Seingat saya dah lama teringin nak buat creme brulee sendiri.
I was intimidated knowing it is a French dessert and how complicated and delicate a French cuisine can be. I wasn't sure if I could get the egg custard consistency right. And the idea of blow-torching the sugar until it burnt and caramalised sounds like nothing a home cook can handle.
I was young. But now that I'm older and much more experience in the kitchen pffftttttt... And I've seen how Ashley the contestant on Australia's My Kitchen Rules season 4 did hers, I am more confident. Infact I have this determination to conquer another French dessert.
The first thing i did was invest RM49 on a blow torch that I've been eyeing at Ace Hardware next to Jaya Grocer where I use to do my grocery shopping. I also bought 3 cylinder of butane gas at RM18. I wish they sell individual cylinder instead of 3 in one packages. But hey, its Ace Hardware what do you expect.
Once I own a blow torch, I bough all the ingredients. What are they? Well, nothing you can't find in your kitchen or fridge. Egg, sugar, vanila essence and the only thing that you don't always have ready in the fridge is whipping creme. I use non-dairy.
And you also need a good fool-proof recipe. None other than Chef Anna Olson's.
Trust me, her recipe is perfecto! Just follow her recipe step by step and you'll get a luscious mouth-watering creme brulee.
If don't own a blow-torch there is another way getting the sugar caramelised. Preheat you oven to 180C, only grill setting. Place your puddings on most top rack of your oven. Close the oven door and keep watching untill the sugar burnt. You don't want to leave them too long in the oven otherwise your pudding will melt away. We don't want that. We want the pudding still set and the caramelised sugar will also set once you remove from the oven. The caramelised sugar or what they refer as 'brulee' will harden and become a glass mirror like consistency. The excitement of eating or making this pudding comes when you have to knock on the brulee with the back of your spoon to break the 'glass'. If it hard enough to be broken then you know you got it right.
