Lemon raspberry crème brûlée

The lovely Sabrina is the one responsible for my preparing this dessert – she commented on one of my posts one day, asking for a lemon crème brûlée. That’s when I realized that I’d tried orange, but not lemon yet. Shame on me. ;)

These little pots of heaven were devoured in no time (I halved the recipe below)– the addition of raspberries made them extra special.

Lemon raspberry crème brûlée
adapted from Luscious Lemon Desserts and from The Craft of Baking

36 raspberries, fresh or frozen – I used frozen
2 ¾ cups (660ml) heavy cream
¼ cup finely grated lemon zest
6 large egg yolks
1/3 cup (67g) + 3 tablespoons caster (superfine) sugar
pinch of salt
¼ cup (60ml) fresh lemon juice

Preheat the oven to 320°F/160°C. Have ready six 200ml capacity ramekins and a large roasting pan. Boil some water for the water bath. Divide the raspberries among the ramekins (6 per ramekin).
Bring the heavy cream and zest to a boil over medium heat in a medium saucepan. Remove from the heat, cover and let stand for 10 minutes.
In a medium bowl, whisk together the egg yolks, 1/3 cup of the sugar and the salt. Add ½ cup of the hot cream mixture, whisking to avoid cooking the eggs. Pour in the remaining cream mixture, whisking constantly. Stir in the lemon juice.
Pour the custard through a strainer into a large jar. Skim any foam from the top of the mixture. Divide the mixture evenly among the ramekins, topping the berries. Place the dishes in the roasting pan, then place the pan in the oven. Pour enough boiling water into the pan to come halfway up the sides of the ramekins.
Bake for 25-30 minutes or until the custard is just set around the edges and still jiggly in the center. Do not overbake. Remove the pan from the oven and let the custard stand in the water bath for 10 minutes. carefully and using thongs or a wide spatula, remove the ramekins from the water and set aside to cool to room temperature, then refrigerate, loosely covered, for at least 3 hours or up to 2 days.
Divide the remaining 3 tablespoons of sugar equally over the tops of the custards then caramelize it with a blow torch.

Serves 6

Crème brûlée with passion fruit topping and a thank you

No, no, the crème brûlée bug has not bitten me – to be honest, I made this recipe just because of the passion fruit topping. :)
Not sure if that is a sensible way of choosing a recipe to make, but what else could you expect from someone who watches “Lie to Me” just because of Tim Roth? ;)

On a totally different note, I would like to thank Amanda for this lovely, beautiful article about my blog, and my reader Tania Pereyra for telling me about it! xx

Crème brûlée with passion fruit topping
from Simple Essentials Fruit

4 cups (960ml) single/heavy cream
1 vanilla bean, split and seeds scraped
8 egg yolks
½ cup + 1 tablespoon (112g) caster sugar
¾ cup + 1 tablespoon (162g) caster sugar, extra
pulp of 1 passion fruit*

Place the cream and vanilla bean and seeds in a saucepan over low heat and cook gently until the mixture just comes to a boil. Remove from the heat, cover and let infuse for 30 minutes.
Preheat the oven to 160°C/320°F. Remove the bean from the cream and reheat it.
Whisk the egg yolks and sugar together until thick and pale. Pour the warm cream over the egg mixture and whisk to combine. Return the mixture to the pan and stir constantly over low heat for 6-8 minutes or until custard coats the back of a spoon. Pour the custard into eight ½ cup (120ml) capacity ovenproof dishes and place in a deep baking dish. Add boiling water to come halfway up the sides of the dishes. Bake for 25 minutes or until just set. Let cool then refrigerate for 3 hours or until custard is completely set.
Combine the extra sugar and passion fruit pulp, cover the custards with the mixture and caramelize with a blowtorch.

* the passion fruit I used were huge (there’s a photo here) so ½ was enough

Serves 8

Maple brûlée tartlets

My love for mini food can sometimes go well and sometimes not so much – I saw a beautiful maple brûlée tart on DH mag #51 and immediately ran to the kitchen to bake it, but decided to make tartlets instead. The problem is that the pastry shrunk so much there was almost no room for the filling. :S
To solve the situation, I baked the remaining filling in a water bath and ended up with a delicious maple crème brûlée – if I were you, I’d ignore the tartlets and go straight to the ramekin version. :)

Maple brûlée tartlets
from Donna Hay magazine

Vanilla pastry:
1 2/3 cups + 1 ½ tablespoons (250g) all purpose flour
1 tablespoon caster sugar
¼ teaspoon baking powder
180g unsalted butter, cold and chopped
1/3 cup (80ml) iced water
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Filling:
1 cup (240ml) whole milk
1 cup (240ml) pouring cream
2 eggs
2 egg yolks
½ cup + 1 tablespoon (112g) caster sugar
¼ cup (60ml) maple syrup
caster sugar, for sprinkling

Make the pastry: place the flour, sugar and baking powder in the bowl of a food processor and process to combine. Add the butter and process until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. While the motor is running, gradually add the water and vanilla (mix them together before pouring in the processor). Process just until mixture comes together. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
Roll out the pastry on a lightly floured surface to 3mm thick. Line a lightly buttered 28cm pie pan with the pastry. Prick with a fork and freeze for 30 minutes.
Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F; line the bottom of the pastry with foil, cover with baking weights or beans and bake for 10-15 minutes. Remove the weights/beans and the foil and bake for another 10 minutes or until lightly golden.
Place the milk and cream in a small saucepan over low heat just until boiling. Place the eggs, extra yolks, sugar and maple in a bowl and whisk to combine. Gradually whisk in the milk mixture. Allow to cool. Preheat the oven to 160°C/320°F. Pour the mixture into the pastry case and bake for 15-20 minutes or until just set. Allow to cool in the pan.
Sprinkle the tart with sugar just before serving and caramelize with a small kitchen blow torch until a golden crust forms.

Serves 8 – I halved the recipe above and got 10 tartlets (9cm each)