The thing I find interesting about this whole gluten-free trend is that increasingly I see recipes calling for things like xanthan gum, guar gum, locust bean flour and other oddities. To me this is kind of weird. Especially considering all of the desserts that are already gluten-free by nature like such as Jeff's favorite dessert, creme brulee! It was our first married Easter and it was rather quiet- just us and Jeff's parents. I missed the running and yelling of the small children who usually surround us at Easter but it was nice just to have a quiet afternoon to rest and reflect. Now, even though this recipe only has four ingredients I will admit you do need something special.
Now don't get freaked out! I will tell you step-by-step how to use the torch.
But first...
Easter Creme Brulee*
1 quart heavy cream
1 vanilla bean**
6 egg yolks
1/2 cup sugar
sugar for brulee
Special Equipment- six brulee dishes (aka quiche dishes) and a propane torch.
Now what I want you to do is cut your vanilla bean in half scrape out the seeds and put it all in a medium saucepan along with the heavy cream. Over medium-high heat barely boil the cream then pull it off the burner. It should look like this.
You're going to let that cool off the burner for about 10 minutes. During that time, pre-heat your oven to 225 degrees and prepare your brulee dishes on a half sheet pan.
Except for maybe be more safe than me and put the whole thing on the table...
Before you start the next stage, pull the bean out of your cream. You don't need it anymore! The next step is to separate your eggs. Once you have just your egg yolks, throw them in a mixer or a bowl large enough to accommodate all of the ingredients. Aww!! Aren't they cute!? Little egg yolkies. :)
Beat together the egg yolks and half cup of sugar on a high speed until it is thick and pale yellow. Now turn the mixer down to the slowest speed and gently pour the cream in a slow steady stream about the size of a pencil. If at any point the egg mixture is looking overwhelmed by the cream (cream is after all pretty overwhelming...all that fatty goodness) stop pouring for a minute until it is all incorporated.
I'm going to give you a good tip now. Actually I'm going to give you about five so listen up! 1. Pour the creme mixture into a large pitcher pourer spouted thingy?? Depending on the size of yours- mine is only 4 cups and not big enough- you might have to do this in two stages but if you're lucky enough to have a six or an eight cup one it can easily be done. 2. Open your oven and make sure the rack is in the dead middle. 3. Pull out the rack and place the panned up brulee dishes on it. 4. Gently and carefully because, you know, ovens are hot or something, pour the creme mixture into each dish until it is just below the rim. A la this.
5. Now that your creme is all poured quickly rinse and fill with hot water that spouted pourer pitcher thingy and oh-so-carefully fill your pan about half way up. So, so carefully, not spilling any water or precious goodness slide your rack into place and close up the oven. Whew. Okay that was intense but we got through it. *wipes away forehead sweat* Set a timer for 30 minutes and clean up ze kitchen! Cause we made a mess, didn't we. Once the timer goes off gently wiggle the edge of the pan (with a hot mitt! please don't burn yourself!) and see how wiggly they are. Good! If they need more water add more water. Now turn up the oven to 300 degrees and set another timer for 10 minutes. At the end of ten minutes they should be good, mostly still jiggly looking but set around the edges. Pull the pan out of the oven with utmost care and let them fully cool.
These can be stored wrapped in the fridge for days and they will be fine but they should chill at least 3-4 hours before you brulee them. Magically, that time has already passed for me! Let the fun commence!!
See the beautiful creme? In all its bean-flecked glory!?!
Mm. Perfection. I want you to sugar it all the way to the edges, not missing any spot. This should be a tablespoon or more of sugar.
Repeat on as many are you are going to consume imminently. (Please know it is NOT a good idea to do the brulee ahead of time. Sugar is hydroscopic which is Latin for "melts away and leaves a sad, sugary goo instead of a beautiful caramelized crust." I'm pretty sure anyway. My Latin's not that great.)
Okay, breathe in and out. It is time to use ze propane. Firmly attach the torch nozzle to the bottle, making sure that the knob is fully closed. Now open the knob slightly (you should hear a hissing) and light it. Once it is lit, open the knob further until you have a nice, blue flame like this.
Oh! See my oven mitt? You're going to need one, too. Keeping the torch directed away from yourself and anything flammable apply the first third of the flame to the sugar moving in circular motions. It should start to make little sugar beads.
Work your way from the edges in toward the center. Make sure you don't get too close because burnt sugar is well... burnt and doesn't taste yummy at all.
Husband got confused and thought the picture was supposed to be of me instead of the food. Hah. :) Keep going! The sugar should start to caramelize at this point.
This is about done in my opinion. A purist would say this isn't caramelized enough but I'm not a purist and mostly just like crunchy sugar. Anyway. MOST IMPORTANT. Do NOT attempt to touch any part of this with your bare hands for several minutes. Use a mitt to move it out of the way and ESPECIALLY do not try to touch the sugar on top or else you're going to end up in the ER with sugar burns. Not fun. Move on to the next one if you're doing more than one. After about five minutes, garnish with berries or other fruits or nothing and enjoy.
Much love,
Tirienne
* These proportions are shamelessly stolen from Alton Brown's creme brulee recipe. However, I did not use his baking method because it failed me the first time I tried because the eggs coagulated. So I lowered the oven temp and tried again. It came out as close to perfect as I could manage. :)
**For the vanilla bean, I used beans that had been soaking to make vanilla extract. I doubled the amount, using about two beans and really liked the flavor.
