CARAMEL CUSTARD

 Caramel Custard is a very popular rich custard dessert with a layer of soft caramel on top. Caramel custard is easy dish to prepare and doesn’t take lot of time. Caramel custard is well known all over the world as crème custard or milk custard. Caramel custard is an all time favorite dessert liked by one and all. Every country seems to have a caramel coated custard dessert that is popular.

Caramel custard is called as crème caramel in France whereas in Latin America, Spanish speaking countries, and the Philippines, it is called flan, or flan de leche (milk custard). There are many who are a bit confused about Caramel custard and crème brulee. Caramel custard is made of milk and has a soft layer of caramel on top; crème brulee is prepared by cream which is custard with a hard caramel top.

Caramel custard is prepared with just few ingredients like the milk, eggs, sugar, vanilla essence and caramel. Caramel custard well known over the countries like Argentina, Brazil, Mexico and Uruguay as crème caramel and is usually eaten with ‘dulce de leche’. Dulce de leche is a common name for milk caramel in Spanish made of thick jam and caramel candy prepared by heating both to derive its taste from caramelized sugar.

Dulce de leche is used for flavoring candies and other sweet dishes like the cakes, cookies or ice cream as well as crème caramel (flan in Spanish and Portuguese). In France and Britain, flan usually means a custard tart served with fruit topping quite different from the Spanish and North American flan. ‘Copa Lolita’, a typical dish of Cuba which is a small caramel flan served with one or two scoops of Vanilla ice-cream. Other variations of flan include coconut or rum raisin topping.

Caramel is a confection that is beige to dark brown in color prepared by the caramelization of sugar. Caramel is used to flavor puddings, desserts and beverages, such as Coca-Cola. Caramel is also used as a food colorant. Caramel is made by heating sugar slowly to around 170ºC / 338ºF. As the sugar melts and approaches this temperature, the molecules break down into volatile compounds with a characteristic caramel color and flavor.

Firstly to make the caramel, melt sugar in a sauce pan adding a very little water and boil well till it turn to a nice golden brown color. Most of the professional chefs’ do not add water and melt the sugar till caramelized stage, but its needs practice or else the caramel would burn. Pour the caramel in the mould and swirl the mould to coat bottom of mould when the caramel is still hot. Set it aside.

To prepare the custard, in a mixing bowl lightly whisk eggs with sugar. When soft and creamy add vanilla essence and mix and then pour in milk and whisk rapidly until well blended. Strain the mixture to remove the egg white strands. Pour this mixture in the mould with caramel and bake in oven or baked in a double boiler. Do check the method of cooking in the video at:

 

 

You can also add grated nutmeg for enhancing the flavor of the custard. Refrigerate the caramel custard and serve chilled. To get smooth texture custard, the mixture should be strained to remove bubbles before pouring into the mould. Caramel custard is light soft luscious baked dessert chilled and turned out of the mould and serve well in a plate. Perfect Caramel custard should just melt down into mouth.

It’s definitely not a hard task to make this caramel custard. Usually in the culinary school during the early days of learning the recipes, Caramel custard is one such dish which is taught first as its one of the easiest desserts to prepare. The same ways if you would like to teach your kids to learn cooking first teach them the Caramel custard and they would really enjoy making this dish.

Creme caramel is one of a species of French custard desserts known as cremes renversees, literally creams turned upside down.Creme caramel should not be confused with creme au caramel, which is a caramel-flavoured cream dessert. Another name for this dish is “Flan Caramel Custard”.

It is served with hard caramel top and you can also serve it with whipped cream and fruits, of your own choice. In the later part of the 20th century crème caramel occupied an excessively large amount of territory in European restaurant dessert menus. This was probably due to the convenience, for restaurateurs, of being able to prepare a lot in advance and keep them until needed.

In India, Caramel custard is very similar to an Indian sweet called the Junnu in Telugu by taste and texture. It is a sweet made from the lactating cow’s milk usually prepared by the first 3 to 5 days milk of the cow that gave birth to calves. It’s prepared only few times in a year.

Caramel Custard

 

 

 

Yield : 4 (4 servings)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Recipe of Caramel Custard

 

 

Ingredient Name	Unit	Quantity
egg	number	3
Milk	ml	500
sugar	grams	50
sugar for caramel	grams	20
vanilla essence	drops	4

Directions | How to make Caramel Custard
1. Beat egg and mix it with milk. 2. add vanilla essence and  sugar to it. 3. For caramel - In a steel vessel , put  sugar and heat it on medium flame. Once suger starts melting, spread it all over the vessel. wait till suger turns little brownish in color. Remove the vessel from stove. 4. Now in this vessel add your egg mixture. put in the oven 375F for 45 mins. 5. Let it cool down a little bit, then put it in fridge. 6. Serve chill. you can also add nutmeg grated for better flavor