I made crème caramel today!
Crème caramel, flan, or caramel custard is a rich custard dessert with a layer of soft caramel on top, as opposed to crème brûlée, which is custard with a hard caramel top.
-source from Wikipedia
Basically put, it is a creamy custard dessert topped with a nice glaze of caramel. Very nice!
Before I get down to the details on my way of making it (cheh), I would like to stress that this type of crème caramel is the half-set type, meaning that you cannot flip it over, like what restaurants usually do. (Restaurants will usually put the glaze of caramel on top of the crème caramel and let it set, before flipping it over on a plate)
But it tastes just as good, trust me! ;D so let's get down to business!
Ingredients:
For the crème caramel:
For the caramel glaze:
First, let's prepare the crème caramel.
Pre-heat your oven before you start making your crème caramel. Pre-heat it to 200C. This is important because or else, it will not cook properly!!
Then start to make your crème caramel!
Gather 8 full eggs plus two more egg yolks and put them in a bowl.
Take almost 1 cup of sugar. The reason why it is almost 1 cup is because, in my opinion, 1 cup is too sweet, whereas 3/4 cup is not so sweet. Maybe I should call this 5/6 cup? Hahaha there isn't such thing as a measuring cup of that quantity anyway.
Pour the sugar in with the eggs.
Pour in one can of evaporated milk.
And with that same can, fill it up with water and pour that in too. (basically a 1:1 ratio)
hahahaha it doesn't look like water, right?
Slowly mix it until all the ingredients have been dissolved. If you don't have a mixer, you can use a whisk or maybe even a fork/spoon. Anything as long as you can mix it properly. And be careful when mixing. Do not whisk it too hard because you don't want it to have air bubbles in them.
Also, make sure you don't leave any sugar at the bottom of the bowl. I did :( just gently scrape the bottom of the bowl to check if there is any sugars that hasn't been dissolved yet.
Pour everything into a glass/Pyrex dish, one that can withstand the oven.
If you see some transparent goo, it's actually the egg's chalaze. Remove it with a spoon. The chalaze is kinda like a rope, and it is what keeps the egg yolk suspended in the middle of the egg. There are two chalaze in an egg, one from the top and one from the bottom.
Put it in the oven.
Now here's a part where you have to pay attention. Pour hot water into the tray, surrounding the dish. If you only have a flat tray, you can try putting the dish into a bigger dish and fill it with water. This method is called cooking with a water bath.
Basically you steam it while cooking as well. Also, the water bath method keeps it moist.
Bake it in the oven for 20 minutes. (remember, your temperature must be 200C)
How to tell if it is over-cooked: The surface will have bubbles and/or pockmarks.
And how to tell if it is cooked? Well, if it is not cooked, if you tug at the dish you can see the top wobble a lot. Like as if it was water. The top-part will even start to fold if you yank it a bit. When it is cooked, it will still the whole thing will still wobble but the top part of the crème caramel will not stretch or fold in any way.
And, since this is a half-setting crème caramel, it will not really set after you take it out of the oven. Make sure you've baked it well for consumption before you take it out.
Soooo... that's how you make crème caramel! Now let's do the caramel glaze that you will pour over it:
Get a regular pan. Put the fire on high. Have ready your almost-half cup of sugar. Again, I thought that half cup was a little too sweet so I went just a little under. But you can try your own method, maybe half cup works for you!
Pour in the sugar, and with about the same ratio, pour in water. Let it boil, and make sure you keep stirring to make sure that the consistency is there. You wouldn't want one side to be darker than the other! Make sure you scrape the sides as well or that part will be overly-burnt as well.
It will start to turn brown after a while. You have to be very alert because when it starts to brown, it browns really really quickly. Take it off the fire just before the colour that you want, and pour some water over it to cool it down - and to prevent it from further browning as the pan is still very hot.
So readers, this was a mistake I did:
- I did not check the thickness of the sauce before I poured it over the crème caramel. To my horror, it was too thick!! It was like rock-candy.
So please, check the consistency of your caramel before you pour it over your crème caramel. You need it to be really runny, almost like water but slightly thicker.
You can see my teethmarks on the tip of the spoon. That's how hard it was!
This is NOT the consistency that you want.
But my mom saved the day for my case! She quickly boiled some water in the same pan and poured it over the crème caramel, so the caramel quickly melted. Then I got the consistency that I wanted. Thank you mummy! :D
And TA-DAH!! Finished.
Put in it a refrigerator for a few hours or until cold, and ENJOY!
Will update soon with a picture of the really finished one, straight from the fridge! *is waiting for dinnertime to come around now* *hungry*
I've just had dinner, and so here are the results!:
haha you can see my mummy's face in the caramel's reflection
Doesn't it look gooooood?
My thoughts about it:
The caramel glaze was too bitter for my taste, altho my mom told me that's how many people like it. If you don't like it bitter, perhaps you should really go with one cup, or just don't burn it like I did! *smacks self*
The crème caramel itself was nice. But instead of 8 + 2 eggs, I think I will try 6 + 4 next time. Because the one I did today was a bit stiff for my taste. I like it when it is really creamy and smooth! So if you like it stiff, go with 8 + 2. If you like it soft and creamy, go with 6 + 4. The amount of egg whites decide how stiff it should be. The more it egg whites there are, the stiffer it will be :)
Crème caramel and ICE CREEEEAAAAMMMMM *food-gasm*
So until next post, see ya around everyone! *bites into Pocky stick*
Before I get down to the details on my way of making it (cheh), I would like to stress that this type of crème caramel is the half-set type, meaning that you cannot flip it over, like what restaurants usually do. (Restaurants will usually put the glaze of caramel on top of the crème caramel and let it set, before flipping it over on a plate)
But it tastes just as good, trust me! ;D so let's get down to business!
Ingredients:
For the crème caramel:
- 8 eggs + 2 egg yolks
- 1 can evaporated milk (405 g)
- almost 1 cup sugar (I will explain why later on)
- water
- 1 tbsp vanilla essence
For the caramel glaze:
- almost half-cup of sugar (again, I will explain why later on)
- water
First, let's prepare the crème caramel.
Pre-heat your oven before you start making your crème caramel. Pre-heat it to 200C. This is important because or else, it will not cook properly!!
Then start to make your crème caramel!
Gather 8 full eggs plus two more egg yolks and put them in a bowl.
Take almost 1 cup of sugar. The reason why it is almost 1 cup is because, in my opinion, 1 cup is too sweet, whereas 3/4 cup is not so sweet. Maybe I should call this 5/6 cup? Hahaha there isn't such thing as a measuring cup of that quantity anyway.
Pour the sugar in with the eggs.
Pour in one can of evaporated milk.
And with that same can, fill it up with water and pour that in too. (basically a 1:1 ratio)
hahahaha it doesn't look like water, right?
Slowly mix it until all the ingredients have been dissolved. If you don't have a mixer, you can use a whisk or maybe even a fork/spoon. Anything as long as you can mix it properly. And be careful when mixing. Do not whisk it too hard because you don't want it to have air bubbles in them.
Also, make sure you don't leave any sugar at the bottom of the bowl. I did :( just gently scrape the bottom of the bowl to check if there is any sugars that hasn't been dissolved yet.
Pour everything into a glass/Pyrex dish, one that can withstand the oven.
If you see some transparent goo, it's actually the egg's chalaze. Remove it with a spoon. The chalaze is kinda like a rope, and it is what keeps the egg yolk suspended in the middle of the egg. There are two chalaze in an egg, one from the top and one from the bottom.
Put it in the oven.
Now here's a part where you have to pay attention. Pour hot water into the tray, surrounding the dish. If you only have a flat tray, you can try putting the dish into a bigger dish and fill it with water. This method is called cooking with a water bath.
A water bath is a technique to gently cook an item or seal a jar.
Cooking with a water bath -
The item to be cooked is placed in a shallow pan of water. The water heats and cooks the item gently. This is especially important for Flan, custards, sauces and mousses to prevent curdling.
-source from About.com
Basically you steam it while cooking as well. Also, the water bath method keeps it moist.
Bake it in the oven for 20 minutes. (remember, your temperature must be 200C)
How to tell if it is over-cooked: The surface will have bubbles and/or pockmarks.
And how to tell if it is cooked? Well, if it is not cooked, if you tug at the dish you can see the top wobble a lot. Like as if it was water. The top-part will even start to fold if you yank it a bit. When it is cooked, it will still the whole thing will still wobble but the top part of the crème caramel will not stretch or fold in any way.
And, since this is a half-setting crème caramel, it will not really set after you take it out of the oven. Make sure you've baked it well for consumption before you take it out.
Soooo... that's how you make crème caramel! Now let's do the caramel glaze that you will pour over it:
Get a regular pan. Put the fire on high. Have ready your almost-half cup of sugar. Again, I thought that half cup was a little too sweet so I went just a little under. But you can try your own method, maybe half cup works for you!
Pour in the sugar, and with about the same ratio, pour in water. Let it boil, and make sure you keep stirring to make sure that the consistency is there. You wouldn't want one side to be darker than the other! Make sure you scrape the sides as well or that part will be overly-burnt as well.
It will start to turn brown after a while. You have to be very alert because when it starts to brown, it browns really really quickly. Take it off the fire just before the colour that you want, and pour some water over it to cool it down - and to prevent it from further browning as the pan is still very hot.
So readers, this was a mistake I did:
- I did not check the thickness of the sauce before I poured it over the crème caramel. To my horror, it was too thick!! It was like rock-candy.
So please, check the consistency of your caramel before you pour it over your crème caramel. You need it to be really runny, almost like water but slightly thicker.
You can see my teethmarks on the tip of the spoon. That's how hard it was!This is NOT the consistency that you want.
But my mom saved the day for my case! She quickly boiled some water in the same pan and poured it over the crème caramel, so the caramel quickly melted. Then I got the consistency that I wanted. Thank you mummy! :D
And TA-DAH!! Finished.
Put in it a refrigerator for a few hours or until cold, and ENJOY!Will update soon with a picture of the really finished one, straight from the fridge! *is waiting for dinnertime to come around now* *hungry*
----*~**~**~**~*----
Edited at 8:22pm:
I've just had dinner, and so here are the results!:
haha you can see my mummy's face in the caramel's reflectionDoesn't it look gooooood?
My thoughts about it:
The caramel glaze was too bitter for my taste, altho my mom told me that's how many people like it. If you don't like it bitter, perhaps you should really go with one cup, or just don't burn it like I did! *smacks self*
The crème caramel itself was nice. But instead of 8 + 2 eggs, I think I will try 6 + 4 next time. Because the one I did today was a bit stiff for my taste. I like it when it is really creamy and smooth! So if you like it stiff, go with 8 + 2. If you like it soft and creamy, go with 6 + 4. The amount of egg whites decide how stiff it should be. The more it egg whites there are, the stiffer it will be :)
Crème caramel and ICE CREEEEAAAAMMMMM *food-gasm*So until next post, see ya around everyone! *bites into Pocky stick*
Comments