Crème Brûlée Sans Eggs

Translated in English, Crème Brûlée means Burnt Cream. It is a classic French dessert consisting of a rich egg custard base topped with a layer of caramelized sugar. In December, Vimala Lakshmi of Cooking Club challenged the members of Gayathri's Eggless Baking Group to bake Crème Brûlée Sans Eggs...

The recipe she suggested by the celebrated Indian chef Sanjeev Kapoor. It had 4 egg yolks and 1 egg. How on earth was I supposed to substitute so many eggs ! Google revealed that most eggless recipes of Crème Brûlée involved gelation, agar agar powder or china grass. Since I do not use any of those products,  I decided to skip the December challenge until I came across Sharanya Pathmanathan's post of Eggless Crème Brûlée.  It was easy and doable. So I decided to plunge in and bake Crème Brûlée Sans Eggs...

Her recipe uses condensed milk and is pretty straight forward. However I did not have condensed milk in stock so I modified Priya Elias's recipe of Cajeta to make some homemade condensed milk and then proceeded with the recipe.... 

Crème Brûlée Sans Eggs

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Recipe by Tanusree Khandai

Prep time: 5 minutes                                                                    Cook time: 1 hour 10 mins
Total time: 3 1/2 hours including chilling time                               Yield: 4
Ingredients

• 2 1/2 cups whole milk
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• pinch of salt
• 1/4 tsp baking soda
• 1 cup heavy cream
• 3 tbsps cornstarch
• 8 tsps brown sugar, for caramelizing

Cooking Directions

1. In a large saucepan or kadai, combine 2 cups of milk with the sugar, salt and vanilla essence and bring to a boil over medium heat.
2. Dissolve the baking soda in 2 tablespoons of the milk mixture and stirring vigorously pour it into the saucepan of milk mixture. (The milk swells at this point so keep a close watch and stir continuously. )
3. Reduce the heat and stirring occasionally, simmer the milk till it thickens and attains the consistency of condensed milk, about 25-30 minutes.
4. Switching off the heat stir in the heavy cream into the sweetened milk mixture.
5. In a separate bowl dissolve the cornstarch in the remaining 1/2 cup of milk and keep it aside.
6. Preheat oven to 400 ° F .
7. but Over medium heat, bring the cream and milk mixture to a boil.
8. Whisk in the cornstarch solution into it and simmer for a minute or so until the mixture begins to thicken.
9. Switching off the heat, ladle the mixture into four 8 oz ramekins. Cover the ramekins with aluminum foil, pierce them in order to let the steam escape.
10. Fill 1/3 of a deep baking tray with boiling water, place the filled ramekins in the water bath and bake in preheated oven for 25 minutes.
11. Switching off the oven, remove the ramekins from the water bath and allow them to cool completely.
12. Chill in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours .
13. Just before serving sprinkle 2 teaspoons each of brown sugar over the set custard in each of the ramekins, place the tray of ramekins in the upper third rack of the oven and broil on high until it caramelizes, about 15-30 seconds if the oven is preheated and 90-120 seconds in case you switch the broiler on after placing the tray of ramekins inside. 
14. Serve right away !

Verdict : This dessert was very well received. All of us, that is, husband, sister-in-law and I liked it very much. I had feared that with the extra sugar topping the dessert would end up being overly sweet. To my surprise it wasn't, further I thought that the layer of caramelized sugar on top of the custard lent a lovely textural contrast. I enjoyed my portion very much and will definitely prepare it again !

updated the recipe on : 6.1.2014 after receiving comment from my sister.

I shall be sharing this at the following parties.

Monday : Mix it up Monday, The Scoop, Made with love Monday, 
Marvelous Mondays @ This Gal Cooks, Recipe Sharing @ Jam Hands Melt in your Mouth Monday, Inspiration Monday Party Recipe Sharing Monday, Inspire Me Monday, Clever Chicks Blog Hop,Maniac Monday Linky Party

Meatless Monday:Meatless Monday My Sweet and Savory

Tuesday : Totally Tasty Tuesday @ Mandy's Recipe Box, Tasteful Tuesday Party @ Nap Time Creations, 
Show Me What You Got @ Our Delightful Home ,  Hand Made Tuesday @ Ladybug Blessings
Share it Link Party @ Winthrop Chronicles,  Tasty Tuesday @ Anyonita Nibbles,  Hearth and Soul blog Hop, 
In & Out of the Kitchen @ Feeding Big & More, Tuesday's Table @ Love in the Kitchen, 

Wednesday : What's Cooking Wednesday @ Buns in my Oven, Cast Party Wednesday @ Lady Behind the Curtain, 
Show and Share @ Semi Homemade Mom, Wine'd Down Wednesday, 
Wonderful Food Wednesdays at @ All She CooksWonderful Food Wednesdays at @ Mom's Test Kitchen Wednesday, Whatsit@White Lights on Wednesday, Wednesday Extravaganza @ Hunger Little Girl, Create & Share @ The Trendy Tree House,What I Whipped Up Wednesday @ Sugar & Dots Look, What I Made @ Creations by Kara

Thursday: Link it Up Thursday @ Seven Alive, Fantastic Thursday @ Three Little Chiefs, 
Thriving on Thursdays @ Domesblissity,  Full Plate Thursday @ Miz Helen's Country Cottage , 
 Freedom Friday @ My Turn,  Thursday's Treasures @ Food Done Light,Pin it Thursday @ Sweet Bella Roos

Friday : Foodie Friday @ Simple Living and Eating,  Friday Linky Party @ The Pin Junkie, 
Get Him Feed @ Anyonita Nibbles, Friday Favorite (DYI too) @ Simple Sweet Home,  
Foodie Friday @ Not Your Ordinary Recipes, Foodie Friday @ Rattlebridge Farm, 
Weekend Wonders @ The Thriftiness Miss, Friday Food Frenzy @ Mostly Food and Crafts, 
Weekend Potluck @ Sunflower Supper Club, The Weekend re-Treat @The Best Blog Recipes