A Not Too Corny Little Dessert
This creamy, luscious dessert is only a few simple ingredients and steps away from making it right onto your table. Sweet Corn Creme Brulee is surprisingly easy to make and it’s so much fun! A sweet way to surprise your (friends, family, fellow quarantiners) dinner guests with. The best part is this can be made ahead then finished right before serving in the broiler or with your very own kitchen blow-torch. (I said blow-torch, yes, there are special tools involved in this!) It’s participation dessert as well, because who doesn’t love to take their spoon and crack the brulee to get to the creamy custard underneath.
Crème brûlée was uncommon in French and English cookbooks of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. It became extremely popular in the 1980s, “a symbol of that decade’s self-indulgence and the darling of the restaurant boom”, probably popularized by Sirio Maccioni at his New York restaurant Le Cirque.
Is That Corn In My Brulee? (Sweet Corn Creme Brulee)
This year my home garden corn crop was better than most years. That means I got a few ears that were actually bigger than 3 inches and that’s a win! Seriously though, there is nothing sweeter or more summer-tastic than homegrown corn. That’s what keeps me attempting to grow really good corn every year. When it’s just picked, It’s so sweet and so delicious, you almost don’t even need to cook it. That’s my inspiration for Sweet Corn Creme Brulee. Dessert done corn stand style.
Way Back In The Day
When we were kids (this will give you a clue as to how old I am), my dad would take us to the local produce 🌽 stand in the summer. We calle dit the corn stand, because that’s mostly what we bought. We’d get so excited just for the car trip and it was so farmlike. You never knew what was going to be happening at the stand. We’d grab bags of fresh corn for the week.
The stand is long gone now and what used to be sprawling farming land is now the extremely busy 101 and 405 freeway intersection connecting Los Angeles and the San Fernando Valley. It’s true the freeway was there even at that time, it was surrounded by fields for as far as you could see.
Even though I now live in a fairly rural area, I can see how each time something so treasured as an old farmstand is removed, you know, it’s not coming back. Each time a new traffic light is installed where there once was a stop sign or an avocado grove is removed or a nursery is flattened to make room for a new sub-division, none of that stuff is coming back. It’s gone for good ever.
We watched this really wonderful documentary called The Biggest Little Farm. If you’re interested in farming or old farming techniques and challenges, I highly recommend it. You can rent if for about $1.99 and it’s well worth it. Here’s a link:
Throw Back To The 80’s
I think of creme brulee as a total 80’s fancy-pants dessert. That’s when every restaurant was serving it. Let’s bring the fun of pyromania back into home kitchens now. Using a torch? What could possibly go wrong?
Back in the day, we bought kits to make brulee at home, complete with torching devices. Maybe that’s the part I really enjoyed the best. Using a blow torch, all-be-it pint-sized. None the less, that’s some fun cooking. Well, don’t bring the house down with an actual blow torch. If you don’t have a kitchen-sized brulee torch, you can just carefully caramelize the top right under the broiler.
Sweet Corn Creme Brulee
Wash and Shuck 2 large ears of corn.
Prep for Sweet Corn Creme Brûlée
Using a sharp knife, remove the kernels from the cobs. I do this by putting the corn into the center of a bundt pan, then all the corn falls into the center of this pan. This can actually be kind of a messy job without a little forethought about where the corn will actually fall. Believe me, corn kernels will fly.
Into a large nonstick saute pan over medium-low heat, melt 2 tablespoons of unsalted butter. Add the corn and cook stirring often until the corn starts to brown just slightly on the edges. Set aside.
Into a medium saucepan, add 3 cups of heavy cream with 1 cup of whole milk. Heat to just warm and add half of the sauteed corn kernels. Increase heat to medium. Stir occasionally, just until it comes to a simmer, just under a boil. Immediately turn off the heat and set aside to infuse at least 15 minutes.
Pour the mixture into a blender to puree.
Preheat oven to 300º
Into a large bowl, whisk 8 egg yolks with 1 cup of granulated sugar and 2 teaspoons of vanilla extract and 1/8 teaspoon salt.
Whisking constantly, gradually pour in the hot cream/corn mixture.
Add the remaining corn kernels into 8 6 ounce ovenproof ramekins. Pour the mixture into the bowls. Into a large baking dish, add the ramekins. Then, fill the baking dish with hot water just to about 1/3 to 1/2 way up the sides of the ramekins, making sure you don’t splash any water into the custards.
Bake
Bake at 300 degrees F, in the center of the oven, until almost set but still a bit soft in the center, 40-50 minutes. The custard should “shimmy” a bit when you shake the pan. Note that once they cool the custard will firm even more.
Carefully remove each dish from the water bath and let cool.
Tightly cover each dish with plastic wrap, making sure the plastic does not touch the surface of the custard. Refrigerate at least 2 hours or up to 24 hours.
“Brulee”
” Before Serving
Preheat a broiler to very hot (or fire up your kitchen torch). Uncover the chilled custards. Top each ramekin with about 1 teaspoon of sugar to completely top the custard. Place the ramekins on a baking sheet or in a roasting pan and broil until the sugar is melted and well browned 1 to 2 minutes. (Or brown them with your kitchen blowtorch). Make sure to watch them constantly as once the caramelization starts, it will go very quickly from deep brown to burnt.
Let cool 1 minute before serving.
Top with a few fresh berries before serving. Crack the top of the brulee and eat!
Enjoy!
Creme Brulee - Sweet Summer Corn Creme Brulee
Ingredients
- 2 ears sweet corn
- 1 tablespoon butter
- 3 cups heavy cream
- 1 cup whole milk
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1/8 teaspoon salt
- 8 egg yolks
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1/2 cup coarse sugar or raw sugar
Garnish: Fresh berries (blackberries, blueberries, raspberries)
Special Equipment - 8 6 ounce ramekins, kitchen torch or broiler
Instructions
- Wash and Shuck 2 large ears of corn.
- Using a sharp knife, remove the kernels from the cobs.
- Into a large nonstick saute pan over medium-low heat, melt 2 tablespoons of unsalted butter. Add the corn and cook stirring often until the corn starts to brown just slightly on the edges. Set aside.
- Into a medium saucepan, add 3 cups of heavy cream with 1 cup of whole milk.
- Heat to just warm and add half of the sauteed corn kernels.
- Increase heat to medium.
- Stir occasionally, just until it comes to a simmer, just under a boil.
- Immediately turn off the heat and set aside to let the corn flavors infuse (at least 15 minutes.)
- Pour the mixture into a blender to puree.
- Preheat oven to 300º
- Into a large bowl, whisk 8 egg yolks with 3/4 cup of granulated sugar and 2 teaspoons of vanilla extract and 1/8 teaspoon salt.
- Whisking constantly, gradually pour in the hot cream/corn mixture.
- Add the remaining corn kernels into 8 ovenproof ramekins.
- Pour the mixture into the bowls.
- Into a large baking dish, add the ramekins.
- Then, fill the baking dish with hot water just to about 1/3 to 1/2 way up the sides of the ramekins, making sure you don't splash any water into the custards.
- Bake at 300 degrees F, in the center of the oven until almost set but still a bit soft in the center, 40 to 50 minutes.
- The custard should "shimmy" a bit when you shake the pan.
- Note that once they cool the custard will firm even more.
- Carefully remove each dish from the water bath and let cool.
- Tightly cover each custard with plastic wrap, making sure the plastic does not touch the surface of the custard.
- Refrigerate at least 2 hours or up to 24 hours.
Before serving
- Preheat a broiler to high (or fire up your kitchen torch).
- Uncover the chilled custards.
- Top each ramekin with sugar to completely top the custard.
- Pour off the excess sugar.
- Place the ramekins on a baking sheet or in a roasting pan and broil until the sugar is melted and well browned, 1 to 2 minutes.
- (Or brown them with your kitchen blowtorch, following instructions from the manufacturer)
- Let cool 1 minute before serving.
- Top with a few fresh berries before serving.
- Crack the top of the brulee and eat!
- Enjoy!
Karen Harris https://www.bittersaltysoursweet.com
