Pumpkin Ginger Creme Brulee

I made this for a twist on a classic dessert just in time for 'Friends-Giving' Thanksgiving dinner. This was my first time making creme brulee but I was very happy with how it turned out, as were my guinea pigs.

The pumpkin maintains a traditional holiday taste with the ginger giving it a nice kick and an unexpected layer of flavor.

Ingredients:

1/2 cup whole milk
1 1/2 cups heavy cream

1/8 teaspoon cinnamon
2 pinches nutmeg
2 pinches ginger
1 pinch ground cloves

4 egg yolks
1/2 cup white sugar
1/4 cup pumpkin puree

coarse sugar to coat each ramekin, about 1/4 cup


Preheat oven to 300 degrees.

Heat the milk and cream with the cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, and cloves over medium. Use a fine-mesh strainer to dust the spices into the milk and cream mixture, stirring with each addition so the spices get incorporated into the liquid and don't clump. Heat while stirring constantly until just boiling, then immediately take off heat and let cool.

While the milk and spice mixture is cooling, whisk 4 egg yolks with the white sugar in a large mixing bowl.

While whisking, mix the milk mixture into the eggs and sugar.

Whisk in the pumpkin puree.

Pour into ramekins (or oven-proof cups), and place in a hot water bath as pictured below.

The water bath will keep the consistency of the custards smooth by letting them cook more gently. 

Bake at 300 degrees for about 30 minutes, as long as 45. To test for doneness, gently shake the tray. If the custards have set along the outsides and shimmy a bit in the middle, they are done. If they are still totally liquidy in the middle, leave them in for another 10 minutes or so. 

When they are ready to come out of the oven, remove the custards from the hot water bath and chill in plastic wrap for up to one day before service or at least one hour. 

Before serving, place enough coarse sugar on each custard top to completely cover them. Caramelize the sugar with a creme brulee torch or broil on high until caramelized dark brown but not burned. 

Crack the top with a spoon and enjoy!

Bakery style cookies with chocolate chips, walnuts, coconut, and oats

I have been on a quest for my favorite cookie- and one I could make in my kitchen. I have always loved the chewy, dense, perfectly soft bakery cookies as big as your tea saucer that you have to eat in two different sittings- or not. So, I set out to replicate them and include my favorite cookie ingredients along the way.

This is a basic recipe that can have various ingredients added and taken out by preference, built-in creativity!

3/4 cup unsalted butter, completely melted (you can brown the butter for a rich, toffee flavored cookie)
1 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
1 egg
1 egg yolk
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt

semisweet chocolate chips
shredded coconut
walnuts
oats

Once the butter has cooled, cream the sugars with melted butter until well incorporated. Add egg and egg yolk, beat. Add extract, stir well. Combine dry ingredients in a separate mixing bowl, add in batches to the wet ingredients until smooth. Add chocolate chips, walnuts, coconut, oats, and any other additional ingredients.

This is the important step for getting chewy, fat cookies. You need to bake the cookies at a lower heat (325 degrees) for a longer amount of time (about 15 minutes). The amount of batter used for each cookie should be about a fourth of a cup or the amount that you can just ball up in your fist. Also crucial is that you pre-cflatten your cookies before baking, otherwise you will get dome cookies that are raw in the middle.

Enjoy right out of the oven, as hot as you can stand, but beware hot molten chocolate burns!