This was the first year I finally was in Catalonia in Spain. Of course I had to try the famous “crema catalana”. This is a custard seasoned with orange and lemon zest and cinnamon. Just like the French crème brûlée it has a layer of caramelized sugar on top. The advantage of this custard? It is made on the stove-top and does not need a waterbath so it is easy to make and requires little time.
One of the first questions I had was what the difference between crema catalana and crème brûlée are. Below you will find a short summary:
- Crema catalana is made on the stove-top whereas crème brûlée requires the oven where it is steamed in a waterbath.
- Crema catalana is seasoned differently, vanilla does not occur, instead we use orange, lemon, and cinnamon.
- While crème brûlée usually contains heavy cream as one ingredient, crema catalana is made with milk.
- Both use egg yolks as thickeners and contain a caramelized sugar crust.
Crema catalana is a custard made on the stovetop and has a caramelized sugar layer. In this video you can see how I make it. Peel off a large chunck of lemon zest and orange zest and place these together with the cinnamon stick inside a pot with 500 grams of milk, almost bring to a boil, then set aside and take out zests and stick. Meanwhile separate the eggs and place yolks, sugar, cornstarch and remaining 200 grams of milk in a bowl. Now we are going to temper the eggs, this means the temperature is slowly increased so that they do not curdle. Add two tablespoons of the warm milk to the egg mixture and stir. Add two more tablespoons, stir and then and the egg mix to the milk mix while stirring. Place on the stovetop on medium heat and while stirring wait for the custard to thicken, this takes between 5-8 minutes. Pour into dessert glasses and chill for a few hours or overnight. Shortly before serving sprinkle a tablespoon of sugar on each and caramelize with a torch. Be sure to only do this shortly before serving as otherwise the sugar will dissolve again. What to do with the leftover egg whites? Check out this blog post.Crema Catalana - Custard from Spain
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