Creme Brullee

Jamie's own Lavender infused Creme Brulee

  "Go on, my son!" as Jamie would say I'm sure. I saw him do a variant of Creme Brulee called a Cambridge Cream in an episode of The Naked Chef. I just thought, "I've got to try that sometime." A few years went by, my cooking experiences grew into larger adventures and I soon forgot about it. However, a Creme Brulee was mentioned in a film we watched and my Dad said that I should try making one perhaps. Only a few weeks later, we were staying at a Hotel and it was one of the desserts on the menu. I didn't have one as there were other things on the menu that intrigued me but some of my siblings did and said how good it was. There was nothing for it, I would have to give it a go...eighteen months later! I finally got around to trying it only a few weeks back and so I thought I would share the experience as a post. Here is the recipe that I used.

 Time: 50 mins

 Serves: 6

 RECIPE:

 1) Place a small saucepan on a hob at a medium-high heat. Dump in there a 600ml pot of double cream and a dash of vanilla extract. Bring the cream to a light boil and then reduce the heat and simmer for a few minutes. While this is simmering, whisk in a large, heatproof bowl 100g of sugar with six egg yolks until slightly fluffy and pale in colour. 

Blowtorches are one of the most fun
tools of the kitchen. 

 2) Now you pour over your egg mixture the cream and whisk these together until it thickens. The heat of the cream should actually cook the eggs a little. Either pour into six, separate ramekins or one, smaller Pyrex dish. (Please ensure that you do not use a dish that is too big either or you will end up with my disaster!) Put your dish/dishes into a large tray and fill the tray with boiling water half way up the sides of dish/dishes. This is what is know as a bain-marie. "Do you know Marie? She's a lovely gal," as Jamie said. 

Hmmm...that's a cool ramekin

 3) Right, centre shelf of your oven for 40-45 minutes or until the custard is a tad wobbly still in the middle. Take your dish/dishes out of the water and let them cool on a rack until they return to room temperature. Chill from here if they are not needed straight away. 

 4) For the caramelised topping, sprinkle sugar evenly over the top and return to the top of the oven at a high heat until caramelised. However, if you have a blow-torch then by all means whack it on and go for it!

Using the real deal is so much better in most cases

 Technically, you should use vanilla pods which are the real deal but the extract worked a treat just as well. If you do use them then you will need to strain your mixture before pouring into your dish/dishes.
 Unfortunately, I neglected to take any pictures of my attempt but that may be just as well to be honest. Firstly, I should have used a smaller dish and I also took it out far too early so that it was quite wobbly in the middle. The flavour, however, was out of this world. I fully intend to try again the very near future and perhaps do it a little differently with maybe some raspberry jam at the bottom put some chocolate in there for the ladies. Apparently lavender works well too which would be most interesting to try. That's what this is all about anyway, trial and error and being an exploitative of the kitchen. Next time I might try something more chocolatey. Mousse maybe?

 If you guys have had one of these "kitchen flops" then send me an email to onedeliciousman@gmail.com or leave a comment below, I would love to hear from you. Alternatively, click here to visit my sister site "Your Blog!".

Seasoned with Patience

Jacob

"To glorify my Savior, Jesus Christ, the Creator 

of the universe and spread further abroad His glorious gospel." - Yours Truly