Mealtime Magic: The Hot Brown and Chocolate Pots de Créme

Food writer, pastry chef and educator, Susie Norris wants to help home cooks celebrate the holidays with home-baked meals and mood-lifting sweets from around the world.  In her new cookbook, A Baker’s Passport (Amazon/2019), Susie shares over 200 technique-driven recipes culled from her global travels and her award-winning blog, Food Market Gypsy, designed to inspire home cooks as well as experienced chefs.

Recipes include sweet and savory favorites such as:

-    Beef Wellington
-    Black Forrest Cake
-    Cranberry Loaf
-    Gourgeres
-    Macarons
-    New England Turkey Dinner
-    Oyster Stuffing
-    Popovers
-    Prime Rib Roast
-    Shaker Lemon Pie
-    Speculoos
-    Sticky Toffee Pudding with Whiskey Sauce
-    Sweet Potatoes with Agave & Pecan Crust
-    Yule Log (Boche de Noel)

Throughout the pages of A Baker’s Passport Norris, teaches techniques for classic baked dishes and explores heirloom recipes, and the context of their origins. 

“My goal is to bring the joy of regional baking home. Take an international culinary excursion without leaving your kitchen with A Baker’s Passport and taste the world! With this book as your passport, we’ll celebrate the holidays together.”

Recipes and photos reprinted with permission from
A Baker’s Passport by Susie Norris
Amazon/February 2019

The Hot Brown from Louisville, KENTUCKY
Yield: 4–6 servings
Level: Easy

The Brown Hotel in Louisville, Kentucky created this comfort-food classic in 1926. Head Chef Fred K. Schmidt knew a thing or two about the roaring 20s, when people danced all night and came in eager for a midnight breakfast. Determined to offer them more than a plate of bacon and eggs, he created a heavy, tasty, open-faced sandwich with turkey and bacon covered in an extra-cheesy Béchamel sauce. The Brown Hotel, still resplendent in its 1920s decor, serves the Hot Brown proudly, whether morning, noon, or midnight. This dish anchors a burgeoning culinary scene in my home state, which includes the resurgence of bourbon production and artisan meats along the Kentucky Bourbon Trail, a route of distilleries and tasting rooms.

Equipment: medium-size shallow baking dish, medium saucepan
Time: 1–2 hours

1 pound (16 ounces) boneless turkey breast, cooked and thickly sliced
2 Roma tomatoes, halved
8 slices Texas toast (or bread slices of choice)
2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 cup (8 ounces) heavy cream
½ cup (4 ounces) chicken broth
½ cup (4 ounces) grated Pecorino-Romano cheese
Pinch of ground nutmeg
Pinch of paprika
1 teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon pepper
8 slices bacon, cooked
1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley 

Preheat the oven to 300°F. 

Arrange slices of turkey layered with the tomatoes in a medium-size shallow baking dish and set aside. 

Prepare the Texas toast by removing the bread crusts, toasting, and cutting in half diagonally. In a medium saucepan over medium heat, combine the butter and flour with a whisk to form a roux. 

Cook for 2–3 minutes, until the starchy flavor has cooked out. Add the cream slowly, whisking constantly until incorporated, and add the chicken broth. 

Lower the heat and add half of the cheese, nutmeg, paprika, salt, and pepper, and switch to a spatula or wooden spoon and stir. Season to taste. 

Pour the sauce over the turkey and tomatoes. Bake about 20 minutes, until thoroughly warm. Sprinkle the remaining half of cheese over the dish and place under the broiler for about 2 minutes, until the cheese starts to bubble and turn brown. 

Remove from the broiler, add the toast points along the edges of the dish with tips pointing up, add the slices of bacon on top, sprinkle with parsley, and serve.

Chocolate Pots de Crème FROM Chantilly, FRANCE
Yield: 4–6 servings
Level: Medium

This is the quintessence of the simple and important French dessert. As chocolate slowly swept through the European aristocracy in the 1700s, elegant pots of cream—some for drinking, some for holding little dessert custards —became a feature of a well-laid table, along with English silver and thin Chinese plates. Today, you can find antique sets of these lidded vessels in vintage shops or from fine porcelain purveyors. The favorite filling, a dark chocolate baked custard, became part of classic French cuisine. Today, chefs serve it in individual ramekins for dessert. Who doesn’t become child-like and content at the sight of your very own little dish of smooth, chilled, dark chocolate custard? It’s topped with a dollop of Chantilly Cream, created in the aristocratic town of Chantilly. 

Equipment: medium bowl, small saucepan, ramekins or 1 (9-inch) cake pan, deep baking dish
Time: 1 hour (plus 2 hours for chilling)

For the Pots de Crème:
4 ounces dark chocolate, melted
1 egg
2 egg yolks
¼ cup (2 ounces) granulated sugar
1 cup (8 ounces) whole milk
½ cup (4 ounces) heavy cream
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon salt

For the Chantilly Cream:
1 cup (8 ounces) heavy cream
3 tablespoons powdered sugar, sifted
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
½ teaspoon salt

Preheat the oven to 300°F. 

Place the melted chocolate in a medium bowl, then add the egg, egg yolks, and sugar and whisk together; set aside. 

In a small saucepan, heat the milk, cream, vanilla, and salt together over medium heat and bring to a simmer (also known as “scalding”) with bubbles along the edges of the liquid. Pour a small amount (about ½ cup) into the chocolate mixture and stir. Continue to add the milk mixture slowly to the chocolate mixture, stirring constantly until all of the milk mixture is incorporated. 

Using a ladle or large spoon, divide the batter into 4–6 (3-inch-wide) ramekins. Place the ramekins in a deep baking dish filled with 2 inches of water. Bake for about 30–35 minutes until the sides of the custard are firm and the interiors are slightly fluid in the center. 

Remove the ramekins from the water bath and cool completely. Refrigerate at least 2 hours. 

Meanwhile, prepare the Chantilly Cream. Combine the cream, powdered sugar, vanilla extract, and salt in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment. Beat to full volume, about 2–3 minutes. 

Top the custards with Chantilly Cream. Serve on a plate with cookies and berries.

About the Author
Susie Norris is a pastry chef, culinary educator, and food-focused traveler. She taught baking and pastry arts at Le Cordon Bleu College of Culinary Arts in California where she also ran an artisan chocolate business for more than a decade. In 2015, she grabbed her passport and set off to discover culinary classics in their native cultures.  FoodMarketGypsy.com was launched to document her travels to baking capitals and culinary hot spots. Within a year the blog won the International Association of Culinary Professionals’ Digital Media Award. A Baker's Passport is a collection of her most-requested recipes from the blog.

Susie’s work has appeared in/on The Food Network, KTLA Morning News, NBC’s syndicated television show Daytime, The New York Times, The Times London, The Washington Times, and more. She is based in Los Angeles with roots in Kentucky bourbon country and the farm-to-table culture of the Berkshires of Massachusetts. She is the author of Chocolate Bliss (Random House/Celestial Arts, 2008), and Hand-Crafted Candy Bars (with Susan Heeger, Chronicle Books, 2013).  Susie is known for her lively baking classes, road-trip tours of farmers’ markets and urban food halls, and workshops highlighting pairings of chocolate and craft spirits.  Visit her at www.FoodMarketGypsy.com.