Maple Creme Brûlée and October's Give-Away Apron

First, let me wish all my friends in Canada...Happy Thanksgiving!  A day dedicated to family and the harvest, the Canadian Thanksgiving has been celebrated since 1879 when Parliament passed a law designating it as a national holiday occurring on the second Monday in October.

There are many references of giving thanks by settlers to this region called New France, dating back to 1578, but sporadic.  Interestingly, after The American Revolution, loyal refugees to the Crown of England took with them the celebration foods that they had come to know--turkey, squash, and pumpkin to Canada, in addition to foods that had become a tradition there. The theme of Canada's Thanksgiving has changed each year, focusing on an important event they are thankful for; which I find nice.

So, in honor of my friends to the North, I made Maple Creme Brûlée.

One of my favorite desserts and perfect with it's creamy maple flavoring after you break through the crunchy sugar topping.  Very easy to make and would be a lovely ending to a family celebration.

Maple Creme Brûlée
2 cups heavy cream
5 large egg yolks
1/2 cup Maple Syrup (I used Grade A)
1 tsp. Maple Extract

Sugar in the Raw

Preheat oven to 325F-degrees.

In a medium saucepan, heat the heavy cream just until bubbles appear around the edges...don't boil!

In a large bowl, preferably with a spout, whisk the egg yolks, maple syrup, and maple extract together.  Slowly add a bit of the heavy cream, whisking after each addition.  (This is called tempering.)

Place 6 ramekins in a casserole dish.

Once all the cream mixture has been incorporated into the egg yolk mixture, pour through a fine sieve into the ramekins.  This catches any "eggy bits" that might have occurred!

Place casserole dish in the preheated oven and pour boiling water around the ramekins, coming about half-way up the sides.

Bake 40-45 minutes.  The centers should be a bit jiggly, but set.  Don't be concerned that the tops may have browned a bit; that's due to the maple sugar.

Remove ramekins from the water bath and allow to cool on a rack until room temperature.  Place in the refrigerator for two hours.

When you're ready to serve dessert, heat your broiler and place the ramekins on a sheet pan. Sprinkle tops with Sugar in the Raw and set pan under the broiler.  If you own a Mini Torch, which I prefer to do, heat the individual ramekins after you've sprinkled the sugar on top.

Serve with fresh berries or alone as I served these.  My hubby said he could have licked the bowl clean it was that good! Enjoy!

October's Give-Away Apron has special meaning for me with the Sunflowers.  Yesterday, would have been our daughter,'s 45th birthday--a day that is just as hard for me as her passing.  She loved sunflowers and collected several prints by Van Gogh to frame and hang on her walls.  She also had me sew her a sunflower dress when she was a senior in high school--I still have that dress.

If you would like to win this apron...simply comment on the posts this month and this could be yours.  Good Luck!

Creme Brûlée Cheesecake & November's Give-Away Apron

This past week, I got to meet in person one of my blogging buddies--Ellen Haertle from "Baking with Booze" who came to stay with us for a few days.  We've talked on the phone, so it was as if we'd known each other all our lives...do you have those kind of friends too?

I wanted to create a special dessert in her honor, so I came up with this cheesecake--Creme Brûlée.  It takes two of my favorite desserts and combines it into one.  Creme Brûlée is a rich custard topped with a hard caramel.  The earliest known date of this dessert is actually 1691 in a French cookbook, "Cuisine royal et bourgeois" and was called "burnt cream."  It disappeared from cookbooks until the 1980s.  This cheesecake is rich with egg yolks and a burnt sugar topping.

Creme Brûlée Cheesecake
Crust:
2 cups firmly packed Digestive cookies, vanilla wafer, or shortbread crumbs
1/3 cup granulated sugar
6 T unsalted butter, melted
1 large egg white

Preheat oven to 300F-degrees.  In a small bowl, stir together the crumbs, sugar, melted butter and egg white.

Press crumb mixture into the bottom and up the sides of a 9 1/2-inch springform pan.  Bake for 8 minutes.

Filling:
4 (8-ounce) packages cream cheese, softened
1 1/4 cups granulated sugar
2 vanilla beans, scraped or 1 T vanilla extract

6 large egg yolks
2 T King Arthur all-purpose flour
1 cup sour cream

For the filling, place the cream cheese in the bowl of a stand mixer and use either the whisk or paddle attachment to cream.  Slowly add the sugar and vanilla beans and beat at medium speed until creamy.  Scrape down the sides of bowl with a rubber spatula.  With the mixer running, add the yolks, one at a time.  Add the flour, beating just until combined.  Stir in the sour cream.  Spoon bater into prepared crust.

Bake for 1 hour and 15 minutes.  Turn oven off and leave cheesecake in oven with door closed for 4 hours.  Remove cheesecake from oven and run a knife around edges of the cheesecake to release the sides.  Let cool completely, then cover and refrigerator for 8 hours.

To serve--sprinkle 1/4 cup of granulated or Turbinado sugar on top of cheesecake.  Using a handheld kitchen torch, carefully caramelize sugar until melted.  Remove sides of pan.  Garnish with raspberries, if desired.  Enjoy!

This month's apron represents the colors of Autumn and is warm and inviting.  When you comment on a post this month, your name will be entered to possibly win this beautiful apron.  Good Luck!