Posted by Karen Upright on May 22, 1997 at 19:18:13:
A chef friend of mine called me for advice on white chocolate creme brulee. She has been requested to make it and would like to use her usual creme brulee recipe, which is a stovetop custard that is not baked at all and contains no flour or starch of any kind. It's just like a very thick creme anglaise. In any case, she was doing it in a double boiler and added finely chopped white chocolate to it and it became very watery and grainy and never set properly. She would like to use her creme brulee recipe as she is very comfortable with it. Can anyone offer advice as to why the custard didn't set, why it became grainy, or how to better incorporate the white chocolate in the future?
We ruled out burning and seizing, the only reasons for grainy white chocolate that I know.
Karen