White Chocolate Raspberry Crème Brulee

Prep time: 20 minutes
Cooking time: 45-60 minutes

For this dish you will require some special tools, you may have some of them already, but if not, I recommend visiting Hotel & Equipment Supply Company (HESCO for short) located at 13421 St. Albert Trail. (780) 429.2727. Ask for Adam, and tell him that Paul sent you. He will be glad to take care of you! While you’re there, shop for all of your culinary needs, as they have a fantastic showroom, and all of the tools that we chefs require.

Special tools required:
Crème brulee dishes or 6 oz. ramekins

Small butane blowtorch

Ingredients:
8 pc. egg yolks
½ cup sugar
750 ml. heavy cream
130 gr. white chocolate
½ pint fresh raspberries (you can certainly substitute 1 cup of frozen raspberries, or any berry of your liking, for this as well)
1 tsp. vanilla bean paste (this can be purchased at Qzina Specialty Foods, a fantastic pastry supplier, located at 12547- 129 St., or you can substitute vanilla extract, although the flavor pales by comparison)
Additional sugar for caramelizing the brulees

1. Preheat the oven to 325F
2. Place a pot of water on to heat
3. In a large bowl, combine the egg yolks and sugar, whisk until combined
4. Chop the white chocolate coarsely
5. In a sauce pot combine the heavy cream, and chopped white chocolate, and heat to a mild simmer, but be careful not to bring this to a boil, whisking regularly to melt the white chocolate
6. Now, this is the tricky part, and you may require an extra hand for a quick moment, you are going to combine the eggs with the cream mixture. Very slowly pour the cream mixture into the eggs, while whisking constantly. It is vital that you slowly add the hot cream to the cold eggs, if you do this too fast, the eggs will cook and curdle, and your custard will be grainy, or worse still, chunky.
7. Divide your berries evenly throughout the crème brulee dishes and place them in a baking pan. You will need a pan that is 2-3” high. Now, fill the brulee dishes with the custard.

**chef’s tip-take your blowtorch and lightly torch the top of the dishes to pop the bubbles to end up with a smooth surface

8. Place the baking pan on the centre rack of the oven and take the pot of hot water and pour it around the brulee dishes, up to about half an inch from the top of the dishes, creating a baine marie, a water bath. It is the water bath and the moist heat around the dishes that causes the custard to slowly cook rather than bake
9. Bake the crème brulees until the custard starts to firm up, 45-60 minutes, do keep in mind that this particular custard will set a little softer than a classic crème brulee, because when chocolate is hot, it’s soft, and firms up as it cools
10. Remove the crème brulees from the oven and the water bath. Allow to cool for at least an hour
11. Top the custards with about 1-2 tbsp. of sugar and spread out thinly
12. Torch the sugar, moving the torch constantly, to slowly caramelize the sugar, rather than to burn it

Now for the best part. Grab a spoon, crack that crunchy sugar top, and dig in to this tasty treat!