Rhubarb Crème Brûlée without the cream

Although we are in our first week of September, I am not yet willing to say goodbye to Summer. I had some rhubarb in the freezer and wanted to put it to good use. Although I am a sucker for rhubarb crumble it conjures up images of Autumn/Winter which does not bear thinking about ..not yet anyway. So I decided, it was to be a Rhubarb Crème Brûlée with a twist; made with no cream! If I can avoid having cold cream in desserts, then I'll find a way. I'm not a big fan of the taste. Strange? Yes, I know!

Rhubarb Crème Brûlée without the cream

Time:
Preparation: 10 mins
Cooking: 1 hr and 5 mins
*Additional time required for chilling overnight*

Portion Control:

Serves 2 ramekin dishes (capacity 100ml each)

Ingredients:

• 1 cup of rhubarb stalks, trimmed, cut into pieces
• 3/4 cup of whole milk
• 3 large egg yolks
• 1 tbsp of clear honey
• 3 tablespoons of  caster sugar
• 3 tablespoons of orange juice
• 1 tsp of vanilla extract
• 2 tsp of demerara sugar

Directions:

• Preheat the oven to 200 degrees Celsius.
• Place the rhubarb pieces into a shallow baking dish. Squeeze over the orange juice and drizzle with honey.
• Place into the oven and bake for 25 minutes, occasionally basting the fruit with the cooking juices.
• Once the rhubarb is tender, spoon equal quantities into the bottom of two ramekins and set aside.
• For the crème brûlée, place the milk into a small saucepan, add the caster sugar and vanilla extract over a medium heat. Bring to the boil then remove from the heat. Leave the milk mixture to cool. This is important as warm milk on cold eggs produces the scrambled egg texture which is best avoided.
• Place the egg yolks into a clean bowl and beat together. Little by little, add the milk mixture and continue to stir until everything is mixed together.
• Preheat the oven at 150 degrees Celsius.
• Pour the egg mixture on top of the rhubarb in the ramekin dishes. 
• Carefully place the ramekin dishes on a baking tray and add hot water to the tray. Fill until the water has reached half way up the ramekin dish.
• Bake the dishes for 35-40 minutes.
• Remove the tray from oven and the ramekins from the water. Allow to cool to room temperature before placing in the fridge. Chill overnight.
• Sprinkle the top of each crème brûlée with demerara sugar evenly. 
• Place the dishes under a hot grill until golden-brown and melted.
• Serve immediately if you prefer the dessert to be warm. Alternatively, allow the tops to cool, then place in the fridge to chill until ready to serve.

The top should have a nice crisp texture and the crème part should be velvety smooth.

You can always replace orange juice with strawberry juice which also works well with rhubarb.

Bon Appétit!

Strawberry Verrine

Got a lot of strawberries left over from your stash and stuck for ideas on how to use them? Well, you could rustle up a Strawberry, Basil and Lime Smoothie, or if you are looking for a different dessert, how about a Strawberry Verrine?
That's right! It's all about the layers dahling! A verrine, hailing from France, is a series of layers (sweet or savoury) held in a glass. My inspiration for this recipe, was from Béa over at La Tartine Gourmande. She uses pistachios, which adds a lovely fleck of green to the dessert. Sadly, I couldn't find any, so replaced them with crushed hazelnuts.

Summer Dessert: Strawberry Verrine

Timing:
Preparation: 10 minutes
*Additional time is required for refrigeration of strawberries with sugar and for setting the verrine*
Cooking: 12 minutes


Portion Control:
Serves 2


Ingredients:

200g of strawberries, with each strawberry cut into 1/2 inch pieces

1 tbsp of granulated white sugar

1.5 tbsp of crushed hazelnuts

6 sponge fingers, with each finger cut into 3 parts

For the Custard (Crème Anglaise)

1.25 cups of  whole (full-fat) milk

2 egg yolks

1 tbsp of cornflour

1 tbsp of granulated white sugar

1 vanilla bean (split open with seeds scraped out/removed)

Directions:.

• In a large bowl, combine the strawberries with 1tbsp of hazelnuts and the sugar. Mix together gently. Cover and refrigerate for a couple of hours.This will produce a wonderful strawberry syrup.
• To make the custard, put the milk in a saucepan with the vanilla seeds and bean. Heat gently until it just reaches boiling point. While the milk is heating, put the egg yolks, cornflour and sugar in a bowl and whisk until well combined. Pour the hot milk in a thin stream over the egg mixture, whisking constantly. Give the saucepan a quick rinse out then pour the egg and milk mixture back into the saucepan. Cook very gently over a low heat, stirring or whisking constantly, until the custard thickens enough to coat the back of a spoon. Take the pan off the heat and transfer to a clean bowl. Let the custard cool completely, stirring occasionally to prevent a skin from forming.
• Prepare two cup size glasses. In each glass, arrange a layer of sponge fingers (3 fingers per glass) and a layer of strawberries (reserve some strawberries for the last layer). Add a layer of custard and finish with the remaining fruit. Cover each verrine with cellophane. Refrigerate for several hours, or even, overnight.
• Before serving, garnish each verrine with the remaining 0.5 tbsp of hazelnuts.

Garnish with crushed hazelnuts before serving

This is a good choice for Summer dinner parties as you can prepare everything in advance without neglecting your guests! Raspberries and blueberries can also be used.

Comforting Clafoutis

Saturday 16 July 2011 was National Cherry Day and in a fitting tribute, I made my own French dessert of Clafoutis. It is quite a rustic yet, deliciously comforting pudding. I am contributing this recipe to the  Simple and in Season July Blog Event  over at Fabulicious Food. Thank you Ren! Also, I am forwarding this to Julia Parsons for the fruity round up on Cherry Pie Blog. Much appreciated Julia!.

Bowl of Cherries
 Photo credit: JD Wheaton

Time:
Preparation: 15 minutes
Cooking: 30 minutes

Portion Control:
Serves 2-3


Ingredients:
250g cherries
65g of self raising flour
35g of ground almond powder (optional)
4 tbsp of granulated sugar, 2 for batter mixture, 2 for syrup
180 ml of milk
30g of unsalted butter, 15g for batter mixture,15g for syrup
2 medium sized eggs
1 tsp of vanilla essence
A sprinkle of salt
Icing sugar for dusting (optional)

Directions:

• Wash cherries thoroughly and remove stalks and stones.
• Slice each cherry in two.
• Put oven on at 200 degrees Celsius.
• Grease an ovenproof dish round the sides and bottom. I used a dish that measured 6'' by 4''.
• Place flour, ground almond powder, eggs, vanilla essence, salt, sugar, butter and milk into a blender.
• Whizz the mixture for about 40 seconds making sure that any residue is pushed down the side of blender and leave to rest.
• In a frying pan, melt the remaining butter and then add the cherries. Shake the pan tossing the cherries ensuring they are coated in butter.
• Sprinkle the remaining sugar over the cherries and stir the mixture for just over a minute or until you achieve a syrupy consistency.
• Place the cherries and syrup into the greased ovenproof dish and shake to ensure they are evenly spread.
• Pour the batter mixture on top of the cherries and place the dish on the medium tray in oven.
• Bake for 25 minutes.
• Remove the dish and immediately dust with icing sugar as required.
• Serve warm with vanilla ice cream. Yum! Comfort all the way!

Dessert pour moi: Clafoutis