Chocolate Pots de Crème

I cannot think of any place I'd rather be on a Sunday afternoon than relaxing at a table by the bar at Zuni sipping dry vodka martinis and grazing on their perfect Ceasar salad, crispy fries, and briny oysters. Throw in the velvety chocolate pot de crème and you get the idea - a food lover's paradise.

Sadly, I rarely indulge in these dreamy Zuni afternoons, so I thought I'd try Judy Rodgers' pots de crème at home. This recipe is from her Zuni Cafe Cookbook: a great resource filled with so many of the classic Zuni dishes.


Ingredients

• 3 ounces bittersweet chocolate, coarsely chopped (I used Guittard dark chocolate chips)
• 3/4 cups heavy cream
• 3/4 cup whole milk
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 4 egg yokes

Preheat oven to 300.

Put chocolate and 1/2 cup cream in a bowl. Heat bowl over a saucepan filled with water on the stove top - like a double boiler. Stir occasionally until chocolate is melted.

In a separate small sauce pan, heat milk, sugar, and 1/4 cup cream until sugar is melted.

In another bowl whisk egg yokes. Slowly add warm milk mixture and stir to integrate.

When chocolate is melted, pour egg/milk mixture through a strainer into chocolate bowl. Stir.

Place 4 small (4-5 ounce) ramekins inside of a larger baking dish, spacing the pots at least 1 inch apart. Pour custard batter into ramekins. Fill baking dish with 1/2 inch depth of water to make a steam bath for the custards. Bake in 300 degree oven for about 45 minutes. To test for doneness, lift a ramekin and tilt; if the custard is set but the center still bulges, it is done. The custards will continue to cook and firm when removed from the oven, so be careful not to overcook.

The pots de crème can be eaten in the hours after cooking, or can be covered and refrigerated for several days.

I added a candied orange peel to balance out the rich dark chocolate of the custard - so decadent and good!

makes 4 small pots de crème