Welcome back to my recipe blog.
This week I'm going to share with you two easy and delicious recipes for a great pud, Creme Brulee with shortbread biscuits.
I've kept my recipe simple for the creme brulee. I've tried it in the past flavoured with everything from lime zest to bay leaves, chocolate to a savoury one flavoured with blue cheese! But, to my mind, a well made creme brulee, with it's cool creamy set custard and crunchy burnt caramel topping, flavoured with traditional vanilla is a fantastic way to end a good meal.
The shortbreads, scented with cardamon, are a little different from the norm but create a lovely balance to the rich vanilla creaminess of the brulee.If you're not keen on cardamon, or would rather use vanilla then go ahead! I've put a few alterations in if you would prefer them that way.
A few words about the shortbreads before we start.
The dough for them needs to be barely holding together to get that classic "short" texture. You will notice in the recipe there is no kneading the dough to get a smooth consistency, and there is no need to add water or "rest" the dough before you roll it out. As long as you can form a rough ball with it then your shortbreads WILL turn out perfectly short and won't be chewy, hard or crunchy, rather than crumbly.
So, if you're ready, lets bake!
Creme Brulee Recipe:
Equipment:
6 x 3" Ramekins.
Measuring jug.
Mixing bowl.
Balloon whisk.
Microwave.
3" deep roasting tin, large enough to hold the ramekins.
mini food processor, if you have one.
Blowtorch, if you have one, or a very hot grill, if you haven't.
Ingredients:
600ml / approx 1 pint of double cream.
4 egg yolks.
75g / 3oz caster sugar.
1 whole vanilla pod.
Extra sugar for the caramel topping.
Method:
Pre-heat your oven to 150 degrees c / gas mark 2.
Separate the 4 eggs, getting rid of as much of the white as you can, and put the yolks in the mixing bowl. 
Add the sugar to the eggs and whisk together until they are pale and creamy.
Split the vanilla pod and scrape out as many of the seeds as you can, then put them, along with the cream and the empty vanilla pod in a measuring jug
in the microwave on the "defrost" setting for 5 minutes.
You want the cream to get hot, but not boil, to infuse it with the vanilla flavour. If you need to
heat it a bit more then do so a couple of minutes at a time.
Once the cream is hot, set aside to cool a little and infuse.
Remove the vanilla pod and give it a squeeze to release any remaining seeds.
If you want you can then use the vanilla pod to make vanilla sugar, just whizz it in the food processor with a couple of tablespoons of caster sugar for a few minutes till there is no large lumps of pod left, then add it to some more sugar ( I find it will easily flavour about 500g of caster sugar.) This vanilla sugar can then be used to make the shortbreads if you don't want to make cardamom shortbreads.
Add a splash of the cooled vanilla cream to the eggs and sugar mixture and whisk in. Once it is incorporated into the mix you can add the rest of the cream and whisk together.
Now you can put your ramekins in the roasting tin and
divide the mixture evenly between them.
Then put the tray in the bottom of the oven. ( not directly on the bottom of the oven, as this may burn the bottom of the Brulee's before they're cooked properly, and you wont know until you eat them! )
put your oven shelf as low as it will go in the oven.
Bake in the oven for around 1 hour. They may need a little longer, depending on your oven. You can tell when they're done by giving the ramekin a little nudge, if they are still a little wobbly in the middle they will need a bit longer, until they are set. They will darken slightly on the top and look like the picture.
When the Brulee's are set remove the roasting tin from the oven and allow them to sit in the tin with any remaining water to cool, Once they have cooled down for about an hour put them in the fridge as they are, without the burnt caramel on top. They could do with being in the fridge overnight, if possible, but if you can't wait that long then a couple of hours will do. Cardamon Shortbread.
Equipment:
Large mixing bowl.
Balloon whisk.
Pestle and Mortar.
Rolling Pin.
Greaseproof paper or cooking liner.
large flat baking tray.
Biscuit cutter.
Wire cooling rack.
Ingredients.
(enough to make about 12-16 biscuits.)
1 pack (250g) butter at room temperature.
4 oz caster sugar. (or vanilla sugar, if you don't want to use cardamon.)
340g plain flour. ( the ingredients in the picture are double the amount, as I made a batch of cardamon ones and a batch of vanilla ones.) 8 cardamon pods.( this will make about 500g of cardamon sugar so if you want to just make enough to do the shortbreads then use 2 cardamon pods.)Method:
Pre-heat oven to 180 degrees c / gas mark 4.
Firstly, make the cardamon sugar. Gently bash the pods in a pestle and mortar
Now add the butter and the sugar to a mixing bowl and cream together until smooth and fluffy.
Then, add the flour and "cut in" using a knife. ( this will prevent the dough from becoming too soft with the heat from your hands, which will lead to your shortbreads not being "short"!)
Do this for a few minutes until you have a very coarse breadcrumb texture.
Don't worry about it being a little lumpy looking, This is thetexture you need!
Tip out the mixture onto a floured work surface ( I have a large piece of polished granite that I use for pastry, as it keeps everything cool, but a clean kitchen work surface will do.)
Gently gather and press the mixture together until you have a rough ball of dough.
Then rub the rolling pin with flour and roll out the dough to about 5mm/ 1/4 inch thickness.
The dough will crack and fall apart round the edges so just cut out what you can with the pastry cutter. Gather the remaining dough together and roll it out again and cut out some more. keep doing this until all of the dough is used up. If the biscuits stick to the work surface then slide a flexible knife under them to release them.
Line the baking tray with the greaseproof paper or cooking liner and gently, with a knife, place the biscuits on it, leave enough room around each one as they will spread out slightly when baking.
Prick the tops of each biscuit with a fork.
When they have firmed up stick them in the oven on the bottom shelf and bake for 9-12 minutes, they will have slightly browned on top. Be careful not to let them burn as it only takes about 1 minute for them to go from baked to burnt!
Remove from the oven as soon as they have got a little colour on them and let them cool for a couple of minutes before carefully removing them from the tray and popping onto a wire cooling rack. They will still be soft when they come out of the oven but will continue to cook in their own residual heat. Sprinkle with sugar (either plain sugar, cardamon sugar or vanilla sugar.) and allow to cool for about 15 minutes.
Now to finish off the creme brulee's!
Remove the creme brulee's from the fridge and top each one with about 1 1/2 teaspoons of plain caster sugar. If you have a blowtorch ( and, lets face it, a blowtorch is so much better for doing the caramel on top, and more exciting!) melt the sugar and get it a nice dark caramel colour. You can gently tip the ramekin round to spread the burnt sugar evenly over the top.
If you don't have a blowtorch then put the sugar topped brulee's under a very hot grill, as close to the element or flame as you can and allow them to caramelize, you won't be able to get it as dark as with a blowtorch but you will get the crunchy caramel top.
Now you can serve your creme brulee's with one or two of your shortbreads!
Get cracking and dig in!
That's it for another week then folks, I hope you've enjoyed it, and enjoy cooking and eating this classic pud!
Look out for my blogs next week when normal service will be resumed with a recipe blog and a review blog. Until then.
Happy Cooking!
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