bake52: week 13-- Crème brûlée

 This week was my week to host bake52!  Yipee!  I was so excited.  I knew from the start of bake52-- I wanted to make Crème brûlée!  And yes, I have my reasons.  Well, only one: to avoid further public humiliation.

I'll explain.  :)

We live in a pretty small town with limited dining out options-- but we discovered one little local place that serves YUMMY Crème brûlée!  We moved here when I was 7 months pregnant with our third baby, and let me tell you, our first two did NOTHING to prepare us for number three!!  Our little Miss was the type of baby and toddler{and now preschooler!} who often drove me to my wit's end, and I have to admit, there were many an afternoon when I thought to myself, "You know what would make this better?  A take out of Crème brûlée and a Diet Coke!"  I would then load the minivan up with my mini people and run out to treat myself, have a nice drive and often have several little ones out cold by the time we returned home.  It was a win-win.

Until the public humiliation day!

I arrived to pick up by call in order.  It had been a BAD morning.  I LOVE being a stay at home mom, but there are just some days that test the mettle of a mama!  This had been one of those days.  I was in my "exercise clothes" {although NO exercise was on my to-do list that day!}, I am sure I had spit up in my hair and just looked the part of the exhausted, worn out mom! 

There was a new girl at the front and she called out LOUDLY to another server, "That lady who called in a Crème brûlée and large Diet Coke to go is here!"-- just as a big group of local policemen were leaving the restaurant.  They all exchanged a look and started snickering!!  One even said, with his voice dripping in mock sympathy, "Bad day, huh Mom?" 

Oh my gosh!  I've never been so mortified!  Now, I have no doubt that if those tough men had been left on their own with Miss Grace for a half hour, they would have been begging for me to take her back. :)  That girl was born with a set of lungs and an iron will!  But I swore right then and there that I was going to learn how to make my own Crème brûlée so I would not repeat that same awful experience!!

Luckily for my waistline, my burned out baby brain had no motivation to learn a new recipe and a frozen yogurt place opened up and I headed there for my comfort instead!

My love of Crème brûlée started years ago-- I remember my husband taking me somewhere nice and trying to pick something sensible from the desert menu.  My logic looked something like this:
"Hmm... brownie sundaes....pies... I really want something light... Crème brûlée?  Well.... custard is like pudding.... some puddings are fat free... I'm gonna go with Crème brûlée!"  Obviously, looking over this recipe with it's 10 egg yolks and 4 cups of heavy cream I can see that my logic failed me!!  ha!

I thought this was a quick and elegant desert, something I'm excited to have in my arsenal for when I want to make something fancy for company!!  I hope you all enjoyed making it with me this week, thanks for participating! 

 Preparing my ramekins in a water bath

egg separating time!

 yikes!  That's a lot of yolks!

 

 Madagascar Vanilla Beans

 One bean-- only two come in the bottle.  

sliced in half and extracting seeds with a paring knife

tempering the eggs 

straining the custard

 poured into ramekins

after baking

 My son keeps calling this "Mom's flame-thrower" and it has made me SO cool to him!!  ha!

 post- flame throwing!

 caramelized sugar

 YUM!

THE RECIPE: 


If you don't have vanilla beans, stir 2 teaspoons vanilla extract into the yolk mixture and skip the 15-minute steeping time.  If using shallow ramekins, which normally hold 4 to 5 ounces, you may find that you have enough custard base for an extra one or two custards-- note also that they will bake more quickly, and give you more surface area for the caramelized sugar topping.  For making the caramelized sugar topping, we like to use turbinado sugar (or Sugar in the Raw), but granulated sugar can be substituted.  


Source: the America's Test Kitchen Family Baking Book



Ingredients

• 1 vanilla bean, slit lengthwise with a paring knife, seeds removed and reserved
• 4 cups heavy cream
• 2/3 cups granulated sugar (4 2/3 ounces)
• Pinch salt
• 10 large egg yolk, room temperature
• 1/4 cup turbinado sugar (see note above)

Directions

1. Adjust an oven rack to the lower-middle position and heat the oven to 300 degrees. Place a kitchen towel on the bottom of a large baking dish or roasting pan and arrange eight 6 ounce ramekins (or shallow fluted dishes) on the towel; set aside. Bring a kettle of water to a boil over high heat.
   
2. Scrape the seeds from the vanilla bean.  Combine the vanilla seeds, vanilla bean pod, 2 cups of the cream, granulated sugar, and salt together in a medium saucepan and bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring occasionally to dissolve the sugar. Remove the pan from the heat and let steep to infuse the flavors, about 15 minutes.
   
3. After the cream has steeped, stir in the remaining 2 cups cream to cool down the mixture. Whisk the yolks together in a large bowl until uniform. Whisk about 1 cup of the cream mixture into the yolks until loosened and combined; repeat with 1 more cup of the cream. Add the remaining cream and whisk until evenly colored and thoroughly combined. Strain through a fine-mesh strainer into a 2-quart measuring cup or pitcher, discarding the solids. Pour or ladle the mixture evenly into the ramekins.
   
4. Gently place the baking dish with the ramekins on the oven rack. Pour the boiling water into the baking dish, being careful not to splash any water into the ramekins, until the water reaches two-thirds the height of the ramekins. Bake until the centers of the custards are just barely set and are no longer sloshy, and a digital instant-read thermometer inserted in the centers registers 170 to 175 degrees, 30 to 35 minutes (25 to 30 minutes for shallow fluted dishes). Begin checking the temperature about 5 minutes before the recommended time.
   
5. Transfer the ramekins from the baking dish to a wire rack and let cool to room temperature, about 2 hours.
   
6. To Store:
   
7. Wrap each ramekin tightly in plastic and refrigerate for up to 4 days.
   
8. To Serve:
   
9. Unwrap the ramekins; if condensation has collected on the custards, place a paper towel on the surface to soak up the moisture. Sprinkle each custard with about 1 teaspoon turbinado sugar (1 1/2 teaspoons for shallow fluted dishes); tilt and tap the ramekin for even coverage. Ignite a torch and, following the manufacturer’s instructions, caramelize the sugar by holding the end of the flame about 1 inch from the surface of the custard until the sugar melts, then burns to a golden brown, proceeding the same way until the entire surface is deeply golden brown and hard. Refrigerate the ramekins, uncovered, to rechill, about 30 minutes (but no longer).
   
10. To Serve Right Away
    
11. ill the baked custards as directed in step 6 until they are set, about 4 hours, before serving as directed in step 7.