Flan versus Crème Brûlée

CB by miles and miles.

Creme Brulee. Easy.

I've mastered it. My wife says that she enjoys mine better than any she's had in a restaurant.

Post your flan recipe and I'll post my CB recipe shortly.

Flan:
10 Egg yolks and 2 whole eggs
2 cans of condense milk
.5-1C Evaporated milk (depends on the pan I am using)
2C whole milk
2 Sticks of cinnamon
1-2T vanilla

1C of sugar stirred in small cast iron skillet until brown copper color poured into mold.

Mix first 3 ingredients together
Add milk and cinnamon together and heat slowly to almost boil. Whisk hot liquid into 3 ingredient mix. Then add vanilla, whisk and pour into caramelized sugar pan/ mold. Bake in water bath @ 300 until toothpick clean about 60 min.

First, I recommend two pieces of equipment that you might not have:

1.) Creme Brulee ramekin set, something like this, that helps suspend the ramekins in the water bath:

Amazon
2.) Culinary Torch

Creme Brulee

Ingredients:
- Heavy Cream (2 cups)
- Egg Yolks (6)
- Sugar (1/2 cup) [& extra for topping]
- Natural Vanilla Extract (2 teaspoons)

Instructions:
1. Preheat oven to 325F.
2. Place 4x (7oz.) ramekins into the wire rack and baking pan set.
3. Heat some water to fill the baking pan. It doesn't have to be boiling, but should be hot right when you put your set in the oven later.
4. In a bowl, whip together the sugar, egg yolks, and vanilla extract until well blended and paled.
5. In a pot over medium heat, scaled the cream (raise temperature to about 190F).
6. Very slowly pour the hot cream into the bowl with the egg yolk mixture. Do this while constantly whisking. I recommend whisking by hand instead of using an electric mixer.
7. Skim off any excess foam from custard mixture. If you don't skim off this foam it will burn while cooking. If you used an electric mixer, you will have introduced a lot more air into the custard mixture, creating more microbubbles / foam to skim, and more might even rise later while in the oven.
8. Pour warm custard into ramekins until about 3/4th full.
9. Carefully pour the hot water into the baking pan until it reaches about 1/2 the way up the ramekins.
10. Place in oven, on middle rack, for about 30-40 minutes until sets. It should give a slight jiggle in the center when done.
11. Chill in the refrigerator.
12. Before serving, sprinkle chilled brulee with a teaspoon of granulated white sugar to coat the top. Roll the ramekin in your hand to spread the sugar and use the back of the spoon to gently 'pack' it, once spread evenly. I've seen some people claim that 'sugar in the raw' is preferred, but I personally get the best melts with plain white sugar.
13. Using a kitchen torch, caramelize the sugar by moving the flame continuously over the surface in a circular motion. This takes practice. You don't want to burn it. Yellow and golden brown is good but you don't want many dark brown or black patches. Just keep moving and watching as the sugar crystals turn into clear beads of liquid.

Yeah that's why I like the SV method... no baking necessary.

quote:

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Recipe doesn’t seem simple!

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It's easier than it sounds, but it does take a few attempts to get it down pat. Hardest part is not whipping it too hard to avoid getting air bubbles in it. I've never had trouble browning the sugar just right.

I love both. Hard to pick one over the other, but I'd probably go creme brulee.

^ that looks interesting and easy, Abitafan, might have to try!

I planned on it... I'm currently in class though. Give me 30min.

Creme Brulee via sous vide:

Mix 10 egg yolks and (5/8)cup of sugar in a large bowl. Set aside

Heat 25oz of heavy cream with 2-tsp. of Vanilla Extract in the microwave (feel free to experiment with other flavors).
-Looking for a warm, above roomtemp mixture. (A lot of recipe's online called for scalding the milk over the stove. I found a microwave to just get it warm works fine)

Combine the heavy cream and egg yolk mixture. Mix thoroughly. Be sure to skim off the resulting air bubbles.

Pour mixture into a zip-lock bag.
Sous Vide for 1hr @176°F.

Pour into ramicans and chill until set (a few hours).


ETA: Makes about 5-6 servings. And tbh, I think eating the thickened mixture right after the water bath is better than the chilled creme brulee.

Its thicker than the original liquid but runnier than a batter.

But yes, it sets once chilled.