Rosie Makes Crème Brûlées.

Rosie has a surfeit of egg yolks
after clarifying her pho broth with 15 whites.

How does one use up all those extra yolks?

  

 An excellent way is to start the day
 by making Eggs Hawthorne
with a Hollandaise sauce.
That used up 4 of the yolks.

Next, I'm making crème brûlées

 to use up 6 more yolks.

 Recipe courtesy Alton Brown.

Crème Brûlées

1 quart heavy cream

1 vanilla bean, split and scraped

1/2 cup sugar

6 egg yolks

turbinado sugar

Mix cream, vanilla bean, and pulp

in a medium saucepan over medium-high heat.

Bring to boil.

Remove from heat, cover,

and let sit for 15 minutes.

Remove vanilla bean.

In a medium bowl,

whisk 1/2 cup sugar and yolks until well blended.

Add cream slowly, whisking constantly.

Pour mixture into 6 8-ounce ramekins.

Place ramekins in large roasting pan

and pour hot water to come halfway up the sides

of the ramekins.

Bake until crème brûlées are just set,

but still trembling slightly in the center,

about 45-50 minutes.

Remove from roasting pan

and refrigerate for at least two hours.

When you're ready to serve,

sprinkle turbinado sugar over top

and, using a torch, brown the sugar.

Beat yolks and sugar until lightened in color.

I poured the cream through a sieve

to get any pieces of vanilla bean out.

Pour hot water halfway up the sides of the ramekins

and they're ready for the oven.

Here's the fun part.

Torch it!

Just a little spoonful of heaven.

You have hot and cold.

You have smooth and creamy
and crackly and brittle.

And you have a happy mouth.

Whoot!

Rosie is published. Creme brulee.

Rosie Makes A Delectable Creme Brulee.

I don't eat desserts very often, but when I do, I want it to be something special. I want to make it worth my while. Decadence comes to mind. Decadence in both taste and texture. A silky smooth custard against crackling "burnt" sugar. A rich, creamy, eggy creation with vanilla in the background. In other words, a creme brulee. Just because it has a French name does not mean it's hard to do. Au contraire! It's one of the simplest desserts to make. Very little effort for that "wow" factor.

Creme Brulee 6 egg yolks, room temperature 1 pint heavy cream 1/2 cup sugar 1 tsp vanilla extract seeds of one vanilla bean Beat room-temperature yolks until lighter colored. Set aside. Combine cream, sugar, and vanillas in heavy pan and bring to boil. Gently and slowly, pour cream mixture into yolks, whisking constantly, to temper the yolks. You do NOT want curdled or scrambled eggs. You want smooth. Pour mixture into ramekins. I used 6 one-cup ramekins filled a little over halfway. Place ramekins in a bain-Marie. Bake in a 350 degree oven for 35-40 minutes. The deeper the custard, the longer the cooking time., so adjust accordingly. You want the edges set and the center slightly jiggly.

Beat room temperature yolks for several minutes at medium high speed.

Mix sugar and cream in a heavy sauce pan.

Add in a teaspoon or so of vanilla.

Make a slit down the vanilla bean and scrape out the seeds. Rosie Tip #531 Don't throw away that bean! Keep it in your special jar of vanilla-scented sugar. Makes a nice vanilla sprinkling of sugar on desserts or Christmas cookies.

Whisk cream, sugar, and vanillas.

Bring to a boil, whisking.

Slowly, pour the hot mixture into the beaten egg yolks, whisking constantly so the eggs won't curdle or scramble. This is called "tempering" the yolks.

Whisk the entire time as you pour in the hot stuff.

These are 1 cup ramekins filled a little over halfway. They're sitting in a bain-Marie, which is simply a water bath. Set the ramekins in a baking dish and pour water halfway up the sides. This method of baking allows the custards to cook without cracking or curdling. A slow, gentle heat keeps the eggs soft and smooth. If you wanted to add a bit more goodness, you could sprinkle some lemon, orange, or lime zest in there. It's up to you.

Let cool to room temperature, then cover and refrigerate for at least four hours.

Chilled and ready to caramelize. Sprinkle a tablespoon or so of sugar evenly over top. Take out your trusty torch and have at it!

Evenly torch the sugar.

Click here for a video of the torching. And click here for the finished product. Go ahead. Indulge. It's cold and hot. It's creamy and crackly. It's quite simply divine.

Dessert Wars. Part 2 Of 4. Rosie Makes Vanilla Pots De Creme.

For my next vanilla concoction

for the April Dessert Wars challenge,

I'm making Vanilla Pots De Creme.

Ingredients for Vanilla Pots De Creme: 3 yolks 1 cup heavy cream 1/4 cup sugar seeds from one vanilla bean Combine sugar, cream, vanilla seeds, and vanilla bean in small sauce pan. Bring to a boil. Cut off heat and let vanilla steep for about 20 minutes. Remove vanilla bean. Pour in about 1/3 of the mixture into beaten yolks to temper, whisking. Then pour yolk mixture back into pan, whisking all together. Pour into 3 6-ounce ramekins Place ramekins in a baking dish and pour water halfway up ramekins. This is known as a bain-Marie. Bake in a 350 degree oven for about 30 minutes, then turn and bake an additional 20 minutes. You want it just ever so slightly jiggly in the center.

Cream into sugar in a small sauce pan.

Add in scraped out seeds and the beans which will impart more vanilla flavor.

Bring to a boil. Turn off heat and let steep for about 20 minutes.

Strain out beans.

Whup egg yolks ...

... until light-colored.

Pour about 1/3 of the vanilla mixture into the eggs, beating.

Then return egg mixture back to sauce pan, stirring to combine thoroughly.

Pour mixture into ramekins.

Bake in a 350 degree oven for about 50 minutes, turning once, about halfway through. Cool, then refrigerate. FYI, pot de creme is one of the best things I've ever put in my mouth. The silky smooth creamy texture is ethereal. The vanilla flavor is divine.

Now, if you wanted to take this to the next level and make Creme Brulees, just sprinkle some sugar over top and take a blow torch to it.

I never will forget Mr. Hawthorne's comment when he took the first bite out of this - "This is so good I'm trying to figure out a way how to have sex with it." Why, thank you, Mr. Hawthorne. I take that as a compliment - the culinary equivalent of a standing ovation.

Here's Dessert Wars Part 1 - Vanilla Biscotti. Stay tuned for Part 3 - Vanilla Meringues.

Last Night's Taco Dinner And Dessert.

Life is short, so I'm making dessert first.
I had a bunch of egg yolks leftover
from the egg whites I used to clear up my consomme the other day.
What to do? What to do?

Pretty much a no-brainer.
I decided to make creme brulees again.
Here's 1/2 cup sugar, 1 pint heavy cream, and vanilla.
Bring it just to a boil.

Then I halved the mixture.
I added about 2 ounces bittersweet and maybe 2 ounces sweetened chocolate to this half. Melt.

I halved the 6 yolks also.
Added the halved sugar/cream mixture to half the yolks.

And the chocolate mixture to the other half.

Place ramekins in a pan and fill with water halfway up.

Place in a preheated 350 degree oven for 40 minutes.
Then turn and bake for another 20 minutes.

Little ramekins full of silky smooth, almost too-good-to-be-true deliciosity.

Naturally, Youngest Hawthorne wanted to get in on the pyrotechnics.

You can barely see the flame, but he has my little butane Micro-Torch and is melting the sugar.

Next up, coleslaw, with homemade mayonnaise.

I decided to make my own mayonnaise for my coleslaw.
I started out with one egg yolk and the juice of 1 lime.
Here, I'm slowly adding my oil. (You could use Canola oil or vegetable oil. I'm using Bertolli Extra Light Olive Oil because I like it and also because I keep it in the little squirty bottle so I can just stream it out a little bit at a time. I would not use an Extra Virgin Olive Oil because I think it would overpower.

I kept adding oil and whisking until I got it to the texture I wanted, which was a creamy mayonnaise, not a stiff one.

In the meantime, Mr. Hawthorne thinly sliced the cabbage.

I salted the cabbage with maybe 1-2 tsp. salt and let it set for about 30 to drain a bit. Then I dried it off with paper towels and added about 2 tsp. sugar.

My mayo, with cumin, paprika, and lime zest.

My coleslaw in front with yellow, orange, green, and red peppers chopped on top along with some lime zest. Top right, a green onion in the back ground waiting to be chopped and sprinkled on top of the coleslaw and the only cilantro I could find. (I had only two teeny plants in the garden and I didn't want to strip them bare.) Top left, my cumin/lime mayo.


Pour mayo over top and mix all together.

On to my meat mixture.

Down in my freezer, I found some sliced pork loins and a T-Bone, all bought on sale, vacuumed packed, and waiting for their moment to shine.
On the left of the T-Bone is the New York strip, on the right the fillet.

Pork on the left, beef tenderloin in the middle, and NY strip on the right.

NY strip.

Pork.

Fillet Mignon.

I love the crusty bits on the bottom.

Deglaze the pan with some wine.

Scrape up all the goody bits.

Top left and continuing clockwise, my Mango Pineapple Habanero Salsa, the sauteed pork and beef with wine sauce, my coleslaw with homemade cumin/lime dressing, and toasted taco shells.

Assemble and eat.
Youngest Hawthorne particularly liked these.
He had two.
I must say, this was quite good.