Egg Nog Creme Brûlée

Happy Friday everyone!  Wow that week felt longer than usual.  I am excited to have a few days off before the busyness of the New Year at work begins.

 

I'm helping my mom with a party she's hosting tomorrow at her house; I'm in charge of making 12 crème brulees. 

 

I've heard that this can be very intimidating but its actually very easy.  It's basically three ingredients; cream, egg yolks and sugar.  Unlimited variations can be made to really change the flavour profile of this classic French dessert.

 

This is the recipe I followed:

 

First I had to separate my egg yolks and whites.  I wanted to save the whites as I can use these in the next week for something; omelette, cookies, pavlova etc.

 

I doubled the above recipe so I used 10 egg yolks.  To this is added half of the sugar (1/3cup) and whisked it up until it was a pale yellow.

 

 

At this stage I set the egg yolks aside.

 

 

 

In a sauce pan I put half the sugar (1/3cup) and the 1 1/2 cup whipping cream and 1 1/3 cup of egg nogg.  At this very moment as I type this I realized I forgot the milk!  Oh my word; can we say baby brain?!?!!?  Traditionally there isn't any milk in crème brulee however it is a good idea to stretch your custard and for it to not be so rich.  In this case my brulees will be VERY rich; delicious!  I may be heading upstairs in a few  minutes to start again! We'll see!

I added a pinch of nutmeg; fresh would be best but I used what I had.

Couldn't resist!

 

I got my ramekins all ready.  I have them in baking dishes that can fit in the oven.

 

Once this simmers; just before it boils, I whisk a few ladles full into my egg yoke sugar mixture.  This is called tempering your eggs.

 

Once the eggs are tempered you add that back into the remainder of the hot cream and milk.  I continued to whisk and stir to avoid cooking my eggs.

 

To just be sure; I also strain my custard mixture to make sure its silky smooth.

I filled my ramekins and then filled the baking dish with water to be half way up the sides of the ramekins.  This is called a water bath.  This gentle steam-cooks the custards.   I fill mine on the counter and then I gingerly put my baking dishes in the oven.  Some people pull their oven rack out and fill this with the oven door open but pushing the rack back in is sometimes worse then trying to get them off the counter and into the oven without spilling; you'll have to find what you find easier.

 

I baked these at 300F for exactly 35 minutes

 

Remove them from the water bath and let cool for 1/2 hour before putting them in the fridge to chill.  These need to be cold1

 

I used my canning tool to get them out of the hot water....brilliant!  I usually burn my fingers!

Tomorrow I will dust with white sugar and then lightly burn with my blow torch right before serving.  Simple simple; any guest is sure to be impressed.  Jeff and I don't quite understand why people go bananas over these  but they do.