I’m a huge fan of desserts especially custard type desserts. After my stunning success making chocolate mousse in my sous vide, I decided that i should try to make another custard type of dessert in my sous vide.
Given that I had loads of little lemons, I thought a lemon flavored custard would be the best option. So I went on a search for a recipe which used a sous vide. I finally found one which was for Lemon Pot de Crème.
Pot de crème literally means pot of cream. This french dessert uses the typical custard ingredients of eggs (yolks), sugar, and milk/cream. The preparation is similar to creme caramel or creme brulee. The milk and cream are heated, then mixed into the whisked eggs and egg yolks off the heat. This mixture then is cooked. The typical way of doing cooking involves putting the mixture into ramekins and baking in a water bath. Using the sous vide replicates this by using sealed mini mason jars in the sous vide.
The consistency of pot de crème is looser than creme brulee or traditional custard. This comes from altering the ratio of eggs, milk, creme, sugar used in the recipe. This article gives a nice overview of the differences. Some of individual my pot de creme were looser than I would have liked. I think it happened because I didn’t get the cream hot enough before I mixed it with the eggs and so the whole mixture was unevenly heated/thickened when I put it in the jars to cook. The lemon flavor was spot on though which made up for the texture issues with some jars.
My plan for next time is to tweak the ratio of egg and cream to tip the recipe more to creme brulee consistency. This will help individual jars set firmer. I’m also planning to change out the citrus in the recipe to try lime, grapefruit or a combination of the two. I’ll have to taste test the citrus syrup as I make it to ensure it is sweetened correctly. However, I think things should turn our just right with a little attention to detail.