- Hey guys, today we are making
lavender honey creme brulees,
one of my favorite desserts to make in the spring time.
Now, it's been a while since we've tackled creme brulee
and if you wanna get back up to speed
with just some general tips around creme brulees,
you can click the annotation
and watch how to make a plain creme brulee.
But I wanted to show you how to make one
that was flavored with lavender and honey
because it is oh so good and oh so beautiful too.
Let me show you how to put it together.
So, we are going to be working
with what is known as culinary grade dry lavender
and this is important if you're cooking with lavender
to make sure you get a culinary grade.
I'll leave you a link in the description
to my Amazon shop where you can find it there.
It's important because not all lavender is grown
and harvested to be edible.
So, sometimes they may spray pesticides on it
or treat it with other things that may not be safe to eat,
so this isn't the same dried lavender
that you fill sachets with,
it's actually a culinary grade.
So, we're first going to create
our base for the creme brulee.
So, in a large saucepan, you're going
to add three cups of heavy cream,
two and a half tablespoons of honey,
I like to sweeten these with honey
because I think the combination of the honey
and the lavender is a really great flavor combination.
But if you don't like honey for some reason,
you could also use sugar, same amount.
One vanilla bean pod that has been scraped of its seeds,
and I do like to throw in the pod as well.
Then you're also gonna add a tablespoon
of the dried lavender and a pinch of salt.
Then, you're gonna bring this whole thing up
to a nice simmer and once it starts to get foamy,
you just wanna whisk everything together
to make sure that that honey is melted,
and that the lavender is getting well distributed.
Turn your heat off, and then cover.
And we're gonna let this mixture just stay like this
so that it can steep for 30 minutes.
And I'm a big fan of using less lavender, longer steeping,
than more lavender, shorter steeping
because there's a really fine line between creme brulees
that have a nice lavender flavor going on in the background,
and creme brulees that taste too perfumey,
so I like to keep it to a tablespoon
and then let it steep for 30 minutes.
Then meanwhile, in a large mixing bowl,
you can add six egg yolks and give those a whisk.
And then once your cream mixture is ready to go,
we are going to strain it into a Pyrex pitcher
and that will catch all of the lavender blossoms
as well as the vanilla pod,
and then you can slowly add this cream mixture
to your egg yolks, whisking all the while,
and then you wanna make sure
that you clean out your strainer
because we're gonna use it again,
and strain it one more time into a four-cup pitcher,
because that is gonna catch any little pieces of egg
or any pieces of vanilla that just aren't fine enough
to create a really smooth custard.
So, the two straining is really worth the effort.
Then at this point, you have two ways to go.
You can either go with a low-profile creme brulee dish,
like the ones I have here.
I think these are really pretty with the scallop design.
What's nice about them is
because we're not gonna be using a kitchen torch,
we're gonna put our creme brulees in the broiler,
which will make it a lot easier to caramelize the sugar,
you need something that has a low profile,
just so you can get close to that heating implement.
Or, if you're comfortable using a kitchen torch
and you want a deeper creme brulee,
then you could use this style ramekin
because these are a little bit too high
to put under the broiler to get close enough
to caramelize the sugar, so you would probably need
to use a kitchen torch for this design.
But this recipe will fill either
because they're both four ounces, believe it or not.
They don't look that way, but they are.
You'll have enough custard to fill either one.
And then you're gonna set it in a roasting pan.
I find the ones that I use for Thanksgiving,
those big, heavy duty roasting pans, work perfectly,
and in a standard sized roasting pan,
you'll be able to fit eight.
Then you're gonna place your roasting pan
in a 300-degree Fahrenheit oven.
Then, in order to create a really smooth custard,
we're gonna create what's known as a bain-marie
where we're gonna take some boiling water
and just pour it in the side of your roasting pan
so that the water comes up halfway.
I find it's a lot easier to do this
once your roasting pan is in the oven
than to try to pour the water and then like get yourself
to the oven with this hot boiling water and your custard.
Because the secret is you don't wanna get that water
into your custard because it'll never set that way.
So, you wanna make sure that you use a kettle
or something that has a spout
that won't splash the water all over your creme brulees.
Now if you're working with the shallow ramekins,
we're gonna let this bake for 25 to 30 minutes,
just until those custards are set
and they jiggle just slightly.
If you're using the deeper ramekin,
you're gonna go anywhere from 45 to 50 minutes.
They take a bit longer to actually set up.
And you wanna make sure that your creme brulees
are really set because when you put the sugar on top
and put them under the over to caramelize,
or even if you're using the kitchen torch,
that custard tends to heat up,
and if it's not firm enough,
you'll have kind of a soupy mess on your hands.
So, do make sure you take the time
to really bake them so they set well.
And then once they're done,
you can remove your roasting pan
and allow it to cool down
just until those ramekins are cool enough to handle
and you're gonna remove them from the water bath.
And then you can pour the water out
and then what I like to do is take those ramekins
and put them back in the roasting pan
and pop the whole thing in my fridge, uncovered.
Because I find if you cover the creme brulees
they tend to get a lot of condensation
on the surface of them,
and then it makes it harder for the sugar to caramelize.
You really do wanna go overnight with something like this
so then when it comes time to caramelize,
you're gonna take one to two teaspoons of brown sugar
just so that it covers the ramekin
so that you have a nice even layer,
and then you're gonna pop it on a flat cookie sheet
so the ones that are the flattest are gonna work best
because we can get really high up
and close to that heating implement,
and depending on what that implement looks like,
you may need to do it in batches, maybe a few at a time,
since if you put all of them on there,
they may not caramelize all at the same rate.
And this goes really quickly,
so it probably is only gonna take anywhere
from 10 to 15 seconds for that brown sugar to melt
and start to caramelize on top.
And then once all of your creme brulees
have been caramelized,
I do like to garnish them with a little bit
of homemade whipped cream
and I'll leave you my recipe in the description
because that will then allow us
to sprinkle some more lavender blossoms
on top of the whipped cream, and I do like to go
on the side too where the sugar's been caramelized.
And I think that creates a really beautiful presentation
and it also is a delicious taste to have a little bit
of those lavender blossoms with every bite.
It's a very elegant dessert to serve for Easter Sunday
or even Mother's Day that's coming up.
I hope you guys give this one a try
and let me know what you think.
Subscribe for more easy recipes
and I'll see you back here next time with another one.
Until then.