KP+: Brown Butter Milk Chocolate Pots
grown up nostalgia
Brown Butter Milk Chocolate Pots
As much as I appreciate the complex allure of dark chocolate, I am a milk chocolate fiend through and through. I find it irresistible - that sweet roundness… hmm, how do I put it? It’s just such a friendly flavour. Perhaps it is nostalgia taking the wheel.
Growing up, I loved the refrigerated dessert sections of the supermarket. Muller corners with the crispy chocolate-covered cereal bits, Rolo “yoghurts” (why did I call them yoghurts, they are def not yoghurts), as well as the selection of chocolate Cadbury desserts. The latter was probably peak for me - that purple plastic pot with a slightly perforated line down the centre. Half was filled with a Cadbury confection - bits of Twirl, buttons maybe - and the other was a supremely creamy milk chocolate… pudding? What was it?
Looking it up, the manufacturers don’t seem to be entirely sure. simply describing it as a “chocolate dessert”. In pastry chef lingo, it’s somewhere between a cremeux (a ganache made with custard) and a creme patissiere. Or perhaps it is closer to American ‘pudding’, which I’ve never eaten enough of while state-side to truly understand, or Italian ‘Budino’, which I’ve occasionally seen on menus but never gotten to know myself.
In any case, a supremely creamy, soft dessert that celebrates milk chocolate? Sign me up.
I am currently working on a longer-form project (and I’ll need your help very sooooon, so please watch this space), which means working on recipes that won’t be available for some time. And while I’m able to contain my excitement for some, sometimes I take a bite of something and want to share it with you immediately! Enter: Brown Butter Milk Chocolate Pots.
Brown Butter and Milk Chocolate is such an elite combination - I often see it used in cookie recipes, but what about trying it it’s purest form, made into a custard or a ganache? Extraordinary. This recipe began as a brown butter milk chocolate whipped ganache to go inside a very delicious buckwheat bun I’m working on (all the toasty flavours), but I wondered if I could adjust the ratios to make it perfectly spoonable. Add a few garnishes - a crumb, a swoop of cream - and we’ve got a full-blown plated dessert, people!
So, the recipe: The original iteration is intended to be whipped and contains a large amount of cream. It is sloppy once cool, then when you whip it, it becomes airy and light. I wanted to adjust the recipe to alter the texture without affecting the flavour. I wanted a creamy chocolate base that set well in place without the need for whipping.
What are our options then? When it comes to adjusting or developing your own recipes, one of the most useful things you can learn is what ‘levers’ you can pull to make it your own. The best way to do this is to think through the role of each ingredient. In my original formulation, chocolate provides flavour as well as thickening, brown butter is predominantly there for flavour, but also contributes to the firming texture, while cream adds flavour and enough fat to be whippable.
My first thoughts were going down the egg route, which would move this toward cremeux territory - eggs also have thickening power when heated. Or perhaps we should go down the starch route; When starch is heated with water, it gels and thickens, providing body as it cools.
Not wanting to faff with eggs, I decided to stick to starch. So how much to add? My classic pastry cream recipe is about 8% starch to liquid. Since this recipe already gets some thickening power from the chocolate and fat, I decided to cut this down to 5% as a starting point. However, this calculation isn’t entirely reliable once you factor in the fat. Making a custard with 5% cornstarch to cream is very different from making a custard with 5% cornstarch to milk. Since cream is naturally thicker, containing 40-50% fat, you’ll end up with a much thicker, richer and denser cream.
Adding starch to 100% cream would be far too thick, so I decided to compare a version with equal parts milk and cream, as well as one that is all milk:
Both of these turned out delicious - the all-milk version is softer and spoonable, totally charming, but the one with cream? So luxurious. It has an almost chewy quality at first, which immediately melts on your tongue. It’s definitely richer and more intense, which I love. In any case, if you’d prefer a lighter, more typical custard-type texture, then simply use all milk! The world is your chocolate pot, after all.
The recipe: Brown Butter Milk Chocolate Pot
Serves 3-4, depending on how much you portion per person. I think about 70-85g per person is a nice serving, as it is quite rich. In any case, this recipe is very scalable so feel free to double, triple, or halve it! Y
