Crème brûlée

Crème brûlée - everyone's all time favourite dessert!

Assiette of desserts with creme brulee, Prosecco and berry jelly, chocolate coated strawberry, eton mess and sticky toffee pudding

Luckily for chefs it's also one of the easiest in terms of making and serving, and it's also pretty cost effective too. 

It's also one of those recipes that is imprinted on the brain. AND I've got a super quick way of preparing it - cut the faffing around!

Crème Brûlée Recipe
Makes 4 x 150ml ramekins 

500ml Double Cream
6 - 7 egg yolks (depends on how hard you would like them set & also the size of your eggs)
100g Caster Sugar
About 1/4 tsp Vanilla paste (I used an intense one full of vanilla seeds. If you use a cheaper one you may need more - taste and see!)
Demerara sugar to serve

1. Preheat oven to 140 oC.
2. Mix all these ingredients together in a mixing bowl with a whisk till well combined. 
3. Place ramekins in a deep baking tray.
4. Mix the brûlée mix up once again to make sure it's evenly mixed before pouring. 
5. Pour into the ramekins from a jug up to 1 cm from the top of the ramekin. 
6. Pour water in the baking tray to come 1/2 way up the ramekins. This ensures even cooking and they don't burn on the edges. 
7. They will take about 45 minutes in the oven.
8. Take out of the oven carefully and check they're done - they should feel set when gently shaken. You can poke a skewer into the middle - the custard should be solid, not runny. Note - they firm up as they cool down. 
9. Allow to cool and refrigerate till needed. 
10. To serve sprinkle a generous layer of demerara sugar on top and glaze with a blow torch till the sugar caramelises evenly. The topping stays crunchy for about 45 minutes so you want to be doing this just before serving. Also nice to serve with homemade shortbread. 

To make the mini brûlée you can scale the recipe to the amount you need to make. The pots I had were 30ml, so you can get 20 of those from this mix. 

Assiette of desserts with creme brulee, chocolate torte, eton mess, lemon tart and mini bread and butter pudding

Variations

• Add raspberries to the ramekin before you pour on the brûlée mix. You'll need slightly less brûlée. Or add poached peaches as well for a peach melba brûlée. 
• Orange brulee - add some orange segements and slightly reduce the cream mix and replace it with Grand Manier or Cointreau - 25ml or so.
• For cinnamon fans out there try a festive cinnamon and honey brulee. You can infuse the cream with a cinnamon stick.
• Lemon grass crème brûlée - infuse the cream with 2 sticks of chopped up lemongrass. Nice after a thai meal or curry. 
• Lavender - infuse the cream with lavender. You have to check with your guests they like lavender - it's lovely, but not to everyone's taste sadly. 

Why is my crème brûlée runny?

Either not cooked long enough or not enough egg yolk to cream ratio. For years I used to make the above recipe with 5 egg yolks to 500ml cream. It makes a nice soft set. But it takes longer to set  in the oven and if you are transporting them to a venue as I was, you really want a firmer set so I increased it to 6 or 7 yolks per 500ml of cream depending on the size of the eggs. 

Should crème brûlée be hot or cold?

One guest complained once that they're crème brûlée was served cold. At home, a lot of people put them under the grill to glaze the sugar. The only problem with this is it heats up the custard too. With a blow torch it just glazes the top without heating the underneath. Nice, if you're used to it that way. 

Can you freeze crème brûlée?

Actually yes - you can! When they're cooked and cooled pop them in the freezer. Then they just need defrosting for a few hours, or overnight in the fridge prior to glazing and serving. You can't tell they've been frozen. 

How long does crème brûlée last in the fridge?

4 - 5 days at the most. 

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1001 Kitchen Tips #67 - Mulled wine tips

Hey look at the time - it's mulled wine o'clock!

Mulled wine - is there anything better to warm you up on a winter's day. Well ok maybe hot chocolate with brandy - but that's another story.

Here's some mulled wine tips I've learned from the expert:

• Numero uno - don't buy those mulled wine spice packs - waste of money. A small amount of spices which you've most likey already got in your store cupboard and an extportionate price because they're brought for presents. Also the spices in the 'mulled spice packs' are normally quite dull in flavour - just use the whole spices in your cupboard.
• Sugar - Mulled wine must contain sugar for complete cold weather salvation. I've often tasted some that other people have made - too sour. It should be warming - like sweet tea. Demerara sugar is best  - bit more flavour than white sugar. Alternatively add honey.
• Secret ingredients? Add a few glasses (or more) of port to your mulled wine. Not only deepens the colour, but also the richness. Gives your mulled wine much more life. 
• Additions - it's all about the additions! We're talking additions of the spirit variety here. Brandy is a starting point - adds a kick. Or calvados adds a similar kick but appley flavour. Also sloe gin gives it another great dynamic. The one I made above contained Cointreau and Creme de cassis. I tried another version with ginger wine last year - very good. 
• Never boil mulled wine - apart from boiling of the alcohol you also dull the flavours - and that's what it should be about
• Tastes even better the day after! If you can manage to leave it alone overnight, cover with cling film and let it infuse. Warm up the next day and it has even more flavour.
• Don't through the fruit away! If you've simmered apples & oranges in the mulled wine to give it flavour let them infuse in it overnight. The next day they make a great dessert with greek yogurt.

Mulled wine recipe - well this is the one I made yesterday at least. Next time probably different.

Red wine - I used 1 1/2 bottles

Port - I used about 1/4 bottle?

Cointreau - few generous glugs

Creme de cassis - few generous glugs

3 Satsumas chopped - didn't have oranges

1 Lemon chopped

Whole cloves - about 6

Whole cinnamon sticks broken up a bit - 2

Generous grating of nutmeg

4 Whole allspice crushed

4 Peppercorns (go easy!)

4 Bay leaves (preferably fresh)

Demerara sugar - to taste. 

Mulled wine jelly - Add 1 sachet of gelatine (or 6 leaves) per pint.

Related

See other 1001 kitchen tips

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Pink peppercorn cured trout

All tips greatfully received. Especially when they come like this:
The menfolk of the party had been out fishing during the day.

Left for a couple of days for the flesh to relax (See pin bone tip here) then filletted. I've frozen the head - fish head soup coming up some time. Yes really.
I've got a cure for that - I was reading Fiona's post on pink peppercorns ealier that evening - inspiration. Salt, sugar, pink peppercorns, lemon and orange zest, tarragon and cointreau.
1 week later we try out with gherkin and jalapenos & cucumber and beetroot during our baking evening. Pretty good. We will be using as part of the trout trio on Saturday. New menu idea (in another presentation of course)?

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Chocolate fondue with fruit and marshmallow kebabs

There are some things that just should not be allowed and chocolate fondue is one of them. Or is it? You decide.

Chocolate, cream and a little cointreau (you could use orange zest if you wanted to go alcohol free).

Fruits were melon (honeydew and canteloupe), strawberries, pineapple and grapes.

There was also strawberry meringue roulade with strawberry ice cream. What more could you ask? *

Related posts:

Dry snacks served with cocktails
Barbecue main course

* Strawberry meringue drizzled with chocolate fondue? We tried that. Wow - that shouldn't be allowed either.......

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