Easy catalonian cream
Today’s recipe is another incursion in Spanish gastronomy’s typical desserts -in the easy way-. Genetically it is very similar to French crème brûlée, although there are two remarkable differences between these two sister creams: the way to cook (crème brûlée is normally heated in a double boiler, while Catalonian cream is normally cooked in a saucepan) and if it contains milk or not (Catalonian cream contains both cream and milk, while crème brûlée only contains cream).
Later it comes the issue of the burnt sugar, for which there are several techniques; judging by my photos and by my pseudo intermittent and irregular layer of burnt sugar, you can easily guess that the blowtorch and the salamander were conspicuous by their absence; this one has been my first experience burning sugar with oven grill, far approximation to what it should be a crunchy burnt sugar layer.
I will keep improving the technique in the next attempts and if any eye-catching result, there will be a new photo to see the contrast :).
Ingredientes for 4 people
750 ml of fresh whole milk
3 egg yolks
1 tablespoon of Maizena (refined corn flour)
1 stick of cinnamon
Lemon peel
80 gr of white sugar (or a bit more if you like sweet a lot)
Directions
Whisk egg yolks with sugar and Maizena and reserve it.
Heat milk with lemon peel and cinnamon stick until it boils.
Take it out from heat, add yolk mixture to the milk and stir it
Put it back to low heat and stir frequently until it gets thick (it does not have to boil again).
Put the mixture into small bowls and let them retrieve room temperature.
Pour a layer of sugar on top of each one and burn it with a small kitchen torch.