Wednesday, May 5, 2010

Second Blogiversary and Mint Chocolate Pot de Crème

The truth is I started this thing on a whim. In the middle of one sleepless night. Two years and nearly 175 original recipes later, I’m still here. (To be precise, this Mint Chocolate Pot de Crème is recipe number 174, but who’s counting?) I’ve even surprised myself. The best part is the sharing and the interaction with you, dear reader. It truly warms my heart to hear when you give one of my recipes a try—it makes me feel as though I’ve been invited to your dinner table. My hope is that this little blog of mine can be a source of inspiration and do its part to help you become a more confident cook.

Of course, a blogiversary celebration calls for chocolate!


I recently realized that my husband is wild about the combination of mint and chocolate (funny how you can live with someone for nearly ten years and still have so much more to learn about them!), so I flavored the classic French dessert with mint.

Mint Chocolate Pot de Crème
Printable Recipe

1 ½ cups heavy cream
1 ½ cups milk
6 ounces semisweet chocolate, chopped or scant 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
2 large eggs
4 large egg yolks
¼ cup sugar
Pinch kosher salt
½ teaspoon peppermint extract

Preheat the oven to 300˚F. Combine the cream and milk in a small saucepan and heat to a simmer. Place the chocolate into a medium bowl, add the hot cream mixture, and whisk until smooth. Whisk together the eggs, yolks, sugar, and salt in a medium bowl. Continue whisking while adding the hot cream mixture in a thin stream. Strain through a fine mesh sieve. Stir in the peppermint extract and skim off any foam from the surface. Divide the mixture among 8 ramekins and place them into a roasting pan. Add enough hot water to the roasting pan to come most of the way up the sides of the ramekins and bake for 26 to 28 minutes, or until just set. Remove from the water bath and let cool to room temperature. Refrigerate for 3 to 4 hours, or until firm.

Serves 8. Hubby loves the candy-like flavor of peppermint extract, but you can use fresh mint to infuse the cream instead. You can tell that the pot de crème are done when they jiggle like gelatin. They may be baked a day or two in advance and kept covered with plastic wrap in the refrigerator. Serve with lightly sweetened whipped cream, if desired. For plain chocolate pot de crème, substitute vanilla extract for the peppermint extract.

14 comments:

Unknown said...

love the picture!
i have a question - did you, maybe, ever consider adding measures in metric units? i always have trouble with cups, sticks, ounces and stuff...

Monet said...

I love peppermint and chocolate...this sounds delicious! Thank you for sharing, I really enjoy your blog!

Lucy Vaserfirer said...

villain,
Unfortunately, I have trouble with metric! Perhaps you could try an online converter like this one. Also, it helps to have a kitchen scale that shows both ounces and grams. I’ll get you started with the approximate conversions for this recipe…
1 ½ cups=12 ounces=340 grams heavy cream
1 ½ cups=12 ounces=340 grams milk
6 ounces=170 grams semisweet chocolate
¼ cup=50 grams sugar

Anonymous said...

I love pots de creme! We were just talking about this yesterday!

Janice said...

Happy Blogiversary!!!! And who doesn't love chocolate and mint? :)

Claudia said...

Happy Bloiversary to you, how much fun it has been to read this when posted and try new things!!

Unknown said...

thank you so, so much! i'm trying this so soon! instead of peppermint extract i'll use real mint leaves from garden! =)

A Bowl Of Mush said...

Looks absolutely gorgeous!
I love mint and chocolate too. Having them together in a pot de creme sounds like heaven!

Happy bloggy birthday! :)

Carolyn Jung said...

Hah! I feel the same way about my husband. We've been married seven years, and only last week, I realized he liked coconut in baked goods! Who knew?!? ;)

Megan Katauskas said...

Gorgeous photo. These sound delicious!

Linda from NJ said...

Happy Blogiversay!! ... looking forward to many more to come too.
What a great idea to use mint with chocolate for this recipe. You always see just chocolate. Looking forward to trying these ... hmmm, maybe Sunday for Mother's Day! Happy Mother's Day to all the moms out there too.

oneordinaryday said...

Absolutely my favorite flavor combination. This sounds delicious. And what a stunning photo!

veron said...

Happy blog anniversary! May there be more yummy posts to come. I love pots de creme and they looks so adorable in those cups!

The Urban Baker said...

yum! I am making this tonight as my 9 year old son suggested pot de creme for dessert tonight and he love anything "minty". thanks for the inspiration!

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