Salted Burnt Caramel Custard is the luscious, silky, and intoxicating adult version of butterscotch pudding. I bake these luxurious, silky Pots de Crème in clear glass jars so I can admire their dusky and seductive color.

Burned is the usual past tense of ‘burn’, but ‘burnt’ is common in many contexts when the past participle is used as an adjective. You are asking me what the heck that means, aren’t you? It means both are right.

And in the example of this recipe, the ‘burn’ is intentional because we plan to take it only so far. The darker you can get the caramel without burning it, the better the end product will be. However, use caution as it will go from perfection to smoke alarms in about 3 seconds if you are not paying attention.

Flakey Malden sea salt gives these tiny Pots de Crème a little edge – do not skip the flakey sea salt, TRUST ME.

The salted caramel custard recipe that I am highlighting in this method is the culmination of several methods and varying amount of heavy cream. This easy caramel custard recipe was born of years of experimenting and ruining pots.

The transformative effect of heat on sugar is the science behind Salted Burnt Caramel Custard, giving it its complex flavors.

I have never had the best luck with making caramel until just a year or two ago. Frankly, working with hot molten sugar is intimidating IF you have ever tried it and allowed it to go just a wee bit too far. In other words, burned. I will leave that part of the story at “loud smoke detectors.”

I have practiced this method more times than I can recall. And last autumn, I nailed it. And I am making it so that you will nail it, too. In fact, these are easy. By simply switching up the way in which I approach making the caramel, these now turn out great every time.

This recipe makes 8 six-ounce portions. I like to see the rich color I am about to drive my spoon into, so I bake them in the smallest clear glass canning jars I own. If you have genuine glass Pot de Crème jars, by all means bust them out for this. Oh yeah, you’ll want to have them at the ready for this dessert, but plain old ramekins will work fine, too.

See if Salted Burnt Caramel Custard doesn’t become a regular favorite at your house, because I’m just betting it does.

So, all of you candy making folks out there who have the caramel method down to a science, I pay homage to you. Why? Because I have done everything from out and out burning my sugar to boiling my sugar to the point that I seized a pan. And in a recipe that uses four cups of heavy cream and a mess of egg yolks, you do not want to mess the caramel up.

Once you grasp this procedure you will not think twice about it. It will be like riding a bicycle. Second nature. I will not lie, there is one slightly tricky bit in the method. Caramelizing the sugar. The sugar cooks until it gets lovely and tanned and a deep amber color, but not actually burned. It will take some time at medium heat on the stove, and you must watch it closely.

Your nose “knows.” The darker the sugar mixture, the more flavor the custard will have, but if it becomes too dark and sinister, or you can smell burning, you have taken it too far. Patience and vigilance and trust will allow the science behind heat and sugar to do its thing.

How do you make caramel custard?

If there is one major ‘tip’ I can offer when assembling this recipe, it is to pay strict attention when adding your hot cream mixture to your whisked egg yolks. I begin with 1/3 to 1/4 cup measure of the hot cream in one hand, my whisk over my eggs in the other.

I SLOWLY begin to dribble the cream into the eggs while whisking as briskly as one hand will allow me. This is called ‘tempering the eggs’ or bringing the egg mixture up to the temperature of the cream mixture but without scrambling the eggs.

Following that first small amount whisked in, keep on with a SLOW STREADY STREAM, whisking always. In the end, if you find you have a few lumps, you can always strain your cream through a fine mesh sieve. If you follow what I am saying to do here, you will not find that necessary. Just add the hot cream slowly, while whisking, and you’ll be fine.

And I should point out, by the time you get ready to incorporate the cream, it will no longer be ‘hot’ per se, as I am going to instruct you to remove it from the heat while you make your caramel. At most, you will have warm cream. Test it on your wrist as you would a baby bottle; if it is tepid, reheat in the same small saucepan over medium heat for just a few minutes.

These uncomplicated “pots de crèmes” are just sweet enough, just salty enough, and just elegant enough…

Salted Burnt Caramel Custard is a little looser in texture than say pudding or flan. This recipe calls for 4 cups of cream. Once, when I was trying to impress a boy I had invited to dinner (oh so long ago!), I was short on cream and ended up preparing with only 3 cups.

The outcome was thick and luscious versus silky and intoxicating. If you are a foodie, you just understood what I said. Translated, it turned out fine. These are baked in a low oven in a bain-marie or water bath, for about 1 hour.

Simply bake until the custard is just set, and you get that signature “jiggle” when you wiggle.

If you have a tea kettle, I recommend filling it so that when you are ready to add the bain-marie, you can do so right in front of your already heated oven. Trying to use the tap at the sink to fill the baking dish and then walk it to the oven will only result in something catastrophic. That, and the kettle is a clean pour. You need this so you do not end up with water in the custard cups!

Do not look for smooth tops when these emerge from the oven. They begin to acquire a quasi-crunchy film of bubbles toward the end of their bake and this is correct. Not necessarily pretty, but correct. Once you lightly salt them, it will not make a bit of difference.

Cover the baking pan of custard cups with aluminum foil if you require them ultra smooth. I never do, but that’s just me. Regardless, after you plunge your spoon in for that first taste, you will notice a silky and lighter in color caramel beneath that top layer. Just say it! HEAVEN!

All images and text ©Jenny DeRemer for Not Entirely Average, LLC