A Paula Deen Christmas, ya’ll.

So, I haven’t been baking much. In fact, just this week I used my beloved KitchenAid stand mixer for the first time since moving (8 months ago) to our new house. Sad. But, I’m starting to get the hang of this parenting thing (ha!) and learning how to better use my time. So, we invited our sweet friends Erin and Reed over for dinner one night and looked through my cookbooks for an easy dessert recipe. I found this one and it was DELICIOUS. It reminded me of a dessert we had at FIG in Charleston, so instead of the butterscotch whipped cream that Paula makes, I made a salted caramel sauce for it. Holy yum. So amazing.

Paula Deen’s Chocolate Custard

• 1 cup (6-ounces) semisweet chocolate chips, I used Ghirardelli
• 1 cup heavy cream
• 1 cup milk
• 4 egg yolks
• 3 tablespoons sugar
• Pinch salt, I used sea salt

Preheat the oven to 300 degrees F.

Put the chocolate chips in a medium heatproof bowl. Bring the cream and milk to a light boil in a medium saucepan over low heat. Pour the hot cream mixture over the chocolate and whisk until smooth.

In a large bowl, whisk together the egg yolks, sugar, and salt. Whisking constantly, temper the chocolate mixture into the egg mixture. Stain the custard through a fine mesh sieve and divide it among the ramekins.

Put the ramekins in a large roasting pan. Carefully pour enough hot water into the pan to come halfway up the sides of the ramekins. Cover the pan tightly with foil; poke a few small holes in the foil for steam to escape. Bake on the center rack of the oven until the edges of the custard are slightly set but the center still jiggles (the center will set as the pudding cools), about 30 to 35 minutes. Remove the ramekins from the water bath and allow them to cool completely. Cover them with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 3 hours before serving.

Salted Caramel Sauce

Just follow this link and have your computer up while making it. It’s awesome. And so easy.

I topped them with a sprinkle of extra sea salt and holy cow. Delicious. Sorry I don’t have any pictures. In exchange, you can have this…

I made the custards again for our family Christmas dinner at my parent’s house. Little did I know that it would turn into a wonderful dinner with family and dear friends…and three bottles of Silver Oak. It was a great night.

Like the past several years,we’ve eat a prime rib, which Lane cooks. This year’s recipe (Thomas Keller’s) called for a blow torch. (Just an excuse for Lane to buy one, I think!) but it was super yummy.

So, this Christmas, I am beyond blessed with an incredible husband, happy baby, generous parents and the best friends a girl could ask for. Merry, merry to everyone.