Pots de crème are essentially custards baked in diminutive pots. Custard is derived from the medieval word “croustade” which means dishes served in a crust. As most of us know, a custard is made with milk (or cream) and eggs, but according to the book On Food and Science any liquid combined with the eggs will do, even water! As long as a mineral, such as salt, is dissolved a “coherent gel” will form. This is an interesting fact, if not an appealing one.

Our modern definition of custard arrived in the 1600’s when it became popular to bake fruit crèmes in individual dishes instead of using them as a filling for crusts. The pots associated with pots de crème arrived on the scene during the early to mid 1730’s. However, the pots with one handle were used to serve à jus. A diner could sip the warm broth during the course of a meal. It wasn’t until the 1800’s that the small pots were used for desserts, specifically baked custard, hence pots de crème.

Today you can find many recipes for pots de crème. The custard is a blank canvas waiting for you to flavor it as your taste demands. My taste buds were demanding peaches and cream when I came upon the beautiful donut peaches at my farmers market.

Donut peaches. Not only are these little heirloom peaches adorable, they are low in acid making them gently sweet, with a hint of almond. It is hard to resist just eating one after another, but even harder still if they are served with pots de crème. The pairing creates the perfect summery dessert that will disappear before your eyes.
Pots de crème is dessert comfort food baked in an oven, but during the dog days of August who wants to turn on the oven? Admittedly I’ve been anti-oven this summer. I have been avoiding the oven as if it was a dark and evil beast. I’ve turned to my crock pot, treating it as a mini oven.

Crock pots are associated with busy schedules and cold weather comfort food. Never would I imagine putting my pots de crème in the crock pot to “bake”. Craving pots de crème and also craving the need to stay cool, I prepared the pots de crème as I would normally, but then I placed them within my crock pot (in a water bath), covered with the lid and set on high. I walked away and two hours later I had perfection.

Ingredients
2 cups cream
1 tsp peach extract
1 vanilla bean
6 egg yolks
1/2 cup sugar
1/8 teaspoon salt

1. Heat 1 3/4 cup of the cream with the vanilla bean.

2. Beat egg yolks until they are pale. Beat in the sugar, salt, extract and 1/4 cup of the cream.

3. Gradually beat in the hot cream, stirring constantly. Strain the mixture into a large 4-cup measuring cup.

4. Place 6 – pots de crème cups (soufflé cups or ramekin) in a large roasting pan. Divide the mixture evenly into the cups. Pour enough hot water in the pan to come halfway up the sides of the dishes. Cover the pan with foil or with the pot lids. Place in oven and bake at 350°F until the custard is just set around the edges. Time will vary based on the depth of your cups or ramekins and how much is poured into them.

5. Remove the pan from the oven. Remove cups from the pan and allow them to cool. Then, cover and chill in refrigerator at least 2 hours.

If you are the parent of a competitive swimmer then you understand how an entire 3 days can be consumed by a swim meet. This past weekend a friend had a small dinner party. I wanted to go because I knew it would be relaxing and the food would be delicious, but the expectation from the hostess as well as guests was that I was to bring dessert. I love the opportunity to bake for a small gathering and not just my family. However, on a swim meet weekend this can be a problem. How can it be done without losing vast hours of sleep?

Here are my tips on baking in a pinch:

1. Whenever you make a pie, tart, cookie or any freezable dough double the recipe and freeze the portion you do not use immediately. (Don’t forget to label the dough to be frozen!)

2. You might have to get up a little earlier or go to bed a little later, but budget your time. Allow a few days to make the components of your dessert.

3. Last, but not least, choose something simple. Choose something seasonal.

I was able to pull off these tartlets in a very small amount of time due to those tips. First, I looked in my freezer and found a few varieties of dough. I chose a short dough which was one I actually made at the end of April for an Easter tart.

The day before the party I made the tartlet shells using my 3×3 spring pans. I chose these because they were the perfect size for the amount of dough I had and that was a respectable dessert serving size. After making the shells, I left them to cool and went to the swim meet. When I returned home, that evening, I made the pastry cream, I which I put in the fridge to chill overnight.

The next day I was able to go to the meet knowing that I had all the components of the tartlets ready to go. I typically wash any berries right before I am to use them so all I had to do to prepare the tartlets was wash and pat the berries dry, spoon the pastry cream into the shells and decorate with berries. I quickly made a glaze and a dessert that looks like it took many hours was created without stress.

Pastry Dough
2 cups sifted all-purpose flour
½ cup sugar
Pinch of salt
8 tablespoons of cold, unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
1 large egg
1 large egg yolk

Put the flour, sugar and salt into a food processor or mixing bowl. Mix to incorporate. Add the butter. Mix until the dough is coarse. Add the egg and egg yolk. Mix to combine. Form the dough into two balls, wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for an hour or more.
Hint: Do not overwork the dough, causing the butter to melt into the flour. The chilled butter is what makes a flakey crust.

Pastry Cream
For the pastry cream I use the recipe provided by Martha Stewart. It is my go to recipe. Please click here for the recipe: pastry cream recipe.

Berries and Glaze
Use whatever fresh fruit is available in your local farmers market.
For the glaze you can use an apricot jam, warmed and strained, as suggested by Martha Stewart. Or you can make thick simple syrup. You can also choose to not add a glaze, but there are two reasons why I choose to do so: (a) it looks pretty …really do we need another reason? (b) The chilled glaze helps to keep the berries in place.