Sasha's Kitchen: Blood Orange Creme Brulee

Ah, creme brulee old friend, where have you been? We have not seen each other in awhile! So yes, it has been awhile since I have made and posted a recipe for creme brulee, but it has been in the works for sometime. I have wanted to do a citrus inspired creme brulee, maybe meyer lemon flavored. But, I decided that it was finally time to try a blood orange creme brulee. I devised this recipe that has exactly the consistency of a properly made creme brulee, but has the tangy orange flavor of the blood orange. The result was a wonderful, tangy creme brulee that was a pretty peachy color. This is a great party recipe, as the recipe makes about eight creme brulees (unfortunately I only had four dishes), and you can let each guest brulee their own with the creme brulee kitchen torch, after going over safety rules of course.

Sasha's Blood Orange Creme Brulee
1/2 cup of granulated sugar
7 egg yolks
2 cups of heavy cream
1 cup blood orange juice (you could also use blood orange puree)

To make the creme brulee, combine the sugar, heavy cream and blood orange juice in a saucepan. Heat over low heat and stir until sugar is dissolved, and the mixture bubbles slightly around the edges. Beat the egg yolks in a bowl. Remove the cream mixture from the heat and add in the egg yolks. Meanwhile boil a large pot of water.

Add the mixture to each of the brulee dishes and place in a large high walled pan (I used a broiling pan). Fill the pan with the hot water about 2/3 of the way up the sides of the creme brulee dishes. Bake at 350 for 40 minutes.

Chill for at least two hours - even overnight is fine. Top with a bit of granulated sugar in a thin later (superfine sugar is even better for this) and brulee, following the instructions of your kitchen torch.

Sasha's Kitchen: Blood Orange Creme Brulee

Sasha's Kitchen: Dark Chocolate Creme Brulee

Dark chocolate is my favorite kind of chocolate. I like milk chocolate alright, I suppose, but when I get a chocolate craving, it is almost always for dark chocolate.  I often use dark chocolate rather than milk chocolate in baking and in fondues, so I decided that it was time to experiment with a dark chocolate creme brluee, since I have tried just about every other kind of creme brulee since investing in my mini kitchen torch.  Creme brulee is quite easy to make and if you are craving chocolate and brulee, this actually isn't as hard to make as it might sound. I'm planning on working on a new chocolate recipe tomorrow, before venturing to New Hampshire for the long weekend - chocolate peanut butter mascarpone brownies, so stay tuned for that recipe, sometime next week.

Sasha's Dark Chocolate Creme Brulee
1 1/4 cup heavy cream
1 tsp vanilla extract
4 oz dark chocolate (start with small pellets)
4 egg yolks
1 T sugar

To prepare this recipe, heat the cream over medium heat and dissolve the chocolate.  It should not boil, but should simmer until the chocolate is dissolved, as you stir constantly.  In a separate bowl, beat the egg yolks and vanilla and add to the cream mixture.

In the meantime, bring a pot of water to boil.  Place four creme brulee dishes in a roasting pan and add the brulee mixture to each dish, filling to the top.  Then, very carefully, add the hot water to the pan filling it to the middle of the outside of each brulee dish.  This is easier than it sounds - be careful not to get any water in the brulees themselves, or they will be ruined.  Bake at 300 degrees for 30 minutes until firm.  Then chill for two hours.  Sprinkle the top of each brluee with an even coat of sugar and use your creme brluee torch to caramelize the sugar.  This was decadent and delicious!

Sasha's Kitchen: Dark Chocolate Creme Brulee

Sasha's Kitchen: Papaya Glazed Creme Brulee - Happy Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine's Day!  I'm going out for dinner with my husband for Valentine's Day tonight, but first wanted to share our dessert from last night's home cooked dinner.  I've been doing a lot of creme brulee torching lately, and as you can see, I am not quite ready to be done yet.  It occurred to me that in addition to flavoring the creme brulee custard, like I have done with my other brulees, I could create a fruit sugar glaze on top of the creme brulee and caramelize the glaze, as long as it had a sufficient sugar content.  Thus, I decided to create some fruit glazed creme brulee desserts.  

This dessert is perfect for a simple Valentine's Day dessert, as long as you have a creme brulee torch.  If you want to be especially romantic, you could even use heart shaped creme brulee dishes like these.  I don't have the heart shaped dishes, so I made mine using my regular creme brulee ramekins.  It's been so cold and snowy here on the east coast, that I wanted to create a Valentine's Day dessert with a taste of the tropics, so I went for a papaya glaze using fresh diced papaya from my local market.  I also flavored the creme brulee with my homemade amaretto, rather than vanilla.  I made such a large quantity of amaretto that I expect to continue to find new and fun uses for it in my desserts.

Sasha's Valentine's Day Papaya Glazed Amaretto Creme Brulee (Makes 4)

1 1/4 cups heavy cream

4 egg yolks

1/4 cup sugar (for custard)

1/2 cup fresh papaya (or the fresh fruit of your choice - strawberries would be great too)

3 T amaretto liqueur

1/4 cup sugar (for the fruit glaze)

First, prepare the custard by mixing the sugar and the heavy cream over medium heat until all of the sugar is dissolved and bubbles form around the edge of the saucepan.  Take off the heat and beat in the egg yolks and the amaretto.  Place in ramekins.  Put the ramekins in a broiling pan surrounded with hot/boiling water going up halfway on the sides of the ramekins.  Bake at 350 F for 25-30 minutes until just firm in the tops (you can test with a toothpick).  Chill for several hours.

To make the fruit glaze, puree the papaya and mix with a quarter cup of sugar.  Heat for about five minutes on medium heat until the sugar melts and it thickens to a jam-like consistency.  Coat the chilled custard in the ramekins with a layer of the glaze (don't make it too thick or you will have to brulee forever) and sprinkle the tops with fresh sugar.  Use your creme brulee torch on the tops until caramelized.  This will take a bit longer than with a conventional creme brulee, but is totally worth it.  Enjoy this taste of the tropics while you cope with the snow this Valentine's Day.

Other Fun Creme Brulee Dishes on A Kitchen In Brooklyn

Banana Brandy Creme Brulee

White Chocolate Creme Brulee

Pumpkin Creme Brulee

Sasha's Kitchen: Papaya Glazed Creme Brulee - Happy Valentine's Day

Sasha's Kitchen: Creme Brulee A La Bananas-Brandy (Valentine's Day Special)

I have, not surprisingly (since I usually can't resist some experimentation) started to get creative with my creme brulee torch, and after my regular creme brulee, pumpkin creme brulee, and white chocolate creme brulee, I am not nearly ready to call it quits yet.  I decided to prepare a fruit-based creme brulee to experiment with the brulee technique and flavors.  I should add that in the summer, I plan on doing the same recipe using fresh peach puree.  I figured that as long as I could keep the same egg and cream based formula, that banana puree would still make an excellent brulee as long as the mixture was basically a custard that congealed when baked.  This would allow me to top with sugar and brulee the tops with the creme brulee torch to caramelize the sugar.

This recipe was a huge success.  It tastes like a banana custard or pudding that has a brulee top - just perfect, although certainly not traditional for creme brulee at all.  It was, as my husband Brad described it, fuller and richer than the pumpkin creme brulee I prepared.  Banana puddings and custards are among his favorite desserts, and this was basically a rich and creamy banana pudding with a brulee top of caramelized sugar.  Thus, this recipe, which I invented on the fly, was a winner.  Brandy is the perfect alcohol to complement bananas, and the taste here is very subtle in balancing out the sweet fruit flavor of the bananas.

Sasha's Creme Brulee A La Bananas Brandy

1 1/4 cups heavy cream
1/2 tsp vanilla
1 medium sized banana, pureed
3 teaspoons brandy
3 egg yolks
1/4 cup sugar plus 1/2 a teaspoon or so for each top

To prepare this recipe, follow my recipe for the regular creme brulee.  Mix the heavy cream and vanilla and the brandy and heat until small bubbles form around the edges, and the sugar is dissolved, as I explained in my other post.  Then, in a separate bowl, beat the egg yolks, vanilla and pureed banana.  Mix the cream mixture with this mixture.  Divide into four ramekins.

Bake the creme brulee in a metal tray filled halfway up the sides of the ramekins with very hot (almost boiling) water, as described in my previous creme brulee post.  Bake at 300 F for approximately 30 minutes until the tops are set.

Allow to chill for at least and hour or two, until topping each with sugar and using your creme brulee torch to caramelize the tops of the brulees.  This is creamiest, best banana pudding with the lovely caramelized flavor on the tops.  I consider it a genuine creme brulee since it still contains the cream, egg yolks and the brulee top.  It is the perfect finale for a Valentine's Day meal.

Stay tuned for my next two posts on miniature food - mini key lime cheesecakes, and mini vegetable frittatas - both which will be perfect for your Valentine's day brunches.

Sasha's Kitchen: Creme Brulee A La Bananas-Brandy (Valentine's Day Special)

Sasha's Kitchen: White Chocolate Creme Brulee (Valentine's Day Special!)

I have been preparing a number of desserts lately - including some romantic valentine's day desserts, such as red velvet cupcakes with pretty pink hearts.  In addition, as the owner of a new creme brulee torch, I have been having a lot of fun preparing different types of creme brulee.  So far, I have made regular creme brulee and pumpkin creme brulee.  Tonight, I did some experimentation, and came up with a recipe for a white chocolate creme brulee, just in time to share with our readers for Valentine's Day.  I'm not even close to done with the brulee-ing as there is surely a banana-brandy creme brulee, dark chocolate creme brulee and peach creme brulee in my future.  That's all I have for now, but the impulse to keep coming up with new and unusual flavors of creme brulee is too hard for me to resist.

White chocolate is not actually even chocolate at all, yet it is almost as romantic in its connotations as milk chocolate or dark chocolate.  White chocolate is, according to Wikipedia, actually a confection of milk, sugar, deodorized cocoa butter and egg solids.  My favorite source of white chocolate has long been the white chocolate vanilla Ghiardelli squares that we had brought back from our last trip to San Francisco.

I thought that it would adapt nicely, color-wise into a creme brulee if it was melted and mixed into the cream mixture, before adding the egg yolks.  And, I was right.

Here is what you need to make white chocolate creme brulee as the perfect (and easy) Valentine's Day Dessert (makes four using normal sized brulee dishes):

1 1/4 cups of heavy cream
1 T sugar
4 oz white chocolate
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
3 egg yolks
Chef's creme brulee torch from Bonjour

To prepare the creme brulee, heat the heavy cream, sugar and white chocolate until the cream just starts to bubble around the edges (over medium-high heat), and the white chocolate is fully dissolved into the cream solution.  You should whisk the entire time, as the white chocolate melts and goes into solution.  While you are doing this, boil a pot of water over a separate burner.

In a mixing bowl, separate out the three egg yolks and beat with the vanilla.  Add the cream-white chocolate mixture to the egg yolk mixture.  Divide among 4 ramekins.  Use the boiling water the surround the ramekins filling the tray so that the hot or boiling water goes up halfway on the sides of the ramekins.  Bake at 300 degrees for about 30 minutes until set.

Chill for one hour, and then put a thin teaspoon of sugar on top of each and brulee according to the manufacturer's instructions on your brulee torch.

This was delicious - similar to regular creme brulee but with a nice, yet subtle white chocolate touch.  I plan on making dark chocolate creme brulee very soon (likely a much more powerful and transformative flavor)!

Check out our other Valentine's day recipes from our site, including Margie's Crunchy French Toast, My homemade Italian Limoncello and My Eat Your Heart Out Red Velvet Cupcakes.

Sasha's Kitchen: White Chocolate Creme Brulee (Valentine's Day Special!)

Sasha's Kitchen: Torch It! Part Deux: Pumpkin Creme Brulee

When I purchased my creme brulee torch and made my first post on basic (but delicious) creme brulee, I stuck to the recipe that came with my Bonjour Creme Brule torch.  I still advise you to take a look a tthat earlier post for general instructions and safety issues for making creme brulee.  However, I am now officially expanding into the unchartered world of flavored creme brulees (dark chocolate creme brulee coming soon!).  For today's post, I prepared spiced pumpkin creme brulee with my husband last night.  This is just as easy to prepare as regular creme brulee, but is an interesting twist on the traditional dessert.  The end result was a bit more flan like than a traditional creme brulee, and has the essence of pumpkin pie, but with the traditional creme brulee crisp surface.  My husband and I agreed that this was a great take on a classic dessert.
The following recipe makes four creme brulee desserts in traditional creme brulee ramekins, but can easily be doubled to make more for a party.  And yes, this is the quintessential party dessert.

1 cup heavy cream
1/4 cup granulated sugar, plus 4 teaspoons
4 large egg yolks
1/4 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp cinnamon
dash of nutmeg
1/2 cup pumpkin puree (I always use Libby's)

The first step is to arrange the 4 ramekins in a large metal baking pan (I always use a roasting pan).  In a medium saucepan, combine the 1/4 cup of sugar with the heavy cream and bring to a simmer on medium high heat, just to dissolve the sugar.  Then, take off the heat.

In a bowl, whish the egg yolk and the hot cream mixture until well combined.  Then add the spices, vanilla and pumpkin puree and whisk well to combine.  Then strain and divide the preparation among the ramekins.  Add enough hot water to the roasting pan to come up about a third of the way of each ramekin.

Bake at 325 F for about 45 minutes, until the custards are stiff.  Then, chill in your refridgerator for about two hours.  Follow the directions from my previous post with respect to adding sugar to the top and torching the creme brulees.

Creme brulee might now be one of my favorite desserts to make, as my friend in San Diego warned that it would be as soon as I tried it the first time.  I think, though, that one of the reasons that I like making it is that it is very sciency.  Baking in general is pretty scientific, and cooking can often be as well.  So the inner scientist in me loves projects like this that involve a bit of kitchen chemistry (I was a biology major at Haverford College, and studied molecular/cellular biology and biochemistry, and apparently this is how I prefer to put all that biology lab experience to use). The bigger the experiement, the more interested I become (which is why making my own cheese is coming soon!)  I suppose this is a pretty good combination of my two passions in those college days - science and writing.

Sasha's Kitchen: Torch It! Part Deux: Pumpkin Creme Brulee

Sasha's Kitchen: Torch It! - Making Creme Brulee at Home

I have always enjoyed eating crème brulee in restaurants, but never really thought about making my own. As a kid I loved ordering it when my family went out for dinner and always considered it a special treat since it was something that we never made at home.

Recently, I discovered that it is quite inexpensive to purchase a small crème brulee torch that can be used in preparing crème brulee in your own kitchen. It is actually very easy, and, if you follow the instructions carefully, safe. The end result was a professional looking (and tasting) crème brulee.
I purchased a crème brulee set, manufactured by Bonjour, containing a small brulee torch and four crème brulee dishes from the online cooking website, Sur La Table, which is an excellent site for purchasing any kind of cooking or baking equipment and accessories. The set cost about $40 dollars.
Unfortunately, I didn’t realize at the time of purchase that the torch did not come with fuel, and had to locate a butane source at the last minute.

After a bit of research and some suggestions from my Facebook friends, I learned that this can be found at either a hardware or a good cooking store. Unfortunately, the first hardware store I went to was closed today, so I went to Tarzian West, an excellent neighborhood cooking store here in Park Slope and purchased an aerosol can of butane for about $3.99 that I used to fill my brulee torch. My neighbor kindly offered to let me use his brulee torch (which turned out to be a much larger propane torch, nearly the size of a fire extinguisher). However, my husband and I were more comfortable using the smaller torch that we had purchased.

I am sure there are many recipes for different flavors of crème brulee, but tonight, since it was my first time making it, I followed the traditional recipe for crème brulee that came with the Bonjour packaging materials.

1 cup heavy cream
3 T plus 1/3 cup of sugar
2 extra large or jumbo egg yolks
½ tsp vanilla

This is enough to make 4 crème brulee desserts, although you could certainly double or triple the recipe if you were having a crème brulee party.  First, preheat the oven to 300 F and prepare a large pot of boiling water. While the water is heating up, combine the 3 T of sugar with the cream over medium heat and stir until small bubbles appear around the edges of the pan, about 5-6 minutes.
Next, beat the egg yolks (after separating out and discarding the white portion) with the vanilla until smooth and slowly add the hot cream mixture, beating until blended. Strain in a sieve and divide among the four 4 oz dishes.

Arrange the crème brulee dishes in a broiling pan and add the boiling water to the pan so that it is leveled about halfway up the sides of the dishes. Bake at 300 F for about 25 minutes, until the custard is just set. The chill in the refrigerator for about 2-3 hours.

Next, sprinkle the remaining 1/3 of a cup of sugar on each brulee on the surface (the sugar will be caramelized with the torch). I used about 1 T for each brulee, distributed evenly on the surface of the ramekin dish.  Using the brulee torch, move the flame continuously across the surface of the ramekin using a circular motion until all of the sugar is caramelized and golden brown (but not burnt).   You should carefully read the instructions on how to properly use your torch before doing this, though.  Once we had located the fuel, the Bonjour torch worked well and was easy to use.  The photo below shows the creme brulee about halfway through the torching process.

This dish is so easy to make, yet impressive and spectacular looking (and fun to make) that this makes an excellent dish for a party (as a friend of mine in California suggested) where each guest can use the torch to prepare their own crème brulee. I plan on having a crème brulee party at some point in the very near future!
The end result looked and tasted delicious – I highly recommend investing in a crème brulee kit and trying this out at home. I’m certainly glad I did! You could serve it on its own, or with a side of fresh berries or other seasonal fruits.

cremebrulee

Sasha's Kitchen: Torch It! - Making Creme Brulee at Home