Light it UP! - Birthday Bash (Part One)

I love me some birthdays. 

Just not mine.  

Ok, maybe a little.  If I can ever remember how old I actually am. 

But I *really* like to bake/make/shake it for other people's birthdays. 

This week was one of my co-worker's special days. And in honor of his nacido, I (along with my BB&B field-trip cohorts) ventured out to make crème brûlée.  

Now what started out as a joke after part-taking in the deliciousness that is Top of the Hub during Restaurant Week, turned into a reality after a bet was made. (No $$$ changed hands, just spoons. Plastic. Cafeteria ones.)

So fast forward 6 weeks and here we are....my kitchen.  Lots of outer aisle ingredients (forget you see that bottle of apple juice and no I didn't use a vanilla bean, I used extract, but hey...clean-ER eating right?  It's a process people.)

Back to the brûlée...


Ingredients
2 c. heavy cream
8 egg yolks
1/2 c sugar
1/4 t vanilla
turbinado sugar (aka Sugar in the Raw)
That's it.  

Directions

Beat the yolks with the sugar until smooth.   

Heat the cream until just about simmering.

Then add the cream in to the yolk/sugar mix a tablespoon at a time. (You don't want to pour the whole thing in, otherwise you'll cook the eggs. Scrambled creme brulee...blech.) After about 1/4 c is in, you can put the rest in.

*Dang, I forgot to take a picture here*
Imagine a bowl of yellow with a swirl of white, repeat.


Use a wire sieve to make sure there are no clumps. You want your dessert smoooooth.

Then add the vanilla.

Pour the mixture into your ramekins. (We got kits from Bed Bath & Beyond - $20 for the torch & 4 ramekins; the butane was about 5 bucks at the hardware store.)

Now the tricky part....

Put the ramekins in baking dishs and fill them up to the 1/2 mark with BOILING water. Careful not to get water in your custard. 

This mix actually made 12, but the 4 not shown were put in little pyrex dishes.  Worked, just not as purdy as the lily white ramekins.  


Bake in the oven at 250 degrees for about an hour - until they are slightly jiggly.  Like my butt. 

When they are done refrigerate them for at least 8 hours.


Now, I take the train in to work in the morning and there was a matter of transporting these bad boys with out damaging them.  


So I stacked them and created a little cardboard/tinfoil shelf to separate the dishes. I put them in a cooler with an ice pack (Thanks Gigi!) and safely got them to our little office fridge until we were ready to par-tay.

Once safely at work, I sprinkled a packet of Sugar in the Raw (1 tsp) on top of the creme then torched it. 


And voila. Easy peasey.

We took turns trying not to burn the building down. Here is the birthday boy lighting it up! 

Did you notice the fire extinguisher?  Ya know.  Just in case. 

They went back in the fridge for about 30 mins.  (Actually, no one wanted to wait that long, so they really only were in there for about 10 minutes, if that.  

The  gave me 6 out of 5 stars. I'd say that is pretty good for my first time. Won't be the last. Now that I own a blow torch. Bwahahahaha!

*Quick note - If you don't have a blow torch, I read you could put the sugar coated crème in the broiler until it makes the crusty topping.

The Tally: Are you sitting down???  199 cals/0g fiber/16g fat. Zoincs! That is 5 points WeWa peeps!  This batch made 12 3oz servings. 

Cost: A whopping .28/serving; unless you count the kit, then we are up to $1.95/serving.  Beat that, Top of the Hub.  Booyah.