Burn, Baby, Burn (Crème Brûlée Cupcakes)

Hey…Is it hot in here? Or is it just you? 😉

Lawl, I’m just kidding. I think someone once told me that girls shouldn’t use pickup lines, but one of my best friends is a complete cheese ball (hey, Chef BleuCheese!) and I’m pretty easily amused… So I sometimes say things to my friends just for fun.

Anyway, I may be going through a bit of an obsession with torched foods. As I mentioned in my last post, I recently acquired a kitchen torch that I’ve been wanting for a while. It’s nothing fancy, but it definitely gets the job done. Here’s a picture of the one I’m using:

Kitchen Torch

After successfully creating the lemon meringue cupcakes, I figured I would try making the crème brûlée cupcakes that I also found on the Cooking Classy blog. At first glance, the recipe sounded like it was a simple vanilla cupcake topped with pastry cream and then sprinkled with sugar on top that would be burned until it was caramelized. With this concept in mind, I decided to adapt the pastry cream I used for my fruit tarts and keep their version of the cupcake recipe.

Crème Brûlée Cupcakes
Makes 12 cupcakes (using mini paper molds)

For the Pastry Cream:

• 1 large egg
• 1 large yolk
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1 1/2 Tbsp all purpose flour
• 1 Tbsp + 1/2 tsp cornstarch
• 1 cup milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 Tbsp butter

Whisk eggs, yolks, sugar, flour and cornstarch in a medium bowl until combined, making sure that there are no lumps. Heat the milk in a small pot until it comes to a boil. Next, temper the eggs by pouring about half of the milk into the egg mixture while whisking constantly so that the eggs don’t cook. Pour the egg mixture into the pot and stir constantly for about 2 minutes until the cream reaches a custard-like consistency.

Pastry Cream

For the Cupcake:

• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/2 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1 large egg, at room temperature
• 2 large egg whites, at room temperature
• 1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup whole milk

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. In a medium mixing bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder and salt. Set this aside while you work on the liquid portion.

Use the paddle attachment of your stand mixer to whip the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Mix in the egg, followed by the egg whites and vanilla extract. Add half of the flour mixture, followed by 1/4 cup of the milk and mix until just combined. Then add the remaining flour and milk. Mix once more.

Fill 12 paper baking cups about 3/4 of the way full and bake for about 22 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack to cool.

Assembling the Cupcakes:

• Granulated sugar

Spread a generous helping of the pastry cream over the cooled cupcakes. You want to make sure that enough is piled on so that you don’t accidentally set the cups on fire when you’re caramelizing the sugar on top. Sprinkle a nice coat of sugar on top of the pastry cream, then start up the torch. The sugar will start bubbling while it’s burning. It may take a bit of time to create the topping, so be patient and just keep moving the flame from side to side over the cupcakes. Serve immediately!

Crème Brûlée Cupcakes

– Chef μChip