiles, which are a lovely embellishment that add extra maple and a nice crunch. I give directions for making prettily curled tuiles, but if that is too much faff for you, just make them flat. If you attempt to make the tuiles and it isn’t working for you – do not panic. Just scoot the pieces onto a rack to cool, or if you do everything right but they break in storage, trust me, irregularly broken shards of amber tracery look pretty on top as well. When it came time to photograph this recipe, I really wanted to put those leaf-shaped maple sugar candies on top, but apparently there was a shortage and nowhere locally had them. If you find them, they would be a sweet little topper, as would a sprinkle or shiny crystal maple sugar.
Ingredients
- For the Pots de Crème
1 ½ cups whole milk
1 ½ cups heavy cream
1/3 cup amber maple syrup
4 egg yolks
2 whole large eggs
½ cup granulated sugar
- For the Tuiles
¼ cup ( ½ stick) unsalted butter, softened
¼ cup amber maple syrup
¼ cup light brown sugar
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
- For the Whipped Cream
1 Tablespoon confectioners’ sugar
1 Tablespoon maple syrup
1 Tablepsoon bourbon
Directions
- For the Pots de crème
- Find a roasting tin that will fit 8 (6-ounce) ramekins with enough room to pour water halfway up the sides (I use a 9 by 13 metal brownie pan). Fit a sheet of foil into a tight lid to place over it in the oven (it’s easier to shape this first rather than with a pan full of hot water) Heat the oven to 325 degrees and bring a kettle of water to the boil.
- Put the milk, cream and maple syrup in a medium saucepan, preferably one with a pouring spout. Heat over medium high just until it is steaming and bubbles form on the surface. Don’t boil.
- While the cream is heating, put the egg yolks, whole eggs and sugar in the carafe of a blender and blend until completely combined. When the cream is ready, pour it slowly, slowly into the eggs with the motor running until all is added and its completely combined. Divide the mixture evenly between the ramekins, filling them about ¾ full. Put the pan in the oven, then slowly pour the boiled water into the pan being careful not to splash water into the pots. Cover with the foil lid, then bake for 30 – 35 minutes, until set, but still jiggly in the center. You can dip a thin bladed knife into the center of one and it should come out clean. Carefully remove the pan from the oven, then lift the ramekins onto a wire rack to cool completely. When cool, cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 4 hours, but up to two days is fine. I dump the water from the pan, put the ramekins back in and cover the whole with plastic, but you can cover each one individually if you need to make them fit in the fridge.
- For the Tuiles
- Beat the butter, syrup and sugar together in a small mixing bowl with a hand mixer or a spoon and a lot of elbow grease until creamy and well combined. Add the flour and beat just until there are no streak of flour visible, scraping the sides of the bowl as needed. Scrape the mixture into a ball at the bottom of the bowl, then cover and refrigerate for at least 3 hours, but up to 5 days is fine.
- You have some choices here. You can just leave the cookies flat, or you can curl them up attractively. If you want them curled, set a rolling pin (for a shallow curve) or a wooden spoon handle (for a deeper curve) sprayed with cooking spray suspended between two tomato (or corn, or soup) cans so the cookies can hang down.
- When ready to bake, heat the oven to 400 degrees and line a baking sheet with a silicone mat or with parchment paper. Have a cooling rack ready on the counter.
- Use a small teaspoon cookie scoop, or roll into six balls, each teaspoon sized, with your hands and place the first batch 2 inches apart on the prepared cookie sheet. Bake for 7 minutes, until they are spread out, golden and lacy. Remove from the oven and let sit for about a minute. Shimmy a thin spatula under a cookie, then either transfer to a wire rack, or drape over the rolling pin or spoon. If the cookies wrinkle a little when you move them, don’t worry, they will straighten out when you hang them. Repeat with as many cookies as you can fit on the drape. When they are set, which takes under a minute, remove to the cooling rack to cool and continue with the other cookies. Keep going until you have used all the dough. Please do not stress about this. If any of the cookies (or all the cookies) do not drape and form perfectly, broken shards of this maple flavored crispy lace look very pretty too. You can keep the cookies for a day in one layer in a waxed paper lined airtight container.
- For the Whipped Cream
- Put all the ingredients in the bowl of a stand mixer, or a bowl for a hand mixer, and beat until stiff peaks form. Can be held in the refrigerator for several hours.
- Serve each pots with a dollop of whipped cream (from a piping bag if you are fancy) and a maple tuile.
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