the (summer) foodie
So... I whipped up a batch of crème brûlée today, but in addition to that I made a little discovery of my own:
Slow and steady wins the race.
Not only is this a good (if overused) life lesson, but it should be written in stone as one of the cardinal rules of baking. I tried out a different recipe for pate brisee rather than going with my tried and true recipe from my shop binder--a big mistake on my part. Not only that, but I rushed the entire process: I didn't let it firm up in the fridge nearly long enough, so when I went to blind bake the shell, melted butter oozed from the tart mold to pool all over the pan I was smart enough to bake it on. I'm left with a crumbly and completely wrong crust, a slightly discouraged feeling, and a subpar dessert for tonight.
Ah well. At least I have a silky, delicious custard. (So glad I stuck to Chef's recipe on that one.) I almost had a boil-over--ALMOST!--but I was lucky enough to catch my cream in time and take it off the stovetop before I ended up with messes and (probably) tears. Another lesson, my lovelies: never text and bake!
CRÈME BRÛLÉE:
1 pint heavy cream
1/3 cup sugar
1/2 stick cinnamon vanilla (either 1/2 tablespoon of extract, 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla bean powder--I love this stuff!--or 1 vanilla bean pod, seeds scraped out)
Combine the above in a pot and heat over medium heat until it's boiling. WATCH CAREFULLY! Boil-overs happen really suddenly, especially when cream's involved.
1/3 cup sugar
6 egg yolks
Beat the yolks and sugar together in a large bowl. Don't worry about whipping them too much--all you want to do is have the sugar fully incorporated with your yolks.
Once the cream mixture's come to a boil, remove from heat and slowly pour in a little of the cream into the sugared yolks, whisking nonstop. Continue doing this--tempering your yolks--until you've poured all of your cream into the yolks. Strain and let cool before a) pouring the custard into prepared, greased ramekins or b) pouring the custard into your (hopefully not as failtastic as mine was today) prebaked pie shell.
Bake it at 350°F for about twenty minutes, or until your custard's sort of wiggly, but set.
Let cool before sprinkling with a generous amount of granulated sugar and--YAY!--torching the tops/popping it into a broiler until you've got a nice amount of caramelization on the top.
Until next time, my brave soliders.
Slow and steady wins the race.
Not only is this a good (if overused) life lesson, but it should be written in stone as one of the cardinal rules of baking. I tried out a different recipe for pate brisee rather than going with my tried and true recipe from my shop binder--a big mistake on my part. Not only that, but I rushed the entire process: I didn't let it firm up in the fridge nearly long enough, so when I went to blind bake the shell, melted butter oozed from the tart mold to pool all over the pan I was smart enough to bake it on. I'm left with a crumbly and completely wrong crust, a slightly discouraged feeling, and a subpar dessert for tonight.
Ah well. At least I have a silky, delicious custard. (So glad I stuck to Chef's recipe on that one.) I almost had a boil-over--ALMOST!--but I was lucky enough to catch my cream in time and take it off the stovetop before I ended up with messes and (probably) tears. Another lesson, my lovelies: never text and bake!
CRÈME BRÛLÉE:
1 pint heavy cream
1/3 cup sugar
1/2 stick cinnamon vanilla (either 1/2 tablespoon of extract, 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla bean powder--I love this stuff!--or 1 vanilla bean pod, seeds scraped out)
Combine the above in a pot and heat over medium heat until it's boiling. WATCH CAREFULLY! Boil-overs happen really suddenly, especially when cream's involved.
1/3 cup sugar
6 egg yolks
Beat the yolks and sugar together in a large bowl. Don't worry about whipping them too much--all you want to do is have the sugar fully incorporated with your yolks.
Once the cream mixture's come to a boil, remove from heat and slowly pour in a little of the cream into the sugared yolks, whisking nonstop. Continue doing this--tempering your yolks--until you've poured all of your cream into the yolks. Strain and let cool before a) pouring the custard into prepared, greased ramekins or b) pouring the custard into your (hopefully not as failtastic as mine was today) prebaked pie shell.
Bake it at 350°F for about twenty minutes, or until your custard's sort of wiggly, but set.
Let cool before sprinkling with a generous amount of granulated sugar and--YAY!--torching the tops/popping it into a broiler until you've got a nice amount of caramelization on the top.
Until next time, my brave soliders.