Banana brulee

The Goods:

1 banana

white sugar*

1 pint burnt sugar ice cream**

Peel the banana. Slice in half lengthwise, then slice each half once more, to make four pieces. Wrap aluminum foil around a plate and place the banana slices on the plate, flat side up. Dust the banana pieces with sugar and shake off the excess. Work the propane flame slowly over each banana piece until the sugar melts and browns. Serve each immediately with a scoop of ice cream.

*I've tried this with brown sugar and it turns black and starts to smoke before getting brown and melt-y.

**Christina's Ice Cream in Inman Square. Go there. Eat this ice cream.

***All photos by Gwen Tuxbury.

Creme caramel

The Goods*:

1 cup milk

4 oz. eggs (2 large eggs)

1/4 cup sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 pinch salt

Caramel

1/4 cup sugar

1 tbsp water

Combine the water and sugar for the caramel in a small non-stick pan over medium-high heat**. Cook until the sugar has melted and browned. Carefully pour the caramel, evenly divided, into three ramekins. It should provide a 1/8" coating on the bottom of the ramekins. Allow the caramel to cool and harden into a candy.

Preheat the oven to 325 F. Place the ramekins in a large pyrex (or other suitable for the oven baking vessel) dish. Add water to the pyrex dish until the level is three-quarters of the way up the ramekins. Remove the ramekins and put the pyrex dish in the oven.

Combine the custard ingredients in a large mixing bowl. Whisk vigorously until the eggs are thoroughly beaten and the mixture is well incorporated. Add the liquid to each ramekin. Place the ramekins in the pyrex dish in the oven. Bake for 30-40 minutes, until the custard is almost set. Remove from the oven and cool. Once the ramekins are at room temperature, refrigerate for several hours before serving.

To serve, use a butter knife to cut along the edge of the ramekin wall. Place a small plate over the ramekin upside down, then invert both. The custard should slip out with

*Yet another item straight out of Ratio.

**The first time I tried this, I was scared to death of somehow burning the sugar. Of course, that is exactly what you are trying to do here. Caramel is burnt sugar. If the heat is too low, the water will simply cook off before the sugar has browned, leaving behind an ugly white paste.

Creme brulee

The Goods*:

1 cup milk

1 cup light cream

1 vanilla bean

4 oz sugar, plus some extra

4 oz egg yolks**

Preheat the oven to 325 F. Place four 4-oz ramekins in a pyrex baking dish, or other suitable oven safe vessel. Fill the pyrex with water up to around three quarters of the height of the ramekins. Remove the ramekins and place the pyrex in the oven.

Split the vanilla bean length-wise, down the middle. Combine the milk, cream, and vanilla bean in a saucepan on medium heat. Once the mixture beings to simmer, remove from the heat and allow the bean to steep for 15 minutes. It will also be important to have slightly cooler milk/creme when it comes time to mix with the eggs (one does not want scrambled eggs for dessert). After the 15 minute steeping period, carefully scrape the vanilla seeds out of the pod into the mixture. At this point, taste the milk/cream mixture. If one desires more vanilla-ness, a teaspoon of good vanilla extract*** can be added (I love me some vanilla flavor).

In a large mixing bowl, weight out the yolks and sugar; combine. Whisk vigorously until the two are well incorporated. Slowly add the milk/cream mixture while whisking continuously. Pour the custard into the ramekins. Add the ramekins to the water bath in the oven. The ramekins must be covered while baking. Ruhlman recommends a layer of parchment paper under a layer of aluminum foil over the entire water bath. This worked fine (other suggestions?).

Cook the custards until they set, approximately 30 minutes. Allow them to cool, then refrigerate until ready to serve (read: torch). Before finishing (read: blasting with fire), allow the custard to come to room temperature. Top each ramekin with sugar****, then shake off the excess to ensure each custard is coated with a fine layer. Using a propane torch, evenly heat the sugar until it melts, bubbles, and caramelizes (try to avoid burning). Serve immediately once cool.

*Adapted from Ratio (like, almost to the letter).

**This, of course, could come from a variable amount of eggs, depending on egg size. Ruhlman approximates 8 large egg yolks, though I managed to get to 4 ounces with only 6 egg yolks. Making the brulee actually came about kind of by accident. My room-mate was making a meringue cookie (requiring only egg whites) so he had a bunch of spare egg yolks...

***Ina will be fucking pissed if you don't use the good vanilla extract.

****Side-note, brown sugar is NOT suitable for creme brulee. It just sort of burns up, rather than forming the lovely hard shell goodness.