Vegan Crème Brûlée

"burnt cream"...Julia doesn't give an english translation for this one...

...this is the 611th and very last final recipe for this blog...

...and I thought it was funny that this very last recipe is a bit odd...Julia gives two entirely different descriptions in the two versions of the book that I have...

...in the 1964 version...

...which describes itself as the sixth printing...reprinted four times...which somehow doesn't add up for me...haha...

...anywhoo...this is the description of Crème Brûlée...

..."Although many people think of it as a French dessert, Crème Brûlée is actually Creole. Make the basic cream exactly like the preceding creme anglaise, but use half the amount of sugar, and whipping cream instead of milk..."

...and then in my 40th anniversary edition from 2009...

...the origin description is completely different...

..."Crème Brûlée originated in England, it appears, at Christ's College in Cambridge..."

...the "it appears" is telling and kind of funny...but she doesn't mention the previous version at all...

...and then wikipedia says this..."The earliest known recipe of a dessert called crème brûlée appears in François Massialot's 1691 cookbook Cuisinier royal et bourgeois, but its ultimate origins are unclear."

...and then there's no recipe really at all... in either version...she just goes on to say...

..." Rather than glazing the top of the cream with brown sugar, try spreading a 1/8 inch layer of pralin, page 583, over the cream. This would then be a Crème anglaise pralinée, and is good as a dessert either by itself or served with strawberries."

...of course you need to make the VEGAN CRÈME ANGLAISE...

...and pour that into ramekins...

...and you need to make a Pralin...and Julia gives you several options for pulverising it...I just used my trusty Pampered Chef chopper thingy...

...so I sprinkled brown sugar on top of one ramekin and the Pralin on the other...I won't be broiling the pralinéed one...

...and pop it under the broiler until it bubbles...I was kind of surprised that she says to use brown sugar...as broiling regular sugar would carmelize it...

...and indeed the topping was very dark...but I gave it a whack with the back of my spoon...

. ...and it made a satisfying crack...

...it's really delicious though...the crunchy slightly burnt sugar is delicious with the vegan cream...

...and the pralinéed one was really good too...

Substitutions

...you'll need all of the subs for the VEGAN CRÈME ANGLAISE

Recipe here: Mastering the Art of French Cooking...pp. 588-590

VEGAN SOUFFLÉ DÉMOULÉ AUX MACARONS

[Vegan Rum and Macaroon Souffle, Unmolded — a cold dessert]

...this is another soufflé...and otherwise pretty similar to the Ile Flottante that we had a couple of weeks ago...not in texture but in flavor...

...and of course there are lots and lots of steps to this one...

...and since the first step is to butter a caramel lined mold...you'll need to make some caramel...recipe here...

...and line your mold with it...and let it set...

...add some rum to your pulverized macarons...you can see how I made them from aqua faba in this recipe...

...then add some hot soymilk and sugar...

...then beat some aqua faba to soft peaks...

...and then because this is a soufflé and needs to rise...I added some baking powder...

...and a little xanthan gum...1/4 teaspoon...

...and for good measure...or for going overboard...haha...I also added 1 teaspoon of egg replacer...that should be 'eggy' enough...

...then fold in the whipped aqua faba...

...Julia says it will be quite liquid...

...it's definitely poofy and foamy at this point anyway...

...set it in a pan of water...and bake it for about 45 minutes...

...then make a VEGAN CRÈME ANGLAISE...

...Julia says that the soufflé will shrink as it cools...

...spread your VEGAN CRÈME ANGLAISE on a serving dish...

...and reverse the soufflé onto it...

...then dissolve the remaining caramel in the mold with some water...

...pour some more VEGAN CRÈME ANGLAISE and the caramel syrup over the soufflé...

...it's a pretty dish...

...and the soufflé sliced and held it's shape perfectly...

...and it went perfectly with a nice cup of tea...

...and it was so delicious...

Substitutions:

...aqua faba and agar for the egg whites
...egg replacer, baking powder and xanthan gum for the eggs
...and all of the subs for the VEGAN CRÈME ANGLAISE

Mastering the Art of French Cooking (pp. 620-621)

VEGAN ÎLE FLOTTANTE

[Vegan Caramel Almond Soufflé, Unmolded - a cold dessert]

...Julia has this to say about this fluffy dessert...

"French floating island is an unmolded souffle of beaten egg whites, sugar, and flavoring, surrounded by a sauce so that it looks as though it were floating. Those little mounds of egg whites floating on custard which are usually called floating island in English are the French dessert, oeufs a la neige"

...and so I thought it was so strange that she used the english words for the dessert and translated them into french instead of the actual french name for the dessert...

...and as usual there are many...many steps to this dessert...so let's get started...

...a couple of preliminary ones...

...make a pralin and chop it up...

...and then make a caramel...

...I've made lots of caramel over the years I've been doing this project...

...it kind of always amazes me...

...it's just water and sugar...

...boiled together...

...until it starts to turn light brown...you know a sort of caramel colour...haha...

...and you do have to stop right then and take it off the heat as it will continue to colour and get bitter if you don't...

...and then you line your mold with the caramel and set it aside...

...after the caramel has set you butter the mold...

...and then you start whipping your vegan egg whites...aka...aqua faba...

...and it's another amazing transformation...

...beat in sugar and a little bit of salt until soft peaks form...

...there's really not a lot else to this recipe...so I'm going to add a little bit of agar agar to hopefully stabalize the fluff a little bit more...

...and I just whipped that into the vegan egg whites while it was still liquid...

...and I'm really only baking this long enough to melt the butter and soften the caramel because I don't think it's stable enough to withstand a long baking time...and I want it to set up nicely in the fridge...

...so then to serve it...there are more steps...ha...make a VEGAN CRÈME ANGLAISE

...and chill it and pour it into a serving dish...

...and then reverse the fluff onto it ...

...the caramel sort of sunk into the middle...being heavier than the fluff...

...sprinkle with the reserved pralin...

...I also saw images of this dessert with little spoonfuls of fluff floating on the custard...

...and that was pretty too...

...it was good...like eating custard with whipped cream on top...very fluffy...also very sweet...

Substitutions:

aqua faba and agar for the egg whites
all of the subs for the VEGAN CRÈME ANGLAISE

Mastering the Art of French Cooking (p. 622)