Creme Brulee For the Holiday

By Bitayavon Magazine

Creme brulee is a quintessential French dessert that is quite simple to make. This recipe is adaptable to suit your palate – you can add coffee, cocoa powder or coffee liquor or lemon juice and zest… the possibilities are endless! Using heavy cream yields a richer, creamier Creme brulee; but this recipe works with regular milk and soymilk as well.

INGREDIENTS:

2 cups heavy cream, full fat milk or soymilk
4 egg yolks
1 egg
½ cup sugar + 6 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

DIRECTIONS:

Pour 2 cups of cream or milk into a saucepan.

Heat cream on medium heat until small bubbles form on the side of the pot.
When bubbles form on side of pot, remove from heat.

Meanwhile beat or whisk eggs with ½ cup sugar and vanilla extract.

Take a large spoonful of cream and mix it into the eggs to temper the egg mixture. (Mixing all of the hot cream with the eggs will cause the eggs to scramble. To bring eggs up to temperature, mix in a spoonful of cream and then when eggs are combined with cream they will not scramble.)

Pour tempered eggs into cream and mix, and then strain mixture. It is important to strain the mixture for smooth custard.

Pour mixture into 6-8 ramekins or custard dishes.

Place ramekins in a deep baking dish.

Pour about an inch of hot water into the baking dish, making sure that the water does not reach the top of your ramekins or custard dishes. Pouring water in the baking dish creates a water bath and ensures even cooking.
Bake for 35 minutes or until custard is set.

Let cool. At this point you can refrigerate the cr?me br?l?e until you are ready to serve.

When ready to serve, spoon a tablespoon of sugar on top of each br?l?e and place under broiler until sugar starts to caramelize, or use a torch to caramelize the sugar.

TIP: Add flavor additions (coffee liquor, lemon juice/zest, coffee, or cocoa) once cr?me br?l?e batter is mixed together; right before you would strain the mixture and pour into ramekins.

A food torch is a special tool safe for the home cook to use when making cr?me br?l?e and other dishes such as caramelized bananas and berries. It is available in most food specialty stores and online.

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Presented by Bitayavon magazine, awarded the hottest launch of 2011. Get the late spring issue titled “The Italy Issue,” to explore the flavors of Italy with mouthwatering, bright photographs and contemporary graphic design. At your local news stand or online at www.bitayavon.com.