Wednesday, May 13, 2009

Bon Appetit's Smoked-Tea-Infused Chocolate Pots de Crème

I had wanted to make this recipe ever since I read a comment about it on bon appetit's website that began: "This recipe doesn't work." The comment author went on to get nasty with bon appetit in general since she had apparently emailed them and no one had responded to her and she was banking on these for a dinner party. Very sadly, B.A. has since removed the comment. You just have to take my word for it.

Here's their version:
And mine:

The recipe started out innocently enough with some finely chopped chocolate.

Then got a little freaky with the addition of some loose Earl Grey. (I didn't have the weird smoked tea it called for.)

which we threw into the cream/milk mixture:

As my one grandma taught me: never be afraid of getting your hands in there.

One of the tools I do have (thank you, Jodi) is this silver mesh strainer and it always comes in handy.
After we added the strained cream and egg mixture to the chocolate, the recipe called for us to chill it overnight, and here is where the recipe got a little worrisome. In the morning, the mixture was just as watery as it had been the night before. Matt was saying things like "It's better to have at least bonattempted, right?"

Still, we kept the faith and put them in their water baths and slid them into the oven, though after 55 minutes, they were still completely watery. So, we gave them 10 more minutes, then 10 more, then 10 more, then 10 more...

And hey, they finally firmed up. We chilled them again in the fridge and then got down to business. Though the tea flavor was extremely mild to nonexistent, they were completely delicious.

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