Lavender Chocolate Pots De Creme

Lavender is one of my favorite flavors. After trying a few different recipes, this is my version of the deliciously decadent Lavender Chocolate Pots de Crème. Pots de crème are a custard dessert in between the thickest- crème brulee and the lightest-flan.

2 cups cream, ½ cup milk

3 tablespoons dried lavender flowers

6-7 oz. semisweet chocolate chips

3 egg yolks and three whole eggs

¼ cup sugar

1 cup cream

2 tbs sugar

1tsp vanilla

Slowly warm the cream and lavender together in a small pot over the stove for 20-30 minutes, then put the pot in the fridge for at least 2-3 hours. The longer the lavender sits in the cream, the stronger the flavor will be. Once it has chilled long enough, warm it a little, and strain out all the lavender flowers. Put the cream back in the pot with the chocolate chips and slowly melt everything together, mixing well.Make sure the chocolate is completely melted and blended in the cream. Preheat the oven to 325.

At the same time, mix the eggs and sugar in a mixer until foamy.Be careful not to over mix.

When the chocolate is melted, let it cool for just a minute or two then add into the eggs with the mixer running. Make sure your cream mixture isn't too hot or it could start cooking the eggs early and then you get a slightly scrambled egg texture in the custard.  Then put the mixture into six ramekins. Place the ramekins in a baking dish with water that goes halfway up the sides of the ramekins.

Bake for 45-55 minutes and then chill the ramekins for 2-3 hours. The custards should still have some jiggle to them when you take them out. Since my ramekins were different sized, I cooked the larger ones 10 minutes longer than the shallow ones.

1 cup cream

2 tbs sugar

1tsp vanilla

Top with homemade whipped cream by putting the cream, sugar and vanilla in a mixer at medium speed until the cream thickens.