Orange Cinnamon Creme Brulee

Orange Cinnamon Creme Brulee is a rich orange cinnamon flavored custard, topped with a layer of hard caramel. It is a gluten free dessert.

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This Week’s Theme

Theme of the week is gluten free desserts. There are many deserts across the cuisines that are gluten free. The most famous and popular gluten free dessert worldwide is creme brulee, a rich French dessert. Today’s recipe is creme brulee with orange cinnamon flavor.

Creme Brulee

Creme brulee is a rich custard topped with a thick, crisp and a hard layer of carmel or burnt sugar. Brulee means burnt, hence creme brulee is often known as burnt creme. This is usually baked in ramekins or in gratin dish.

The basic ingredients for creme brulee are heavy cream, vanilla bean, egg yolks and sugar. As with any dessert, modify the basic recipe for different flavors and today’s recipe is orange cinnamon creme brulee. Bake creme brulee in an oven, in a water bath and refrigerate to set completely. Just before serving, caramelize the top with sugar using a torch or in an oven broiler.

Today’s recipe for orange cinnamon creme brulee is from Delicious Desserts. I followed the recipe to T but for one substitution, heavy cream with whole milk. Next time, another modification I would do is use ½ cup or more sugar for the custard and rest for the caramel.

How to make Orange Cinnamon Creme Brulee

Source: Anne William’s Look & Cook, Delicious Desserts
Total Time: at least 4 hours
Preparation: 15 – 20 minutes
Bake Time: 40 minutes
Serves: 8

Ingredients:

• 2” Cinnamon Stick, broken into two
• 4 cups or 1 quart Heavy Cream (I used whole milk)
• 2 – 3 teaspoon Orange Zest or Zest of 1 Orange
• 8 Egg Yolks
• 1 cup Granulated Sugar, divided into ⅓ cup and ⅔ cups

Preparation:

• In a saucepan, take cinnamon stick and roast on medium – low flame for few seconds until aromatic. Turn off the flame and let the pan cool for few minutes.
• Pour milk/heavy cream to pan, throw in orange zest and bring it to just a boil. Do not let it boil. Turn off the flame, cover and let the flavors infuse for 10 – 15 minutes.
• Preheat the oven to 375 F.
• In another bowl, whisk egg yolks and ⅓ cup sugar until mixed and sugar is dissolved.
• Whisking the yolk mixture, gradually add milk/cream until well blended.
• Run the custard through a strainer, pour the custard in individual ramekins or a wide gratin dish. I used four 7 oz
  ramekins and one 20 oz CorningWare bowl.
• Place a kitchen towel or a dish towel in a roasting pan, place the ramekins or gratin dish on the towel in roasting pan, pour hot water until it comes halfway up the ramekins.
• Bake in preheated oven for 35 – 40 minutes until a thin layer is formed on top and the custard is set but not firm. When ramekin is shaken, the custard should be little wobbly.
• Remove ramekins from water bath, let cool to room temperature and refrigerate for 3 – 8 hours or until set.
• Before serving, set the oven to broil mode. Evenly sprinkle ⅔ cup sugar on top of creme/custard ramekins. Wipe off the sugar from the edges before putting under broiler.
• Take some cold water and few ice ice cubes in a roasting pan, place the ramekins in it and put under the broiler, very close to the fire, for 3-5 minutes. Depending on how close the ramekins are to the fire, it could take less than or more than 5 minutes. It took almost 7-8 minutes for me. I put it on the second rack from the fire. I was afraid to put it directly under fire on top most rack..
• Remove from oven, let the caramel set for few minutes and serve. Caramel layer will be firm for at least 2-3 hours at room temperature.

Note:

• Sugar – I used ⅓ cup of sugar for the creme/custard and ⅔ cups for caramel. Next time I will use at least ½ cup of sugar for creme/custard and rest for caramel.
• Don’t forget to wipe the sugar from the edges of the ramekin before putting under the broiler. Else will end up with burnt sugar on the edges, as seen in my images.
• Use a creme brulee torch if you have one, to carmelize sugar. I am unhappy with the broiler method.

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