Week 11: Crème Caramel

Hi everyone!

Just three ingredients:
that's my kinda recipe

Yes, I’m a day late. And yes, I hate myself. But at least I had the company of MasterChef whilst I wallowed in my self hate.

This week I decided to take on the French classic, crème caramel. To be honest I’m starting to run out of stereotypically hard things to cook, which also happen to be cheap as chips. Crème caramel seemed like both. The two components are caramel and custard, and I’d never made either. I fell head over heels in love with the ingredient list, which was even cheaper than chips. Eggs, milk, sugar- that’s it! All pantry staples!  I didn’t even have to part with the comforts of home to purchase ingredients.

Caramel

Heating sugar and water, what could possibly go wrong? 

Burning said sugar and water, that’s what. 

Perhaps 'slightly charred caramel'
will be the next hipster
food trend

I deeply regret not keeping a more watchful eye on the troublesome stuff. However I will say, in my defence, I’d never made caramel before. I had zero idea what I was looking for. The bubbles on top of the caramel were lightly coloured, so I thought sweet, I’ll just leave it be. It turns out that the bubbles lied to me. It was only when I stood directly over the pot that I could smell the slight char of the decidedly darker caramel underneath. But it wasn’t bad enough to discard, so with a shrug, I poured it into the ramekins. After that, I couldn’t second guess my decision even if I wanted to, because the caramel was rock hard within seconds.

Custard

Appearance-wise: a solid 10/10

Perhaps it was the stress of boiling caramel, but my usually proficient egg separating skills let me down. Luckily my whisk didn’t fail me. After a spectacularly disastrous first date, my whisk and I have developed quite the loving relationship. It stay put when I tell it too, like a perfectly well trained dog. I can only dream of finding a husband who exhibits such good behaviour.

Baking my custard children was pretty nerve wracking. Thankfully, other than a brown, scalded patch on one of my darling cremes, they were cooked perfectly! Demolding them was just as scary, but alas, they came out easily.

Ranking rubric

Taste: 8.5/10- they were scrumptious: the custard was silky, and the caramel only slightly burnt.

Presentation/resemblance to dish: 10/10- they were even prettier than they tasted.

Time: 7/10- it wasn’t a time consuming dish at all, and that’s coming from Queen Dawdler herself.

Kitchen Mess: 9/10- twas a perfectly reasonable amount of mess

Thanks for reading. Keep enjoying MasterChef! I dunno about you guys, but I’m totally rooting for Matt to take home the title.

Cheers,

Rosa