Professional Baker Teaches You How To Make CRÈME CARAMEL!

Now it's time for a caramel dessert that every pastry chef needs to know .

Creme caramel .

Now , creme caramel is different than creme brulee .

It's got a lighter consistency and more of a silky texture , but it's all about the caramel .

Still before I get to the caramel though , I have to make the custard base .

So I'm going to break into a bowl two whole eggs and then separate out two yolks .

Now I'll add to this six tablespoons of sugar , give this a little whisk and now I'll grab my milk milk is a key difference between creme caramel and creme brulee .

Creme caramel uses milk .

Creme brulee uses whipping cream , makes it lower in fat and gives it that silky texture .

I'll measure out two cups and I do find 2% milk does work best while most other custards are prepared using hot milk .

Creme caramel custard is made using cold milk that ensures a gradual cooking process .

Guaranteeing the silky texture , a teaspoon of vanilla and then just a pinch of salt .

Stir that in .

And it's a good pastry chef habit to strain your custards before you bake it .

That way , every single bite will be silky smooth .

So as this settles , I'll take this opportunity to make my caramel layer .

I've got three tablespoons or thereabouts of water .

And this time you just need half a cup of sugar .

Always the addition of acidity or liquid sugar .

So just a little squeeze of lemon juice and now I'll get this going on high heat .

Always my brush and cool water handy .

And because I'm pouring this straight into my ramekins that are the base for the creme caramel .

I let this go to about a medium amber color , so a little darker than I did with the caramel apples and there we go .

So you do want to work fairly quickly now and divide this between your ramekins just pouring it right into the bottom of each four in total .

Oh , I love that smell .

Who could guess that burning something could smell so good and it doesn't take long .

The caramelized sugar has already set .

But even though it's rock solid now , once it cooks with the creme caramel custard on top , it liquefies the sugar underneath it and it actually allows you to remove it from the dish easily .

And now I just gently pour the custard over the cooled caramel .

Try and do it slowly so you make as few air bubbles as possible .

Now , the final little trick to take your creme caramel to pro level to remove those last few air bubbles .

I take a paper towel and just dab them or pop them , the paper towel will just pull them right away .

And now you are assured a silky perfect texture to your creme caramel to cook a custard .

You need a water bath .

A ba Marie .

That's why I have the Ramekins in this large roasting pan and the pan is actually a little bit higher than the Ramekins themselves .

So let me take these over carefully to my stove and I have a tea kettle with boiling hot water .

And I'm going to fill the roasting pan halfway up .

It's actually the gentle heat of the steam and the water itself , it almost insulates and protects the custard as it cooks it .

At the same time , I've preheated the oven to 300 degrees .

A low oven for that gentle slow cooking .

And the last step before these get baked is to actually cover the entire dish that way it holds in the heat .

The creme caramel take 30 to 35 minutes to bake and I check the doneness , not by jiggling the rain , but I insert a skewer in the center of the custard .

If it comes out clean , then I know the custard is done and I can't wait for you to see them once they've chilled and I can turn one out on a plate to show that beautiful caramel sauce .

And here are those beautiful creme caramel .

I've done my skewer test .

So I know they're fully cooked .

And before I can get to making this spectacular garnish .

I want to take them out of the water bath just so they stop cooking .

Now , here is a great tool .

It is a jar lifter that you use for lifting canning jars out of your pot .

The rubber coating makes it so easy to grip onto the ramekins to pull them out of the water .

Now , these have to cool to room temperature before I pop them in the fridge to chill for a good 3 to 4 hours .

But I have time right now to make these caramel hazelnut spikes .

These are actually single hazelnuts dipped in caramel and left to hang .

So each gets a spike or almost like an icicle of caramelized sugar .

So I have individual toasted and peeled hazelnuts and this may sound strange .

You have to stick a toothpick inside each one .

Now , a hazelnut kind of has a natural heart shape to it .

So you want the point at the bottom and not at the seam of the hazelnut , but on the side , you just lightly pierce the hazelnut .

Now for making a batch of caramel , just a couple of tablespoons of water and a half a cup of sugar .

And this time I'm adding a little corn syrup to keep the sugar liquefied as I'm cooking it .

But also the corn syrup helps elongate that spike after I dip the hazelnut in the caramelized sugar , high heat uncovered , no stirring .

You know , all the rules .

My goodness .

If you could count the kilos of sugar , I've caramelized .

You could definitely fill this kitchen a few times over .

Now .

My sugar is almost fully caramelized and I need to halt the cooking soon after I take it off the heat .

So I have an ice bath ready .

I drop the pot into a metal bowl filled with ice water and that immediately stops the caramelization at that perfect level .

And it also thickens the caramel .

At the same time before you start dipping your hazelnuts , you want to get a piece of styrofoam and elevate it and the elevation is to build the length on your hazelnut spikes .

And now I want to work with it while it's warm and take each hazelnut with that little heart point at the bottom , just dip it halfway .

There we go .

And you wanna to coax that droplet and then carry it over and you just let that drip hang down when you're dipping , make sure you don't dip the toothpick because then it's really stuck in the hazelnut .

Don't worry about the little threads and strings of caramelized sugar .

You see you can break those off after everything has cooled .

So now the idea is once it's set , you break it off at that point , pull the toothpick out and you've got this crazy little garnish that you can put on just about anything .

It could go on a slice of cake , a tart .

But you can make them ahead of time and keep them in an airtight container .

Just don't refrigerate your caramelized hazelnuts because that sugar will turn to a syrup and now that these are done , it is time to plate that creme caramel .

Yeah .

For a creme caramel to be really refreshing and satisfying .

As a dessert you want to serve it ice , ice cold .

So make sure you give it at least 3 to 4 hours to chill .

I've got a little palate knife .

I just run my pallette knife around place over and you will get that caramel syrup come out and you see the caramelized layer on top .

This lovely sweet syrup .

Couple of garnishes .

Oh , lovely .

And who would have guessed you could do so many things with caramel .

Hm .

Silky satin .

Perfect .