Butterscotch Pots de Creme

 I made this recipe from a cookbook for which I received a digital review copy. More info at the bottom of the post!

Butterscotch Pots de Creme

4 tbsp butter
1 cup brown sugar, packed
4 cups heavy cream
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp salt
8 large egg yolks
sour cream
Butterfinger, crushed (optional)

1. Dump butter and sugar into a midsized saucepan and stir together over medium heat. Cook until mixture starts to brown and smoke ever so slightly, or about 15-20 minutes.
2. Slowly add the cream, a cup at a time. Cook butterscotch until any seized sugar dissolves again. Then add the rest of the cream, vanilla, and salt.
3. Next, whisk those yolks - and do not stop! Add some of the hot butterscotch cream while continuing to whisk. Once the yolks are warm to the touch, dump the yolks back into the pot of hot butterscotch and gently whisk.
4. Strain the mixture, and then crank the oven to 325 F.
5. Divide custard into the ramekins. Then place the ramekins in a water bath (fyi, water should be hot!) and loosely tent with foil.
6. Bake for 25-40 minutes, or until the pudding pots jiggle like a bowl full of jelly.
7. Finally, remove the pan from oven and cool completely. Fridge it for at least an hour - unless you like room-temp pudding, ya weirdo.

Chocolate sauce

2 oz dark-chocolate chips
3 tbsp heavy cream
pinch of salt

1. In a small saucepan, stir all ingredients together over low heat.

To assemble

Plop a spoonful of sour cream into each pudding pot, drizzle-whizzle with chocolate sauce, and sprinkle with crushed Butterfinger, if desired.

The recipe above comes verbatim from Sweet Revenge: Passive-Aggressive Desserts for Your Exes & Enemies by Heather Kim.  I made a few changes - first of all I cut the recipe in half (4 cups of cream?!). I used 6 oz custard cups because that's what I have, but I suspect from the yield and pictures that she intends you to use smaller ones - this is never specified, however. But because I used 6 oz cups I had to bake it longer than upper time limit given here. I may have slightly overbaked but the custard was not scrambled eggs. I also didn't bother with sour cream, butterfinger, or chocolate sauce - just put whipped cream and sprinkles. The flavors are intense and deep, not overly sweet, but rich.