Spiced Pot de Crème

This dessert was quite spectacular. It had to be to follow up a Thanksgiving dinner. There is nothing I hate more than making a dessert that just gets picked at because everyone if full. So I’ve come up with a way counter acting this phenomenon. I try to only make desserts that drive people insane with the desire to consume more dessert. Desserts that generate a deep guttural moan followed up by soul satisfying bliss. Things like banana cream pie that forces you to sit on the couch with it on your lap shoveling directly into your mouth. Or cookies so good guest slip handfuls of them into their coat pockets on the way out door. I’m not sure what gives a dessert this magical power, but over the years I’ve found a few that can really get the job done.

I love Pot de Crème. I like the small individual portions, but more importantly I love the creamy silky texture. I usually make vanilla pot de crème and top it with what ever fruit is in season, but this time I decided to experiment with some spices and see how it turned out. I lucked out this time. They were much better than last summers jasmine tea pot de crème.

1 C heavy cream
11/3C whole milk
6 egg yokes
2/3C sugar
1T vanilla extract or two vanilla beans
1T cinnamon
1tsp ground ginger
1/4tsp ground clove
pinch of salt

Set oven to 325. In a sauce pan heat the cream and milk with the spices. Bring it up to almost a boil then turn it off and let it steep. In a stand mixer whisk the eggs yokes and sugar together on high speed for about 3 minutes until it falls in thick ribbons. Then on low speed slowly add the hot milk and cream. Add the vanilla and salt. Pour the entire mixture through a strainer into a large measuring cup or pitcher. The measuring cup makes it a lot easier to pour the cream into the ramekins. In a roasting pan arrange 8 ovenproof cups or ramekins. Evenly fill each of the cups with the strained cream mixture. Add hot water to the roasting pan coming up about halfway up the cups. Cover the whole pan with aluminum foil and bake it in the oven for 25 minutes. Once the custard is set take them out and cool them in the refrigerator for at least a couple of hours.

Sometimes you end up with little bubbles on the surface of the custard so I always like to top them off with a dollop of whip cream before I serve them. This time I happened to find a batch of incredibly dark caramel that Peter had made earlier in the week, so I topped each pot de crème with a thin layer of caramel. I also whipped up a batch of pecan short bread to put on the side.