Maple Pots de Crème are the perfect choice if you need a simple but elegant dessert that is refined sugar free. These sweet French dessert custards are beyond easy to make and only need few simple ingredients!
Whoever you serve these Maple Pots de Crème to will be impressed by the taste and you will be impressed by the simplicity of making these decadent desserts.
I first made these Maple Pots de Crème at a Sur la Table cooking class all about fall desserts. On the menu were these French baked custards, chocolate soufflés and a pumpkin pecan tart. Of the three desserts on the menu, I was most intimidated by the pots de crème. It's probably the fact that they just sound so fancy and well, French.
To my surprise though, this dessert was actually the easiest and ended up being my favorite of the three! I couldn't wait to share the recipe with you all.
When to Make & Serve Pots de Crème
These desserts are absolutely perfect for so many occasions, baby showers, bridal showers, dinner for guests, or just because you need something fancy and sweet!
These desserts do require a bit of chilling, so they're great to make the night before your event or dinner and not worry about the day of. Other than their chilling though, they are incredibly quick to make.
A super fun part about these desserts is they can be made in any shape or size dish, too. I'll warn you though, don't put it in too large of a dish, instead of individual cups, or you'll end up eating it all by yourself in one sitting. Consider yourself warned 😉
What else to Serve for Date Night!
If you're looking to plan a date night at home, pair this Maple Pots de Crème dessert with a nice meal at home. Why not try one of these main course recipes:
How to Make Maple Baked Custards
The process is very simple. The first step is to steam the heavy cream while you prep the other ingredients.
After mixing the remaining ingredients together, you slowly whisk in the hot cream and mix until smooth.
The custards bake in a pan filled with enough water to cover half of the pot de crème dishes (I love these custard cups from Sur la Table but any will work, too!). Then the custards are baked for about 40 minutes.
Recommended Tools
Ceramic Baking Dish
Fine Mesh Strainer
Large Measuring Cup
or custard cups
Vanilla Bean Paste
Wire Cooling Rack
What is the difference between Pots de Crème and Crème Brûlée?
If you aren't familiar with these French desserts, you may be familiar with their close relatives, the crème brûlée.
Pot de crème is essentially crème brûlée without the caramelized sugar on top. They are both simple, smooth, creamy custards.
Other Flavour Pots de Crème
I cannot wait to try a few more variations of this recipe.
I've already made strawberry pot de crème for Valentine's Day. The recipe makes the perfect quantity for 2 people. And of course if is easy to scale up for any other occasion.
I also can't wait to try making honey pot de crème just because it sounds delicious. I can just picture that golden color!
Basically, it's safe to say that we are all for all things pot de crème in this house. Did I mention that these are refined sugar free? So I even let our toddler sneak a taste of it. It's safe to say he LOVED it - even without any refined sugar 😉
Save this Maple Pots de Crème recipe for later:
Maple Pots de Creme (French Dessert Custard)
If you need a simple but elegant dessert that is refined sugar free, Maple Pots de Crème are the perfect choice. These French dessert custards are beyond easy to make, made with a few simple ingredients like heavy whipping cream, egg yolks, maple syrup, vanilla bean and a dash of salt. Whoever you serve these Maple Pots de Crème to will be impressed by the taste and you will be impressed by the simplicity of making these decadent desserts.
Ingredients
- 2 cups heavy whipping cream
- 6 large egg yolks
- ½ cup pure maple syrup (plus more for topping)
- ½ teaspoon sea salt
- ½ teaspoon vanilla bean paste
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
- Place a small kitchen towel on the bottom of a ceramic baking dish and place six custard dishes on top of towel.
- Bring about 2 cups of water to a boil in a tea kettle or saucepan. Keep hot.
- In a medium saucepan, bring cream to a simmer. Keep an eye on the cream so that it does not boil over.
- In a bowl, gently crack eggs (2-3 at a time) and use an egg separator to separate the yolk from the egg carefully. You can also do this by hand with the egg shells by slowly pouring the yolk back and forth between the egg shells, letting the egg whites fall into the bowl.
- Once separated, place the six egg yolks in a large bowl. Whisk together yolks with maple syrup, salt, and vanilla paste. Then slowly pour in hot cream, whisking vigorously while pouring in cream.
- Place a fine mesh strainer on top of a large measuring cup. Pour mixture through strainer into measuring cup to remove any foam or bubbles from liquid. Spoon off any extra bubbles that make it through the strainer.
- Pour the mixture evenly into the custard cups, leaving about ¼ inch space at the top of each. Pour the boiling water into the baking dish enough to cover half of the custard dishes. Loosely cover with foil and place the pan in the oven.
- Bake for 35-40 minutes until custard is no longer liquid but still slightly wobbly when gently shaken. Cool for 30 minutes on a wire rack. Then cool and refrigerate for 2 hours to overnight.
- When ready to serve, serve chilled with a pour of maple syrup on top.
Notes
Vanilla bean paste is a more concentrated version of vanilla extract. If you don't have it available, you can also use an equal amount of vanilla extract.
Na says
Just made this tonight because I had 6 egg yolks that I needed to use. I didn?t wait until it was cooled, I had to dig in while warm! Very delicious. The maple syrup gives it a hint of sweetness and the whipping cream leaves it very smooth. Thank you for sharing this recipe.
Madison | A Joyfully Mad Kitchen says
I've definitely enjoyed it warm before, too!! So happy you enjoyed it!