oreo-style pots-de-creme
So I recently also took a class at Extraordinary Desserts, probably the best place in San Diego to get decadent, creative, and yummy desserts (and decent meal-food, too). One of the items that the proprietor and executive chef (Karen Krasne) taught us to make was chocolate pots-de-creme.
I’d also recently found a recipe for homemade Oreo-style cookies, and gave the filling part a try. A couple of years ago I’d had a mocha at Hash House a Go Go that was a special — an “oreo mocha” where the mocha itself tasted exactly like Oreo creme filling. I’d wanted to replicate that for a while now, and after a few practice runs (hint, don’t add too much vanilla extract), I’ve got something close, though it still doesn’t match the actual filling of Oreo cookies. I’ll have to experiment more; I’m not yet to the point of buying a pack of Double-Stuf Oreos just to scrape out the filling into a bowl, but I might if I can’t get it right.
So, the other day, I combined the two joys!
First, I whipped together some of the creme filling. I used the recipe for the filling from the King Arthur Flour site above, but left out the gelatin and water. I combined the shortening and sugar along with the vanilla (scraping the mixture off of the whisk a LOT), then added a tiny bit of cold water as it mixed to bring its consistency together. That mostly worked.
Then, I did up the pots-de-creme. That was reasonably easy if a bit involved. I’m not 100% clear on reposting recipes, so the closest recipe I’ve found to what I was using was Oprah’s pots-de-creme — the only difference being that the recipe I was using has you add the milk and creme mixture to the eggs first, then reheat it to custard-ize the mixture and then pour that over the chocolate bits. (Also, for those who know what I’m talking about, I think the stuff that gets strained out of the pots-de-creme in the final step is the same thing that forms pudding skin.)
Next, assembly! I started with some of the creme filling crumblies in a little plastic container:
I took a second container and mashed it down on the crumblies in the first one, trying to compress it into a kind of cake. I’m not yet clear on what exactly holds it together and how to improve it, but this seemed to work, even though some of the resulting cakes came apart later. (It’s still tasty.)
After working it loose in the first container and setting it atop the second, you get this:
Next, I filled a bunch of the same containers about half-full of the pot-de-creme mixture, and put them in the freezer for a few minutes to harden up:
Then the cake goes on top:
And fill the rest with more chocolate pot-de-creme:
You can just see the creme filling cake on the side there.
I brought a bunch in to work, and everyone seemed happy with them; I got a suggestion to add some kind of crunchy something to the mix, which I’ll have to experiment with — I’m wondering if that should be something cookie-like or if I should try cocoa nibs.
The next recipe will be for the pavlovas I made with the egg whites leftover from this recipe. Happy desserting!
