Rosie Makes Caramel Flan With Spun Sugar

 Rosie has a friend who recently had a birthday.  Now whenever I make something for somebody's birthday, I've always got myself in mind.  Forget about getting a whole cake.  You're getting cupcakes or some form of deliciousness that lends itself to numerous forms.  In other words,  I'll be having whatever you're having.  So I decided on caramel flans.

Caramel Flan With Spun Sugar

6 1-cup ramekins

9 TB sugar

6 TB water

1 cup sugar

1 pint heavy cream

1/2 cup skim milk

1 vanilla bean, split lengthwise

2 whole eggs

6 egg yolks

For the caramel:

In a small sauce pan, combine 9 TB sugar and 6 TB water. Bring to a boil over medium low heat, without stirring, until the mixture turns a golden brown syrup.

Divide equal amounts of caramel syrup into each of the ramekins, rotating the ramekins until the sides are coated halfway up.

I let the ramekins sit in a 9 x 13-inch baking dish filled with hot water, to make it easier to swirl the caramel in.  If the ramekins are cold, you'll have a hard time, since the caramel hardens quickly upon hitting the cold ramekins and you will need extra hands and you must work faster.

For the flan:

Pour milk and cream into a saucepan.  Scrape the vanilla bean and add both seeds and beans to the mixture.  Place over low heat until small bubbles appear along the edges of the pan.  Do not boil  Remove bean.

Heat oven to 300°.

Beat together eggs, yolks, and 1 cup sugar until pale and foamy.  Add the hot cream mixture slowly and gradually, whisking constantly to prevent the eggs from scrambling.  Set ramekins into 9 x 13-inch baking dish and fill.  

Add boiling water to reach halfway up the sides of the ramekins.  And it's always easier to do this AFTER you've put the baking dish in the oven.

Bake custards until set, about 55 minutes.  Cool to room temperature, then refrigerate until well chilled.

Run a sharp, thin knife inside each ramekin and invert onto plates.

For the Spun Sugar:

9 TB sugar

6 TB water

Make the same caramel you did before, but when you take it off the heat, it needs to cool a tad.  Dip a fork in it and swirl the tines over the flans.  You can use your fingers to pull the caramel and drape decoratively over the flans.  This is the fun part!

 Let's start on the caramel first.

 That's the color you want.

 Like I said, you have to work quickly, even when the ramekins are already warmed.  On the last ramekin I did, top far right, the caramel had already cooled too much so it didn't pour well.  Not to worry, when you cook it, it will spread out.

 Scrape out the seeds from the vanilla beans.

 Add to the cream and milk mixture and heat until just bubbling on the edges.

 Whip eggs and sugar until light and foamy.

 Strain milk and cream mixture into eggs.

 Ladle into ramekins and bake.  Turn halfway through and tent with foil if necessary.

 

 

 Add the spun sugar.

 Enjoy!

It's quite musical, is it not?

Happy Birthday Nancey!!!!

A friend of mine has a birthday

Tuesday, January 13. She doesn't know it, but I'm making a special cake just for her. It's a CHEESECAKE!

Here are the ingredients for the crust: 1 package graham crackers 1/4 cup brown sugar 1/2 stick unsalted butter

I melted the butter, combined it with the crushed graham crackers and sugar, and pressed into a 7-inch spring form pan, bottom and sides. I popped this into the freezer while I made the filling. I originally developed this recipe for a 9-inch pan, but I'm using the smaller pan for my friend so I'll have some cheesecake leftover since Mr. Hawthorne gets pissy, pitiful, and pouty if he doesn't get some of whatever I've made for someone else.

Here are my ingredients: 2 8-ounce packages cream cheese 1 cup sugar 3 eggs 3 TB corn starch Juice of one lemon Grated zest of 1/2 lemon 4 TB (1/2 stick) melted butter 1/2 cup sour cream vanilla

I let my cream cheese soften, then I beat it and added the cup of sugar.

Next, the eggs went in, one at a time.

The cornstarch went in.

And the juice of one lemon, without that little seed, which stayed in the cup, thankfully.

Melted butter went in.

As always, vanilla goes into the mix.

Now, I had no sour cream. Imagine that. But, I did have creme fraiche. Imagine that! So I added 1/2 cup creme fraiche to the mix. Now, for those of you who don't know how to make your own creme fraiche, it's quite simple and so much better than store-bought sour cream. My ingredients for creme fraiche: heavy cream buttermilk lemon juice And yes, my buttermilk is over 3 months old. But it's still fine.

One cup of heavy cream. Add in 1 tablespoon of buttermilk.

And add in 1 tablespoon of lemon juice.

Cover and set at room temperature for about 10 hours.

And here's the final product. It gets nice and clotty. I just stir it to smooth it out. And it will thicken up like sour cream. Now, back to your regularly scheduled cheesecake.

I mixed everything very well, then poured it into the prepared pan.

And sprinkled lemon zest over top.

I had enough for the springform pan and 2 ramekins. God forbid Mr. Hawthorne doesn't get his sample. The cheesecakes went into a preheated 400 degree oven for 15 minutes. Then I cut the temperature down to 350 and cooked for 30 minutes more. I cut the oven off and let the cheesecakes sit in there with the door ajar until the oven was cool.

While the cheesecakes were cooking, I picked a bunch of bay leaves. (You could use holly.) You need a shiny, stiff leaf. I melted some Nestle's Semi Sweet Chocolate Chips with a bit of vegetable oil.

I painted the underside of the leaves with the chocolate, and placed the pan of leaves in the fridge.

After 45 minutes, here are my cheesecakes. Now, fast forward to Tuesday morning.

I got out the cheesecake and leaves.

And carefully pulled the chocolate away from the leaf. Halfway through this procedure, I returned the leaves back to the fridge to chill. You can't work with room temperature chocolate.

I melted the rest of the leftover Nestle's Semi-Sweet chips and drizzled the chocolate down the side. Next, I prepared the caramel for the spun sugar.

Blend one cup sugar and 1/3 cup water in a saucepan. Bring to a simmer, remove from heat, and swirl the pan to be sure the sugar has dissolved completely and the liquid is perfectly clear. Return the pan to the heat and cover, checking every minute or so, swirling ...

... until you have this nice amber color. Remove from heat and cool for a bit before you start spinning the sugar.

I decorated the bottom of the cake with the chocolate leaves.

Then I put some leaves on top and in the middle. I dipped my fork into the caramel and drizzled over top the cake.

Keep on drizzling.

And drizzling.

And drizzling.

Ta daaaa!!!! Then I drove up to Nancey's office to surprise her.

I think Nancey was surprised. Here's Nancey ogling her cheesecake and uber-office manager, Liz, who was shooting pictures.

Oooooh ......

Mmmmmmmm...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, NANCEY!!!

In case you want to see the caramel being drizzled, here it is. I know. I know. Drizzling caramel. Melting butter in a pan. Watching paint dry. Cutting edge videography, I tell you. Keeps 'em beggin' for more.