Week 22, August 22, 2011: creme brulee- traditional and vegan

Not to be a downer, but vegan is difficult.
I never had a problem giving up meat, so vegetarian has been accomplished.  I've given up everything except milk and eggs at this point and this blog will point out for you why this is sooo hard for me.

I like cake, but I love cheese. Cheese is so versatile: briny, soft farmer's cheese paired with dolmades is the perfect summer lunch. Gruyere with spiced figs in little pouches- heavenly. Sharp cheddar with apples and grapes. Mozzarella, basil and tomato salad. I could be a commercial for NYS dairy farmers... and that's not getting me started on cream.

I've embraced heavy cream over the past few years: tucked into squash soups, beaten into whipped pillows, sweetened, flavored and layered and let's not forget custards and puddings. Sweetened condensed milk could have it's own post, so I'll leave it at that.

The fact is (and maybe this is just because I haven't found something that I enjoy as much or maybe I just haven't broken my "addiction" to dairy) there really is no substitute. I've done soy, almond and now oat and it's like swapping out wheat flour for another variety... it's just not the same. Nothing has it's texture or it's properties.
This is confounded by the fact that I'm in desperate need of keeping this all simple. Change is good... irreversible change is good for the soul... I think I nicked that one off of Erica Bauermeister and that she nicked it off of NPR... and changing out ornate and unhealthy for simple doesn't mean I need to stock my pantry to the hilt with combination expeller pressed oils or soy products that seem to lurk around vegan recipes.
I'm small town and I'll call my movement anti-wtf is that ingredient vegan vegan.
I want tasty food--that just happens to be vegan... but I'll put the disclaimer out there: I am a faithful person, but I will cheat again and again with this creme brulee recipe. I had to give it away, it was that good.

Incredibly long introduction over... The traditional creme brulee recipe was a no brainer to pick.

Alton Brown is part of a three way tie for my food heroes, with Anthony Bourdain (don't know or care what his and Paula Deen's beef is-- I love her too) and Mark Bittman, so when I saw his recipe was the first that came up from my google search, I snapped it up.

It looked easy. Deceptively, only four ingredients easy, easy.

And it was!
I did the fussy stuff required ahead of time: stuck a couple of vanilla beans in a pound of sugar and let set in an airtight container.

Day of, I slit and scraped one bean, tossed in cream and set to boil.

 Whisked yolks and 1/2 cup of sugar until nice and fluffy.

 I let the cream set for about 15 minutes, covered per the recipe, then, added it to the eggs, whisking constantly.

Poured it in some ramekins and placed it in a bain marie and baked 45 mins.

 The delightfully fun part was purchasing and then playing with the brulee torch.  It's always nice to have to buy butane.

 Sprinkled some sugar on the tops of the custard and went at them with the torch.

 My parents, Lau and my neighbor all tried it.  It received the highest reviews to date.  I already have orders for this one again- I'm making it for my faculty friends on opening day.

Finding the vegan was no simple task.  I went through half a dozen websites before I found one that looked too good not to try: ie no soy.

http://vegangoodeats.com/2010/07/la-creme-brulee-sans-la-dairy-pour-le-vegan/

The vegangoodeats guy is my new hero. I made his vegan tempeh lettuce wraps for dinner this week and without a doubt will go to this recipe every time I'm craving Asian from now on: the recipe was both easy and delicious- one pan, two bowls and a cutting board- less than a half an hour including clean up.  I may owe this guy my first born.

His worry in the recipe was the varied consistency/ flavors of almond milk.  My worry was if it would work with Oat Milk, seeing as I just happened upon a recipe for homemade oat milk and I'm not a huge fan of almond milk.

Making oat milk was simple enough- took some oat groats (this will work with regular oatmeal as well) soaked them with some salt over night, drained, added water and blended and then strained.

The recipe called for cashew butter (which I keep in the house), maple syrup- lady liberty was thrilled to finally be able to void, vanilla, agar flakes and arrowroot powder.  The last two ingredients I was easily able to find at my local coop.

 The first set of problems came in with the blending.  I couldn't get it to the right consistency- the cashew butter didn't want to play nice with the rest of the ingredients and was making the sieve very irritated.
Come to find out, I broke the effing blender!  Still dreaming of a vitamix.

 Luckily my tiny food processor came to the rescue.

 Boiled the mixture.

Poured into ramekins and refrigerated.

I served this as dessert to my college roomie who came up for a night enroute to a friend's wedding.  The consensus was that it 1, doesn't deserve to be called creme brulee, 2, tastes like a mixture of cardboard and maple syrup with a hint of nuts and 3, if I'd followed the recipe, it may have been edible... this met the compost.

I'll live to befriend vegan custards another day.