Hello my lovelies and welcome back to the return of my Great Blogging Bake Off adventure. The signature bake for dessert week was creme brûlées - gulps. I have never tried a creme brûlée before in terms of baking or eating so this was another big challenge for me. Strangely enough I found it more challenging then bread week which I was dreading yet survived. Making creme brûlées looks challenging enough yet this is bake off and they can't stick to 'normal/original' recipes, no they have to go that one step further and make life a thousand times more complicated for themselves by coming up with twists and variations on traditional recipes. I always like to put my own stamp on these signature bakes by imagining what I would have done it if I was competing in the bake off. After bread week I saw that the following week would be dessert week which excited me immensely especially the sight of three tier cheesecakes I mean hello yes please thank you very much so kindly to you. The sight of nervous bakers wobbling creme brûlées I'll be honest produced less excitement in me as it's a dessert that has never majorly appealed to me, maybe it's the jelly like texture of creme caramels that has put me off I'm not sure. Anyway, I instantly thought my twist on the classic brûlée would be an Amaretto/almond concoction. This got me very excited for dessert week that I had instantly got an idea. However, Paul ruined my plans on the bake off when he said he would be making amaretto brûlées. I tried to think of alternatives but then I thought sod it I'm just going to make them anyway. I also further adapted the almond theme by incorporating some amaretti biscuits into the pudding, whether that was a good idea or not I'll let you all decide on that one but I personally loved it as it enhanced the almond flavour.
Ingredients - Serves 4
75g amaretti biscuits
10g unsalted butter
300ml single cream
1 tsp vanilla extract
3 egg yolks
50g caster sugar
30 ml amaretto liqueur
1 tbsp brown sugar
Method
1) Crush the Amaretti biscuits to form biscuit crumbs, to do this I placed the biscuits in a plastic bag and crushed the biscuits using a rolling pin.
2) Melt the butter in a saucepan over a low heat and stir in the crushed biscuits. Evenly distribute the biscuit crumbs between the ramekins and press down to form a base. Creme Brûlées don't usually have a biscuit base but I thought the amaretti biscuits might enhance the almond flavour and I am totally in love with them so why not? It's part of my twist on the classic creme brûlée and I quite liked the idea when some of the bakers had bases in their creme brûlées so I thought I'd knick that idea
3) Preheat the oven to 150°C and place your ramekins in a large roasting tin
4) In a large bowl, whisk the egg yolks, caster sugar and amaretto together to form a light coloured mixture
5) Cook the cream and vanilla extract in a saucepan over a medium heat until the mixture starts to simmer, you want to gently stir the mixture as it warms through
6) Whisk the hot cream into the egg yolk mixture and evenly pour into the ramekins over the crushed biscuits
7) Pour hot water into the roasting tin to create a bain-marie, the water should reach half way up the sides of the ramekins. A bain-marie allows a more gentle bake as water can only reach a maximum of 100°C
8) Cook in the oven for approximately 30 minutes and just set - there should be a slight, gentle wobble. Once set, remove the ramekins from the tin and allow to cool for two hours
9) Cover with foil and place the creme brûlées in the fridge for 6 hours - which feels like a life time trust me
10) Mary Berry said no blow torches and I don't own one anyway so I went for the traditional method. Preheat the grill on a high setting and whilst the grill is heating up sprinkle brown sugar on top of the creme brûlées
11) Cook under the grill for 2 - 3 minutes to caramelise the sugar, make sure you keep an eye on the brûlées as everyones grills are different and you don't want to burn the brûlées at the last hurdle. Once caramelised enjoy your well earned brûlées immediately
I hope you enjoyed this blog post my lovelies. I was pleasantly surprised by these little beauties. They were so, so light. They had that thin crisp sugar layer which was followed by the smooth creamy almond filling. I really liked the alternative biscuit base as it reminded me of a cheesecake which has to be my all time favourite dessert. When you look at the pictures they do look slightly burnt around the edge which they probably were a little but hey hands up I'm a home baker not a professional chef so it doesn't matter really well not to me anyway, I found it enhanced the flavour. I feel like I've learned quite a few new skills this week so thank you very much Paul and Mary. Stay tuned for my take on a sugar free cake for the following weeks challenge - free form baking.
Week One: Cakes: Raspberry And Almond Madera Cake
Week Two: Biscuits: Coconut And White Chocolate Biscotti
Week Three: Bread: Sun Dried Tomato And Basil Soda Bread
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