Classic Crème Brûlée

By -



This recipe is delightful. It gets an 8.5. It’s light tasting and pleasantly smooth. I like creme brulee with a bit of orange flavoring, but this was still good—it reminds me of vanilla pastry cream. They are also pretty simple once you know what you are doing. As usual, I overcomplicated my life by combining 2 recipes. I think the better one is the one below from Fine Cooking. However, I put some potential changes in bold.

Classic Crème Brûlée

By Kimberly Masibay Fine Cooking Issue 84

Ingredients

  • 1-3/4 cups heavy cream I cut this down to 1 1/2 cups, and the other recipe suggested you could do 50% half and half, which is likely true
  • 1 vanilla bean or 1 tsp. pure vanilla extract I did almost 3 tsp. for a double batch
  • 4 large egg yolks (ideally cool or cold)
  • 1/4 cup plus 2 to 4 tsp. granulated sugar
  • Pinch kosher salt I did about 1/4 tsp. for a double batch
Recipe found at link below:
https://www.finecooking.com/recipe/classic-creme-brulee

So, I doubled this in order to get 8 ramekins
You beat the sugar and the salt with the egg yolks. Then, you bring the cream barely to a simmer, and as soon as it cools to about 165 degrees, you use that to slowly temper the eggs. Don’t over mix or it will form stupid little bubbles. Strain this in to a big Pyrex and then pour in your ramekins. You don’t fill them all the way to the top, but about 3/4 full. Then, this is the part where I overcomplicated by life by like a million. You are supposed to fill the roasting pan with boiling water until it reaches about 2/3 up the sides of the ramekins. Then, you cover this with tinfoil and put it in the oven at 300 for about 20-50 minutes, depending on the thickness of your ramekins. The center will be jiggly. Not wavy, but like jello. The center should be between 150 and 155 degrees. After they are thoroughly cold, you put 1-2 tsp. of sugar on the top of each custard and burn it with the torch.
My biggest mistake was the stupid water. It was a mess. I filled it too high (I went so it was level with the height of the top of the custard, bad idea). Then, I forgot the tinfoil and it sloshed all over as I tried to cover it. Seriously, way overcomplicated.

Comments

  1. thejohnmfamilyFebruary 18, 2024 at 8:57 PM

    OK, you have to use 100% heavy cream, and I used deeper ramekins and it went much better. I didn't cut down the cream measurement at all and did 1 Tbs. vanilla for a double batch. We baked ours for 42 minutes and they were perfect, and I used the le crueset pans for the water bath.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Sourdough, version 4, aka version Mel

By -
Image
This is my personal favorite.—it is a combination of the sourdough recipe from Nancy Beykirch with the Tartine method. It is sour but the texture is also great. Leaven: 1/2 cup sourdough starter 1/2 cup water 2/3 cups bread flour Combine ingredients and let sit 12 hours. Then, combine the leaven (mine was about 290 grams) 860 grams white flour 100 grams wheat flour 700 grams water 22 grams salt You mix this then let it sit for 40 minutes. Then, you put it in a big bowl and let it rise for 5 hours. For the first 2-3 hours, turn in every 30 minutes where you pull the dough to the opposite side, rotate the bowl by 4ths, do the same thing. Then, you put it on a floured surface. This dough is sticky, so you might need a good deal of flour. divide and shape into 2 loaves, then let sit 30 minutes. Then, kind of reshape them and put them in a pot. Let them rise for 3 hours. Then, score them. Bake at 425 for 20 minutes, then lid off the dutch oven for the final 20 minutes.
Read more

Grandma Goodsell's Whole Wheat Bread

By -
Image
  So, my Grandma Goodsell is the one who instilled a love of bread making in me. I owe a lot to her guidance when I was a kid. We finally tracked down her recipe after we thought it was lost all those years ago, and I made it yesterday. I give it a 9, but that’s probably a lot of nostalgia. Either way, it is a very, very solid bread recipe. I put my changes below in bold. Grandma Goodsell's Whole Wheat Bread Mix 2 ½ T yeast and 1 T sugar in 1 C water, and let set for 10 minutes. I used instant yeast, so I decreased this to 5 tsp. of yeast 3 C milk 2 C water ½ C honey ½ C shortening 2 T salt 2 T molasses 5 ½ C whole wheat flour 7 ½ C white flour I also added 2 heaping spoonfuls of wheat gluten Combine milk, honey, shortening, salt, and molasses in a saucepan and heat until shortening melts. Stir in 2 Cups cold water and combine with yeast mixture. Pour mixture into mixing bowl and add flours one cup at a time alternating between white and wheat (1 C white, 1 C wheat, 1 C white, ...
Read more

Instant Pot Spaghetti and Meatballs

By -
Image
Oh, how I love me a pressure cooker that cuts down on dishes and produces the exact same results. This is good because it's pasta and meatballs. I would have to really be coerced to make it any other way again because this is just SO easy. My one complaint is that it was very rich in tomato flavor because it calls for twice as much sauce as when I make it the traditional way. I think I might increase the water and use less sauce next time. Instant Pot Spaghetti and Meatballs 1 pound lean ground beef or ground turkey I just did my own meatballs already premade 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder (or 2 cloves garlic, finely minced) I just did my own meatballs already premade Salt and pepper 16 ounces uncooked spaghetti noodles (see note) I think our spaghetti is almost 18 oz 1 teaspoon dried basil I used fresh 40 ounces jarred spaghetti/marinara sauce (see note) I did 2 Trader Joe's vodka sauces that are 25 oz. each 3 1/2 cups water Freshly grated Parmesan and ...
Read more