I'm happy to say that in recent years I've found the one I'm settling down with for the rest of my life. Monsieur Hermé's recipe for crème caramel, mais oui! Not too eggy, nor too firm, and very vanilla-y. Tick tick BIG tick.
My first bake of the year... thought I'd start gently with something nice and simple. Part of my répertoire. Definitely doesn't count towards achieving my resolution.
Crème caramel
pour 4 personnes
1 litre full cream milk
4 eggs
3 egg yolks
3 vanilla beans
350 gr sugar
60 gr water
The night before, scrape the inside of vanilla bean into a pot, add milk and bring to boil. Leave to infuse overnight in the fridge. The next day, take out the beans and reboil milk.
In another bowl, whisk eggs with 200 gr of the sugar for about 30 seconds and pour in the hot milk whilst whisking non stop. Sieve into a clean bowl and leave to rest for 15 minutes. Remove the bubbles that may appear on top and set aside.
Cook the rest of the sugar with the water until you obtain caramel of a beautiful shade of dark amber and at once stop cooking, remove from heat and immerse the pot in a bowl filled with ice water. Pour into ramekins whilst caramel are still liquid, and move it all around the ramekin to line the sides. Pour in the milk.
Cook in a 150°C oven for 2 hours over a wired rack on a bain marie. Afterwards leave to cool then store in the fridge covered overnight.
To remove from the mould, use a knife gently along the sides of ramekin and tap the bottom gently. Serve very cold.
Note : I'm a recipe rebel, sorry Pierre... but I made several minor adjustments.
1. I halve the recipe and normally use 6 x 125ml ramekins. Everything in moderation... it's a new year after all.
2. 2 hours??? Pierre you must be joking! That's way too long. 45 minutes top for me, otherwise they'd be too firm.
3. I really like the consistency of the caramel syrup from the caramel cake I made for November's daring bakers. I used that recipe (halved) for my last batch and the result was very pleasing.
4. Otherwise, for 1/2 litre of milk I use 75 gr of sugar.
Gone in 360 seconds. (Cos I ain't no pig)
Probably my favourite dessert. We were surprised at how easy creme caramel is. Our recipe is very similar to yours except we just boil the 4 cups of milk with a couple of vanilla pods just before we pour it over 6 eggs beaten with 200gms of sugar and whisk. The caramel sauce is just 200gms of sugar with splash of water and even less red wine vinegar - heat that over stove until it melts and becomes a lovely tan colour. Pour it straight into the oven dish and roll it around till it comes up the sides. Pour in the whisked milk, eggs and sugar then the whole thing into a bain marie in medium oven for 30 - 40 minutes. Et voila. C'est magnifique. And easy.
ReplyDeleteBy the way, we got this recipe from 100 Food Experiences To Have Before You Die by Stephen Downes.
Food safari had one too... www.sbs.com.au/food/foodsafarirecipe/index/id/24/n/Creme_caramel