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Vanilla Bean Crème Brûlée Tarts

Vanilla Bean Crème Brûlée Tarts

by | Aug 26, 2021 | 2 comments

Crème Brûlée is everyone’s favourite dessert. And what’s not to love about it? Hearing the sugar crack when you plunge your spoon through the caramelized toffee on top is sheer bliss. The silky smooth custard, the hint of real vanilla; these are all things that make crème brûlée a classic that you shouldn’t really mess with. Which is exactly why I’m about to change it! I have a killer crème brûlée recipe but have always felt the dessert needs short, buttery pastry to complete it – so I encased the custard filling in it to make tarts. The result is pure heaven!  Find the recipe below…

Vanilla Bean Crème Brûlée Tarts

Serves 4

 
SWEET PASTRY
 
250g cake flour
 
 
120g salted butter, coarsely chopped
 
3 large egg yolks  

FILLING

185ml fresh cream

1 x The Kate Tin Gourmet Vanilla Bean, split

2 large egg yolks

40g Natura Sugars Golden Caster Sugar + extra, to top

    For the pastry, blitz the cake flour and icing sugar in a food processor to combine, then add the butter and continue blitzing until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. Add the 3 egg yolks and blitz until just combined. Tip out the pastry onto a clean work surface and bring the pastry together with your hands to form a ball. Wrap in cling film and refrigerate 1 hour. Preheat the oven to 180C (or 160C for fan-assisted ovens). Roll out the pastry on a lightly flour-dusted work surface to 0,5cm thickness and line 4 fluted, loose-bottomed tart tins (10cm-diameters) with the pastry. Trim the edges with a sharp knife and refrigerate to rest, 1 hour. Once the pastry case has chilled, line it with baking paper, fill with baking beans or pulses, and blind-bake in the preheated oven, 8 –10 minutes, until crisp and light brown and crispy. Remove from oven, take out the baking beans and discard the baking paper used for the blind baking. Return the pastry case to the oven to bake, a further 8 –10 minutes. Allow to cool on a wire rack. For the brûlée, lower the oven temperature to 140C (120C for fan-assisted ovens). In a small saucepan, heat the fresh cream along with the split vanilla pod and seeds to just below boiling point. Cream the 2 egg yolks and castor sugar together in a medium bowl. In a steady stream, pour the warm vanilla cream into the egg mixture while whisking continuously. Strain the mixture through a sieve, discard the bits and divide the filling among the baked pastry cases. Bake, 35 – 40 minutes, until set and the centre wobbles slightly. Remove the tartlets from their tins and allow to cool down to room temperature. Store the tartlets in the fridge until needed. They can keep for 2 days in the fridge. Sprinkle a layer of sugar over each tartlet and brûlée them, using a kitchen blowtorch.

    TIP: If a kitchen blowtorch is not available, preheat the oven’s grill and place the tartlets underneath the grill for a couple of seconds to caramelise.

     

    Spiced Pear and Sweet Potato Cake with Muscovado Frosting

    Spiced Pear and Sweet Potato Cake with Muscovado Frosting

    by | Jun 13, 2017 | 0 comments

    This cake is an ode to my favourite time of the year: autumn. When you eat it, you feel like you’re being wrapped in a warm, knitted jersey. It’s packed with spices, healthy things like sweet potato, pear, sultanas and almonds but my favourite part is the muscovado frosting – I absolutely adore proper, unrefined muscovado sugar – it’s dusky, molasses flavour adds an amazing depth of flavour to this not-too-sweet cake. It’s a little more expensive, but to me, it is worth every penny!

    I’ve topped them with wafers of pears which, if you want to make your own, are very easy. Simply slice the pears very thinly (using a knife or mandlin) then lay them onto a silicone baking mat or baking paper and place them into an oven (with the fan on if you have) at 100 degrees celcius for 1 hour 30 minutes until dried out – they’ll keep in an airtight container for ages.

    Speaking of pears, please tell me you noticed the mini ones?! ? Look how itsy bitsy they are?! Aren’t they the cutest! You can get them tinned from most supermarkets and let me just say, they can rescue ANY dessert. Serve them warm, in a bowl, with piping hot custard and you have instant dessert – and everyone will be so distracted by their cuteness they’ll forget you didn’t actually DO anything. Sometimes I’m so clever I astound myself, anyway, back to the cake. Make it. And if you want to up the adorable factor, this recipe would make uber-cute cupcakes too!

    Spiced Pear and Sweet Potato Cake with Muscovado Frosting

    Serves 10-12

     

    210g butter, softened

    270g demerara sugar

    3 large eggs

    180ml cooked and mashed sweet potato

    1 tsp vanilla extract

    200g self-raising flour, sifted

    ½ tsp bicarbonate of soda

    1 tbsp cinnamon

    ½ tsp nutmeg

    120g finely grated pear, squeezed well

    1/2 cup sultanas (optional)

    75g flaked almonds, toasted

     

    Frosting

    200g butter, softened

    2-3 tbsp boiling hot water

    175g muscovado sugar

    200g icing sugar, sifted

    250g smooth cream cheese

     

    Molasses Drip

    55g white chocolate

    1/4 cup (60ml) cream

    4 tbsp (60ml) molasses

    1 tsp vanilla extract

     

    Tinned baby pears, granola and pear chips, to decorate

     

    Preheat the oven to 180C and grease and line 3 x 20cm sandwich cake tins. Cream the butter and demerara sugar until very light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well in between each addition. Beat in the sweet potato and vanilla. Combine the self-raising flour, bicarbonate of soda and spices and stir into the cake batter. Stir in the grated pear, sultanas and flaked almonds then divide between the 3 tins and bake for about 40 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the middle of the cakes, comes out clean. Allow the cakes to cool, upside down, completely then remove from the tin. For the frosting, cream the butter until light and fluffy. Pour the boiling water over the muscovado sugar to dissolve (pop in the microwave for a few seconds if needed) then allow to cool. Add the cooled muscovado syrup to the butter with the icing sugar and beat until combined. Mix in the cream cheese. Sandwich the cakes together with the frosting, leaving enough to cover the top. To make the molasses drip, combine all the ingredients in a small saucepan over low heat until melted. Allow to cool to room temperature before using. Spread the drip mixture over the cake, allowing it to drip down the sides. Garnish with tinned baby pears, granola and pear chips.

    Brown Butter Pancakes with No-Churn Chestnut Ice Cream

    Brown Butter Pancakes with No-Churn Chestnut Ice Cream

    by | May 17, 2017 | 0 comments

    brown butter pancakes

    There’s no better way to celebrate Autumn than with hot, crispy-edged brown butter pancakes and chestnuts!  I’m sure you can feel it… The chill in the air, the leaves crunching under your feet and the sense that everything is ready to go to sleep. Autumn is my absolute favourite time of the year. Snuggly jerseys, copious cups of tea, ridiculous amounts of butter and fluffy socks. There’s also the promise of the Newlands forest floor being covered in mushrooms ready to be plucked – which is, to be honest, my only form of winter exercise. But while I was a tad too early for porcini, on my last forage I stumbled upon chestnuts – loads and loads of chestnuts.

    brown butter pancakes

    They instantly reminded me of my trip of Italy a few years ago, where standing on a street corner in Venice, freezing cold, I scoffed two paper bags of chestnuts that had been toasted right in front of me over a fire made in a tin can. Casual for Italians, a revelation to me – mostly because my first taste of chestnuts as a child, had been a disaster. My dad had come home one day with an entire bag of prickly green balls and announced triumphantly that we would be toasting them! While much excitement ensued, our enthusiasm didn’t make up for the apparent lack of knowledge of just how to cook them – my mom threw them into the oven with the hard brown shell still on and so we all bit into teeth-breakingly hard nuts. If only Google was around then!

    Chestnuts

    After that trip to Italy, where I realised that the shell had to be scored with a kiss (an X) before going into the oven, so that the chestnuts split open while roasting, releasing the creamy, sweet nut inside – I was hooked! After roasting you can turn them into a puree which is amazing on pavlovas, in between cakes, cookies or in this deliciously creamy ice cream. I’ve paired it with my favourite Autumn dessert, brown butter pancakes. Another revelation of frying ‘plain’ pancakes in brown butter to make the edges go all crispy (the best bit!). If you can’t find fresh chestnuts, use the tinned chestnut puree which you can find at most delis or online here. Otherwise, simply swap it out for any nut butter – think pecan, almond or cashew. And don’t skip the spiced caramelised nuts – they absolutely make the dish!

    Brown butter pancakes

    BROWN BUTTER PANCAKES WITH CHESTNUT ICE CREAM AND SPICED PECANS

    Serves 4

     

    BROWN BUTTER PANCAKES

    100g salted butter

    125g cake flour

    pinch of salt

    2 large eggs

    250ml milk

     

    ICE CREAM

    3 cups (750ml) cream

    1 cup (250ml) milk

    1/2 cup (125ml) icing sugar, sifted

    100g tinned sweetened chestnut puree

     

    SPICED PECANS

    100g pecan nuts

    1/4 cup (60ml) brown sugar

    1 tsp (5ml) ground cinnamon

     

    To make the brown butter pancakes, melt the butter in a small saucepan over medium heat, swirling every now and then, until the butter froths and starts turning brown. It is ready when it smells like toasted nuts. Remove from the heat and set aside to cool slightly. Place the flour and salt in a mixing bowl. Whisk the eggs and milk and whisk into the dry ingredients. Add 2 tablespoons of the brown butter. Allow the batter to stand for 30 minutes. Heat a non-stick frying pan and brush with the brown butter, pour a 1/4 cup of batter into the hot pan and swirl to coat.  When the edges begin to lift, flip over and cook the other side until brown. Repeat with the remaining batter and brown butter.

    To make the ice cream, whisk the cream, milk, sugar and chestnut puree together in a large jug. Divide the mixture into two large ziplock bags and seal well. Lay the bags flat and freeze until firm. Break the frozen cream mixture into junks and place it in a blender of food processor – process until the mixture forms a soft serve consistency. Quickly pour into a freezer proof container and freeze until firm.

    To make the nuts, place the sugar in a small saucepan or frying pan with 1 tbsp water and heat until golden and caramelised. Add the pecan nuts and stir to coat. Add the cinnamon and keep stirring until the sugar starts crystallizing (you can speed the process up by adding a teaspoonful of brown sugar), once the nuts are coated well, spread onto a lined baking sheet to cool.

    Serve the pancakes with a scoop of chestnut ice cream and a sprinkling of the spiced nuts.

     

     

     

    TIP Make your own sweetened chestnut puree by roasting 200g shell-on chestnuts; to do this, score an ‘X’ into the flat side of the chestnut and place them on a baking sheet in an oven preheated to 240C for 10 minutes. Allow to cool then peel off the hard shell. Place the chestnuts into a saucepan with 2 cups milk, 1 tsp vanilla (if desired) and simmer until the chestnuts are soft. Add 1/2 cup more milk, 1/4 cup sugar and stir to dissolve. Place the mixture into a food processor and blend until smooth. Strain through a sieve and bottle in sterilized jars to store.