Eggnog Crème Brûlée

I love eggnog and Crème Brûlée, so it was time to marry these two flavors together! This is a quick and simple recipe to whip up, though like all Crème Brûlée recipes, you will need some patience when it comes to baking and setting the custard. This dessert is fun for kids and adults alike with its hard sugar topping that you get to crack!

What is unique about this recipe is the inclusion of goat milk cream, in place of the traditional cow heavy cream. Normal heavy whipping cream can be heavy on the stomach. This goat milk cream version is lighter and easier to digest, and typically works well for those with cow milk sensitivities. This recipe is for a single Crème Brûlée, but the amount of goat milk cream you will hydrate is enough for 2, so you can double it if you want. I like to get creative with my Crème Brûlée and will often try multiple flavor varieties at the same time. If that is what you want to do, check out our Pumpkin Crème Brûlée or our Espresso version in this blog post. Espresso is my favorite and tastes like coffee ice cream.

One quick note, the texture of the goat milk cream variety is always a bit different than cow when I make it, but I have yet to try the water bath method of cooking Crème Brûlée. You might want to try that to see if it enhances the texture.

Enjoy and please leave a comment below if you try it!

Have a Merry Christmas!

Eggnog Crème Brûlée

Total time: 3 hours 50 minutes

Ingredients:

• 1 egg yolk
• 1 Tbs sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
• approximately 1/2 cup rehydrated goat cream (see rehydration instructions below)
• Extra sugar for the burnt sugar topping (up to 1 Tbsp sugar)

Instructions:

For the Cream: 

1. You will need a kitchen scale for this. First measure out 75 g of Goat Milk Cream flakes. You can do this by putting a bowl on a kitchen scale, change the measurements to grams, push tare to zero out the weight of the bowl, and then add in Goat Milk Cream flakes until the scale reads 75g.
2. Pour the 75 g of Goat Milk Cream into a blender.
3. Add 6.25 oz water to the blender. Blend the cream and water until smooth.

For the Crème Brûlée:

1. Preheat the oven to 250 F.
2. Mix egg yolk and 1 Tbs sugar in a 2 cup measuring glass with a fork until well mixed.
3. Add in the vanilla extract and nutmeg and mix with your fork.
4. Add in liquid goat cream until the whole mixture hits the 1/2 cup volume marker. Mix well with the fork or whisk if needed.
5. Pour into an oven safe ramekin or glass 1 cup container. (I use the Anchor or Pyrex brand glass containers that are oven safe). 
6. Carefuly place the container into the heated oven and bake for 45 minutes. It should have a slight jiggle in the middle when done. It will continue to cook even after being pulled out of the oven.
7. Let cool for 1/2 - 1 hour or more until slightly warm to the touch. Transfer to the fridge and let set for a few hours.
8. Remove from the fridge and sprinkle a layer of sugar all around the top. Use a blow torch held about 2 inches above the dessert, moving around in circles, while the flame starts to melt the sugar. You may need to take a break to let the smoke stop, then proceed again until all the sugar is melted and hard. Now you are ready to break the topping and eat!

Notes:

1. For those without a blow torch, Adam Ragusea has a great video "No-Torch Crème Brûlèe" on YouTube on how to melt the sugar on the stove with a few drops of water and a tiny squeeze of honey. Then you pour the mixture quickly over the top of the Crème Brûlèe and rotate the container around to evenly spread the caramelized liquid sugar topping. This recipe has been adapted from Adam's recipe.

2. The recipe can be doubled, tripled, or quadrupled. For doubling, double the ingredients and pour in cream to bring up the total volume to the 1 cup line, for tripling, triple ingredients and pour in cream to bring it up to the 1 1/2 cup line, etc.