Friday 13 April 2012

White Chocolate Crème Brûlée with Passion fruit

I had quite a lot of inspiration to make this crème brûlée. Firstly, an article in the Times for a similar recipe which had passion fruit infused in it but no eggs – it was a simple ganache style recipe. Secondly, a random abundance of cream in my fridge that needed using up. Thirdly, it is my sister’s 20th birthday today and she loves white chocolate. As part of her birthday present I made her a book of 20 white chocolate recipes – truffles, cheesecake, tart, cake, mousse – every bake you can think of! A white chocolate crème brûlée was recipe number 16 and so I decided to combine the flavours of this brûlée with the Times passion fruit ideas. creme bruleeI’d never tried making a crème brûlée before but it is a dish I have often ordered at restaurants and enjoyed. I was apprehensive about doing it – visions of cream and eggs turning into a scrambled mess, slight concerns about setting the kitchen on fire with  a blowtorch – but it was actually easier than I thought. In this version, the white chocolate adds extra rich and creaminess to the custard that always contrasts so well with the dark caramel crunch of the topping. The tropical passion fruit works really well in cutting through the richness, preventing the dish becoming sickly and making it fresh. In a lot of white chocolate recipes the specific chocolate flavour gets lost, but happily in this recipe it is clearly distinguishable despite the actually rather small amount involved.white chocolate (2)White Chocolate Crème Brûlée with Passion fruit, adapted from a BBC recipe
Ingredients: 284ml double cream
50g white chocolate, broken into pieces
1 tsp vanilla bean paste
3 egg yolks
1 tbsp caster sugar , plus extra for topping
4 passion fruit

  1. Preheat the oven to 160'C/140'C fan. Heat the cream, chocolate and vanilla bean paste in a saucepan until the chocolate has melted. Take off the heat and allow to infuse and cool for 10 minutes.
  2. Whisk the egg yolks and sugar until pale, around 5 minutes. Pour in the chocolate cream. Strain into a jug and pour into 4-5 ramekins.
  3. Place in a roasting tray and pour boiling water halfway up the sides. Bake for 20-25 minutes until just set with a still wobbly centre. Chill in the fridge for at least 4 hrs.
  4. To serve, sprinkle a teaspoon of sugar on top of each brûlées and caramelise with a blowtorch or briefly under a hot grill. Leave caramel to harden and cool for a few seconds. Halve the passion fruit and scoop the pulp of one onto the top of each crème brûlée, then serve.



11 comments:

Rosa's Yummy Yums said...

Those must be to die for! A heavenly combination.

Cheers,

Rosa

Crunchy Creamy Sweet said...

What a delicious way to celebrate birthday and use up the cream! Brilliant! Thank you for stopping by my blog :) Have a wonderful weekend!

Shoutforfood said...

oh yummy...what a filling!

Jo said...

This sounds absolutely amazing! A white chocolate recipe book sounds brilliant too, lucky sister! I've never tried making creme brulee either but it's something I've always fancied doing.

laura@howtocookgoodfood said...

I love the idea of this recipe and also the fact it doesn't need too many ingredients. Bet your sister must love having you around!!

Xinmei @ Pudding Pie Lane said...

Passion fruit - yum! I've had creme brûlée (apparently Trinity College, Cambridge where I study invented it) before but it's always been plain, I much prefer this version :) Congrats on your first creme brûlée success!

The Caked Crusader said...

Creme brulee is Mr CC's weakness - the thought of adding white chocolate might just make him faint with happiness!

Faith said...

Your creme brulee looks lovely, Lucy! I bet the birthday girl was quite happy. :)

Simon said...

Hey - what temperature should the oven be set to? Thanks

Lucy said...

Simon - so sorry I forgot to put that in the recipe! Have amended it now. The oven should be 160'C or 140'C in a fan oven.

Alfie said...

White chocolate and passionfruit...what a heavenly combination. These look sublime!!