France: Crème Caramel

Jessica Auvray

Crème Caramel: FRANCE

I grew up in an Italian and French family. Both cultures are very similar but, when it comes to food both cultures have their own special recipes.

Since there are a few Italians in the class, I have decided to share a delicious French dessert with you: Crème au Caramel, most commonly known as Crème Caramel. Crème Caramel is a rich custard dessert with a layer of soft caramel on top. It is very sweet and very filling. If you like to bake, it is very easy to make Crème Caramel. On average, it takes 10 to 15 minutes to prepare it. Waiting for it to be ready is the long part. Crème Caramel is often confused with Crème Brulee which is custard with a hard caramel top. Crème Caramel rapidly spread across Europe and some countries in Asia and soon after it spread overseas to the Americas. In the 20^th century Crème Caramel was a very popular dessert in restaurant menus all across Europe. There are a variety of amazing French desserts but I chose this recipe because I have been helping my grandmother make Crème Caramel since the age of three. My grandmother and I would bake this once a month; it was our little tradition. Besides that, it has no religious meaning nor does it have to be eaten on special days. It is simply baked to indulge.

THE RECIPE

·         Ingredients (serving for 8 people)

• 1 cup of granulated sugar
• 2 cups of milk
• 2 cups of cream
• 8 large eggs
• ¼ teaspoon of slat
• 1 ½ teaspoons of vanilla extract

·         Procedure

1. In a pan, on medium heat, melt and caramelize ½ cup of sugar. The sugar is caramelized when it turns into a tan color.
2. Evenly divide the caramel between 8 ovenproof ramekins*. Swirl the caramel inside each ramekin to coat the sides and bottoms completely. Arrange the ramekins in a 1 ½ inch to 2 inch deep baking pan.                                                    *a small dish in which food can be baked and served
3. Preheat the oven to 325F.
4. In a saucepan, on medium heat, stir together the milk and cream for about 5 to 7 minutes.
5. Stir together the remaining ½ cup sugar and the eggs. Allow the sugar-egg mixture to rest for 5 minutes.
6. Add 2/3 cup of the hot milk/cream mixture to the sugar-egg mixture and stir. Then, put this mixture back in the saucepan and add in the salt and vanilla extract.
7. Pour this mixture into the ramekins. Then, pour boiling water into pan and place the ramekins until the water level reaches halfway up the sides of the ramekins.
8. Bake the custard for 30 to 35 minutes. It is important not to overcook the custard because it will remove the silky texture.
9. Remove from the oven and allow the ramekins to cool in the water bath for 5 minutes. Then, remove from the water and cool the custard at room temperature for 20 minutes.
10. Run a butter knife around the edges of each ramekin and invert the custards onto serving plates. You can either serve them at room temperature or you could chill it for a day before serving.

Bon Appétit!

Source

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