WHEW! this has been a seriously weird week. what with canceled high school camp, a day off from a typhoon 8, and a very hastily reorganized "camp" day, i 'm pretty sure i'm allowed to say it's been a truly tiring and confusing few days. add on two days of school, a very confusing ap psych personal reflection journal assignment, and a briefing for a service opportunity (more on that later), i'm exhausted and so ready for the weekend. oh, yes, did i mention i've been feeling kinda sick up until today? (thank goodness for fridays.)
all that aside, i'm finally going back to catching up with my posting! (yay!) i've been cooking up quite a few things lately, and i've been loving all of it. if any of you follow me on instagram, you'd know by now that i made dinner last weekend and that i served an orange cinnamon creme caramel for dessert. i was originally going to stick with vanilla pods for a more classic take on the classic and iconic dessert, but i decided at the last minute to go with my favorite citrus zest and cinnamon, because , um, hello?! it's autumn?! (not that the weather in "early" autumn is any different from "late summer" in hong kong. actually.... we only have extremely humid and suffocatingly (is that a word?) hot and not so humid and kinda slightly chilly. take your pick. what are seasons again?) and what better way to celebrate my favorite season (well. the idea of autumn) than with my favorite warming spice?
all that aside, i'm finally going back to catching up with my posting! (yay!) i've been cooking up quite a few things lately, and i've been loving all of it. if any of you follow me on instagram, you'd know by now that i made dinner last weekend and that i served an orange cinnamon creme caramel for dessert. i was originally going to stick with vanilla pods for a more classic take on the classic and iconic dessert, but i decided at the last minute to go with my favorite citrus zest and cinnamon, because , um, hello?! it's autumn?! (not that the weather in "early" autumn is any different from "late summer" in hong kong. actually.... we only have extremely humid and suffocatingly (is that a word?) hot and not so humid and kinda slightly chilly. take your pick. what are seasons again?) and what better way to celebrate my favorite season (well. the idea of autumn) than with my favorite warming spice?
i've been wanting to make creme caramel since july, and i finally had the perfect excuse last last weekend; i'd bought four shallow tins for puddings, and we had all the ingredients at home, plus i was in charge of dinner. perfect. i'd been debating whether to go for a pavolva filled with orange and cinnamon to reminisce the "last notes of summer" (oh look there's me trying to be poetic. not that there were any "last notes of summer" to reminisce about, since i live in hong kong and the weather is still in the 30C's range. it's approaching late september.) but again, my urge to make creme caramel won in the end, and i came up with caramel-y orange-y goodness. mmmmmm.
there's no real key trick to getting this smooth, sweet dessert right. don't worry if your caramel doesn't perfectly coat the bottom of your tin. (just try your best) try to cover as much as possible, and for the pudding mixture, the only thing you need to keep it from is forming bubbles. (mine formed quite a few, but none of them burst, so i had a slightly pocked inside and on the side, but that's easily avoidable if you let the creme caramels sit for a bit before you bake them.) the rest is up to the waterbath in the oven; make sure you have enough water in the roasting pan, that your creme cararmels have enough time in the oven to set, and that you cool them and refrigerate them for long enough so that the caramel at the bottom of the tin has enough time to solidify before you flip them over onto a plate. as you can see, there will be a small puddle of caramel on the side, but it turned out to look pretty good, and they ended up coating the orange slices in plated the dessert with , which turned out really well when the sprinkle of cinnamon on the side stuck to the orange as well. edible presentation is the best.
creme caramels are a simple and easy but impressive dessert, and this slight citrusy and cinnamony twist on the classic makes perfect sense to me :D
(small note: i halved the recipe for my family of four, but i've posted the full recipe after the jump.)
recipe after the jump :)
there's no real key trick to getting this smooth, sweet dessert right. don't worry if your caramel doesn't perfectly coat the bottom of your tin. (just try your best) try to cover as much as possible, and for the pudding mixture, the only thing you need to keep it from is forming bubbles. (mine formed quite a few, but none of them burst, so i had a slightly pocked inside and on the side, but that's easily avoidable if you let the creme caramels sit for a bit before you bake them.) the rest is up to the waterbath in the oven; make sure you have enough water in the roasting pan, that your creme cararmels have enough time in the oven to set, and that you cool them and refrigerate them for long enough so that the caramel at the bottom of the tin has enough time to solidify before you flip them over onto a plate. as you can see, there will be a small puddle of caramel on the side, but it turned out to look pretty good, and they ended up coating the orange slices in plated the dessert with , which turned out really well when the sprinkle of cinnamon on the side stuck to the orange as well. edible presentation is the best.
creme caramels are a simple and easy but impressive dessert, and this slight citrusy and cinnamony twist on the classic makes perfect sense to me :D
(small note: i halved the recipe for my family of four, but i've posted the full recipe after the jump.)
recipe after the jump :)