You can pre-order a copy of Bigger Bolder Baking right now. Hi Bold Bakers! After the
success of Tres Leches Cake I wanted to bring you another big and bold dessert from around
the world. This next one can be traced back to Spain and France. It is a crème caramel
also known as flan. It is incredibly easy to make and really impressive. As always the
recipe can be found on my website, BiggerBolderBaking.com. Okay, let’s get started with our first step.
So here I have my ramekins now you want to get these set up first because afterwards
everything’s gonna happen really quickly. So I've got my ramekins in here they're around
6oz I'm gonna put a link on my website of where you can buy these. I also have my ramekins
in a nice deep baking tray now the reason we do this is because we’re creating a water
bath so you need those nice high edges. So what I'm gonna do is just set this over to
the side have it ready close to hand and I'm gonna make my caramel. So into your heavy
bottomed saucepan add in your sugar, and a little bit of water. Then turn on the heat
to a medium low and let your sugar dissolve. At this point you don't want it to simmer.
Make sure all your sugar is dissolved in the water. So once your sugar has dissolved you
can turn up the heat to medium and let your mix come to a simmer. So now if you're new
to making caramel I have a video called Troubleshooting Caramel and it talks you through step by step
of how to make caramel successfully so if your a little bit worried about this step
watch that video and then you can start and I guarantee you'll have no problem. So caramel
making is a bit of a labor of love it can take anywhere between 5-10 minutes so be patient
don't walk away from your pot, keep an eye in it and wait until you get that color that
you want. The darker the color without the caramel smoking the more flavor your crème
caramel will have. So in no time at all the caramel has reached the exact color that I
want and I can smell it in the air it’s kind of nutty, so I'm going to go ahead and
pour it into the bottom of my ramekins. Be very careful with the step because of the
hot sugar. And all we want to do is just coat the bottom of your ramekin. Now you see why
we have to have all these steps lined up because working with caramel can be quite dangerous
you want to make sure you have everything ready to go. Gorgeous these look perfect I
love that dark color. I'm gonna set these aside they're gonna harden at room temperature
and we’re going to make the rest of our custard. In a heavy bottomed saucepan add
in your milk, cream, sugar, and salt. Give it a stir and then over medium heat let it
come to a simmer. So let me just give you a little tip when testing this recipe, Olivia
can be a little bit generous with the salt which is not a bad thing when it comes to
your baking, she put a generous 1/8 teaspoon in here and it really made the world of difference
to the caramel so don't be shy with the salt. So that’s taking care of itself over there
it’s gonna come to a simmer let’s mix up our eggs. Into a bowl add in some whole
eggs, egg yolks, and some vanilla extract. And then whisk these ingredients together.
So now you know I always give egg substitutes when I can in recipes however this is a custard
and custards’ main ingredients are eggs so unfortunately for this recipe they can’t
be substituted. Okay lovely. Those are our eggs. I see that our milk and cream is coming
to a simmer so I'm gonna turn it off the heat and introduce a little bit into our eggs.
And then start whisking immediately. So what we’re doing right now is called tempering
or introduction you're adding one ingredient into another then both of them are different
temperatures so you always want to add in a little bit then you can add in a little
bit more, keep on whisking, and then slowly you can add in the rest of the milk. But to
begin you always want to just add in a little bit. So there is our custard and it looks
great and I can smell the vanilla. The next step now we’re going to do with this is
just pass it through a sieve now I don't want you to skip this step because it removes any
lumpy bumpy bits and gives you a really smooth custard. Now you can see in the bottom of
the sieve that there are some bits of cooked egg that is not your fault that can happen,
so you wanna make sure you get them out of there. So now we have everything that we need
I'm gonna bring in my dish and start to fill my ramekins. So divide your custard between
8 ramekins. So yes this recipe does make 8 good sized crème caramels I only have 5 dishes
though so I'm only going to make 5 today. But you will have 8 decent sized crème caramels
to give to friends and family. So these are almost ready to go into the oven but the next
step we’re going to do is pour some boiling water into your baking pan. Now this is called
a water bath and what this will do it’ll keep the custards nice and cool so they won’t
overlook and curdle and it just regulates the heat, kinda keeps them safe in the oven
so this is really important. Just before they go into the oven I'm gonna tell you a chef
secret that I used to do in kitchens all the time, you see the way that they have little
bubbles on top of the custard? You don't want that because it will bake into your custard.
So here's your trick, you get your kitchen torch and you just blow the top of them, just
blow the top of them and that will make sure you have a lovely smooth custard. Okay lovely
into the oven we go. Bake your crème caramel off at 325ºF/160ºC for roughly 35-40 minutes.
I'm gonna show you exactly what you're looking for to know when it’s done. So while our
custards are in the oven I'm gonna take a minute, do a little bit of custard troubleshooting
with you, what can happen with crème caramel is that they end up with bubbles after they're
baked and you don't want that, it happens for two reasons: it was over-whisked you go
too much air into your mix so be careful you don't do that, also it was over-baked, it
means that the eggs set, they got firm and they created those bubbles. So we’re not
going to do that, it’s not gonna happen to us, because we’re gonna bake ours perfectly.
My timer is up so let’s check on our custards. So carefully take your custards out of the
oven. Now come here to me I want to show you exactly what you're looking for. If you give
them a shake you see that jiggle in the middle? That is a sign of a perfectly cooked custard.
You have a little bit of a jiggle then once these go cold they set up completely. If you
don't have that jiggle in the middle it might mean that you're custard is over-baked and
it will make it kind of hard and firm and you don't want that. So now here’s what
you have to do with crème caramel put it in the fridge overnight they need to get really
lovely and cold firm up even more and then the next day we can turn them out and eat
them. So I made some crème caramels in advance so they’re nice and cold so we can turn
them out. Now, how do you get them out of there? That’s a really good question, here
I have a glass full of hot water and a very thin edged knife. And all you want to do is
very carefully go around the edge of the custard. You can dip it back in the water if you need
to get it nice and warm again. And then just slowly go around and all you're doing is releasing
the custard from your ramekin. Lovely. Okay so I can tell that it’s released, now what
you want to do is get your serving plate, lay it on top, and then do a swift flip over.
I just heard it pop out so actually I know that it fell out there that's perfect. And
then when you carefully lift away your dish, there’s your crème caramel it should pop
right out. If it doesn't go very easy on it and maybe just give it a little bit of a nudge
and it’ll just like pop right out. Just look at that, baked custard with its own built-in
caramel sauce. So this does not need much dressing up at it already looks gorgeous so
I'm just gonna put some fresh raspberries, a sprig of mint and there you've got an elegant
dessert ready to impress. So this is really important, look at that. No bubbles. Perfect
smooth caramel this is exactly what we’re aiming for. When it comes to my dessert texture
is really, really important anything kind of soft and squishy I am all about. This has
got my name written all over it and I’ll tell you why, I love squishy desserts, I love
soft stuff, I love like just something that’s really creamy has super soft texture, this
is absolutely gorgeous. It is just like a crème brûlée but kind of reversed. You've
got the custard, a lovely kind of a nutty caramel on top, this is my idea of dessert
heaven. Mm. Delicious. Absolutely delicious and so much easier to make than it looks.
Let me know in the comments below what other desserts you'd like to see me make from around
the world. I’ll see you back here really soon for more bigger bolder baking