Crème-to-the-Brûlée

Vanilla crème brûlée, with strawberry, white chocolate spoons and a smooth salted caramel disc - topped with crunchy honeycomb pieces. 

Mouth watering yet?


I can't deny that this is one of my ultimate fave desserts. The baked creamy goodness that instantly melts on your tongue, exposing its vanilla flavour as it begins to tango with your tastebuds. Oh but the best part, the fun part, cracking the burnt crunchy sugar with your spoon as you begin to dig in. The smooth and the crisp become an unbeatable fusion of textures.

And it's no wonder it's sort of named after these textures - crème brûlée - 'burnt cream' in French, is the most delicious yet simple of desserts to make and here's how I made it:

Ingredients:

For the vanilla crème brûlée:
440ml double cream
100ml full fat milk
55g caster sugar
1 vanilla pod/3tsp good quality vanilla extract
5 egg yolks

White Chocolate spoons:
200g white chocolate chips

(Smooth) Salted Caramel Disc:
80g salted butter
75g soft light brown sugar
75g caster sugar
120ml cream
1/2tsp sea salt
Honeycomb pieces (bought)

Method:

• Combine the double cream, milk and vanilla extract (or a slit vanilla pod) into a saucepan and leave to the side.
• Separate the yolks from the whites and place in a mixing bowl, adding the caster sugar. The separating is probably the only tricky part to this - well I find it a pain to be honest! Then whisk the yolks and sugar together until pale and slightly fluffy.
• Bring the saucepan onto the heat until the sides begin to bubble a bit.
• Gradually with a hand whisk, stir in the hot cream mix into the egg. You'll see it will foam up once done, try get rid of all the foam with a large spoon.
• Pour into ramekins, jars or a big dish and place these in a ban marie filled with boiled water about 1.5-2cm high and pop it into the oven for 30-35 minutes.
• You want the crème brûlée to be slightly wobbly in the middle and not completely set. Place these in the fridge and scatter teaspoon of caster sugar on the top surface and then blowtorch until its burnt! Do this closer to the serving time and pop 'em back in the fridge.

And that's pretty much it! For the additional extras and decoration:
To make the chocolate spoon:

• Melt white chocolate in a bowl over simmering water (water bath) until runny and fill up the spoon moulds, placing them in the fridge.

The smooth salted caramel disc:

• Melt the butter and sugars in a saucepan for 3 minutes or until dissolved, swirling it from time to time.
• Add the cream and sea salt and swirl again - get those hips shaking! I mean, use a wooden spoon to stir the sugar mixture…
• Once amalgamated, taste to check if there's enough salt and then pour into a jug to set!

This makes quite a bit, so you can store it up to a week to use for other nommy desserts. Or you know just to eat with a spoon instead of yer good ol' Ben and Jerry's!

Make a circle onto a serving plate, (I used a cookie cutter) and top with honeycomb pieces. Okay so, I had recently bought some ready made ones from Lakeland and used these, but if you want the homemade recipe check out my Get Loose: Chocolate and Honeycomb Mousse recipe!

That's about it! I added chocolate dots around each component to finish off, as well as a strawberry in each jar, as this creamy concotion goes well with berries and maybe there were some growing in my garden…

Cute little desserts, don't you think?


Dainty Cook x

Get Loose: Chocolate and Honeycomb Mousse

A chocoholics paradise, this decadent mousse packed with rich honeycomb pieces will surely drive you and your taste buds wild!

Cooling, chocolate fixing, 'I want more' you will be gagging.

I love choccy mousse. I can't even tell you why. It's just so mmmmmmm *slowly sinks down on the sofa and licks lips* The smooth texture, the rich taste, the sweet fusion of the crunchy honeycomb. It's just overly seductive for the tongue. Can you get these in the supermarkets? No. 

Having to buy appetising products that are only 'suitable for vegetarians' is difficult. Chocolate mousse is a rare breed in this category, particularly one that screams a good consistency and explodes with flavour in your mouth as you eat it. The rest are just plain, limp and hardly chocolatey at all. 

So guys, have a try at this lucious little recipe. You won't regret it and it's a bitta fun!

Serves 6

Honeycomb Ingredients:

5 tbsps granulated sugar

2 tbsps golden syrup

1tsp bicarbonate of soda

Bit of sunflower oil to grease.

Method:

 

• On some greasproof paper/baking sheet spread oil all over to grease and set aside on top of a chopping board.
• Meanwhile, place the sugar and syrup in a saucepan and heat until the sugar has dissolved and the mixture turns a golden caramel colour.
• Lastly, to make it foam up, quickly whisk in the bicarbonate of soda and pour it onto the paper, leaving it too cool for at least 10 mins.

Mousse Ingredients:

200g plain dark chocolate (or milk chocolate if you prefer a less sweeter/rich taste)

200ml double cream

4 eggs, separated

Method:

• Heat the dark chocolate in a heatproof bowl over a pan of simmering water and leave to cool slightly.
• Stir in the egg yolks.

• In another bowl, with a hand held whisk, lightly whip the cream achieving soft peaks and fold into the chocolate mixture. Don't worry if it melts in, it's supposed to do that.

• Whisk the egg whites in a large clean bowl, reaching stiff peaks. Fold this into the chocolate cream.
• THE BEST BIT: grab your honeycomb slab and smash it into small chunks with a back end of a wooden spoon! (At this point, think about someone who you really hate or annoys you. TRUST me, it's very therapeutic!)

• Fold the honeycomb into the mousse, leaving some for decoration (and some to nibble on in the meantime of course!) Fill 6 glasses or bowls with the mousse and leave it in the fridge for 10 mins or until set.

• Sprinkle the leftover honeycomb on top just before you serve it. If you leave it too long in the heat it does tend to melt.

And voila! You have yourselves a sweet tooth's dream dessert!

[For those who love mousse, but prefer something less sweet, try milk chocolate or do without the honeycomb - although I think it gives it more bite and makes it less boring!]

What do lot you think of this recipe? 

The Dainty Cook x