Hey guys!
Hope youre enjoying the long weekend and the festive season! This is one of my favorite times of the year not only cause the weather begins to change in Delhi {thankfully} but also cause of all yummy food in the Ram Lila Maidans, Durga Puja Pandals or even our very homes!
I must admit, I am not a sucker for mithai and never have been but since I have been a child, there’s one dessert that I just cannot say no to and that’s CARAMEL CUSTARD! Through the years, whenever we are all in a festive mood {especially during Diwali and Christmas}, I pleade my dad to make this dessert for me (the recipe is his baby). FINALLY, I decided to go ahead and get the recipe from him and decided to try it out on my own!
I really try my best to stick to portion control which can be really hard during this festive time! Left to me, I can happily finish the whole plate of this divine dessert. I don’t have the biggest sweet tooth on the planet, so you can imagine how delicious this Creme Brulee is! I came across these individual serving size ramekins on Urban Dazzle and I was like a kid in the candy store. With EXTREMELY reasonable cooking, baking and home ware products, this online store needs to be the place where you head for all the Diwali gift shopping {You can win some for free too! Check out the end of the post for that}. It offers some great discounts on really chic and modern products.
So now, without me going on further, here are the photographs and recipe of the light yet fluffy Creme Burlee AKA Caramel Custard! Enjoy 🙂
Crème brûlée {Caramel Custard}
Ingredients:
150 ml Milk
1 Egg
2 spoons of Caster Sugar {You can use normal sugar too though caster sugar works better}
6 spoons of Normal Sugar
1 pinch {1/4 teaspoon} Cinnamon Powder
Large Baking Dish {For a water bath. The amount of water depends on the size of the Baking Dish. I used this one from Borosil}
Baking Ramikens available at Urban Dazzle
Recipe:
1. Take the milk, egg, caster sugar and cinnamon powder and mix well into the bowl.
2. Take a spaucepan and put it on heat on your stove. Pour the milk and egg mixture in this saucepan and let it cook for 2-3 mins. (It should not come to a boil). Remove from heat once done.{This process is basically creating the custard}
3. Next, in another saucepan, take 6 teaspoons of sugar and let it caramelize. This is called the dry caramelization method which involves heating sugar on its own until it liquefies, then caramelizes. The sugar is able to liquefy due to it’s high water content. As the sugar is heated, this water is released. You can stir the caramel with the mixture till its golden brown but make sure not to overstir it. {This will help you if you want to know how to caramelize sugar perfectly.}
4. As soon as the sugar is caramelized, pour it in the 4 ramekins one by one.{1/4th of the mixture in each ramekin}. Each ramekin’s base needs to be covered in an even coat {This basically acts like a base layer on which the Custard will be poured. Once the custard will be inverted- It will be the top coat}
VERY IMPORTANT: As soon as you remove the saucepan from heat{ in which you have caramelized the sugar}, it will solidify in a couple of seconds which can be extremely frustrating since you need to pour the caramel in 4 ramekins before it cools down. In order to overcome this problem, take each ramekin at a time- hold the ramekin in one hand, take the saucepan in off the heat from your other other hand and pour 1/4th of the mixture quickly creating a thin equal layer in the ramekin. Put the saucepan back on the heat immediately. Now take the second ramekin, take the saucepan off from the heat and pour the next 1/4th part of the caramel in this ramekin. Put the saucepan back on the stove. Repeat untill all 4 are ramekins have a base layer of caramel. {Just ensure that the caramel in the saucepan doesn’t cool off and solidify before youve poured it in the ramekins. Don’t worry when the layer of the caramel soldified as soon as its poured into the ramekins. That is bound to happen}
5. Next, take the custard {Milk- egg mixture} you prepared and pour 1/4th of the mixture in each ramekin over the caramel layer.
6. Take a baking dish and fill it half way with water {Creating a water bath}.
7. Place the ramekins in this water bath and cover this dish with the ramekins in with foil. The water bath should reach only half way of the ramekin’s height. {Like this picture which is not clicked by me}
8. Put them into the oven which would be pre-heated on 180 degrees for 10 minutes.
9. Let the caramel custard bake in the oven for 50 minutes. To make sure you haven’t over or under cook them, after 45 minutes, open the oven and insert a butter knife in one of the ramekins. If the knife comes out clean, it means it’s cooked.
10. Once cooked, take the individual ramekins carefully out of the water bath and and leave them out to cool for at least 30 mins
11. Place in the fridge once cooled to chill them. When you want to serve them, you can carefully invert each ramekin onto a plate OR serve each of them in the ramekin itself.
If you dont have ramekins, dont worry! You can buy them at a great price on urbandazzle.com.
{You can also just create the caramel custard in one baking dish. For this, all you need to do is- Take a baking tin/dish, pour in the caramel base layer and then pour the custard on it. Let it bake the oven for the same time period. I prefer using small ramekins though since it’s always more fun to have your own individual serving! It looks much neater when serving too}
GIVEAWAY: TWO WINNERS – OPEN ALL ACROSS INDIA!
If you want to win these ramekins where you can make tons of recipes such as creme caramel, baked eggs, bacon with potatoes or in fact anything as an individual serving, enter this giveaway!
Rules:
1. Upload a picture of your favorite food during the festive season/holiday time. Something that you love eating- whether it’s savoury or sweet during your favorite time of the year- whether it may be Diwali, Pujo or Christmas!
2. You can use a picture that’s already uplaoded on your Instagram account {clicked by you}. Just follow the next few steps.
3. tag @melangeofmusings and @urbandazzle
4. tag atleast 3 friends
5. There will be TWO WINNERS!
6. Contest will close on 9th October 2014
Good luck everyone!
