This week’s kitchen conundrum came in from Joanne in Southampton, UK.
“Hi Taste Safari! I recently made meringues for an Eton Mess pudding – but now I have all these left over egg yolks. I would hate to see them go to waste; what can I use them for?”
Well, there are a number of great recipes that come to mind for left over egg yolks. One of them is my to-die-for chocolate mousse but I’m saving that one for the book, so you will all have to wait! Another is this delicious, classic recipe for an all time favorite – the crème brûlée. A handy Taste Safari tip to remember here is that egg whites and yolks can actually be frozen to use at a later date, so you need never waste them again! Egg whites are simple to freeze, just wrap the bowl with plastic and place them in the freezer, but remember to mark how many eggs are in there so you can judge the recipe when you eventually use them. Yolks are a bit more fussy, and can become a bit gelatinous when frozen. To avoid this, add about 1/8 teaspoon of salt for every 4 yolks, then scramble them up and freeze.
Now that you don’t need to panic about using them up quickly – you can always save them for the Taste Safari chocolate mousse when it comes out in my book! But in the meantime, back to the crème brûlée. Crème brûlée is also known as burnt cream, crema catalana, or Trinity cream. The earliest known reference to the crème brûlée we know today appears in François Massialot’s 1691 cookbook, so this certainly is a recipe that has had years of perfecting.
Classic Creme Brulee with a Crisp Sugar Crackling
1 litre cream
2 vanilla beans – split in half down the centre and the pods scraped out. ( If you don’t have vanilla beans use 3 tsp of vanilla essence)
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup demerara or soft brown sugar
6 egg yolks
Set the oven to heat to 180 degrees centigrade
Place the cream in a deep pan with the whole vanilla beans and the scraped pods. Let this come to a gentle simmer
In a clean bowl, start to whip the egg yolks and the white sugar, until it is slightly fluffy and pale in colour.
Pour the hot cream, in a steady stream, gently into the egg yolk and white sugar mix, beating all the time.
Pour this mixture into six individual ramekins and place in a large baking tray or dish. Pour boiling hot water into the baking tray until it reaches halfway up the ramekin dishes. Bake for 45 minutes or until the creme brulee is just set but still slightly wobbly.
Just 15 minutes before serving, sprinkle the demerara sugar over each Brulee and place these under a very hot grill until the sugar has completely melted, taking care not to burn the sugar. This should take no longer than 3-4 minutes in a very hot grill.
Let these sit for at least five minutes so the sugar topping hardens, allowing your guests to crack the sugar crackling for the luscious custard pudding underneath!
TS Tip: The custard base can also be flavored with lemon or orange (zest), rosemary, lavender, chocolate, Amaretto, Grand Marnier, cinnamon, coffee, liqueurs, green tea, pistachio, hazelnut or coconut! So have fun with it!
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