la crème de la crème

These aren’t the prettiest crème caramels in the world, but I can tell you that the taste and texture was amazing.

Alas, I was going to make a really awful pun-ny title and write something along the lines of ‘la crème de la crème des crème caramels’ (the best of the best of crème caramels) but I realised the tragic limits of my GCSE French – apparently getting an A* means all you’ll be able to remember six years afterwards is how to say ‘where’s the loo?’ and ‘I’d like a croque monsieur, please’. But I digress.

One of my favourite blogs of the moment is Coco&Me, written by the incredibly lovely Tamami of the Coco&Me bake stall in Broadway Market. It was actually her site that first inspired me to attempt to make macarons in my own home, because of the really helpful tips she’d always write into her recipes. This time her gorgeous crème caramel recipe caught my eye, and it seemed like something I could do easily in our tiny kitchen, and it didn’t require any fancy tools or ingredients.

Now that I’m in Hong Kong, there’s not a whole lot of baking I can do. It was never a big thing in my family, though my mom used to make some awesome birthday cakes back in Canada and would let me lick the whipped cream off the beaters! Also, we don’t have any of the proper utensils here for baking – we’re talking no scales, no rolling pins, no measuring spoons or cups, and no sieves apart from the tiny ones we use to strain our tea. We hardly ever have butter in our fridge, flour is only used for coating marinated meat, and when I trooped to our nearest supermarket, I was utterly shocked that there was no trace of single/double creams on the shelves. I chose the most promising one, ‘thickened cream’ and hoped for the best. It was pretty expensive, too, over a pound for 250ml! Ah, finally some things I can be grateful for back in England… With some quick purchases, I was ready to make some dessert!

The first batch failed, because I’d underestimated just how tiny egg yolks in Hong Kong chicken eggs are. The custard wouldn’t set and was awfully delicate and fell to bits. The second batch was brilliant, if I do say so myself – though the presentation leaves a lot to be desired..

Half-devoured… om nom nom!

Um, you can see that I went a bit overboard with the vanilla (what can I say, I love the stuff). I also didn’t make enough custard for my three ramekins, so that’s why the crème caramels are so flat. Anyways, in this version, I steeped some of my dad’s HK-style tea leaves (a secret blend which I haven’t worked out yet!) in the cream and milk and straining the leaves away before mixing in with the egg yolks. The result? Like silky pantyhose tea in a pudding – absolutely friggen gorgeous. The flavour of the tea cuts through the super sweetness of the caramel and the creamy texture was phenomenal… deary me, was that saliva that just ran down my chin?

Recipe (with lots of helpful tips) can be found over at Tamami’s site.