I remember making this dessert more than one year ago. Actually, it was the first sweet thing that I’ve made in the kitchen here in Hamburg. Crema Catalana is a delicious Spanish dessert. It’s a version of Crème Brûlée. The origins of this dessert are still not completely confirmed. So I would say; France has the Crème Brûlée and Spain (Catalonia) has the Crema Catalana. I don’t care who first invented what. The important thing is how much I like it.
The Crema Catalana that I’ve made is similar to the original. I didn’t caramelise the sugar because I had no torch or iron broiler. In fact, I didn’t even sprinkle it on top. I did my own changes. Well, despite that it was great; less sugar means healthier.
Ingredients for 3 portions:
- 0,6 l milk
- 2 Tsp of edible starch
- 1 vanilla bean
- 1/2 tsp of cinnamon
- 4 egg yolks
- 1 Tsp of lemon zest
- 1 Tsp of orange zest
- 110 g of sugar
- berries (of any kind)
To begin, take a small cup and mix in the starch with 50 ml of milk. In a bowl mix the egg yolks and sugar until it turns pale and fluffy. Add the starch mixture to the egg mixture and mix them together.
Take a pot and pour in the rest of the milk, add the cinnamon, the lemon and orange zest and the vanilla. How to cut the vanilla bean? Simply make a cut into the bean, from one end to the other, then open the bean flat and scrape out as many seeds as you need. Bring the milk to boil.
When the milk starts making little bubbles on the borders in the pot it means it’s starting to boil. This is the moment you have to stay near the pot checking the milk. As soon as the milk starts rising on the edges of the pot, remove the pot from the stove and add the starch-egg mixture. Mix with a wire whisk. Put the pot back on the stove and heat the mixture until it thickens. Don’t forget to stir all the time. When you feel that the mixture is thick, immediately remove the pot from the stove. It’s similar to making pudding.
Pour the mixture into glasses or cups or anything you like. Allow to cool and then refrigerate.
This dessert is better to make in advance because it requires minimum 2 hours of refrigeration before serving. The best way is to do it the day before serving and to keep it in the fridge until then. Before serving, add some berries on top.
Enjoy!
