Welcome to the SoCal Lady Bloggers Online Progressive Dinner!
If you want to start at the beginning (with cocktails, of course) you can jump right to Chelsea’s Sparkling Pomegranate Jubilee. Or, if you are like me, you might just want to stay here, hang out and start with dessert. If you’ve come from trying Tonya’s Baked Mini Cheesecakes, then your mouth is already watering and my White Chocolate Creme Brulee will push you over the edge. Diet? What diet?
Ingredients for White Chocolate Creme Brulee:
4 large egg yolks
1/3 cup sugar
2 cups heavy cream
1 – 4 oz. bar good white chocolate
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
additional sugar for top of custard
Preheat oven to 300 degrees.
Whisk together the egg whites and 1/3 cup sugar until silky smooth.
In a small saucepan, simmer the cream just until it starts to scorch, but not burn. Turn off the heat and add the chocolate bar broken up into smaller pieces. Mix until all the chocolate is melted and well blended with the cream.
Add a few drizzles of the cream mixture to the egg yolks while whisking continuously. You want to do this slowly so the eggs don’t cook and turn into scrambled eggs. Yuk! Once the mixture is blended well, add the remaining cream mixture and whisk it all together. It will have a soupy consistency. Add the vanilla and blend well.
Pour the mixture into ramekins. The original recipe I had called for 4 – 6″ ramekins. I used 5 – 4″ ramekins so use what you have and don’t stress over it. Ramekins are cheap and easy to find. I got mine in Home Goods (four for about $5).
Take the ramekins and place them in a 9 x 13 inch baking pan. Add hot water to the pan until the ramekins are sitting in at least 1″ of water.
Bake for approximately 45 minutes or just until the custard is set. It won’t be thick yet, but when you wiggle the pan the custard shouldn’t move around.
Allow to cool on the counter. Once cool to the touch, refrigerate the custards until they are completely chilled.
Now the fun begins. Before serving, take the ramekins out of the refrigerator and sprinkle the top with a dusting of sugar.
The traditional way to caramelize the sugar is to use a blow torch (the cooking kind, not the welding kind) but even I don’t have a blow torch. The easy way to caramelize is to just turn on your broiler and sit the ramekins directly under it in the oven. It should take about 1 – 2 minutes to start to brown. Keep an eye on them because once they do start browning, the process goes really fast and you can burn the sugar very easily. Kind of like this…
Not so pretty is it?
How about this one?
Oh yes, much better. Once the sugar is looking yummy, put those ramekins back in the refrigerator for a few minutes and then serve. The perfect ending to a perfect meal.
If you started your dinner with dessert, why not start at the beginning and see all the amazing Progressive Dinner Recipes.
{ 12 comments… read them below or add one }
To be honest, I still have yet to try Creme Brulee… and because of the burning of the sugar, I’ve always been afraid to try to make it =) but it looked pretty easy. I need to find the baker in me, and give it a whirl.
It’s seriously easy. The only problem is my family wants me to make it every day. I can’t keep this stuff around.
I love creme brulee but I’ll admit the first time I tried making it I used the whole dozen eggs and heaps of scrambled eggs went down the garbage disposal. I kept thinking it needed to be thicker before placing in the ramekin. Silly me. Looks yummy.
Maureen recently posted..Everyone Can Make a Fluffy Omelette
No, it will be pretty runny. It doesn’t come out like a custard until after it’s all cooked and cooled. Give it another try. The trick with it not coming out like scrambled eggs is to add the warm mixture a little at a time and keep mixing. If you add too much hot to the eggs they’ll start to cook and it’s pretty gross.
I LOVE creme brulee but I have to admit I’ve never tried to make it myself. You make it sound so approachable – I love this post!
Jeanne @JollyTomato recently posted..Valentine’s Day Appetizer
I LOVE creme brulee but I have to admit I haven’t tried making it before. I love this post – you make it so user-friendly! On my list of desserts to try…
Jeanne @JollyTomato recently posted..Valentine’s Day Appetizer
It is so easy I could kick myself for not trying it sooner.
You had me a white chocolate, then again at creme brulee. 2 of my favorite things. I’ve been dying to try making creme brulee, it’s one of the few desserts my husband eats and we quite often order one to share when we go out for dinner. He would love it if I made it at home.
Tonya Staab recently posted..Kitchen Thrift Store Finds
This is such an easy recipe, I’m sure with your culinary talents you would take it and kick it up a few notches.
These look like ltltie pots of goodness. I have this book so I am definitely checking out this recipe, and I just purchased the cutest ltltie pots from Pier 1 so it is a sign that I have to make them
Made this for our VDay dinner. Tasted great but was really runny. It seemed done when I took it out after the recommended cooking time, but after chilling and sticking under the broiler then re-cooling, it was very very soft set…
Did I just need to cool it longer???
Adapted it slightly by topping with sugar hearts made from crushed candycanes, then adhering them with a dusting of sugar. Finished off under the broiler (rather than using a torch.)
Did you let the custard cool in the fridge completely before doing the sugar topping? It has to be completely cold to harden up. It should be the consistency of pudding, but definitely NOT runny.
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