Week 8: Crème Caramel

Traditional Crème Caramel

This week was definitely inspired by The Great British Baking Show. I’m not sure which season it was, but we distinctly remember the technical challenge where they had to make crème caramel, specifically, the unveiling of these desserts from disastrous to exultant. When we saw the beautiful photo in our Cook’s Illustrated Baking Book, we were reminded of the episode and decided it must be added our list.

When we go to restaurants, we almost always order one (sometimes two) dessert to share amongst the five of us. They usually involve chocolate, cake, ice cream, or all three. The dessert of choice is never a custard or crème brûlée, it’s just not our thing. So, once again, none of us have any experience with what these “should” taste like. That’s OK, though, we aren’t disappointed that way!

So, a crème caramel is a custard dessert just like a crème brûlée is, but the ingredients are a bit different. From what I read, crème caramel is made with cream, milk, and whole eggs while crème brûlée is made with only cream and egg yolks (among other ingredients of course). Sounds like fairly subtle differences as far as the custard portion but, apparently, makes the brûlée a bit thicker and richer (spoiler alert…we’ll find out later this year). The biggest difference, to me, is the “sugar” top. The crème caramel has a softened caramel top sitting in a “puddle” of syrup while the brûlée has a caramelized hard sugar top that you crack to get to the custard.

Once again, we used our Cook’s Illustrated Baking Book for the recipe and made a few substitutions.

Ingredients

Caramel

• 1 cup granulated sugar
• ⅓ cup water
• 2 tablespoons corn syrup
• ¼ teaspoon lemon juice

Custard

• 1 ½ cups whole milk1
• ½ cups light cream
• 3 large eggs
• 2 large egg yolks
• ⅔ cup granulated sugar
• 1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract
• pinch table salt

Method

For the caramel: In a medium nonreactive saucepan and without stirring, bring sugar, water, corn syrup, and lemon juice to simmer over medium-high heat, wiping sides of pan with wet cloth to remove any sugar crystals that might cause syrup to turn grainy. Continue to cook until syrup turns from clear to golden, swirling pan gently to ensure even browning, about 8 minutes. Continue to cook, swirling pan gently and constantly, until large, slow bubbles on mixture’s surface turn honey-caramel in color, 4 to 5 minutes longer. Remove pan immediately from heat and, working quickly but carefully (the caramel is over 300 degrees and will burn you if it touches your skin), pour a portion of the caramel into each of 8 ungreased 6-ounce ovenproof ramekins. Allow caramel to cool and harden, about 15 minutes. (Can be covered with plastic wrap and refrigerated for up to 2 days; return to room temperature before adding custard.)

For the custard: Adjust oven rack to center position and heat oven to 350 degrees. Heat milk and cream, stirring occasionally, in medium saucepan over medium heat until steam appears and/or an instant-read thermometer held in the liquid registers 160 degrees, 6 to 8 minutes; remove from heat. Meanwhile, gently whisk eggs, yolks, and sugar in large bowl until just combined. Off heat, gently whisk warm milk mixture, salt, and vanilla into eggs until just combined but not at all foamy. Strain mixture through fine mesh sieve into large measuring cup or container with pouring spout; set aside.

Bring 2 quarts water to boil in kettle. Meanwhile, fold dish towel to fit bottom of large baking dish or roasting pan and position in pan. Divide reserved custard mixture among ramekins; place filled ramekins on towel in pan (making sure they do not touch) and set pan on oven rack. Fill pan with boiling water to reach halfway up ramekins; cover entire pan loosely with aluminum foil so steam can escape. Bake until a paring knife inserted halfway between center and edge of the custards comes out clean, 35 to 40 minutes. Transfer custards to wire rack; cool to room temperature (Can be covered with plastic wrap and refrigerated up to 2 days.)

To unmold, slide a paring knife around entire mold perimeter, pressing knife against side of the dish. Hold serving plate over top of ramekin and invert; set plate on work surface and shake ramekin gently to release custard. Serve immediately.

NOTE: Though you can make one large crème caramel, we find that custards baked in individual ramekins cook faster, are more evenly textured, and unmold more easily. You can vary the amount of sugar in the custard to suit your taste. Most tasters preferred the full two-thirds cup, but you can reduce that amount to as little as one-half cup to create a greater contrast between the custard and the sweetness of the caramel. Cook the caramel in a pan with a light-colored interior, since a dark surface makes it difficult to judge the color of the syrup. Caramel can leave a real mess in a pan, but it is easy to clean. Simply boil lots of water in the pan for 5 to 10 minutes to loosen the hardened caramel.

Our Experience

First, our ingredient substitutions. We knew that these were supposed to be rich and creamy and felt we could only substitute for either the whole milk or the cream but not both. We decided that since we had almond milk and it would be easiest to substitute the milk rather than the cream, our substitution was determined for us. The caramel relies on sugar…the boiling point of sugar, the properties of sugar. While we don’t like using sugar whenever possible, this required the real deal. We did, however, change up the corn syrup and used maltitol instead. While it’s a minor change calorie wise, it made us feel a little better :). We also decided to use real sugar for the custard because we were a little concerned about sugar substitutes crystalizing in the custard which is very off putting. We notice this happens in things that are heated and then cooled so we decided to avoid that possibility. We followed the recipe as written for everything else.

We decided to figure out how we were going to cook these before the oven was hot and figuring it out after it was heated would result in the oven being open and cooling off. The recipe called for placing a towel in the bottom of the pan which I thought was genius! When I’ve seen the water bath on TV, I’ve never seen the towel added. It was amazing how much this helped the ramekins from sliding around on the bottom whenever we moved the pan. In our smaller pan, we actually used a few paper towels and they worked too.

We made very sure not to get any sugar on the sides of the pan but, as the pictures show, some of our maltitol splattered on the sides because it ends up browning on the side way before the sugar does.

It’s really difficult to keep from stirring the caramel. It seemed like we were “swirling” frequently because we wanted to stir it. I would end up swirling it 30 seconds after Aubrey did.

Once the color started to noticeably change, it seemed to go quicker. Not sure if that was because we were looking for any kind of change or if it really did go faster. I thought it could be like toasting almonds, they seem to take forever but once they start browning they go lightening fast from edible to burnt.

The directions mentioned that the caramel should be the color of honey so, we got the honey out and kept comparing our color to the honey.

While the caramel was cooling, we started on the custard. It begins with the eggs and whisking them, ready for the addition of the warm milk/cream.

Once the milk was heated to 160 degrees, we slowly added it to the eggs. The recipe didn’t call for tempering, so we just went really really slow when pouring the milk into the eggs. We strained the custard mixture as directed and poured it into a very good measuring cup that doesn’t have a history of dribbling down the sides (which seems to be common problem with half of our cups).

The water bath, or bain marie (see our cheesecake post), was our next step once the custards were ready for the oven. We heated the water in the microwave so we wouldn’t have another hot burner and pot to watch. We decided to put the pans in the oven without pulling out the rack. If we had one of those fancy ovens with slick sliding shelves, we would have pulled the shelf out and then pushed it back in once the water was in the pan-alas, we don’t. We didn’t want to risk splashing water in the ramekins sliding the shelf in so we put them right where we wanted them to be for cooking. Once the pans were in place, we poured the boiling water into each pan, making sure not to splash the water or burn ourselves on the top of the oven. Then, they were covered lightly with aluminum foil. (We almost forgot this step as we were high fiving our success with the caramel and the water bath.) All done as quickly as possible so we wouldn’t lose all our heat from the oven.

At first I was nervous to test them with a knife because I didn’t want to mess up the pristine tops then realized these get turned out onto a plate with the bottom on top…so, test away without concern. Also, when testing, be sure to stick the knife only halfway in. On one occasion I actually hit the bottom of the ramekin and pulled up a thin strand of melted caramel on the end of the knife. Now that could have messed up the top! Once they are out of the oven, they just need to cool to room temperature before turning out and serving.

Once they were cooled, it was time to turn them out of the ramekins. A thin knife was run around the edge, a plate was placed on the top of the ramekin, and then it was turned over. I’ll admit, this was the point in The Great British Baking Show that we remembered the most. There was disaster after disaster. We were pretty sure our custard was set but not sure if we’d get the correct consistency for the caramel. It took a bit of coaxing and if Aubrey hadn’t reminded me that I could break the ramekin (like on TGBBS), I might have ruined it. But, after a little twisting and jiggling, the custard finally released and the pretty caramel sauce oozed down the side creating the pretty puddle that we were hoping to see.

What we liked.

Alas, this was not a family favorite, but that was not really a surprise. I loved the look of it. It is such a simple, pretty dessert. It received a solid 1 out of 5. 🙁 I was the one out of five and I thought it was pretty good, especially when we chilled it. I like puddings so it wasn’t a stretch that I would appreciate it. It was creamy and the caramel gave it the “strong” flavor it really needed, otherwise it would have been like a very weak vanilla pudding. I didn’t eat all the syrup on the plate since I knew it carried a fair amount of calories but I assume it’s typical to eat all of that too (again, the caramel has all the flavor).

Aubrey and Garrett said it was “OK” but didn’t eat any more than a bite and Aubrey said she probably wouldn’t make it again. Kip and Logan were disgusted by it, pretty sure it was a textural thing. Kip hates Jello and he said it was like a milky Jello…eew. It gave Logan the chills, enough said.

If you like custard, this recipe was pretty quick to make and relatively easy. After several weeks of more time consuming recipes, this one was a nice change. We voluntarily took on this challenge and are enjoying it, but after a couple rough weeks that included a death in the family, it was nice to bake something that didn’t require the entire weekend.

What we would change.

I don’t think there are any changes to be made other than serving it chilled (in my opinion). Even I wasn’t enamored with it at room temperature but I found it pretty tasty once it was chilled. IF we ever planned to make it again, we might test a sugar substitute for the custard but that probably isn’t going to happen.

What we learned.

We had our first experience using a bain marie and, luckily, I think it went well. The next time we make a cheesecake we won’t feel intimidated to use one. We also learned that by avoiding the custards, we are making wise decisions when we order desserts at restaurants.

Until next week, Happy Baking!