We mentioned in our last post that we were going to make some Creme Caramel. We tried it and feel that it is worthy of a post. This was a little different for us because we quite often make Creme Brulee. We give credit to this recipe to Joanne Chang at finecooking.com
Classic Creme Caramel:
2 cups heavy cream
1 cup milk (we only had skim, so we added 1/2 & 1/2)
1/2 vanilla bean or 1 tsp. vanilla
extract
1 cup sugar
3 egg yolks
2 eggs
Pinch salt
For the caramel:
1/2 cup sugar
For the custard:
Heat the oven to 325°F. Heat the cream and
milk in a medium saucepan over medium heat until scalded (you'll see small
bubbles on the sides of the pan). Split the vanilla bean in half, if using, and
scrape the seeds into the cream. Meanwhile, in a medium bowl, slowly
whisk 1/2 cup of the sugar into the egg yolks and eggs. Slowly whisk
the hot cream/milk into the sugar/yolk mixture. Strain the mixture through a
fine sieve into a pitcher or measuring cup. Stir in the salt and vanilla
extract, if using.
For the caramel:
Arrange six 6-oz. ramekins in a baking dish
with deep sides and set aside. Put remaining 1/2 cup sugar in a clean saucepan.
Carefully add just enough water to dissolve the sugar, and set the pot over
high heat.
After a few minutes, the mixture will come to
a furious boil; several minutes later, as more water evaporates, it will boil
more viscously, and finally it will start to color. Swirl the pan around to
even out the caramelization. Once the sugar has started to caramelize, watch it
carefully. It takes just seconds for caramel to go from great to burnt. (We burned our first batch; the next time, we picked it up off the burner before it was quite brown enough, and the residual heat from the pan was enough to finish the browning. Lesson learned!)
When the caramel is an
even dark brown, carefully pour it into the ramekins. Caramel at this stage is
over 300°F, so be extremely careful when handling it. Divide it evenly so that
each ramekin is covered with a thin layer of dark brown caramel.
To bake:
Pour the custard into the caramel-lined
ramekins, fill the baking dish with water to come halfway up the sides of the
ramekins and cover the dish with foil. Bake until just set, 25 to 50 minutes.
Remember to start checking early; baking time will depend on the thickness and
depth of your ramekins and baking dish. Carefully remove the baking dish from
the oven and let the ramekins cool in the water bath. Remove, cover with
plastic wrap and refrigerate at least 2 hours or up to 2 days.
Run a thin knife around the edge of the
custard and invert onto a dessert plate, scraping any caramel from the ramekin
onto the custard.
So here is our run at this dessert:
