Crème Brûlée & Raspberry Soufflé

Talked about these two fave desserts yesterday, and browsed around about their history for a bit

Crème brûlée (crème brulée in L'Orthographie 1990) (French for "burnt cream"; pronounced /ˌkrɛm bruːˈleɪ/ in English, [kʁɛm bʁyle] in French), also known as burnt cream, crema catalana, or Trinity cream is a dessert consisting of a rich custard base topped with a contrasting layer of hard caramel. It is normally served cold; it is sometimes served warm in North America.

The custard base is traditionally flavored with vanilla, but is also sometimes flavored with lemon or orange (zest), rosemary, chocolate, coffee,liqueurs, or other fruit.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cr%C3%A8me_br%C3%BBl%C3%A9e

Original crème brûlée

Ingredients

• 500ml/18fl oz double cream
• 1 vanilla pod
• 100g/4oz caster sugar (plus extra for the topping)
• 6 free-range egg yolks

Preparation method

1. Preheat the oven to 150C/300F/Gas 2.
2. Pour the cream into a saucepan. Split the vanilla pod lengthways and scrape the seeds into the cream.
3. Chop the empty pod into small pieces, and add them to the cream.
4. Bring the cream to boiling point, then reduce the heat and simmer gently for five minutes.
5. Meanwhile, in a separate bowl, beat the sugar and egg yolks together in a large heatproof bowl until pale and fluffy.
6. Bring the cream back to boiling point. Pour it over the egg mixture, whisking continuously until thickened - this indicates that the eggs have begun to cook slightly.
7. Strain the mixture through a fine sieve into a large jug, and then use this to fill six ramekins to about two-thirds full.
8. Place the ramekins into a large roasting tray and pour in enough hot water to come halfway up their outsides. (This is called a bain-marie.)
9. Place the bain-marie onto the centre shelf of the oven and bake for 40-45 minutes, or until the custards are just set but still a bit wobbly in the middle.
10. Remove the ramekins from the water and set aside to cool to room temperature. Chill until needed.
11. When ready to serve, sprinkle one level teaspoon of caster sugar evenly over the surface of each crème brûlée, then caramelise with a chefs' blow-torch

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/originalcremebrulee_81524

A soufflé is a light, fluffy, baked cake made with egg yolks and beaten egg whites combined with various other ingredients and served as a savoury main dish or sweetened as a dessert. The word soufflé is the past participle of the French verb souffler which means "to blow up" or more loosely "puff up" — an apt description of what happens to this combination of custardand egg whites.

Every soufflé is made from two basic components:

1. a French crème pâtissière base/flavoured cream sauce or purée:
2. egg whites beaten to a soft peak meringue

The base provides the flavour and the whites provide the "lift". Foods commonly used for the base in a soufflé include jam, fruits, berries,chocolate, banana and lemon (the last three are used for desserts, often with a good deal of sugar).

When it comes out of the oven, a soufflé should be puffed up and fluffy, and will generally fall after 5 or 10 minutes (as risen dough does).

Soufflés can be made in containers of all shapes and sizes but it is traditional to make soufflé in ramekins. These containers vary greatly in size, but are typically glazed white, flat-bottomed, round porcelain containers with unglazed bottoms and fluted exterior borders.

There are a number of variations on the soufflé theme. One is an ice cream soufflé, which combines a soufflé with ice cream and either a fruit or a hot sauce.

Another kind of dish entirely is soufflé potatoes, which are puffed-up sauté potato slices, traditionally served with a chateaubriand steak.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Souffl%C3%A9

Fool proof hot raspberry soufflé

Ingredients

• 250g/9oz raspberries
• 4 eggs, whites only
• 100g/4oz caster sugar
• juice of half a lemon
• ½ tsp cornflour, lightly dissolved in a few spoonfuls of water

Preparation method

1. First, evenly butter and sugar ovenproof moulds for the souffles and place in the freezer.
2. For the coulis, add half of the sugar to the raspberries. Place in a hot pan and cook quickly for 2-3 minutes with a good squeeze of lemon juice.
3. Liquidise with a hand blender and pass through a sieve to remove the seeds.
4. Place 2 tsp of coulis in the bottom of the souffli dishes and thicken the remaining coulis with the moistened cornflour.
5. For the meringue, ensure the whisk and bowl are free from grease by scalding in boiling water.
6. Place the egg whites in the bowl and start to whisk.
7. Gradually add sugar until a smooth soft peak is obtained.
8. Add a good squeeze of lemon juice at the end.
9. For the souffli, take a third of the meringue and whisk into the thickened coulis.
10. Lightly fold in the remaining two thirds. Do this gently so the air is not knocked out of the mix.
11. Divide the mix between the dishes.
12. Smooth the surface of the souffli and trim edges with your thumb.
13. When ready to bake, space out on a tray and bake in a medium to hot oven (180C/350F/Gas 4) for approximately 10-15 minutes depending on the size and dish.
14. Dust with icing sugar, place a raspberry on top and serve immediately.

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/foolproofhotraspberr_12919