Oooh, were these ever tasty. It’s been some months ago that I made these for a dinner party. In reading through the “recipes to try” in my copious stack, I found this. I’d read about it over at Serious Eats. It’s actually a Daniel Boulud recipe, from one of his cookbooks, was written up by Dorie Greenspan on her own site, but the recipe is over at Serious Eats, a food blog in which she participates.
Here’s a photo of the coffee bean/cardamom/sugar mixture before it began to caramelize.
This dessert is a bit on the complicated side, I will admit. It’s not really difficult, but yes, a bit time consuming. Worth the time? Well, yes, for me it was. The result was a seductive custard, a pot de creme style with this elusive taste of cardamom and the delicious creamy coffee. But it was the cups that attracted me to the recipe at first – seeing the cute little espresso cups Dorie used. I mean, how many of us have espresso cups we rarely use? Eh? I certainly do.
Here are the details: you grind up cardamom pods (I had green ones) in the food processor, then chunk up coffee beans in there too. Not too finely. Then you add that to a heavy-duty saucepan with sugar and heat it, stirring constantly, until the sugar melts. My arm got a tad tired during the stirring process, but you don’t want to burn it, so you have to stir and stir. Finally it began to melt. You continue to stir until the sugar begins to darken, and caramelize. I had some difficulty seeing exactly when that was because I was using a dark colored, nonstick Calphalon pan. Eventually the coffee began smoking, so I figured it was caramelized enough. The stuff is a kind of glumpy dark mass at that point. Then you carefully pour in cream and milk (don’t burn yourself) and heat it until the glumpy mass breaks down and the sugar melts into the milk. You let this mixture steep for about 20 minutes, then strain out the solids (beans & pods). It was a glorious dark coffee latté color.
Meanwhile, you heat up the oven to 300°, and whisk together egg yolks and sugar until they’re pale and thickened. Then you slowly add the coffee mixture and stir until combined. It does make a bit of foam, which needs to be scooped off. I ate the foam right then and there, which was quite delicious.
The mixture is poured into espresso cups and you bake them in a water bath for about 40 minutes. These can be made ahead and refrigerated. I made them earlier in the day and left them out at room temp for about 3 hours. I served them with a small dollop of very lightly sweetened whipped cream on top.
Coffee-Cardamom Pots de Crème
Recipe: Daniel Boulud, via Serious Eats, via Dorie Greenspan
Servings: 6 (maybe 5)
Cook’s Notes: I used decaffeinated coffee beans because I didn’t want the caffeine in a dessert. Would have kept me up half the night. If possible, use a light colorored pan for the caramel, so you can tell when the sugar caramelizes to the dark amber color required. Have all the caramel ingredients ready at hand when you start – because you can’t leave your post to get something. Measure quantities carefully, as you want to pour the right amount into each espresso cup. I doubled the recipe, used 4-ounce cups, but somehow I didn’t have as much quantity as I should have. This recipe should make 24 ounces (the 3 cups of liquid in the recipe). Measure your espresso cups, but if they’re 4 ounces, you should have exactly 6 servings. Somehow I didn’t get 6 servings, but more like 5. Anyway, take that into consideration when making this.
2 tablespoons cardamom pods
3 ounces coffee beans — (1 cup) preferably an espresso roast
3/4 cup sugar
2 cups heavy cream — (approximately)
1 cup whole milk
7 large egg yolks
1. Have all ingredients at the ready before beginning the caramel. Put the cardamom pods in the workbowl of a food processor and pulse on and off several times to roughly chop, not grind them. Then add the coffee beans to the workbowl and continue to pulse until the beans are rough chopped. Turn the chopped beans and pods into a medium saucepan and add 1/2 cup of the sugar. Put the pan over medium heat and cook, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon, until the sugar starts to melt. Patience-this will take a few minutes. Once the sugar has melted, continue to cook, still stirring without stop, until the sugar caramelizes-you want the color of the caramel to be deep amber. But do not burn the coffee, either. Now, standing away from the stove so you don’t get splattered, slowly pour in 1 cup of the cream and the milk. Don’t panic-the caramel will immediately seize and harden-it will all smooth out as the liquids warm and the sugar melts again. Bring the mixture to a boil and, when the sugar has melted and everything is smooth again, pull the pan from the heat. Cover the pan (we do this with plastic wrap at the Café to get a good seal) and allow the mixture to infuse 20 minutes.
2. Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 300°F.
3. Working in a bowl that’s large enough to hold all the ingredients, whisk the yolks and remaining 1/4 cup sugar together until the mixture is pale and thick. Strain the coffee-cardamom liquid into a measuring cup (discard the beans and pods) and add enough heavy cream to bring the liquid measurement up to 2 cups. Very gradually and very gently-you don’t want to create air bubbles-whisk the liquid into the egg mixture; skim off the top foam, if there is any.
4. Arrange six 4-ounce espresso or custard cups in a small roasting pan, leaving an even amount of space between the cups, and fill each cup nearly to the top with the custard mixture. (If you like, line the roasting pan with a double thickness of paper towel or a kitchen towel to steady the cups.) Carefully slide the pan into the oven; then, using a pitcher, fill the roasting pan with enough hot water to come halfway up the sides of the espresso cups. Cover the pan with plastic wrap (don’t worry – it can stand the heat) and poke two holes in two diagonally opposite corners. Bake the custards for about 40 minutes, or until the edges darken ever so slightly and the custards are set but still jiggle a little in the center when you shake them gently.
5. Remove the pan from the oven and let the custards sit in the water bath for 10 minutes. Peel off the plastic wrap, lift the cups out of the water and cool the custards in the refrigerator. (The pots de creme can be prepared a day ahead and, when cool, covered with plastic wrap and stored in the refrigerator.)
To serve: The pots de creme are at their best at room temperature, so remove them from the refrigerator and keep them on the counter for about 20 minutes before serving.
Per Serving: 465 Calories; 37g Fat (69.9% calories from fat); 6g Protein; 29g Carbohydrate; 0g Dietary Fiber; 362mg Cholesterol; 58mg Sodium.
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