Burnt Caramel Pudding

After many years in both retail and in the food business I am not really much of a holiday person. When most people have extra time off, I have to work additional hours and it’s hard to get into the holiday spirit. That being said, I still love having friends over for dinner at this time of year.

We’re having a little get together tonight and serving posole  which is just the right dish for  our rainy evening. It’s spicy, heartwarming  and a great do-ahead dish. It’s actually better made the day before, which I love. When your guests arrive all you’ll need to do is serve some hors d’oeuvres and dish up bowls of this flavorful Southwestern stew.

I thought about making flan for dessert and for a very brief moment I even considered making the famous butterscotch budino, but remembering the many steps involved in that recipe, I opted for this simpler pudding. Yes you do have to make caramel (take care when doing this as you can go from a lovely dark color to burnt in a second) and there is the tempering of eggs involved, but all in all it comes together fairly quickly. The end result is a dessert that is rich and creamy and if you happen to have one leftover, I dare say that you you might be tempted to eat that one too!

Happy New Year everyone and thank you so much for stopping by my blog.

Burnt Caramel Pudding

2 cups heavy cream

1/2 vanilla bean
1/2 cup sugar
3 large egg yolks, room temperature
Fine sea salt

Heat the oven to 300 degrees F.

Pour the cream into a small saucepan. Split vanilla bean and scrape the seeds into the cream; toss the scraped pod in there too. Turn the heat to low to gently warm the cream.

Reserve 2 tablespoons of the sugar; pour remaining sugar and 1 1/2 tablespoons water into heavy-bottomed saucepan and set over medium heat, stirring until sugar dissolves. Then crank the heat to high and let the liquid bubble away — don’t stir; just swirl the pan occasionally — until it turns dark amber. This takes about 4 minutes, but watch closely because it happens fast.

Moving quickly, fish the vanilla pod out of the cream and save for another use. Slowly stir the warm cream into the caramel over medium heat. Once it comes to a boil (it will fast), turn off the heat and let the mixture cool for about 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, whisk the egg yolks with the remaining sugar and a pinch of salt in a medium bowl. Whisk a little of the cream/caramel mixture into the egg yolks. Gradually add the rest, until it’s all incorporated. Strain the mixture into a pitcher or large measuring cup and pour into four ramekins. Place the ramekins in a shallow pan half filled with cold water. If you like your caramel a bit salty like me, sprinkle a few extra grains of sea salt on top of each one.

Cook at 300 degrees for about an hour to an hour and 15 minutes. Chill for at least 3 hours, but it’s best if you can chill it overnight. Serve with whipped heavy cream.