Earl Grey Crème Caramel Recipe
Johnny Iuzzini is a James Beard Award-winning pastry chef and author of two cookbooks: Dessert FourPlay and the new Sugar Rush. (Fun fact: He’s also an avid motorcyclist.) All week long, Yahoo Food will be sharing Iuzzini’s recipes, plus an interview with the man Forbes magazine calls one of the ”10 Most Influential Pastry Chefs in America.”
Photo: Michael Spain-Smith
Earl Grey Crème Caramel
Serves 8
Crème caramel is the perfect marriage of sweet and bitter, custard and liquid caramel. You can flavor the custard just about any way you like—with fruit purées, spices, or in this case by steeping the liquid with tea leaves. Earl Grey tea is soothing, calming, and gentle and a natural pairing for custard. Plus the light hint of smoke in the tea works beautifully with caramelized sugar. For the silkiest crème caramel, it is best to make the custard and let it chill overnight. Once baked, these need another day for the caramel to dissolve before being served, so plan ahead. It’s well worth the effort.
For the custard:
3 cups whole milk (720 g)
3 tablespoons honey (60 g)
2 tablespoons loose Earl Grey tea leaves (10 g)
1⁄3 cup sugar (65 g)
1⁄2 teaspoon kosher salt (2 g)
2 large egg yolks
4 large eggs
For the caramel:
3⁄4 cup sugar (150 g)
2 tablespoons light corn syrup (34 g)
2 tablespoons water (30 g)
1⁄8 teaspoon kosher salt
To make the custard, heat the milk and honey in a saucepan over medium heat until very hot but not boiling. Stir to dissolve the honey. Add the tea leaves, remove from the heat, and let stand for 10 minutes.
Pour the mixture through a fine-mesh strainer into a bowl, discarding the tea leaves, and cool the milk to room temperature.
In a medium bowl, whisk together the sugar and salt. Add the egg yolks and whole eggs and whisk vigorously until very smooth and lightened. Slowly whisk the cooled milk into the eggs until combined. Transfer to an airtight container and refrigerate overnight.
To make the caramel, set eight 4-ounce ramekins into a deep baking dish or roasting pan. Fill a bowl with cold water and set aside.
Put the sugar, corn syrup, water, and salt in a small saucepan and stir until the mixture is sandy and evenly moistened. Use a finger to wipe down the sides of the pan. Put the pan over medium-high heat and cook until the sugar is completely melted and liquefied, brushing down the sides of the pan with a brush dipped in cold water several times. Once the sugar is melted and begins to boil, do not stir; if any sugar crystals appear on the pan, wash the sides down again with the brush. Cook the sugar, swirling the pan for even cooking, until a deep golden brown.
Dip the base of the saucepan in the cold water briefly to stop the cooking, which will ensure an even caramel in each ramekin (sugar will continue to caramelize in a hot pan even off the heat). Let the caramel stand for a minute and then carefully drizzle it evenly among the ramekins (1). If the sugar begins to harden, warm the pan gently over low heat until the caramel liquefies. Immediately pick up each ramekin and rotate the dish to coat the bottom with caramel. If the caramel hardens before it is spread, you can heat the ramekins in the microwave or in a low oven until the caramel liquefies again. Let stand until the caramel sets.
Preheat the oven to 300°F. Remove the custard from the refrigerator and let stand until room temperature.
Stir the custard gently without creating bubbles and divide it evenly among the caramel-lined ramekins in the baking dish (2). Carefully pour hot water into the dish to reach halfway up the sides of the ramekins. Bake in the center of the oven, without moving the pan, for 65 to 70 minutes, until the custards are just set but still very wobbly in the center.
Remove from the oven and let the crème caramels cool completely in the water bath. Transfer them to the refrigerator and chill overnight.
To unmold, dip each ramekin in hot water for about 10 seconds (3) and run the tip of a thin, sharp knife or a metal cake tester around the edge of each custard to release, pressing all the way down the sides if necessary to break the seal (4). Once the sides are loosened, invert a dessert plate onto the top and flip the ramekins over on the plate. Shake the plate and ramekin gently to release the custard and then remove the ramekin (5). Repeat with the remaining custards and serve immediately.
Excerpted from Sugar Rush: Master Tips, Techniques, and Recipes for Sweet Baking by Johnny Iuzzini with Wes Martin (Clarkson Potter, 2014).
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