Gluten Free Friday: Creme Brulee

HOW EXCITING, I've finally gotten around to doing a ~regular~ posting series, and even more exciting, its devoid of gluten!

(Don't hold your breath on the regularity, but I'll do my best)

I was hoarding a bunch of recipes to do gluten-free week and post a whole bunch of things, but then I thought, thats boring. There are so many delicious GF recipes around on the internet, I may as well share some with you (and the Uber-Blonde and Vigilante, both of whom are intolerant to gluten, KEEP UP WE'VE BEEN THROUGH THIS).

So because you need something decadent for your weekend, the opening dish is a good old Creme Brulee from everyone's favourite Pioneer Woman. If you head over to her blog, firstly it is incredible, but secondly, she has step-by-step pictures which make it seem a lot less daunting.

I had a nice bonding experience with Mum cooking this, because I bought her a kitchen torch for her birthday last year and it took her almost a year to use it (I think forwarding the recipe to her when it was published online may have been a subtle hint?). It was well worth it, though. Especially for this:

Me: "Ok, then she skims the foam off the top and eats it."

Mum: "Really?"

And then she tried it, and yea, it was delicious.

CREME BRULEE
Recipe from The Pioneer Woman

4 cups heavy cream
1 tbsp vanilla extract (or 1 whole vanilla bean, or 1 tbsp vanilla paste)
10 egg yolks
3/4 cups sugar
6 tbsp caster sugar


1. Preheat oven to 160C (325F).

2. Pour cream and vanilla into a saucepan and simmer over a medium-low heat.

3. Whip egg yolks and sugar in a separate bowl until thick and pale yellow.

4. Strain the cream using a fine strainer - I think we used muslin (fancy!)

5. Drizzle 1 cup of the cream into the egg yolks, whipping as you go. Slowly add the rest of the cream.

6. Place your baking dish (ideally ramekins, so I'll say that for the sake of convenience, but we cooked some in glass baking dishes) onto a rimmed baking tray. It needs to have a rim because once you've poured the custard mixture into the ramekins (do that now!), you need to pour water into the baking tray until it comes halfway up your ramekins.

7. Bake for 30 minutes, but make sure they do not brown on top. Allow to cool, cover with plastic wrap and chill for at least two to three hours.

8. Ready to serve? Excellent. This is the fun bit. Sprinkle 1 tbsp sugar over each ramekin (or equivalent - if you used two baking dishes, do 3tbsp each, use common sense). Then use the kitchen torch to burn the sugar to a nice, crisp layer on top. Serve immediately, and its fun if you crack the top with a spoon a la Amelie.