Why didn't my baked custard come out right?  I followed the recipe
exactly, but the egg part of the custard separated from the cream part
of the custard, so that there was a layer of slightly burned egg on
top, and liquid at the bottom.  The recipe was for a chocolate
custard.  First I heated the cream and melted the chocolate, mixed it
together, and then beat it into the egg yolk mixture until it was
smooth.  I poured the
mixture into custard cups and put it on a baking pan and baked the
custard at 325 degrees using a water bath for about an hour.  I wonder
if the heat was too high?  The water bath was boiling pretty rapidly, and
the pan I used (Chicago Metallic jelly roll pan) said to reduce the oven
temperature by 25 degrees when using it (which I didn't do this time).
 This kind of thing happened to me before when I was making chocolate
mousse as well.  Help!

Did you temper the egg mixture when you added the hot cream/chocolate
mixture to the eggs or just dump it all in at once?  My guess is this
is the problem.  Tempering involves slowly raising the temperature of
the eggs so that the eggs don't scramble.  Basically you slowly add
the cream mixture to the eggs just a little at a time.  Add a few
spoonfuls, mix, add a few more, mix again, etc. When you just pour the
hot cream into the eggs, the tempture goes up so quickly that the eggs
cok instantly.  Since your egg separated out, I'm guessing that you
scrambled the eggs when you added the cream all at once and then they
floated to the top and burned when cooking.

Good luck with this!!

You may also want to try a glass or ceramic pan instead of metal.  I
don't think it could hurt and it may be the problem.  The purpose of a
water bath is to keep the temperature surrounding the pan at a
constant 212F (boiling water stays at 212).  Metal is a better
conductor than glass or ceramic so that means the bottom of the pan
the cups are sitting on will be hotter than the water surrounding it. 
This may have also caused the custard to overcook.

I was careful to temper the egg mixture.  Also, the cream and
chocolate mixture was not that hot (it wasn't boiling) when I added it
to the egg.  The mixture did not appear to scramble, and I didn't
notice any cooked egg when I poured it through a strainer, so I don't
think there was a problem in that step.  Your suggestion about using a
glass or ceramic pan for the water bath sounds good though, perhaps
the metal pan I used heated up the custard cups too much.  Another
thing I might try is to put something between the pan and the custard
cups to insulate it.  Thanks!

Hi Jazzgeorge!

Something else to help out the next time you make custard is to use a
custard rack, similar to the one here (I have no idea who this auction
belongs to, I was just looking for a picture):

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=7301930519&category=18914&refid=store

Using a rack keeps the bottoms of the cups up off the water bath
bottom, helping to keep the temperature of the custards more even.

I burned the first couple custards I ever tried, too, but my
grandmother administered a gentle dope-slap and gave me a custard
rack.  Between that and the heavy Pyrex dish I use for the water bath,
no more burned custards!

--Missy

Your cocoa may have been alkalized, and, with the possible addition of
Sodium Bicarbonate(aka Baking Soda), the pH of your custard may have
hit the isoelectric point of the egg protein.

Try another cocoa powder that is A)Non-Alkalized B)Alkalized.

If you are adding any water to the recipe, you may want to avoid using
your tap water.  Tap water can range in pH from 5.5 to 7.5.  Buy some
drinking water at the store.