Derek Dammann and Chris Johns' sucre à la crème pot de crème
3
- Makes6 servings
Photo, Farah Khan.
I was in a mall one day and came across a Laura Secord—a famous Canadian chocolate chain named, for some reason, after a heroine of the War of 1812. I hadn’t been in one of these stores for eons. I figured they’d probably gone extinct. As a kid I would sometimes get some of her butterscotch pudding in my school lunch, and since we had just come back from tapping trees for maple syrup, this recipe came to me. Sucre à la crème hurts my teeth (in a good way), and pudding is awesome, so why not combine the two and get the best of both worlds? -DD
Ingredients
1/2 cup (125 mL) unsalted butter
1 cup (250 mL) brown sugar
pinch of kosher salt
1 1/2 cups (375 mL) whipping cream
1 cup (250 mL) whole milk
8 egg yolks
Flaky sea salt
Instructions
Preheat the oven to 325°F (160°C). Have ready a bowl of ice water with another bowl set inside it.
In a medium, heavy saucepan over medium heat, melt the butter. Stir in the sugar and kosher salt. When the sugar has dissolved and the mixture is bubbling away, add the cream and milk. Bring to a simmer. Cook for 5 minutes, then remove from the heat.
Whisk the egg yolks in a heatproof bowl. Whisking constantly, slowly add a bit of the hot cream mixture to temper the yolks. Keep adding the hot cream a little at a time, whisking constantly, until the yolks have come up to temperature and won’t scramble when you add them to the pot.
Pour the mixture back into the pot. Cook the custard over low heat, stirring constantly with a rubber spatula (making sure to get in the corners, as they scald first), for about 7 minutes, until the mixture thickens enough to coat the back of the spatula. Immediately pour the custard through a fine-mesh sieve into the cold bowl to stop the cooking. Stir the custard every couple of minutes to aid in the cooling. (Cooling the custard before baking it prevents overcooking.)
Pour the cooled custard into six 5-oz (150 mL) ramekins and place them in a roasting pan. Add enough warm water to come halfway up the sides of the ramekins. Cover the pan with foil and bake for 35 to 40 minutes, until the custard is just set and still has a slight wobble in the centre.
Remove the foil and allow the ramekins to cool in the water until it is tepid. Remove the ramekins from the water and refrigerate, uncovered, until set.
Top each pot de crème with a light sprinkle of flaky sea salt. Serve with a bowl of lightly whipped cream and a plate of cookies of your choice.