Creme Brulee from Cooking Classy

Creme Brulee - made July 3, 2016 from Cooking Classy

I rarely make crème brulee. For one thing, it’s hard to make for just one person unless you’re going to take just a fraction of all of the ingredients to make one serving. Do you know how hard it is to gauge half an egg yolk? And I would only want to make one serving if it was just for me because no one person should eat double servings of crème brulee. Not if she wants to fit into her clothes the next day.

But I was having friends over for dinner and one of the requested desserts was crème brulee. Since I hadn’t made it in so long, I thought I’d better do a trial run of a recipe the week before the dinner to make sure I could do it right.  How embarrassing would it have been if I screwed up dessert?

Most crème brulee recipes are pretty simple. Heat the cream, steep with the vanilla bean pod, whisk the egg yolks with sugar, temper in the hot cream, pour mixture into ramekins, bake in a water bath. Seriously, it’s that easy.

What is not easy, however, is gauging when it’s done. If you overcook crème brulee, it’ll be scrambled eggs. If you undercook it, instead of smooth custard, it’ll be liquidy and drippy that will be no fun to eat. To tell if it’s done, you’re supposed to shake it and see if the middle is still jiggly but not too jiggly. But remember that water bath? It’s not like you can shake the whole pan without risking some of your water spilling into your crème brulee. And unless you have fingers of steel, you can’t dip in your bare hand to jiggle the ramekin itself. Using a potholder potentially hides the custard you’re trying to tell if done.

Some recipes advocate putting a knife through it and if it comes out with custard (instead of liquidy cream), it’s done. I have never conducted the knife test successfully. For one thing, I don’t like making the knife slit into my custard; it ruins the smooth surface of the top to make a cavity in it. For another, it’s still hard for me to tell if it’s done or not based on the custard smear on the knife. So I do the jiggly test very carefully, making sure the water doesn’t spill over into the ramekins. Even then, I’m not always sure whether it’s still too jiggly or not jiggly enough. Remember, the custard will also “set” once it cools. So you won’t know how done (or not) the crème brulee is until after you’ve taken it out and chilled it thoroughly.

This one turned out okay, once I stopped second guessing myself. It still had a bit of a jiggle in the middle when I took it out but once I had chilled it overnight and then bruleed the top, it turned out pretty well. If you do happen to undercook your crème brulee, after you brulee the sugar on top, put it back in the fridge for a few minutes to firm it back up.

The taste was smooth vanilla creaminess. The only thing I wish had worked better is all the vanilla bean seeds from the vanilla bean pod I used sank to the bottom. Other than that, I thought this was a pretty good crème brulee. 

4 cups heavy cream
1 1/4 cups granulated sugar, divided
1 pinch salt
8 large egg yolks
1 vanilla bean
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
hot water for water bath

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Pour cream into medium saucepan. Scrape seeds from vanilla bean and add to saucepan along with vanilla bean pod. Heat mixture over medium-high heat, stirring occasional, until it reaches a light boil. Remove from heat and let rest 15 minutes.
2. In a mixing bowl, whisk together 3/4 cup granulated sugar and salt with egg yolks until mixture becomes slightly pale. Remove vanilla bean pod from cream. 
3. While whisking, pour cream mixture into egg yolk mixture. Stir in vanilla extract.
4. Place ramekins in baking pans. Divide cream mixture among ramekins, filling each nearly full. Pour hot water into pan and fill water level to about halfway up the sides of the ramekins. Bake for 30-45 minutes, depending on size of ramekins until set but centers still jiggle slightly. Cool at room temperature for 30 minutes then transfer to refrigerator to chill 3 hours.
5. Remove from refrigerator and let rest 20 minutes, then sprinkle tops evenly with remaining sugar. Holding a hand-held kitchen torch, about 4 inches from sugar, evenly brown sugar. Remove flame just before desired shade is reached. Return to refrigerator and chill 20 minutes. Serve cold.

Boston Bakery Crawl - Shake Shack and Clear Flour Bread

Shake Shack and Clear Flour Bread - visited July 10, 2016

Before I left for the airport on my last day in Boston, I had a clear mission. The first part was to have lunch at the Shake Shack which I saw on Newbury Street during my walks the day before. You can’t imagine how thrilled – yes, thrilled – I was to realize there was one in Boston that was in easy walking distance of my hotel. I love Shake Shack burgers. I’d only had it once when I was in Manhattan many years ago and I still remember it. That’s how good I thought their burgers were. 

I went right after church service when they had just opened so there were no crowds to worry about. I ordered a single cheeseburger, fries and, of course, a chocolate shake. Their prices for burgers and fries were quite reasonable, especially for a metropolitan city like Boston. $5.29 for the single cheeseburger and a couple of bucks for the crinkle cut fries. It was the shake that took me aback, also at $5.29, the same price for the cheeseburger. Huh. I know that’s what they’re known for but that seemed like a lot for a shake. Don’t get me wrong; it was a great shake but $5.29? Yes, I’m kinda cheap. Still, no regrets. The burger was as good as I remember, the fries were good and the shake was delicious.

More importantly, it fueled me properly for the second part of my mission and that was a 3-mile walk to Clear Flour Bread. I had time before I had to leave for the airport and I wanted the exercise so I could justify buying whatever caught my fancy for the plane ride home. Forget the joke about airplane food – truth is they don’t feed you anymore, even for a cross-country flight, so I was bringing my own snacks. And I wanted those snacks to come from another bakery I’d heard about and had been recommended to me by another foodie.

I walk as much as possible when I’m on vacation. It’s a great way to explore wherever I’m at and there’s less likelihood of missing anything by taking the subway. 3-5 miles one way is my typical walking range in a day. I enjoyed the walk to Clear Flour Bread, passing Boston University along the way. It was somewhat drizzly during my walk but it didn’t rain hard enough to detain me from my purpose. When it comes to bread bakeries, short of a typhoon, not much can deter me.

Clear Flour Bread is tiny. As in, tiny. Most of the space is taken up by the bakery in the back, the baking racks and a counter where they take your order and conduct the payment transactions. Beyond that, if you have to leave room for the bakery door to open and close to let customers in and out, the remaining space can fit about 4-5 people in line. Small people or skinny people. No joke. But that shouldn’t deter anyone from going because you can always form a line outside as well and, having stepped in as the 4^th customer in the shop, the smell of freshly baked and baking bread was enough to bring me to my knees. Seriously, nothing smells as good as bread baking. I didn’t mind waiting in line because I was just happy to be in that heavenly smelling shop. Just happy.

I really wanted to try their croissant as yelp reviews called it top notch. Unfortunately they didn’t have any left when I got there so I had to settle for the pretzel croissant. I’ve never had a pretzel croissant and had no idea what the counter person was talking about when she described it “like a pretzel but a croissant”. But I stepped out on a limb of faith (it doesn’t take much) and got one.

Pretzel Croissant

And since I don’t walk 3 miles one way and 3 miles back for one croissant, I also bought a chocolate croissant. I would’ve like the more traditional pain au chocolat but the chocolate croissant was close enough.

Chocolate Croissant

I had both croissants later in the day. One when I was at the airport waiting for my flight to board and the other one during the 6 ½ hour flight back home. It was a bit of a shame that I hadn’t eaten at least one of them when I bought them but I wasn’t hungry then since I was still fueled up from Shake Shack. I say it’s a shame because I think I could have raved more about the croissants. They were good at room temperature but I think I would have found them far more amazing had I had them fresh out of the oven and somewhat warm. As it was, they didn’t stand out for me as much as I could’ve wished. Don’t get me wrong, they were good. The pretzel croissant really did taste like a pretzel but had the texture of a flaky croissant. The chocolate croissant was as good as a pain au chocolat (at room temp). Next time I go back, I’m going hungry and will consume on premises. Or just outside since there’s no room inside.

Boston Bakery Crawl - Sweet Bakery and Georgetown Cupcakes

Sweet Cupcakes and Georgetown Cupcake - visited July 10, 2016

After Flour, I hit two cupcakeries on my walk. One was Sweet Bakery which was (almost surprisingly) empty when I walked in. In fact, it looked so deserted, I thought it was closed. But I walked in and someone came in from the back. I wonder if the quiet was due to their location as it wasn’t on a very busy part of Massachusetts Avenue. Their flavors seemed like the typical chocolate, vanilla, red velvet but there were also less typical flavors such as Cappuccino and Root Beer Float.  I myself scored a caramel macchiato cupcake (it was the last one left).

I thought it was pretty delicious. The cupcake was a bit on the small side, similar to the “normal” size that Kara’s Cupcakes does and smaller than Sprinkles. Too much frosting for me but the cupcake itself had a really nice crumb and the perfect moist cakey texture. The flavor wasn’t too strong and I had been hoping for a caramel filling but alas, it was just cupcake with a mound of frosting. I liked the frosting for the flavor but there was just too much of it for this non-frosting person. That’s the downside of cupcakes. With the exception of Sibby’s, almost all of the cupcakeries I’ve tried top the cupcakes with a ton of frosting. Some people love that. Unfortunately I’m not one of them. Still, I thought it was a good cupcake and not at all representative of the empty shop I walked into.

On the opposite end of the spectrum in terms of patronage was Georgetown Cupcake. I went to the one on Newbury Street and there was a small line out the door when I arrived and the shop was full. I had ample time to take pictures of the cupcakes arranged behind the glass cases and make my cupcake selections of Salted Caramel and Vanilla. Normally I get red velvet or chocolate when trying a new place for the first time but I’ve learned to also judge a bakery by its vanilla products. Why? It’s not hard to make a really great chocolate cupcake and most people love chocolate. Vanilla, in my mind, is so simple and sometimes the simple flavors are the hardest to do really well. So I thought I’d test out Georgetown on the vanilla flavor spectrum.

Both cupcakes were good. Once again too much frosting for me but that’s par for the course. I wished for more salted caramel in the salted caramel cupcake as most of it came from the dollop on top of the frosting. This is another case where I wished they had put it in as a filling like Kara’s does. 

The vanilla was also good. I have to confess though – maybe it was because I ate the cupcakes the day after I bought them and not right when I walked out of the shop but I thought they were just good, not spectacular. Given the crowd at the shop, I had expected spectacular. Glad I got to try them though but between Georgetown and Sweet, I’d say the cupcake from Sweet was a tad more moist and more fluffy.

Boston Bakery Crawl - Flour

Boston: Flour Bakery - visited July 9, 2016

Earlier this month, I flew to Boston to attend a good friend’s wedding. It had to be a quick trip as it was a busy time at work but I wouldn’t have missed seeing my friend Kendra get married. I took the redeye on Thursday night (note to self, “first class” on United does not mean the seats recline flat nor does it even provide access to the airport lounge so it was a total ripoff; #neveragain), arrived in Boston Friday morning, the wedding was on Friday night, there was a post-wedding brunch on Saturday morning, I hung out with my friend Rebecca afterwards then I took the “T” (Boston’s subway) to my hotel in Back Bay to spend Saturday afternoon through Sunday afternoon in Boston.

I love Boston. I haven’t been back in almost 7 years but I love Boston. As a tourist, I love the ease of getting around the city, I love the history and, being me, I love exploring the places to eat, namely the new-to-me bakeries.

Like any good foodie, I did my homework ahead of time to see which places I wanted to visit that were in walking distance of my hotel. From mid-afternoon Saturday to early afternoon Sunday, I had time to hit 4 bakeries and the Shake Shack, all fortunately within a few miles each way or less from my hotel. 

First stop was Flour. It was listed as one of the Top 10 Bakeries in Boston on the lists I’d checked. Thanks to comfy sandals and GPS on my phone, I reached Flour without incident and found it pretty bustling for a Saturday afternoon. I’m used to most bakeries doing the height of their business in the mornings (for the fresh baked bread) and running out of baked goods in the late afternoon.

Flour was still pretty well stocked and doing brisk business. It had the added advantage of offering sandwiches, salads and soups and a large enough area to accommodate tables and counter height seating so it was more like a café than a bakery. As clichéd as it was, I couldn’t resist buying a slice of Boston cream pie (when in Boston….) as well as a milk chocolate hazelnut cookie. As a rule, I don’t buy cookies at bakeries unless they look really compelling. This cookie ($2 price tag) was more modest but I’d tried Flour’s chocolate chip cookie recipe from their baking book and wanted a taste of it from their bakery.

It was okay. See, this is why I rarely buy bakery cookies because I’m such an awful cookie snob. There was nothing wrong with the cookie but it was also something I could easily make and I would probably have enjoyed it better if I had eaten it within 10 minutes of it coming out of my oven when it was still warm.

The Boston Cream Pie was more promising. Y’all know a Boston cream pie isn’t actually a pie but a cake, right? I know, it’s confusing. But true. Boston cream pie is layers of yellow cake filled with vanilla custard and topped with chocolate icing. Not a thin glaze, not a thick frosting but an icing that covers the top completely but only dribbles down the sides. I am not fond of custard-y filling unless it’s the pastry cream I make so Boston cream pie isn’t one of my favorite desserts. This one was pretty good though. I couldn’t eat very much of it because I’d already had (more than) my share of desserts by the time I tried it but for $6, they gave me a fairly good-sized piece and the cake was done well. The custard filling kept the cake moist and the fudge icing nicely complemented the yellow cake.

Stay tuned for the rest of my bakery crawl/visit.