Custards & Puddings Archives - Page 3 of 3

Orange Cinnamon Crème Brûlée

While Valentine’s Day may be mostly about vibrant pinks and reds and chocolate reigns supreme, sometimes a special, romantic dinner calls for an understated elegant dessert to end. Orange Cinnamon Crème Brûlée from Leslie Budewitz’s latest release, GUILTY AS CINNAMON, is the perfect choice! Leslie’s recipe steeps cinnamon, thyme and orange peel in a custard base to add a complex subtlety to this decadently creamy dessert that is crowned with a crunchy bittersweet layer of yumminess.

While you may think that crème brûlée is an unobtainable culinary talent, it couldn’t be further from the truth. Leslie’s recipe provides easy to follow instructions (and I’ve provided a video tutorial because sometimes seeing what it’s supposed to look like can go a long way to relieving fears – you can find it at the bottom of the page) and it doesn’t take long to put this dessert together. Best of all, the custard can be made the day before and stored in the refrigerator, then a quick sprinkle of sugar and a zap with a kitchen torch (or oven broiler) and voilà, a sublime ending to your perfect dinner.

GUILTY AS CINNAMON, the second book in “A Spice Shop Mystery” series, finds Pepper Reese getting ready to expand her spice shop located in Seattle’s Pike Place Market. She’s starting a bridal registry in addition to several chefs purchasing her wares for their local restaurants. A soon-to-be new restaurant owner, Tamara Langston, arrives at the Spice Shop to make a few purchases and discuss sourcing her herbs and spices. She learns that Tamara, a sous chef for Pepper’s ex-boyfriend, Alex, hasn’t told her boss that she’s resigning and opening her own restaurant…they both know that Alex is going to be furious.

The next evening Pepper and a friend go out to dinner and Pepper decides to take a peek in Tamara’s new restaurant space…and finds the future restaurateur dead…killed with a ghost chile, known as bhut capsicum, that Tamara had just purchased from Pepper’s own shop. It doesn’t take long for the police to arrest Alex, since he verbally threatened Tamara in front of the entire restaurant staff when he found out she was leaving his restaurant. Even though Alex has a temper, Pepper is sure he is innocent and when he begs her to find the real killer, she can’t say no. As she talks to people asking questions, she finds several people had motives for wanting the chef dead. Pepper also finds long buried secrets threatening to be exposed may have led to the crime and leads back to her ex-boyfriend and ex-husband, Officer Tag Buhner. When threatening notes are left for her and when her business almost goes up in flames, Pepper knows she’s getting close to the killer and she’d better figure it out before she becomes the next victim.

I loved GUILTY AS CINNAMON, from its clever title to the cover art to the vivid descriptions of the sights, sounds, smells and tastes of Seattle, to the tightly woven plot! The author has allowed Pepper to be human, experiencing real life complex issues with love and betrayal, insecurities, and daily struggles while giving her a chance to grow as a person through the choices she makes. Pepper also has a wonderful supporting cast and I like how Leslie has included a list of the characters at the beginning of the book. It made for a nice reference as I read. Of course I would be remiss to not mention the many fabulous recipes that are included with the book and it was difficult to choose which one to showcase. However, I have to say, I was beyond happy with the results of the Orange Cinnamon Crème Brûlée and I’ll be making it again…soon! Thank you, Leslie, for allowing me to share your incredibly delicious recipe!

Orange Cinnamon Crème Brûlée

On this, Pepper and Tag agree: the very best crème brûlée ever!

Serves 4 – 5

Ingredients

2 cups heavy cream
1/2 cup white sugar (divided use)
Zest of 1 orange, removed in wide strips with a peeler
1 cinnamon stick
6 to 8 strands of fresh thyme
4 egg yolks
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
4 teaspoons turbinado sugar, for topping (or regular white sugar)
Strips of orange peel or thyme sprigs for garnish (optional)

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees (F).

In a small saucepan, combine the cream, 1/4 cup sugar, orange zest and cinnamon stick.

Roll the thyme strands back and forth between your palms, over the pan, to release the essential oils, then toss the thyme into the pan. Whisk to combine.

Bring the mixture to a boil, then remove from the heat and strain into a bowl to cool. (This step infuses the cream with the aromatics – the zest, thyme, and cinnamon.)

In a large bowl, whisk together the egg yolks, remaining 1/4 cup sugar and vanilla.

When the infused cream is cooled to the touch, slowly pour it into the egg mixture and whisk to combine. (Cooling the cream avoids curdling the eggs.)

Place four 4-ounce ramekins or custard cups in a large baking dish or roasting pan.

Carefully fill the ramekins with the custard mixture.

Place the dish in the oven and carefully pour hot water into the pan, till it reaches about halfway up the sides of the ramekins.

Bake until the custard is set around the edges and slightly jiggly in the center, about 35 minutes.

Remove the baking dish from the oven.

Lift out the ramekins – tongs work nicely – and cool on a rack at room temperature. (Don’t leave them in the hot water, as heat would continue to cook the mixture.)

When cool, move ramekins to the refrigerator to chill for at least an hour before the next step.

Just before serving, sprinkle a teaspoon of turbinado sugar evenly over the top of each dish.

Caramelize the sugar with a kitchen torch. The sugar will harden, turn golden, and become crunchy.

If you don’t have a torch, broil the dishes 2 to 3 minutes until the sugar forms a crisp, golden top.

Garnish with a curvy strip of orange peel or a sprig of thyme.

Tip

Reserve a piece of the orange peel from the recipe and slice into long, skinny strips. Wrap the strips around a toothpick and secure the ends with a bit of tape. Allow the curled orange peel to air dry while you prepare the crème brûlée. Just before serving, slide the curled orange strips from the toothpick, snip off and discard the ends that were taped. Garnish as desired.

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Wondering what to do with those leftover egg whites? Check out this recipe for White Chocolate Macaroons from Daryl Wood Gerber or my Lemon Macarons!

Chocolate Chip Bread Pudding

I love learning that a brand new cozy mystery series is coming and I was not disappointed when I read TO HELVETICA AND BACK by Paige Shelton, the first book in her brand new A Dangerous Type Mystery series.

Clare Henry helps her grandfather, Chester, run his almost fifty-five-year-old shop, The Rescued Word, in Star City, Utah. They repair typewriters, restore books and manuscripts along with selling wonderful stationery and pens. After one of Chester’s long-time customers brings in an old black Underwood No. 5 typewriter for repair, a strange man dressed in leather enters their shop, angrily demanding they sell it to him immediately. He disappears when the police are called and when Clare examines the ancient typewriter, she finds strange numbers and letters scratched into the key bars. When “leather man” is found murdered behind their shop the very next morning, Clare wonders if it had something to do with the old typewriter.

The police officer who shows up to take a report and secure the scene is none other than Clare’s cheating ex-boyfriend who just happens to be the brother of her very best friend, Jodi, who is also a police officer. Clare doesn’t have an alibi since she worked half the night and then fell asleep at her desk and it doesn’t take long for her ex, Creighton, to become suspicious that she might have something to do with the crime. In amongst all the upheaval a new arrival to town, geologist Seth Cassidy, manages to turn Clare’s head and she finds herself on a date. Sean has an idea about what the numbers and letters on the typewriter bar keys may be but when Jodi investigates his past, finds that he’s had a brush with the law and Clare worries that he may be behind the crime.

As Clare begins asking questions around town she finds that many people are hiding secrets, including her own grandfather. Jodi helps her as much as she can which leads them to seeking answers from a goat relocating motorcycle gang and a crusty old newspaper reporter. When Clare’s photograph shows up on the murdered man’s camera, she decides she has to find the killer quickly before she or someone in her family becomes the next victim.

There was so much to love from the very beginning of the book! From The Rescued Word being a place I could literally spend hours browsing in to the tidbits of information on old typewriters and how to repair them to the well developed characters that could become friends to the twists and turns in a well plotted mystery. Paige Shelton has written a wonderful start to her new series that will make it difficult to patiently wait for her next book!

Even though TO HELVETICA AND BACK does not have recipes, there are certainly plenty of delicious food mentioned. After all, heroines have to eat too! One of the desserts that Clare shares with her family and friends is Chocolate Chip Bread Pudding from Tony’s Italian Ristorante and Bistro. Paige has graciously allowed me to share my own version of Chocolate Chip Bread Pudding along with my review and I hope that Clare would have enjoyed my recipe as much as Tony’s! I have provided a short video tutorial at the bottom of this page, on how to make this creamy dessert.

Paige has also very generously provided an autographed copy of TO HELVETICA AND BACK to one lucky winner!!! Please leave a comment below to be entered. Contest ends Monday, January 18, 2016 at 11:59 pm PST and is open to U.S. residents only. Winner will be announced on this page and on Cinnamon & Sugar’s Facebook page, as well as notified by email (so check your spam folder!) and will have 5 days to respond or another winner will be chosen.

Chocolate Chip Bread Pudding

Ingredients

1-1/2 cups whole milk
1-1/2 cups + 1/3 cup half & half, divided
1/2 cup (3.5 ounces) granulated sugar
1 12-ounce package white chocolate chips (I used Nestle’s brand), divided
1/2 cup (6 ounces) semi-sweet mini chocolate chips (and a few extras for garnish if desired)
6 eggs
1/2 loaf (8 ounces) stale or lightly toasted French bread*, cut into cubes

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Lightly spritz a 9″x9″ square baking dish with non-stick cooking spray.

Place the bread cubes into the dish and sprinkle the semi-sweet chocolate chips over the bread.

Heat the whole milk, granulated sugar and 1-1/2 cups of the half & half in a heavy, medium-sized saucepan over medium heat, just until the mixture starts to bubble around the edges. Temperature should reach 185 to 190 degrees F. Do not allow to boil!

Remove from heat and stir in 6 ounces of the white chocolate chips until melted. Set aside and allow to cool for at least 10 minutes.

Beat the eggs in a medium-sized bowl.

Slowly add the melted white chocolate mixture to the eggs, whisking continuously to incorporate. Don’t try to add the eggs to the hot mixture, otherwise the eggs may curdle.

Pour the mixture over the bread cubes and press the bread down until it soaks up most of the liquid.

Cover the pan with foil and bake 1 hour.

Remove the foil and continue to bake another 15 – 20 minutes, until bread pudding is set and golden brown.

The pudding will puff up as it bakes but deflates when taken out of the oven.

Remove from oven and allow to cool.

Just before serving, heat the remaining 1/3 cup half & half in a small sauce pan just until it begins to bubble around the edges.

Remove from heat and stir in the remaining 6 ounces white chocolate until melted and the sauce is smooth.

Pour over the bread pudding, garnish with additional mini chocolate chips if desired and serve!

Refrigerate any leftovers.

Tips

* Stale or lightly toasted bread soaks up the liquid much more readily than fresh bread. You can leave your bread sitting out on a baking sheet overnight before baking this dish. Alternatively, cut the bread into cubes and place on a baking sheet and allow to dry out in the oven on the lowest setting possible, for 5 to 10 minutes.
Recipe can be doubled and baked in a 9″x 13″ casserole dish.

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Frankenstein Pudding Cups

Holidays seem like the perfect time to get kids into the kitchen and let them learn to enjoy the creating process of cooking. I assume most kids are like my granddaughter, Emmy, where sweets are at the top of her list of things to make. After Em and her friend, Tess, made the Mummy Dogs for dinner I let them create Frankenstein Pudding Cups to finish off their Halloween meal. I loved that this dessert is no-cook and the girls could make this with minimal supervision from me. Even though the ingredients and prep are super simple the resulting dessert is quite spooktacular!

Scroll to the end to see a video of the process. Thank you to my granddaughter, Emmy, for re-doing this dessert a second time since our first video attempt didn’t work…those pesky technical difficulties!

Frankenstein Pudding Cups

One small box (3.4 oz) of instant pudding will make 3 pudding cups, assuming you monitor how much pudding your kids add. My assistants preferred to “over-fill” the cups so we only got 2-1/2 servings out of the batch.

Supplies

Small, clear plastic cups (we used the 9 ounce size)
Black Sharpies

Ingredients

1 small box (3.4 oz) instant vanilla pudding
2 cups milk (1%, 2% or whole)
Green food coloring (we used Ameri-Color Leaf Green and Forest Green)
10 Oreo cookies

Instructions

Using a Sharpie pen draw Frankenstein’s face on the OUTSIDE of 3 clear plastic cups. Make sure the eyes/eyebrows only go to halfway up the cup. Set aside.

Whisk the milk and instant pudding together for about one minute, then add green food coloring until desired shade is reached. (We used 3 drops Leaf Green and 2 drops Forest Green.)

Whisk pudding an additional minute then pour into the decorated cups until it reaches just above the eyes/eyebrows.

Crush the Oreos. We placed them in heavy-duty ziplock bags and used cans of pumpkin to crush them. Or use a meat mallet as Em did the second time around.

Top the pudding with the crushed Oreos.

Refrigerate until ready to serve.

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Crème Brûlée: 4 Simple ingredients = Most Sublime Dessert

Many, many, many years ago my step-daughter, Briana, gave me a kitchen torch and a small photo filled Crème Brûlée cookbook. I was very excited about the gift and couldn’t wait to try out several of the recipes. Unfortunately it coincided with discovering my husband was extremely intolerant of dairy products. I experimented with substituting soy milk for the cream but none of my efforts worked and we were left with inedible coagulated messes. This was LONG before vegan and dairy-free diets were wide spread and there were no other choices or recipes to guide us. Plus I didn’t have a lot of culinary experience to draw from back in those days.

It was a rough road for my husband giving up all the foods and desserts that he had loved so I shelved the book and tucked the torch into the back recesses of my pantry. Yes, I could have made this sublime dessert for the rest of us back then, but to show support and compassion I chose not to. But as time passed, new products hit the market and I became a better cook understanding how to create without dairy so my husband wouldn’t feel left out. But in the back of my mind I remembered my first non-dairy Crème Brûlée attempts and didn’t want to go there again.

Then I read Brutal Brûlée by Leighann Dobbs. Her very short, cute culinary cozy, something I would call a “beach read”, turned out to give me the confidence to try my hand at Crème Brûlée. Brutal Brûlée is the story of Lexy Baker (love the name!) whose grandmother invites her to a help a friend celebrate the opening of her bed and breakfast in an old, supposedly haunted, mansion. A production company is booked for the weekend to get to the bottom of the ghost story and the new owner wants to make a good impression. When the producer is murdered in a locked room it’s up to Lexy and her grandmother and her iPad toting geriatric friends to discover who the culprit is. Lexy’s grandmother and friends are fun characters and I liked their interactions with Lexy and her detective husband, Jack. Despite being a short book, Leighann manages to put together a mystery with some twists and turns and lets a reader connect with her characters. I will definitely be checking out more of the Lexy Baker cozy mysteries and trying other delicious recipes the author includes at the back of the book!

Leighann’s Crème Brûlée recipe is super simple and I was fairly certain I could conquer it. Oh my…it was absolutely sublime…I think I swooned! The four simple ingredients come together quickly yet create the most luscious dessert! Another bonus is that the custard can be made a day ahead of time and all you have to do is sprinkle on the sugar and caramelize right before serving.

Of course my husband was green with envy so I decided to give a non-dairy version another try using full-fat canned coconut milk. It turned out great….definitely not as creamy and rich as Leighann’s original recipe, but still well worth my efforts. The crunchy bittersweet caramelized sugar on the top adds to the wow factor and both Leighann’s delectable recipe and my new non-dairy version will be regulars in my dessert rotation! I’ve included the adaptation below.

P.S. Check back Friday and I’ll show you what to do with the leftover egg whites!

Crème Brûlée

Ingredients

2-1/2 cups heavy cream (for dairy-free use 2-1/2 cups full-fat canned coconut milk instead)
6 egg yolks
1 vanilla bean, split and scraped
6 tablespoons white granulated sugar
2 tablespoons brown sugar (or use white granulated sugar)

4 simple ingredients combine to make a sublime dessert!

Vanilla Beans split with seeds scraped to release flavor

Instructions

Preheat oven to 325 degrees (F).

In a medium saucepan, combine cream (or coconut milk) and vanilla bean and bring to a boil, stirring constantly.

Remove from the heat and let sit for 15 minutes before removing the bean pod.

Beat egg yolks and 4 tablespoons of white sugar until creamy.

Add the cream mixture to the egg yolks a little at a time, whisking constantly.

Pour the mixture into ramekins (about 6 – 8 oz. ramekins) or a small dish.

Set the ramekins or dish into a larger baking pan and fill that pan with enough water to reach halfway up the sides of the ramekins.

Bake until the custard is just set. It should still be a bit wiggly in the center.

Refrigerate until you are ready to serve and for at least 2 hours.

When you are ready to serve them, mix the remaining 2 tablespoons of white sugar with the brown sugar.

Remove the ramekins from the refrigerator and sprinkle the sugar on top.

If you are adept in the kitchen like Lexy Baker, you can use a kitchen torch to melt the sugar on top of the custard (you’ll probably want to use all white sugar for this.)

Just aim the torch at the sugar-covered top until the sugar is melted and forms a crust. Be careful not to burn it (or set your kitchen on fire).

Leighann Dobbs’ husband has banned her from using torches in the kitchen, so she simply puts the ramekins under the broiler for about 2 minutes until the sugar melts.

My note: my husband allowed me to use a torch but he stood by with the fire extinguisher ready!

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