Crème Brulée

Ahh, cream - crème, is there anything better?  What a great and versatile dessert substance: crème caramel, crème anglaise, crème brulée, pots de crème - and the list goes on.  The French certainly have it right, one can even buy prepared crème anglaise and crème brulée in the most mundane of Parisian grocery stores!  A friend of mine, who happens to be French, gave me her very large ice cream maker when she moved to a smaller house.  It cannot be stored in any position but level, therefore it sits on my counter year-round, taking up a great deal of space. To justify its presence, I feel the need to make ice cream and sorbets frequently - and my kids love it.  

The base that I use for ice cream is basically a crème anglaise.

1 liter of cream (18% M.F. or there abouts)

1 cup white sugar

1 vanilla bean, split

6 egg yolks

Combine the cream, sugar, and vanilla and heat until boiling.  Remove from heat, let cool a few minutes and wisk in the egg yolks one at a time.  Return to medium-low heat, stirring constantly, until the mixture has thickened and coats the back of a spoon.  Remove vanilla pod, scraping the seeds into the mixture.  This mixture can be used as an ice-cream base, set in ramekins in a bain-marie for crème brulée, or pots de crème.  For crème caramel, make a caramel from sugar and water and pour into ramekins or a mold and let harden before adding the cream base - then bake in a bain-marie until set.     

Food and beverage photographer Michael Kohn, www.michaelkohn.com, contacted me recently - he wanted to create some crème brulées shots.  We came up with the above photos,  a selection of just-the-right-amount size ramekins; and an unctuous spoonful complete with caramel shards, a raspberry and a hint of mint.  I used the crème anglaise base in order to make these brulées.