KBB Challenge # 21: Créme Brûlée

One of the big issues in Germany is about dioxin which was found first chicken eggs, chicken meat and later also in pork meat. This issue is almost everyday in the news and people talk about it. Chicken meat was even on special offer because people was afraid to consume it. One of Germany's newspaper wrote about dioxin and on that article it's written that there aren't dioxin-free-foodstuffs. Eggs shouldn't contain more than 3 picogram per gram fat and it's also valid for milk products. In the current issue, eggs contain 4 times more. We also heard from one of our favorite radio station that dioxin is formed through burning. Somehow it's strange that a control-freak-country like Germany always has this kind of case with foods. Or this kind of case happens because there are too many control?

At the sumpermarkets I'd noticed that there are two different kind of eggs; Bodenhaltung (barn eggs) and Freilandhaltung (free-range eggs). Something that I didn't find at the normal supermarkets years ago. I've tried both classes and found that free-range eggs taste better for soft-boiled eggs.

For not being afraid of dioxin, I still buy poultry and eggs then without eggs I don't think I can take part of this month's challenge of KBB. I found this simple recipe of my favorite dessert. I used vanilla sugar and skipped the vanilla pod. But if you use a vanilla pod, score it lengthwise and run the knife up the pod to remove the vanilla seeds. My second attempt was ginger créme brûlée. I used sugar and grated 50 gr ginger, squished it to get its juice. The result was a big hit during the coffee/tea time with friends. I don't have a kitchen blowtorch, so I brûlée-ed under a very a hot grill and it was the challenging part. I didn't get a thick caramel like I wanted to but still I'm happy to finally make my favorite dessert.

Source: Chef Koch

Ingredients:
400 ml cream
200 ml full fat milk
90 gr vanilla sugar
4 egg yolks
Raw brown sugar for topping

Directions:
Combine the cream, milk, sugar and egg yolks. Mix well, set aside for some hours or overnight
Preheat the oven to 150C
Stir again the cream mixture and be carefull not to froth. Pour the mixture into your desired dish. I used a colader to avoid bubbles in the mixtures. Stand the dish in a roasting tray and fill it with water half way up the dish. Bake about 40 to 45 minutes or until the custard mixture has set but still slightly wobbly in the centre. When the custard forms some bubbles, down the temperature a little bit. Allow to cool to room temperature then place in the fridge until ready to serve. 20 minutes before serving, sprinkle with raw brown sugar and caramelize under a very hot grill or using a kitchen blowtorch

Note from Recipe's writer:
The secret result of Créme brûlée doesn't depend on the exact recipe and how to prepare it but it more depends on the right size of the dish which should not higher than 2,5 - 3 cm and bigger than 12 cm in diameter. Best is using a porcelain heat resistance dish