Crème Brûlée

I finally have a Digital SLR that works! My Dad had a spare and he gave it to me so (I still have quite a few recipes to post from my old camera) sometime in the future I’ll hopefully have much better pictures on my blog! Yay 🙂

It’s been a bit of a sad few days for us, our dog keeps getting sores (we thought they were cysts) so we took her to the vet. In the past the vet has said that the odd cyst is fine because they’ve usually already ruptured, but this time they weren’t going away as she kept licking them.

The vet said she hadn’t seen anything like it before and asked if we got on with our neighbours as they almost looked like acid burns or something, like maybe someone has squirted something at her. Our neighbours both sides are lovely so we know they would never do anything to Poppy.

We’ve been given antibiotics to give her for a week and hibiscrub to clean up her wounds. We have a follow up appointment next Friday and if they haven’t cleared up then the vet wants to do a biopsy to see if it’s cancer 🙁

She also has a cone! She’s just about got the hang of the fact she has to put her head down and around her food bowl rather than just down like normal, she keeps knocking over her water and walking into door frames, it makes me feel sorry for her, but sometimes we have to laugh as she just barges straight into things! She’s used to walking straight up to us and sniffing, but now she ends up almost taking us out with her cone as it arrives first!

She managed to shut herself in the kitchen last night as she knocked the door and then couldn’t open the door like normal with her nose, but she seems a bit happier today.

We’re having to put her pills in with wet food so she thinks every day is her birthday at the moment as she usually has biscuits and a wet food treat on a Sunday. She’s also normally crafty and eats everything but the pill, but she’s been OK so far and just eaten everything.

We feel really bad so she’s getting loads of treats and she was even allowed to sleep in bed with us last night. We got hardly any sleep as she was right in-between us, but I certainly didn’t have the heart to move her. So at the moment it’s just fingers crossed they clear up with antibiotics…

Today’s recipe is something I’d never made before, but my Mum requested it when they came over a couple of weeks ago. I know I don’t like it, but I love making things so was eager to make something new! I used a Mary Berry recipe as they’re always brilliant. Mum loved it and so did my boyfriend so I imagine I’ll be making it again!

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You will need:

> Cooks blow torch to caramelise the top (optional)
> 2/3 ramekins (I used 1 large ramekin and then put the leftovers in a small one for my boyfriend)
> Roasting tin for the water bath

Serves 2-3

Recipe adapted from Mary Berry’s Complete Cookbook

Ingredients:

> Butter for greasing ramekins
> 2 egg yolks
> 15g vanilla sugar (or 15g caster sugar and 1/8tsp vanilla extract)
> 300ml single cream
> Brown sugar for sprinkling on top

Method:

> Lightly butter the ramekins and preheat the oven to 160 degrees C.

> Place the egg yolks and sugar in a medium sized bowl.
> Beat until light and fluffy.

> Place the cream in a small saucepan and, on a medium heat, heat it up until just below boiling point, there will be small bubbles around the edge.
> Very gradually so you don’t scramble the eggs, pour the cream into the egg mixture whilst stirring continuously.

> Keep stirring and adding the cream until everything is combined.
> Place the ramekin or ramekins into your roasting dish and boil the kettle. Pour the crème brûlée into the ramekin.

> Leave the kettle to cool for about 30 seconds and then pour into the roasting dish until it is half way up the ramekin.
> Place in the oven for about 25 minutes. Mine took 35 minutes as I used a larger ramekin. Although you need to check it because it’s done when just set, firm to tough but it will wobble slightly.

> Leave to cool completely before serving. Sprinkle the brown sugar on top.

> To be honest I think this recipe calls for the wrong sugar as we caramelised the top on the leftovers with granulated and it looked much more like what I would call a crème brûlée.
> Using a cooks blow torch lightly go over the top of the brûlée.