- Hey guys!
Today, we are making salted caramel puddings.
One of the most decadent desserts known to man.
These things are addictive.
They are delicious, creamy, and decadent.
They were inspired by my recent trip to France this summer,
and if you were following me on Instagram and Facebook,
you may have seen some images of me in the salt marshes,
where I had to stop at the little salt boutique
to buy some fleur de sel.
It's a really charming part of France
that's known for its salt and its butter
and for its salted caramel desserts.
I wanted to share with you my version
for a salted caramel pudding.
Let me show you how easy it is to put together.
So the first thing we're going to do is make our caramel.
You're going to take one cup of sugar
and put it in a large stock pot.
You do want a pot with a high profile
because we are going to be adding
some heavy cream once our caramel is done,
and it does have a chance of sort of bubbling up,
so do make sure that it's a nice deep pan.
And then you're gonna put your flame on medium-high.
And at this point, it's gonna look
like it's not doing anything,
and you're gonna get antsy,
and you might tend to walk away.
Do not do that, because this can burn very, very quickly,
and there's nothing worse than the smell of burnt caramel.
You have to start all over again.
But you'll be encouraged once you see your sugar
start to melt along the side of the pan.
It'll become clear, and then overtime,
it'll start to develop this really beautiful amber color.
And just keep taking that pan and swirling it around.
You don't wanna stick any utensils in there
because it'll just stick to it like cement.
So just don't touch it, just swirl it and move it,
and once you get to the end, and you start to see
that it's really a beautiful caramel color,
you might wanna turn down the flame just a bit
because you don't want it to burn,
but you do want the rest of the sugar to dissolve.
And you wanna turn off the flame,
and then you're gonna add half a cup
of heavy cream or whipping cream.
And you're gonna pour that in the pot,
and you're gonna watch, it's gonna
just rise up and start to bubble.
That's okay.
Just let it kinda do its thing, it'll settle down.
And once it does, that's when you wanna add
a quarter teaspoon of the fleur de sel sea salt.
The fleur de sel sea salt is usually sold
right next to the salt.
It's typically in a smaller container.
It's a very fine salt that doesn't
have a very strong salty flavor to it.
I know, it sounds kinda weird,
salt that doesn't taste like salt,
but it's just light, and it's really great for desserts
or sprinkling on top of grilled meats.
And into that, we're also gonna add
two tablespoons of butter,
and this is gonna add a really beautiful,
smooth texture to our caramel.
And then I also like to add
half a teaspoon of vanilla extract.
And so at this point, our caramel is done,
and we just wanna transfer it into a heat-safe container.
And we're gonna set that side, we're gonna use that later.
And then the second part to this process
is we're gonna start to create our custard base.
So in a large mixing bowl,
you're going to add five egg yolks,
and into that, we're gonna add
a third of a cup of corn starch,
or corn flour, you may know it,
and you're gonna whisk those two things up together
until you have a beautiful yellow paste on your hands.
And then you can just set that aside.
And then the next step is to create our milk-cream base.
Now stick with me, I know this feels like a lot of steps.
You got the caramel, you got the eggs,
now you've got the milk, but it's totally worth the effort.
It's really not that hard.
It just takes a little bit of time, but the results
are well worth the effort, so stick with me!
Okay, now we're gonna take two cups of milk.
We're gonna put that in the pan.
And one cup of heavy cream.
Then you're going to take a vanilla bean,
split it down the side,
scrape out the seeds,
put that in the pot.
And I also like to throw in the pod as well.
And then you're gonna simmer this mixture
for about five minutes, just to allow that vanilla
to infuse into the cream mixture, and you'll start
to see the seeds kinda boil up to the top.
At that point, you wanna take out a sieve
and just strain your milk mixture
just to catch all of those vanilla pod bits.
Then we're gonna take this hot cream-milk mixture
and we're gonna add just a little bit to the egg paste.
And we wanna do that just a little bit
so we can whisk it up and temper those eggs.
So tempering just basically means wanting
to get those eggs up to the same temperature
as the milk so that they don't scramble.
So once you've kinda got that going,
then you can go ahead and slowly add the rest of it.
Then we're gonna pour this mixture into our cleaned-out pot,
and then you're gonna start to whisk it on medium-high.
Once you see it start to thicken, and it has
kind of that pudding consistency but it's still pourable,
you can turn off your flame and then remove it
from the burner because that burner is still hot,
and if you keep the pot on there,
that custard is going to continue to cook
and you'll end up with something that gets too thick.
So definitely remove it, and then you wanna add
two tablespoons of butter and whisk that in.
Now at this point, this custard
is not gonna taste like much.
So don't go in there trying to taste it and be like,
"Eh, this doesn't taste like much."
because it's not sweetened.
We have to add our caramel back in.
Remember, that is like straight sugar
'cause that is going to sweeten up this custard
and really give it its great flavor.
So you're gonna take your caramel,
put it into the pudding mixture,
and start whisking it.
And you'll see, it'll start to develop
this beautiful sort of butterscotchy hue to it.
Then you can pour it into your ramekins or containers.
I like to use these little French tumblers
'cause you can see through them, which makes it nice,
and it just sort of goes with the French theme.
Then we're gonna put these puddings
in the fridge for at least two hours to set up.
Now I actually don't like to cover these puddings
because I find that they start to get a lot
of condensation and moisture at the top of them,
so I just leave them as is, and they kinda make
a nice little seal once they start to set.
And then to serve, I like to take
a little bit more of that fleur de sel sea salt
and put it on top of the pudding.
I know it feels weird, but it's really good
between the sweetness of the pudding,
and then you get that little salty,
that sweet and salty, it's so good.
And then we're gonna add a dollop of homemade whipped cream.
And then just to guild the lily a bit,
I do like to add some toffee bits to the top,
but you could also add cinnamon or nutmeg
or even some crushed nuts would be delicious.
And there you have it, a delicious salted caramel pudding
that is so decadent and so delicious.
Alright, you guys.
I hope you subscribe for more delicious recipes,
and I will see you back here next week with another one.
Until then, bye!
(happy acapella music)