Pear Cake Brûlée

My mother-in-law is a complete gem. She finds the most wonderful cook books for me, and I'm so grateful! The book I baked from today is called "Creme Brulée". What a fancy little thing it is. This book is stuffed with over 50 creme brulée recipes ranging from basic vanilla, to your savory dishes (they look more like little dinners than brulée).

I've had a few recipes on my list from this book for a while. I've tried the basic vanilla, and it was simply wonderful (I served it with fresh raspberries). This time, I wanted to make the Pear Cake Brulée. I love pears. They're not quite in season, but still available. You only need pear juice anyways for this dessert, so it wasn't a bit deal at all.

My favorite part of this book is the caramel tutorial in the back. I didn't realize how fun it is to make caramel garnishes! I started with the very very basic, and it was crazy. That stuff burns layers off your skin in an instant, and almost destroyed my piping bag, but I had a blast! I started off with just a few little drops, then streams, then a caramel cage around a spoon..... well.... the cage broke the second I touched it. Apparently I'm not as delicate as I thought I was while removing the caramel cage from the spoon. So, I was left with the droplets and streams to garnish my brulée with. I need much more practice with caramel, but I'm not as scared of it as I used to be.

I loved the cake + creme brulée together. Sometimes creme brulée can be a bit too much of the same texture for me. The crunchy caramel and moist cake layer balanced it out very well. 

I had a little trouble making these little lovers. They taste top notch, don't get me wrong, but the "cake" layer wasn't as thick as the picture in the book! And that was the yummiest part! Lame. Oh well, can't win 'em all, eh? I think I'll have to stick to non-cake brulée from now on.

At least I was able to use my mini-torch for something other than lighting candles. 

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Pear Cake Brûlée
Dominique & Cindy Duby, Creme Brulée

2 T butter
3/4 C sugar
1/2 C pear juice
3 large egg yolks
1/2 C whole milk
1/2 C whipping cream
1/4 C flour
2 large egg whites
3 T sugar for carmelizing

Preheat the oven to 300 degrees.

Grease 6 ramekins with butter then sprinkle inside with sugar to oat evenly, shaking out any excess.

In an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat butter and sugar until creamy. Add pear juice and egg yolks, then beat until the mixture is smooth. Add milk and cream and continue mixing until the mixture is completely smooth. Add flour and mix until just combined. Do not overmix.

In a separate medium bowl and using an electric mixer with clean beaters, beat egg whites until they form soft peaks. Using a rubber spatula, fold egg whites into pear mixture until well combined and no white streaks remain. Divide the mixture evenly among prepared ramekins. Place the mixture eventually among prepared ramekins. Place the ramekins in a shallow roasting pan. Pour hot water into roasting pan. Pour hot water into roasting until lightly golden brown and springy to the touch, about 35 to 40 minutes. Let cool slightly, then turn cakes out of ramekins and let cool in the refrigerator for 3 to 4 hours.

Just before serving, sprinkle granulated sugar evenly over top of each cake to cover it completely. Ignite a blowtorch and caramelize sugar until evenly melted, moving the torch constantly so sugar doesn't burn.

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