Cream | seasoned to taste

I first heard of Crème Brulee when I first watched the movie My Best Friend’s Wedding starring Julia Roberts and Cameron Diaz. It was the scene when Julia describes Cameron’s character as Crème Brulee, “It’s beautiful… it’s sweet… it’s irritatingly perfect.” Then I became aware of its existence when we began serving it in the club where I used to work as food and beverage manager. But for some reason I didn’t really get to appreciate it until I left the job a few odd years later and learned to do it myself in my cozy little kitchen.

Then that’s when I began, not just to like it, but to really, really love it! Julia Roberts is indeed right. It’s beautiful. It’s sweet. It’s irritatingly perfect!!!

Crème brulee is a French term meaning “burnt cream”, which is understandable from the pictures alone. I don’t know why, but for some reason I don’t like the flavour or taste of vanilla. So, if I can avoid it, I always try to substitute it with another flavour or essence. So, in this recipe of Crème Brulee, I substituted vanilla, some people may not like it, with brandy, or sometimes brandy essence, whichever is available during the time.

And for me, it always turns out perfect!

Ingredients:

9 egg yolks

¾ cup caster sugar (you can reduce your portion if you don’t like it too sweet)

4 cups heavy cream

1 tablespoon brandy or brandy essence or vanilla (whichever you prefer)

Extra sugar for dusting the finished product

Direction:

1. Preheat oven to 325°F.

2. Pour cream in a heavy pot and briefly simmer over low heat.

3. While waiting for the cream to simmer, put together egg yolks and sugar in a bowl.

4. Cream them using a wire whisk until the mixture turns pale yellow and thick. Set aside.

5. When the cream starts to simmer add the brandy or brandy essence into the pot.

6. Give the cream a few minutes to cool down a little bit.

7. Gradually add the hot cream, whisking at the same time, into the egg yolk mixture.

8. Divide custard mixture into ramekins about ¾ full.

9. Arrange ramekins in an ovenproof dish or roasting pan and fill dish with enough water, about halfway up the sides of the ramekins.

10. Bake in the oven until custard is barely set around the edges, about 40 minutes. Remove from the oven and allow custard to cool to room temperature. Then place the ramekins into the fridge and chill for at least 2 hours.

11. Take ramekins out of the fridge and sprinkle sugar on top of each chilled custard.

12. Then using a blow torch and holding it about 2 inches away from the surface, “burn” or brown the sugar to form a crust.

13. Serve Crème Brulee with a chocolate wafer stick or with your favorite fruit.

Beautiful! Sweet! Irritatingly perfect!!! 🙂

Not only do I love to cook dinner for family and friends, I also love to bake for them. I bake cakes, pastries and desserts for special occasions. I’m quite known in my circle of friends to always be the one to bring in the sweet stuff. Well, mainly it’s because Mon and Kurt, and myself included, don’t have the sweet tooth, which is just as well because my husband’s side of the family are mostly diabetics. But I do love to bake. And it is only during weekend gatherings with friends that I get the chance to vent out my passion for baking. 🙂

And my friends are very grateful recipients of this passion of mine. They always look forward to what “yummy” treats I would be bringing along. And it gives me so much pleasure to see their delight whenever they see a cake or a dessert in my box for everybody to enjoy after dinner.

My no-bake cheesecake is a popular favorite. (Oops, this one needs no baking though. :)) I would serve this with whatever is available or in season. I’d serve it with yellow mangoes, or a combination of mango and passion fruit, or fresh strawberries, or blueberries.

I did this cheesecake as a gift for a friend’s birthday. And I used tinned blueberries as topping. And I normally double my recipe to make 2 cheese cakes. But the ingredients below are only good for 1 cheesecake.

Ingredients:

200 grams Graham crackers, or any sweet cracker or biscuit of your choice

50 grams softened butter

1 bar Philadelphia cream cheese

1 cup white sugar

1 cup fresh milk

1 ½ tablespoons unsweetened gelatine powder

1 cup fresh cream

1 400-gram tin blueberries in syrup

Direction:

1. Place crackers or biscuits in a blender or food processor. I used malt crackers.

2. Blend or process until smooth.

3. Transfer into a bowl and add in the butter.

4. Work through the mixture with your hands until the butter is evenly distributed.

5. Spread the mixture evenly in a nonstick loose bottom pan using a spoon…

6. … until smooth. Then leave pan to chill in the fridge.

7. Mix the milk and the gelatin powder in a microwavable cup thoroughly, making sure not to leave any lumps in the mixture.

8. Microwave for about 1 minute. Stir and set aside to cool.

9. Cut the cream cheese into small cubes. Put them in the mixer and beat until smooth.

10. Add in the sugar and beat around 1 minute or until mixture is smooth.

11. Then gradually add in the milk and gelatin mixture, beating after each addition.

12. Add the fresh cream last and beat until all the ingredients are thoroughly blended.

13. Transfer mixture into the chilled pan with the biscuit base. Then put back in the fridge to set, about 2 hours minimum.

14. Meanwhile, pour blueberries in syrup in a pot. Let boil, then simmer for about 30 minutes.

15. The sauce is ready when it has reduced to a thicker consistency. Let stand to cool, then transfer into a bowl and chill in the fridge.

16. Take the cheesecake out of the loose bottom pan after a minimum of 2 hours, or preferably after leaving it in the fridge overnight. And this is how perfect it would look like!