Creme Caramel

There are few desserts I find more satisfying than a Crème Caramel. Smooth, sweet and creamy, it’s a taste sensation. Creme Caramel put simply is a baked custard sitting on a syrup sauce...... as opposed to creme brulee, which is custard with a hard caramel top.

Recipe from Woman's Day magazine, Issue 3: January 17 2011, page 55

Ingredients

1 ¼ cups caster sugar
¼ cup water
300ml carton cream
1 cup milk
3 eggs
3 egg yolks

Method

Preheat oven to moderately slow, 150°C

In a medium saucepan, combine 1 cup sugar and 1/4 cup cold water. Stir over low heat, without boiling, until sugar dissolves. Increase the heat to medium and bring to the boil. Cook, without stirring, brushing down sides of pan occasionally with a wet pastry brush, for 5-7 minutes or until the mixture is a deep golden caramel colour.

Pour caramel toffee mixture evenly between 8 x ½ cup ramekins, swirling each so that it comes about 2cm up the sides of the ramekins. Place in a baking dish. Set aside to cool completely.

In a medium saucepan, combine cream, milk and remaining sugar. Stir over low heat until the sugar dissolves. Bring to the boil, then remove from heat. Cool for 5 minutes.

In a medium bowl, whisk eggs and egg-yolks together.
(In this photo it looks like I have 8 egg yolks but 2 of the eggs that I used just so happened to have twin yolks!)

Whisk in milk mixture. Pour custard into ramekins and add enough hot water to baking dish to come halfway up the sides of the ramekins. The hot water creates an even distribution of heat, which helps the custard to set gently and evenly.

Bake for 30 minutes until set. Remove from pan and cool completely. Chill overnight. Dip ramekins in boiling water for 30 seconds to loosen. Turn out onto a serving plate to serve.







Notes & Tips

Pour the custard through a strainer when adding it to the ramekins, to remove any sediment. This will make the custard silky smooth.


Variation

To make coconut crème caramel, substitute the milk with light coconut milk and add 1 teaspoon coconut essence. Garnish with toasted shredded coconut and lime rind