Pumpkin Crème Brûlée

HaPpY hAlLoWeEn (AgAiN) !!!!

        Since today is Halloween and everyone is wondering how to make tonight's dinner more special (okay, so the little ones don't need anything more to make today special, but I think adults might like a treat that is more substantial than the candy they snitch from the loot bags). Here's a treat you'll never forget, and it's so much easier than making a pie (that phrase "easy as pie" never really made sense to me because pie is quite challenging to make). In my previous post I mentioned that the cookies lacked the strong pumpkin flavour I was craving, so off I went to find a recipe that would include pumpkin and satisfy my desire. I love Crème Brûlée (especially my brother's Christmas Crème Brûlée), so why not Pumpkin flavoured? I've sampled Bailey's, Cranberry, Rhubarb, Vanilla, and Strawberry versions, so pumpkin seemed like a logical direction to go. This one is delicious, it really tastes just like a pumpkin pie, but without the crust.

Here's what you need:

The Players

3 egg yolks
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 cup heavy cream (I used half-and-half)
1 cup pumpkin puree
1/2 tsp. ground allspice
1/4 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp. ground nutmeg
1 pinch salt
Boiled water
1/2 cup white sugar (reserved)





1. Preheat the oven to 325°F. and boil the kettle.




2. Whisk egg yolks and brown sugar together in a bowl.






3. Stir in heavy cream, pumpkin puree, spices and salt.





4. Divide pumpkin mixture between six ramekins, leaving about a 1/2 inch at the top. (Depending on the depth and size of your ramekins you might need to use more.)


5. Place the ramekins in a baking dish (I use my roasting pan), and fill the baking dish with the hot boiled water until it reaches about half way up the sides of the ramekins.



6. Bake in your preheated oven for about 30 to 35 minutes, until set. Remove the ramekins (put some elastics on the end of your tongs).










7. Refrigerate until completely cool, at least 2 hours.






8. Once cool, sprinkle about 1 tbsp of sugar onto each Crème Brûlée and spread it around until the top is entirely covered. Melt the sugar with a chef's torch until the sugar melts and is crisp and brown (about 1 to 2 minutes).




9. Allow to cool slightly, and serve. Garnish with a dollop of whipped cream if you wish.





      I can sense you asking some questions. Let me field some of them to help you out.

Q. What do you mean set?
    A. When a custard is set, it means it is cooked.

Q. How do I know when my Crème Brûlée is set?
    A. This one is a little tricky, but in general Crème Brûlée custard doesn't usually set during cooking, it sets as it cools. Refrigeration is typically required to get it to completely set.

Q. My oven is a little wonky with its temperature, how can I tell if they are ready to come out?
    A. The Better Homes and Gardens New Cook Book states that "to test the custards for doneness, insert the top of a table knife into the center of each custard. The knife will come out clean if the custards are fully cooked." I did not use this method, but I wish I had known about it when I made this recipe.

Q. There is a lot of liquid that seems to have separated out of the custard, what does that mean?
    A. It means that you over baked it.

Q. When I dig into my Crème Brûlée, I notice it's not smooth, why is that?
    A. I don't believe this one is supposed to be smooth. Pumpkin is clumpy and stringy, so I think it is supposed to be the consistency of cooked pumpkin pie filling.

Q. I don't have a chef's torch to make the sugar topping, should I skip that step?
    A. NO. It just won't be a Crème Brûlée without the crunchy sugary topping.

Q. What can I use to get the caramelized topping if I don't have a chef's torch?
    A. If you don't have a torch, simply put the sugar on the ramekins as instructed and place them on a baking sheet. Make sure the rack in the oven is all the way to the top closest to the broiler and turn on the broiler. Once the oven is preheated, put the baking sheet with the ramekins in on the top rack. Keep checking on the ramekins to see when they will be done, it is okay to continuously open the oven. Remove baking sheet and let it cool in the fridge before serving as the ramekins will be hot and Crème Brûlée is typically served cold.

          This is a good recipe because you can make it the day before (if you to make sure you plastic wrap the ramekins) and finalize it with the caramelized sugar just before serving.



                                                                                                                Enjoy!
                                                                                                                   Mel

Pumpkin Roll-Out Cookies

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

       To celebrate the season, today is going to be a double post. We'll start off with some fun pumpkin cookies. What better way to get into the Halloween spirit then to make some ghoulishly delicious cookies? Now, In my own opinion, they were not pumpkin-y enough and tasted a little doughy, but I received rave reviews from many others for them, so despite my reservations I have decided to share the recipe. I will also include some tips that I think would make them a little tastier.

Here's what you'll need:

3/4 cup unsalted butter (always use unsalted butter when baking)

1/2 cup packed brown sugar

1 tablespoon orange zest (I only had lemon, so that's what I used)

1/2 cup solid pack pumpkin puree (I used pure pumpkin, from the can)

1 egg yolk

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon (Next time I would double this)

1/4 teaspoon ground ginger (Next time I would double this)

1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg (I wouldn't double this, but I would add 1/4 ground allspice as well)

1 pinch salt (just a pinch is all you'll need)

1. In a medium bowl, cream together the butter, brown sugar, and orange zest. 

2. Stir in the pumpkin. 

3. Add the eggs and vanilla, mix well. 

4. Sift together the flour, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, allspice, and salt then stir it into the pumpkin mixture. 

5. Remove the dough from the bowl and roll into a log, cover with plastic wrap and place in the refrigerator. Chill dough for about 1 hour. (If you skip this step you'll be peeling dough off your counter, you need to chill the butter to make it pliable.)

6. Do all the dishes and scrub the surface you will be rolling the dough out on.

7. Preheat oven to 375°F.

8. On a lightly floured surface, roll out the dough to 1/4 inch thickness. When you are rolling it do a few pushes of the rolling pin, then give your dough a quarter turn and continue rolling. Continue doing this until your dough is the desired thickness.(Mine were about 1/8 inch thick, but I wish I had done them a little thicker).

9. Using your cookie cutters, cut into desired shapes and place onto a cookie sheet with parchment paper.

10.Bake for 10 to 12 minutes in the preheated oven. 

11. When you remove them from the oven let them cool about 2 minutes on the sheet, then move to a drying rack.

              Once the cookies are COMPLETELY cooled, you may ice them. You could use this recipe for Royal Icing, or this one for decorator's icing.

2 cups icing sugar

1 tsp. vanilla

2 tbsp + 1 tsp milk

1. Combine sugar, milk and vanilla and mix until smooth (add extra milk or icing sugar until the consistency you want is obtained)

2. Separate and add a couple drops of food colouring to tint your icing. 

3. Ice as desired.

Here are my iced cookies, I know, I know, I need to practice my icing skills.  The leaf cookie on the top left was a trial, which didn't quite work as planned as the different colours didn't fuse well when rolled together. However, all that I did was I separated some dough and dyed the it different colours before rolling it out and cutting it. 

Here's how I iced the rest:

The ghost and mummy are cream cheese frosted with gel detail for eyes. 

The pumpkin, skeletons and Frankenstein's monster are iced using only the tinted decorator's icing.

The eyeball has a base of cream cheese frosting, with red tinted decorator's icing drizzled over top. I then used a toothpick to drag the red around to make the veins. The iris is decorator's icing and the pupil is gel.

Finally, the spiderweb has a decorator's icing base and the gel is in 2 rings (outer and inner), then I used a toothpick to pull the gel from the inner ring out passed the outer ring.

I  only had Christmas cookie cutters, so for the ghost, I just pressed the legs together. The leaf was a traced paper and the dough was cut out using a knife.

Good Luck! Happy Halloween!

                                                                                                                              Enjoy!

                                                                                                                                  Mel