Alana
Earlier this summer, a few of my nursing friends and myself had an Indian food potluck. We’re repeating, expect this time the theme is French food! My friend Theresa tasked me with dessert, suggesting crème brûlée or crème caramel. Crème brûlée won. It requires a torch >:)
If you aren’t familiar with CB and CC, both are custard-based deserts. The main different is that CB has a hardened caramel crust and CC has a soft caramel. When making CB, the custard is prepared and sugar is caramelized on top using a torch. With CC, on the other hand, the sugar is spread onto the bottom of a pan and the custard is baked on top. The pan is then inverted so that the caramel drizzles down the sides.
I don’t really eat custard desserts at all, so I wasn’t sure how to judge my work. Apparently the flavour of the custard was really good, but the texture wasn’t right. The custard didn’t set properly, which I think is because it wasn’t in either the oven or fridge long enough.
TORCH! And a French-themed chef’s hat to boot!
In my opinion this definitely needs a repeat, though I think that it needs a fun spin. Hazelnut and chocolate, or a fruit flavour would be wonderful!
Crème Brûlée
Adapted from COOKALOT’s recipe and comments from CHEFPEON on allrecipes.com
Ingredients
- 6 egg yolks
- 4 tbsp granulated sugar, plus extra for the crust
- ½ tsp vanilla
- 2 ½ cups whipping cream
Directions
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (150 degrees C).
- Beat egg yolks, 4 tablespoons sugar and vanilla in a mixing bowl until thick and creamy.
- Pour cream into a saucepan and stir over low heat until it almost comes to boil; immediately remove the cream from heat. Slowly pour cream into the egg yolk mixture while mixing. Beat until combined, and scrape off the foam.
- Pour mixture into ramekins, and put the ramekins in a baking dish. Fill the dish with hot water until it reaches approximately half-way up the ramekins.
- Bake in preheated oven for 15-30 minutes. When the middle of the custard jiggles slightly when you tap the pan (like jello), remove from oven. Cool in the water bath for 15 minutes. Refrigerate for at least 2 hours, or overnight.
- Before serving sprinkle extra sugar on top of the custard, evening it out with the back of a spoon if needed. Use a baking torch to heat the sugar until it caramelizes, taking care not to let the flame linger in one spot over the custard.
- Let the sugar on top cool for a minute or two so it can harden. Serve and enjoy 🙂
Chateau Gateau 