Creme Brulee

I am way overdue for a new post. Unfortunately, I had computer mishaps with my last two blog posts. I am trying to rewrite what was lost. In the mean time, my adventures with raw milk continue...this time in the luscious form of creme brulee!

It is amazing to me how different real raw milk is from the pasteurized product. My family and I were out of town recently and were unable to get real milk and so we went for the next best thing: unhomogenized pasteurized milk. While the cream on the top was tasty and comforting, the milk just wasn't the same. Within a day of opening it, the milky bits stuck to the glass at the top of the bottle, had already developed a rank smell that seemed particulary unappetizing, as I have grown accustomed to the milder, cheesy smell of aging real milk. As I've said before, raw milk does not go rotten the way pasteurized milk does. I would never ingest pasteurized milk that is past its prime; as we all know, it's disgusting. Instead of becoming foul, raw milk begins to ferment. This is presumably how all of our favorite fermented dairy products (cheese, yogurt, kefir, sour cream) came to exist. People let their milk get old and depending on where in the world the were and what kind of container it was being stored in, it turned into one of many fermented dairy products. People began to select the ones that tasted better and they propagated them thus nurturing the cultures (strains of bacteria or yeast or both) that we use today.

Before we went out of town I had bought a half gallon of cream for several specific cooking projects. I didn't get to all of them before we left and my partner, who is passionate about not wasting food, was starting to drop some hints about his feelings on the unused quart of cream. Having read this article, I assured him that it would be put to good use. I told him that I was going to make creme brulee. I don't think he believed me, but I actually did make it. The cream was definitely not "sweet" anymore, but there was not even a hint of sourness in the finished product. This is a wonderful recipe; the level of sweetness was perfect (meaning not very sweet at all). Also, the cream I used had not been particularly well separated, so it was a good bit more milky than ideal, but it still formed a delicious custard. I imagine that this recipe could also work reasonably well with whole milk, let me know if you try it.

Here it is:

Creme Brulee with Soured Cream!

Serves 8

1 quart heavy, soured raw cream
8 medium egg yolks
1/2 cup Rapadura
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
8 rounded teaspoons Rapadura or Sucanat

Heat cream gently with vanilla but do not let it boil. Beat egg yolks with Rapadura or Sucanat until smooth and well blended. Beat vanilla and hot cream into yolk mixture. Pour into 8 4-inch ramekins (about 3/4 cup per ramekin). Set dishes in very shallow pans of warm water. Bake 45-60 minutes in a 300-degree oven until custard sets and forms a a crust on top.
Let custards cool, cover lightly with waxed paper and chill 4 hours in the refrigerator. To serve, sprinkle 1 rounded teaspoon Rapadura or Sucanat over the top of each. Place under the broiler until the sugar melts, being careful not to burn. (It melts very quickly!) Let the casseroles cool and then return to refrigerator until melted sugar forms a crust. Serve very cold.

Taken from here. Enjoy!