Sweet Rice Pudding Brulee

I was going to make a 3-chocolate layer creme brulee but I was missing one of the chocolates, so I made this instead. The recipe is from the book Creme Brulee by Whitecap, and instructions are copied verbatim.

I liked the recipe, but it wasn't my favorite. The rice *did* expand and I think I would have liked it better if there were more custard and less rice. (My bad for not reading the recipe completely before starting.)

Ingredients

2 cups whole milk

1/2 cup risotto rice

1/4 cup superfine sugar

4 egg yolks

1 cup hevy cream

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/4 cup superfine sugar, to finish

Instructions

1. Pour the milk into a saucepan, bring to a boil, hen add the rice. Reduce the heat and cook over a moderate heat for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally until the rice is soft and about one-third of the milk remains. 

2. Take the saucepan off the heat and stir in the sugar. Use a fork to mix together the egg yolks, cream, and vanilla extract in a bowl, then strain into the rice and mix well. 

3. Arrange 6 heatproof ramekins or custard cups in a roasting pan. Spoon the rice and custard into the dishes, then pour warm water into the roasting pan to come halfway up the sides of the dishes. Bake in a preheated oven at 350 degrees F for 20-25 minutes until the custard is just set. 

4. Leave the dishes to cool in the water for 40-50 minutes. Lift out, sprinkle the tops with sugar, and caramelize with a blowtorch. Serve within 20-30 minutes. 

Tip: These puddings can be eaten cold, but as they cool the rice swells to make a much firmer finish. 

My Notes

Elsewhere in this book, "just set" is followed by "with a slight softness at the center," so I stopped baking (10 minutes past 25 minutes) when the edges were firm and the center was a little jiggly. 

I didn't notice the part about caramelizing immediately and serving quickly until they had been in the fridge for a few hours (I assumed that they were like other creme brulees that needed to stay in the fridge before eating), so I don't know what they would have been like at room temperature. 

I used my vanilla bean paste in lieu of vanilla extract.

Lemon Tart Brulee

This is another recipe from The Perfect Finish, by Bill Yosses and Melissa Clark (making the score 2/4 from this book). I've made it twice. It's easy, doesn't take a ton of time, and both times it's been delicious. It's pretty sour, but the caramelized sugar topping balances out the lemon. Instructions are verbatim from the book (but see my notes - I used a different tart shell the second time).

Ingredients

Almond Tart Shell

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 cup confectioners' sugar

1 cup almond flour

1 tsp fine sea salt

16 tbsp (2 sticks) unsalted butter, chilled and cut into cubes

2 large eggs at room temperature

Lemon Filling

1 cup plus 2 tbsp granulated sugar
4 large eggs at room temperature
2/3 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
Finely grated zest of 3 lemons
21 1/3 tbsp unsalted butter, cubed and softened
Pinch salt
1 10-inch almond tart shell, baked
1/2 cup Demarara or turbinado sugar, for serving, optional

Instructions

Almond Tart Shell

1. Place the all-purpose flour, sugar, almond flour or ground almonds, and salt in a food processor and pulse to combine. Add the butter and pulse until the mixture resembles fine crumbs. Add the eggs and pulse until the dough just comes together. 

2. Scrape the dough onto a piece of plastic wrap and pat it into a disk. Refrigerate until chilled, at least 2 hours or overnight (or up to 3 days). 

3. When you are ready to bake the tart, position a rack in the center of the oven and preheat to 375 degrees F. On a floured work surface, roll the dough out to 1/4 inch thick. Fit the dough into a 10-inch tart pan, trim it so that there is an inch of overhang all around, and fold the overhang in to build up the edge of the tart shell. Lightly prick the bottom of the tart shell with a fork to prevent bubbling. Freeze the tart shell for 1 hour. 

4. Line the tart shell with aluminum foil, fill it with pie weights or dried beans, and bake on the center rack for 25 minutes. Gently lift the weighted aluminum foil off the shell, prick the crust a few more times with a fork, and bake for 5 more minutes until lightly browned. Let cool on a wire rack. 

Lemon Filling

1. Have ready a clean bowl with a fine-mesh sieve set over it to strain the filling. 

2. In a bowl, beat together the sugar, eggs, lemon juice, and lemon zest until thoroughly combined. Pour into a heavy, nonreactive saucepan. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until the mixture begins to bubble. Reduce the heat to low and continue to stir and cook until the lemon curd is as thick around the sides as mayonnaise, 12 minutes (about 196 degrees F on a candy thermometer). 

3. Pour the curd into the sieve and push through with a rubber spatula into the bowl. Let cool until it feels just warm to the touch, about 5 minutes. 

4. Add the softened butter cubes and salt, and whisk until thoroughly combined. (Use an immersion blender to smoothly incorporate the butter.) 

5. Spread the curd evenly in the baked tart shell and refrigerate uncovered until firm, at least 3 hours and up to 1 day. 

6. If you have a blowtorch or creme caramel torch, you can brulee the top of the tart before serving by sprinkling an even layer of the Demarara or turbinado sugar over the top and browning it evenly. Or run it under the broiler, watching very carefully - depending on how far the pan is from the heat it can take anywhere from 30 seconds to 2 minutes, and you may need to move the tart around to caramelize the top evenly.

My notes

I have 9.5-inch and 11-inch tart pans. In the 11-inch pan the filling doesn't come to the top of the tart shell. In the 9.5-inch pan it's flush with the shell. 

The first time I made this I used the almond tart recipe (I made the almond flour/meal with blanched almond slivers in my food processor), but it made quite a bit more dough than I needed and I couldn't really taste the almond (maybe I could have added almond extract?). The second time I made this I used the tart recipe I linked to in the chocolate caramel tart post. That one doesn't make as much dough and it uses less butter. 

I use rice instead of pie weights (and I use it for that "unshrinkable" tart shell recipe, too). I've reused the same rice for probably a year and it still works/is fine.

Both times I've made this, the curd has gotten to 196 degrees F pretty quickly, but it has taken at least twice as long as indicated to get to what I would call as thick as mayonnaise (even around the sides). I cooked it a little less the second time and it was softer but still set after refrigerating. The first time I cooked it for quite awhile (25-30 min?), and I really liked the finished texture. There were a couple of egg chunkies in it (I might not have been as vigilant about stirring as I could have been), but those strained out and the curd didn't taste eggy. 

I don't know what Demarara or turbinado sugar is (I use granulated sugar that I've put through the food processor), and I don't know if my saucepan is nonreactive. Maybe it's reactive and that's why it takes so dang long for the curd to thicken? 

Raspberry Vanilla Bean Creme Brulee

In high school I worked for a restaurant that served a raspberry vanilla bean creme brulee dessert. I loved caramelizing the sugar, and it was one of my favorite desserts to order. For Christmas I got a kitchen torch, so I've been trying lots of different creme brulee recipes. This one's from Creme Brulee by Whitecap Books. Recipe instructions are verbatim from the book. I added the raspberries on my own.

Ingredients

1 vanilla bean

2 1/2 cups heavy cream

8 egg yolks

1/4 cup superfine sugar

3 tbsp confectioner's sugar

Instructions

1. Slit the vanilla bean lengthwise and put it in a saucepan. Pour the cream into the pan, then bring almost to a boil. Take off the heat and allow to stand for 15 minutes for the vanilla flavor to develop. 

2. Lift the vanilla bean out of the cream and, holding it against the side of the saucepan, scrape the black seeds into the cream. Discard the bean casing. 

3. Use a fork to mix together the eggs and sugar in a bowl. Reheat the cream, then gradually mix it into the eggs and sugar. Strain the mixture back into the saucepan. 

4. Place 6 ovenproof ramekins or custard cups in a roasting pan then divide the custard between them. Pour warm water around the dishes to come halfway up the sides, then bake in a preheated oven at 350 degrees F for 20-25 minutes until the custards are jus set with a slight softness at the center. 

5. Leave the dishes to cool in the water, then lift them out and chill in the refrigerator for 3-4 hours. About 25 minutes before serving, sprinkle the tops with confectioner's sugar (no need to sift). Caramelize using a blowtorch then leave at room temperature. 

TIP: One teaspoon of vanilla extract can be added to the egg yolks in place of a vanilla bean in the cream. 

My notes

I've made this twice. The first time it was awesome. I followed the recipe except that I scraped the black seeds out of the vanilla bean before boiling the cream (but still left the bean in for the boiling/15 minutes) and I didn't reheat the cream. It took 10-15 minutes longer to cook than indicated, maybe because the cream was cooled. The second time I reheated the cream a bit and set the timer for too long - they browned around the edges. The second time the custard tasted a bit eggy in parts - this may be because of cooking it for too long, but it may also be that I didn't separate the eggs well enough (there might have been some egg white in the mixture). 

Also, I put granulated sugar into the food processor for a couple of minutes to make it "superfine," and I use this same sugar for caramelizing (instead of powdered sugar). 

I did use vanilla beans both times, but I've since bought vanilla paste that I'm going to use in the future. I'll probably add it to the yolks.

When I've made it, I added 4-6 raspberries to the cups before pouring in the custard. Also, we don't have traditional ramekins, so I use our little Corel bowls and just make 4.