Molasses and Maple Crème Brûlée

Crème brûlée (French for “burnt cream“) is also known as crema catalana (Spanish) or Trinity cream (English).  It is a rich dessert with a custard base and a hard caramel top which is created by caramelizing sugar under the broiler or using a blowtorch. The custard base is normally flavored with just vanilla, but it can be enhanced with other flavors such as lemon, cardamom, orange, cinnamon, coffee, rum, Amaretto etc.  This recipe is from Opera Bistro and is another wonderful recipe from the book, Molasses Inspirations.

Serves 6
recipe from Opera Bistro
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500ml (2 cups) whipping cream
6 egg yokes
15ml (1 tablespoon sugar)
30ml (2 tablespoons) maple syrup
30ml (2 tablespoons) molasses
125ml (1/4 cup) sugar to sprinkle on individual ramekins

Preheat oven to 150c (300f).  Boil whipping cream.  Combine egg yokes, sugar, maple syrup and molasses.  Pour hot cream over egg mixture and stir to combine.  Fill a pan with hot water (bain marie).  Divide custard into 6 ramekins and place in pan.  Bake for 45 minutes.  Let cool.  Sprinkle sugar between the 6 ramekins and then caramelize the sugar with a blowtorch or place under the grill until the sugars melt into a golden brown color.

The Culinary Chase’s Note:  The flavors of maple and molasses help to make this an irresistible dessert.  Make sure there are no bubbles when the cream is mixed into the egg mixture.  If you do get bubbles, strain and then divide between ramekins.  So little effort is involved to make a sensational dish!