1Hello, this is Chef John from foodwishes.com with creme caramel.
2That's right! You can call it "flan" if you want, they're both French words
3but "creme caramel" sounds kind of fancy and "flan" kind of sounds like... well... you know.
4So I'm gonna go with creme caramel here.
5But no matter what you call it, the fact remains, this is one of the world's greatest desserts.
6And, I'm happy to report, one of the world's easiest desserts.
7In fact, the only slightly tricky part would be this first step
8where we have to do the caramel part of the creme caramel.
9And the first part of that step would be to spray your ramekins, heat proof, of course,
10with just a little bit of nonstick vegetable spray.
11You can see those are placed in a casserole dish,
12which is what we're gonna bake them in.
13So give those a spray and set those aside.
14And then it's time to make what's called a dry caramel.
15And it's called that because the only ingredient is sugar.
16You're gonna put that in a small dry heavy bottom saute pan.
17You're gonna place it over medium heat.
18And you're gonna stand there and not much is gonna happen for the first few minutes.
19But then you'll see this little ring around the outside,
20where the sugar will start to melt and then more of it will melt and it will start to darken.
21And when that starts to happen it's very important to keep the pan moving.
22Alright, gently shake it back and forth, swirl it around until all that white sugar melts.
23And there will be wisps of smoke. Don't get nervous!
24That's not a problem. We wanna get this nice and dark.
25And it's not gonna burn unless you stop moving it, okay, so just keep swirling.
26Alright, don't put any utensils in this.
27Do not under any circumstances put your fingertips in this to taste it.
28Unless, of course, you're some kind of criminal and you'd like to not have fingerprints anymore, then I guess you can.
29And when all the sugar's melted and it looks like that, turn off the heat. You are done!
30Congratulations, you just made the most terrifying form of caramel known to man.
31Alright, but don't get cocky, we have one step left.
32You're gonna quickly carefully take this over to your ramekins
33and distribute it equally into the bottom of each.
34And because it's so hot it's gonna spread out nice and evenly.
35So those are all set and ready for the creme part of the creme caramel.
36Which is nothing more than a simple custard.
37And by simple, I mean it only took me literally 30 years to figure out the exact perfect formula.
38Although in fairness, I was doing other stuff.
39But anyway, my formula includes one whole egg plus three yolks.
40We're also gonna add a pinch of salt and some white granulated sugar.
41And you can just dump all the sugar in.
42But you know what, how often do you get to see sugar being sprinkled over egg yolks?
43Not that often! So I wanted to savor that.
44At that point we're gonna take a whisk and we're gonna pop those yolks, which feels strangely satisfying.
45And then we're gonna mix that up until the sugar is dissolved.
46And we don't have to go too long here, we're just gonna mix that for about a minute
47until we can't feel any of that grainy sugar in the bowl.
48It might get a little frothy, the color will turn kind of a pale yellow, it's gonna look just like that.
49And at that point, we're gonna add the rest of the ingredients.
50First of which being my secret ingredient: creme fraiche.
51And as far as alternatives to that, I will talk about that on the blog post.
52But if you do want it to be the most awesome creme caramel in the world, you will use that.
53We're also gonna add some whole milk,
54a nice big splash of vanilla
55and then a little splash of another secret ingredient:
56a little orange cognac - also known as grand marnier.
57You may of course remember that from our world famous souffle video.
58So a little bit of that, and you're gonna take your whisk
59and you're gonna mix that until completely incorporated to completely smooth.
60And that is ready to ladle into our prepared ramekins.
61We're not gonna fill them all the way up.
62So we're gonna go about 2/3 to 75% of the way.
63Try to portion as even as possible.
64Once those are filled, we're gonna take some hot tap water
65and you're gonna fill your casserole dish halfway up.
66And that's gonna help the heat transfer more slowly and more evenly throughout the cooking process.
67You're gonna go ahead and place that in the middle of a preheated 325 degree oven
68for about 45 to 50 minutes
69or until just barely set.
70And I usually start checking around 40 minutes, around 42 minutes, something like that.
71This is not a recipe you're gonna screw up by peeking and checking.
72So i'll open the oven, i'll give the pan a little shake to see what's happening.
73And if you see this slow motion shot here, you see how the center is still a little liquefied.
74There's like a ripple under the surface.
75You can tell it's not set, that needs a couple more minutes.
76Alright, so mine went like 46 minutes.
77And you can see here if I give it a little shake with the tongs,
78Alright, there's still a little jiggle but that liquified wiggle in the middle is no longer visible.
79Okay, so that's perfect.
80At that point we're gonna remove them from the pan onto a rack to cool a little bit.
81These are traditionally served cold.
82And before unmolding you want to go around with a knife, make sure it's not attached around that edge.
83And once you've gone around, you can see that moving,
84you're gonna invert it onto a plate
85and then feast your eyes on one of the greatest sights in the history of the culinary arts.
86Ladies and gentlemen, the creme caramel!
87Oh my God.
88I'm not sure if I can finish this video, it takes my breath away.
89Now you do get a little more caramel if you unmold them warm.
90so what I like to do is unmold them and then chill them.
91So I do like to serve these cold. But again, up to you!
92You are the Melle Mel of your creme caramel.
93And right here, as I go in with a spoon,
94you can see that just unbelievably smooth, silky texture.
95Just enough egg to keep it together.
96Just impossibly creamy.
97That little bit of tang from the creme fraiche does magical things that are just beyond my vocabulary.
98i mean look at that!
99So you can enjoy these just like that, absolutely spectacular.
100Or if you want to get super fancy, you can do this.
101In the bottom of the ramekin, there'll be a couple teaspoons of caramel that don't come out.
102You can pop that in the microwave for about a half a minute until it liquefies again.
103And then if you drizzle it on a silpat you can make designs.
104Right here, I started, I was gonna make some rabbit ears.
105And I thought to myself: "well, that's stupid".
106So I changed my mind and started doing this random squiggly thing.
107And it's so cool is that temperature of the sugar comes down,
108you actually can pull it into these really long strands.
109Kind of fun. Again, be careful, very hot, very dangerous.
110And once it cools you can peel it off,
111place it on your creme caramel and proceed to blow minds.
112People will be like "I had no idea you were a world-class pastry chef but now I know".
113Anyway, I really do hope you give this a try.
114This thing is such a crowd pleaser and as you saw, fairly simple to make.
115So head over to foodwishes.com for more information and the ingredient amounts as usual
116and as always, enjoy!