Spiced Plum Creme Brulee

It’s the middle of the week and so here’s a little comfort food recipe to brighten the day. Call me pretentious, but whatever the weather I can never say no to a well made crème brulee. For me a sweet set custard with a crunchy caramel top is heaven in a ramekin. So, as always when making my own recipe, I’ve decided to take the classic and customise it a bit.

Since I was little fresh fruit and custard has been a staple comfort food dessert. Chop up some bananas/peaches/plums, whop a bit of custard on them and I’m happy. So it makes sense that when some spiced plums are popped into the bottom of a ramekin and then toped with custard and baked, it creates a stunningly tasty pot of goodness that brings back memories of sitting on the sofa with the flu, wrapped in a blanket and watching Disney.

(Note: If you don’t have a blowtorch you can caramelise the sugar under the grill. Be careful with this though as it can burn very easily (as I’ve done a bit in these ones))

Recipe

Serves 5

Time: 30 minutes prep time, 40 minutes cooking time

Ingredients

• 4 Plums
• 1 tsp Cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp Ginger
• 350ml Double cream
• 1 tbsp Vanilla bean paste
• 70g Caster sugar
• 4 Egg yolks

Method

1. Pre-heat the oven to 150˚C.
2. Begin by preparing the plums. Cut the plums in half and remove the stones. Then cut them into eighths. Pat the segments down with kitchen roll to remove any excess moisture, (this is important as too much moisture from the plums will cause the custard to split).
3. Then put the segments into a bowl and sprinkle over the cinnamon and ginger. Stir around in the bowl to coat in the spices and then leave to one side for now.
4. Put the cream and vanilla into a saucepan and bring to the boil over a medium heat. Then reduce the heat and simmer for a couple more minutes.
5. Take a heatproof bowl and put the sugar and egg yolks into it. The whisk them until pale and fluffy (I use a hand whisk, but an electric whisk can also be used here).
6. Pour the cream slowly over the egg mixture, whisking continuously as you do so until it’s all incorporated.
7. Put a sieve over a jug and strain the mixture through it.
8. Share the plums out between 5 ramekins, making a little layer of them in the bottom of each ramekin.
9. Pour the crème brulee mix over the top so that it comes 2/3 up the sides of the ramekins.
10. Take a large roasting tin and put the crème brulees into it. Rest this on the middle oven shelf and then pour hot water into the tin so it comes ½ way up the sides of the ramekins.
11. Push the tin fully into the oven, cover with a baking tray, leaving a gap at one side of the tin to allow steam to escape, and bake for 40-45 minutes. You want them to be mostly set with a little wobble in the middle.
12. Take the tin out of the oven and remove the ramekins from the water to chill.
13. You can keep these cooled, set custards in the fridge for up to 3 days, until needed.
14. When ready to serve sprinkle 1tsp of caster sugar over the each crème brulee. Then take a blowtorch (or put under the grill) and heat lightly to caramelise.
15. Leave the caramel to set slightly before serving!

Thanks for reading!

Emma x