Creme Brulee for Christmas

Crème Brulee…what a decadent way to celebrate the festive season

Add some of Peninsula Larders Flavour Pearls to your Crème Brulee for some sparkle and pop instead of fussing with a blow torch…a little safer too… after a few too many wines it’s a good idea to steer clear of naked flame!

We served ours with Salted Caramel for that traditional caramel flavour. Not keen on caramel? You could try one of our other flavours. Oh, and we have added a gingerbread Christmas tree for a little festive crunch.

Crème Brulee

Ingredients

3ooml cream
200ml milk
2 vanilla beans, split lengthways & scrape the seeds
5 egg yolks
70g caster sugar
1 x 50g jar of Salted Caramel Flavour Pearls or 30g Demerara sugar & a blow torch

Instructions

Preheat oven to 120°C. (fan forced oven)

Place the cream, milk and vanilla seeds in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Bring to the boil and remove from heat.Quickly whisk together the yolks and caster sugar in a large bowl until just combined. Pour the hot cream mixture over the top and whisk again until combined. Strain the mixture through a fine sieve then pour into four 180 ml ramekins.Bake the brulees in a bain marie (water bath) for 60 minutes or until set but with a slight wobble. Remove and refrigerate until completely cold.

*These can be made days in advance….very handy when there is so much going on!

To serve…..simply top each brulee with a layer of Salted Caramel Flavour Pearls or sprinkle each brulee with demerara sugar and caramelise using a blowtorch.

Gingerbread

Ingredients

125g butter, at room temperature
100g brown sugar
125ml golden syrup
1 egg yolk
375g plain flour
1 tablespoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon mixed spice
1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

Instructions

Preheat oven to 180°C.

Use an electric beater to beat the butter and sugar in a bowl until pale and creamy. Add the golden syrup and egg yolk and beat until combined. Stir in the flour, ginger, mixed spice and bicarbonate of soda. Turn onto a lightly floured surface and knead until smooth. Roll the dough between two sheets of baking paper to about 4 mm thick and place in the fridge for 30 minutes to rest and firm up.

*The gingerbread can be made up to this point and be kept in the fridge or even freezer weeks in advance if you want to get organized ahead of time.

To finish…I used star cutters in a couple of different sizes to make Christmas trees, but use whatever Christmassy shaped cutters that you have. Place on lined trays about 3cm apart. Repeat with any excess dough.

Bake in oven for 10 minutes or until brown. Remove from oven. Transfer to a rack to cool.

To assemble the trees…I simply melted some dark chocolate (dark simply because I like the combo of ginger and dark) and placed a small blob of chocolate between the layers of ginger stars to hold them together. Dust with some icing sugar just before you serve them…

We hope you enjoy your brulee’s….I bet your friends and family will be talking about them for a while!

Until next time

The Peninsula Larder Team

www.peninsulalarder.com.au