Grandpa Gigi was my paternal grandfather. He had a very special character: he was very sweet with me but harsh with most of the other people in our family. Of him I remember the stories of the war as a bersagliere soldier… but above all, the afternoons spent whisking for hours the eggs to create this magnificent dessert.
Grandpa’s Creme Caramel cooking became tall and full of holes like a gruyere! In a pastry course I followed years ago, I learned that it is a super defect of Creme Caramel … but my family likes it with the mistake as well as with the slightly burnt caramel!
Creme Caramel from Grandpa Gigi
- Preparation time: 60 minutes + at least 4 hours rest in the refrigerator
- Ingredients for a 1 US quart pudding mold
- Difficulty: Average difficulty recipe
- Ingredients
- 4 egg yolks
- 2 eggs
- ½ liter or ½ US quart of milk
- 5 spoons of sugar
- 1 tablespoon of rum
- 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
- Caramelized sugar
- For the caramel
- 75 gr or 3 oz of sugar
- Instructions
- Prepare the caramel. Put the sugar in a pan and put it on the stove. Never mix and wait for the caramel to form. Just hazel it, remove it from the heat, and cover a two-liter pudding mold.
- Prepare the cream. Beat the eggs and egg yolks with sugar for a long time until they become white and super frothy. Boil the milk and, when warm, add it to the egg mixture. Also add the vanilla extract and the liqueur.
- Cook at 350°F in a bain-marie covered with a dish for about forty-five minutes. The bain-marie is a cooking process in a container not in direct contact with the fire, but immersed in water kept at the desired temperature, then in this case inside an oven pan filled with water.
- Allow to cool and then leave in the refrigerator for at least four hours.
- Pour the cake from the cake tin to a large serving dish so as to preserve the caramel and serve.
Tips to ensure the success of the dish:
- Making caramel is a potentially dangerous process so do not do it with children around.
- Allow the Creme Caramel to rest in the refrigerator for at least twelve hours.
- The only caution before serving it is not to break the cake. To do this, set the mold for a few minutes on the stove. In this way, the caramel of the mold melts and the pudding slips more easily out.
Grandpa Gigi dressed as bersagliere soldier
