It's only a few days until vacation time, and that makes it really hard to focus on work. The unbearable heat doesn't help, either. With 3 desktop PCs always on at the office, it gets at least a couple of degrees hotter than outside.
Of course, there is no air-conditioning, and when I'm typing, my wrists touch the hot surface of the overheated laptop. Unfortunately, the coolness of Mac laptops is limited to the metaphorical; the "air" should have been called "plasma" instead. Remember that wet wristbands help you cool down when exercising? For the same reason, touching the underside of your wrists on a hot laptop in a hot room for most of the day produces a constant feeling of getting burned, or to use the cooking euphemism,
caramelized.
To make caramel, all you need to do is burn some sugar. Wet the sugar a bit at first, so that it will be liquid in the pan and remain liquid as the water evaporates and the sugar melts. This way, when all the water is gone and the sugar gets burnt, it'll be done evenly. Keep moving it around by tilting the pan. The moment it turns brown take it away from heat. You might need to stop it from burning further by touching the underside of the pan on some water momentarily, if you take it off the heat too late.
After a while, it starts to cool down and becomes thicker. Use a spoon to take a bit and let it flow back into the pan. When it's ready, it will have a honey-like consistency, and there will be an even string of caramel flowing from the spoon to the pan. You can make caramel baskets then, using a ladle. Move the spoon back and forth over an inverted ladle so that the string of caramel stays on the ladle. Keep moving the spoon back and forth, making crisscrossing threads of caramel on the back of the ladle. Also make some cyclic ones around the edge. The caramel thread solidifies very fast and will stay there. Use a pair of paper-scissors to cut the extra strings from around the edge, let the ladle cool down, and the "basket" should be easy to remove.
It took me a couple of tries to make an acceptable basket and unmold it successfully. Luckily, you can always recycle the failed attempts and any extra threads, by dropping them back into the pan to melt again.
At first, I just made the caramel to play around a bit, and was going to throw it away afterward. But then, I thought about crème caramelée, a nice, light, easy dessert. Spoon some of the still-liquid caramel into three ramekins so that it just covers the bottom, and set aside to cool and harden. Set a cup of milk with a drop of vanilla extract (or vanilla bean, if you have some) over medium heat, and stir occasionaly to avoid a skin from forming on the surface. While waiting for the milk, whisk an egg yolk, an egg, and three spoons of sugar, until the sugar dissolves. When the milk starts to bubble at the edges, take it off the heat and whisk it slowly, little by little into the egg mix, to temper it without cooking the egg.
Then, ladle the custard mix into the ramekins. Keep a spoon inverted close to the caramel, and ladle the mix so that it drops on the spoon and flows down, to avoid "digging" a hole into the caramel with the hot custard mix. Put the ramekins in an oven pan, move to a medium-hot oven, and fill the pan with hot water to half their height. Cook until a toothpick comes out clean.
Let the custards cool down, and then refrigerate for an hour.
To serve, run a knife around the edge, and flip over a plate.
The hard caramel has turned into a nice runny syrup. Soak the ramekin for a while before washing if there's some hard caramel left in it. If you have some caramel left in the pan, you can make extra caramel syrup for garnishing by adding some water (carefully if the caramel is hot), moving back over low heat, and stir until all the hard parts dissolve. Let it cool and it will thicken into a nice caramel syrup. Alternatively, do the same with heavy cream to get butterscotch, which is also nice for garnishing desserts and ice-creams.
I added some extra caramel syrup around the custard, and covered it with a caramel basket for garnish.
Here it is, a nice chilled vanilla custard, served with both liquid and solid caramel.
To eat, break the basket with the back of the spoon, and spoon together the bits of caramel thread, the vanilla custard and the caramel syrup.
To make caramel, all you need to do is burn some sugar. Wet the sugar a bit at first, so that it will be liquid in the pan and remain liquid as the water evaporates and the sugar melts. This way, when all the water is gone and the sugar gets burnt, it'll be done evenly. Keep moving it around by tilting the pan. The moment it turns brown take it away from heat. You might need to stop it from burning further by touching the underside of the pan on some water momentarily, if you take it off the heat too late.
After a while, it starts to cool down and becomes thicker. Use a spoon to take a bit and let it flow back into the pan. When it's ready, it will have a honey-like consistency, and there will be an even string of caramel flowing from the spoon to the pan. You can make caramel baskets then, using a ladle. Move the spoon back and forth over an inverted ladle so that the string of caramel stays on the ladle. Keep moving the spoon back and forth, making crisscrossing threads of caramel on the back of the ladle. Also make some cyclic ones around the edge. The caramel thread solidifies very fast and will stay there. Use a pair of paper-scissors to cut the extra strings from around the edge, let the ladle cool down, and the "basket" should be easy to remove.
It took me a couple of tries to make an acceptable basket and unmold it successfully. Luckily, you can always recycle the failed attempts and any extra threads, by dropping them back into the pan to melt again.
At first, I just made the caramel to play around a bit, and was going to throw it away afterward. But then, I thought about crème caramelée, a nice, light, easy dessert. Spoon some of the still-liquid caramel into three ramekins so that it just covers the bottom, and set aside to cool and harden. Set a cup of milk with a drop of vanilla extract (or vanilla bean, if you have some) over medium heat, and stir occasionaly to avoid a skin from forming on the surface. While waiting for the milk, whisk an egg yolk, an egg, and three spoons of sugar, until the sugar dissolves. When the milk starts to bubble at the edges, take it off the heat and whisk it slowly, little by little into the egg mix, to temper it without cooking the egg.
Then, ladle the custard mix into the ramekins. Keep a spoon inverted close to the caramel, and ladle the mix so that it drops on the spoon and flows down, to avoid "digging" a hole into the caramel with the hot custard mix. Put the ramekins in an oven pan, move to a medium-hot oven, and fill the pan with hot water to half their height. Cook until a toothpick comes out clean.
Let the custards cool down, and then refrigerate for an hour.
To serve, run a knife around the edge, and flip over a plate.
The hard caramel has turned into a nice runny syrup. Soak the ramekin for a while before washing if there's some hard caramel left in it. If you have some caramel left in the pan, you can make extra caramel syrup for garnishing by adding some water (carefully if the caramel is hot), moving back over low heat, and stir until all the hard parts dissolve. Let it cool and it will thicken into a nice caramel syrup. Alternatively, do the same with heavy cream to get butterscotch, which is also nice for garnishing desserts and ice-creams.
I added some extra caramel syrup around the custard, and covered it with a caramel basket for garnish.
Here it is, a nice chilled vanilla custard, served with both liquid and solid caramel.
To eat, break the basket with the back of the spoon, and spoon together the bits of caramel thread, the vanilla custard and the caramel syrup.
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