Silky smooth butterbeer potted cream, these little pots de crème with butterscotch are one of the most amazing desserts you can imagine.
It doesn't matter if you are into Harry Potter or not, just make this butterbeer potted cream, it is an incredible dessert perfect for the holiday season or for any kind of celebration. Really! It is one of the best desserts ever and everybody will just go crazy about it! Or try this Yogurt Bomb, which will make you go crazy as well.
I found the original recipe for the potted cream on Epicurious many years ago when I was very much into making any Harry Potter-related recipe I could think of. A recipe for butterscotch pots de crème, which I adapted to suit my needs. And I have been making this over and over again. And over and over again. I cannot even count how many times...
Table of contents
Recipe ingredients
Muscovado sugar:
- The only ingredient that might not be so common. At least I don't always have it and I have to buy it online.
- Also known as Barbados sugar, muscovado is a brown, moist, and somehow spicy-tasting sugar (although there are no spices in it). It comes in light or dark brown, but I have only ever been able to buy the dark brown sort. (Amazon affiliate link)
- However, if you cannot find it at all or don't want to buy it just for one recipe, you can replace it with dark brown sugar.
- And if you do have an open bag of muscovado sugar, you could try this Non-Alcoholic Christmas Fruitcake or Hagrid's Rock Cakes, another Harry Potter recipe.
Butterscotch flavor:
- Butterscotch flavor comes in small bottles like vanilla extract, for instance. (Amazon affiliate link)
- If you cannot find it, replace it with the more common butter flavor and rum flavor. (Amazon affiliate link)
- For more butterscotch recipes, have a look at these Butterscotch Cupcakes or the Boozy Butterbeer Recipe.
Other ingredients: heavy cream, 6 large egg yolks, white sugar, and vanilla extract.
Jars for serving:
- Six small jars for serving the butterbeer potted cream.
- It is really worth it serving it in jars and not ramekin dishes because it just looks so nice, especially after you've added the whipped heavy cream on top.
- Any kind of cute small jar is fine. Weck tulip jars are very in right now, but regular small reused jam jars are pretty as well. (Amazon affiliate link)
How to make butterbeer potted cream?
Prepare the jars:
- Preheat the oven to 150 degrees Celsius/ 300 degrees Fahrenheit.
- Place the small jars in a 5 cm/ 2 inch-sided baking dish.
Make caramel:
- Whisk together the heavy cream, salt, and muscovado sugar in a saucepan. Heat on medium heat while stirring until the sugar dissolves and the cream just begins to simmer. Set aside.
- Combine the water and the granulated sugar in a medium saucepan.
- Stir on medium heat until the sugar dissolves. When the mixture starts to boil, continue cooking while stirring occasionally, until the water has reduced and the mixture bubbles and turns a medium amber color. It will take about 5 minutes.
- Remove from the heat and slowly whisk in the heavy cream-muscovado mixture. Stir until combined. If the caramel doesn't completely dissolve, return the pan to low heat for about 1 minute and stir continuously until the caramel is dissolved.
Tips for making the cream:
- Mix together the egg yolks, vanilla extract, rum, and butterscotch flavor.
- Very slowly and in a steady stream pour the egg yolks into the caramel mixture while whisking all the time. Doing this very slowly and in a steady stream is important so that the egg yolks are brought to temperature without scrambling.
- Strain the mixture through a fine-mesh sieve. Skim off any foam with the help of a spoon. This is another step that might seem tedious, but which I would not leave out. Straining and skimming off the foam makes the potted cream silky smooth.
Bake:
- Divide the mixture equally between the prepared jars.
- Pour hot water (from a kettle) into the baking dish holding jars, the water should come halfway up their sides.
- Bake for about 35 to 40 minutes or until the potted cream is set but still slightly jiggly in the middle.
- Remove from the oven and let cool completely in the baking dish with the water, the custards will continue to set as they cool.
Serve:
- Serve with freshly whipped cream.
Make in advance
You can make the butterbeer potted cream 1-2 days in advance. Don't add the whipped cream on top. Only whip the cream and pipe it on the pots de crème just before serving.
Potted cream made in advance (or leftovers) are to be kept covered and refrigerated. Take out of the fridge about one hour before serving.
The dessert is not suitable for freezing.
Tips
Don't waste the egg whites. If you cannot use them immediately, freeze them for up to 12 months.
When freezing egg whites, I prefer to do it in 2 or 3 egg white portions, you will seldom need more than that for a recipe. Place them in small freezer bags and don't forget to write on the bag how many of them are inside.
Use to make Stacked Pavlova with Raspberries, Egg White Cake, or German Hazelnut Macaroons.
More Harry Potter-inspired recipes
Butterbeer Potted Cream Recipe
Ingredients
- 500 ml heavy cream 17 fl.oz/ 2 cups
- 100 g muscovado sugar 3.5 oz/ ½ cup, Note 1
- ¼ teaspoon fine sea salt
- 80 ml water 2.7 fl.oz/ ⅓ cup
- 75 g granulated sugar 2.5 oz/ ⅓ cup
- 6 large egg yolks
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon butterscotch flavor Note 2
- a few drops of rum flavor
- 250 ml heavy cream 1 cup, for whipping and serving
- 6 small jars Note 3
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 150 degrees Celsius/ 300 degrees Fahrenheit. Place the small jars in a 5 cm/ 2 inch sided baking dish.
- Whisk the heavy cream, salt, and muscovado sugar in a saucepan. Heat on medium heat while stirring until the sugar dissolves and the cream just begins to simmer. Set aside.
- Caramelize sugar: Place the water and the granulated sugar in a medium saucepan. Heat over medium heat while stirring to dissolve the sugar. When the sugar is dissolved and the mixture starts to boil, continue to cook, occasionally stirring, until the water has reduced and the mixture bubbles and turns a medium amber color. This will take about 5 minutes.
- Combine: Remove from the heat and slowly whisk in the heavy cream-muscovado mixture. Stir until combined. If the caramel doesn't completely dissolve, return the pan to low heat for about 1 minute and stir continuously until the caramel is dissolved.
- Mix the egg yolks, vanilla extract, rum, and butterscotch flavor.
- Very slowly and in a steady stream pour the egg yolks into the caramel mixture while whisking all the time.
- Strain the mixture through a fine-mesh sieve and skim off any foam with the help of a spoon.
- Divide the mixture equally into the jars.
- Pour hot water (from a kettle) into the baking dish holding the jars, the water should come halfway up the sides of the jars.
- Bake, uncovered, for about 35 to 40 minutes. When ready, the cream should be set but still jiggle slightly in the middle. Remove from the oven and let cool completely in the baking dish with the water; they will continue to set as they cool.
- Serve with freshly whipped cream. The custards can be covered and refrigerated until the next day. Take out of the fridge one hour before serving and decorate with whipped cream only before serving.
Notes
- Substitute with dark brown sugar.
- If you cannot find it, replace it with the more common butter flavor.
- Weck Tulip jars or any other pretty small jars. You can also use small ramekin pots, but the dessert looks wonderful when served in jars.
mjskitchen says
We were thinking about making about making butterscotch pudding tomorrow, but now I'm rethinking things. This potted cream looks delicious!