Why hello there, Friends and Fellow Bakers! We have arrived at what will surely be the silliest post for this project. Crème Caramel (recipe here) was featured on Season 3, Old School Week of GCBS. Old school, indeed! The CBC note on the recipe claims this recipe was popular in the 50s and 60s. This may be the case, but my association with this dessert is very 80s. Think semi-posh restaurants with carpeted dining rooms and maitre d’s and salmon pink wallpaper. If you know, you know.
Historical details aside, Crème caramel was popular for a reason, even though it seems nearly laughable to serve one these days. A rich custard is layered over dark caramelized sugar and then baked. Once cooled, the dessert is inverted, and the baking vessel is removed to reveal a beautiful flan covered in perfectly dark caramel syrup. It is rich, simple, and delicious.
I find it interesting (noteworthy?) how some recipes age into seeming dated and old fashioned while others turn into respected classics. There is probably something to be said there about culture and food and possibly.. Marketing and technology????? But that discourse is probably best saved for a blog written by someone far more philosophical and educated than myself.
The competitive version of this on the show was hilarious to watch. As I have noted, Crème caramel is a delicious, but amusing choice for the show. GCBS is meant to be an ultimate pinnacle for amateur bakers. So why would such an easy, outdated, and uninteresting dessert even be on the show in the first place? Once again the CBC has done a bang-up job of psychologically torturing those nice bakers while cracking me tf up with the very premise of this challenge.
How do I write a post about a bake that is so fantastically easy? Aren’t we on a mission, a journey, an EXPEDITION to tackle some of the most challenging bakes in history? Yes, we are. So why is it even on the list? Because the CBC pulled the rug out from under all of us by not providing the bakers with the instructions. They had almost nothing. The most sparse recipe I think I have ever seen on GCBS or GBBO. It was something else to watch, especially as I rested easy knowing I had the instructions and this is a fantastically easy bake. Quite the sadistic headspace to be in, even for reality TV, I’d say.
Step 1: Caramel
It is well established here at Baking Summit that I have a love-hate relationship with sugar work. That being said, I have gotten a lot more comfortable with it since I started this project, which feels pretty good, ngl. I have figured out a few things to help it go more smoothly and prevent crystallisation. I learned from the Stroopwafels to heat the sugar with a lid on at the start. This has been the best tip for doing this kind of work for me. I have tried everything over the years, gone through several different candy thermometers thinking they were the wrong size or shape for my pots, and still only managed to make sugar work about half the time. I still approach with caution, not getting too cocky, but it feels good to have quantifiable skill improvement after so very much baking.
I also figured out that my sugar is heating faster in the middle of the pan and that was contributing my struggle with crystallization. By simply moving the pan to a larger burner, the caramel went off without a hitch on the first try. The main challenge with the caramel in this case is it goes from 0 to 100 real quick. As soon as the sugar syrup starts to change colour, it is only a matter of seconds before it’s burnt. This means the baker needs to have their rammies all ready to go.
The other difficult thing is the hot sugar solidifies in the ramekins in about 2 seconds. It is a delicate balance (and quite hazardous!) between pouring the caramel into the ramekins- keep in mind it will still be darkening in the pan, so it can still get over cooked while you are pouring it – and swirling them to coat the bottoms before they harden. I actually made a second batch of caramel just because a couple of my rammies weren’t totally coated on the bottom and I wanted this to turn out P E R F E C T.
Step 2: Custard
So the biggest mind game I have ever seen on the show unfolded in this episode and I had completely forgotten about it. The instructions the bakers on the show were given only said “make custard base. Pour over caramel and bake.” This is some truly sadistic shit. Everyone knows how to make Crème caramel. Of course we do. OF. COURSE. WE. DO. But take away the instructions and oh my word now I am suddenly unsure. Do I cook the eggs or just the dairy? Do I cook it all the way or just partway before pouring it? The bakers on the show did a whole range of different things. Some people didn’t cook it at all. Some people the eggs and the cream together until it thickened, like you would for pastry cream. Everyone seemed to fall somewhere on the spectrum between those two extremes. In the end, only ONE person (Colin) presented 6 intact units as required. Everyone else did not get the successful inversion and structural integrity needed. It was a mess, and it was both horrifying and fantastic to watch. Reality TV at it’s best, worst, ugly self.
Obviously, I had the complete recipe and there is no way of knowing if I would have pulled this off without it. The closest I came to re creating this insanity for myself is I watched the episode before I read the recipe, and I did a thought experiment trying to imagine what I would have done (although even that is not quite the same since I had the commentary of the hosts and the final results influencing my reasoning). I figured I would have heated everything on the stove, but not cooked until thickened. That was my best guess. I was close.
The correct method is to scald the dairy only, then temper the hot stuff into the eggs and sugar and mix well. The mixture doesn’t go back onto the stove once the eggs are mixed with the dairy. This version of the recipe also called for straining the mixture into the ramekins, which I did, but I don’t think it made a difference, because my sieve didn’t pick anything up (it did finally bite the dust though and I had to buy a new one lol).
Step 3: Bake and Presentation
The bake method for flan is called bain marie which is where the item to be heated (in this case, the ramekins) are placed inside a larger dish. The larger dish is filled part way with water and then the whole thing goes into the oven. This is a slow and gentle heating method that allows the eggs to set up without turning into something more like a quiche or frittata. I have also heard this method referred to as “oven poaching,” which is an accurate description. The way it works is water has a very high heat capacity so it absorbs the heat from the oven more slowly than the item would by itself. This sort of slows down the thermal energy traveling through the food while still heating it to the same ultimate temperature you are looking for. As I always say (no really, I say this a lot because I am a NERD) “all roads lead to latent heat capacity.”
Once the custard comes out of the oven it must cool completely and it absolutely must be served chilled. No one wants to eat room temperature custard, I ASSURE YOU. When it’s ready to serve, a knife is run around the edge and the ramekin is inverted and removed. Voila!
Gallery
Going through my process of watching the show and then executing the bake was an interesting experience, if not an exacting challenge in terms of this project. This challenge stands out as the first one where my experience executing the technical was the complete polar opposite of what happened on the show. Usually I can relate slightly to what the bakers went through, even though I have removed about 99% of the most challenging part of the technical challenges on the show from my project. Not this time! So although this wasn’t the most revealing or educational bake in terms of my project, I give all the respect and admiration in the world to the contestants for having the confidence and nerve to even appear on the show and be willing to put themselves out there like that. They have nerves of steel, to a one. I salute you, fellow bakers! And kudos to Colin, who nailed it. ONWARD WE GO!
Hey, bakers! Check out my BAKER’S PANTRY index if you want to deep dive on specific ingredients when attempting this bake for yourself
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