Maple Creme Brûlées with Pecan Praline Snaps

Two weekends ago while lending a hand during the Los Angeles Food & Wine event I had the pleasure of meeting a few highly skilled pastry chefs. Some very well known thanks to Bravo’s Top Chef just Desserts, and a few others who haven’t quite made it into the limelight. (Not yet, that is…) One of those happened to be Carrie Davis, Pastry Chef at Cut – Las Vegas.

While placing lollipop sticks into rookie cookies, Carrie asked me what I was planning on doing on my “day off”. I told her I would most likely bake something, and that I was thinking of making creme brûlée. She than began to tell me that at the restaurant sometimes they replace the traditional sugar brûlée with a tuile cookie which adds even more crunch contrast to the baked creme. I fell in love with the idea and felt inspired to make you my version of it.

Since you won’t need the entire batch of Snap batter to cover your Maple Creme Brûlées, think of other uses for it. For example, I took some cone molds and shaped a few cookies around them to fill them up with a pumpkin mousse or a couple of small scoops of ice cream. You can also crush up any remanning pieces and use them as an ice cream topper. The possibilities are endless…

Maple Creme Brûlées with Pecan Praline Snaps

 

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Serves: 6

Ingredients

• Maple Creme Brûlée
• 3 cups heavy whipping cream
• 5 large egg yolks
• 2.5 teaspoons vanilla extract
• ½ cup pure maple syrup
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• Pecan Praline Snaps
• ¼ cup unsalted butter, room temperature
• 2.5 ounces dark corn syrup
• 2 ounces light brown sugar
• ½ cup flour
• 4 pecan halves, finely chopped
• 1 teaspoon pecan praline liqueur

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 300 degrees F. Place 6 (8 ounce) ramekins into an oven-safe pan big enough to contain them ready. Carefully fill pan with water until it comes up half-way to two thirds of the way up the sides of the ramekins.
2. Combine heavy cream, vanilla, and maple syrup into a saucepan. Bring to a simmer over medium heat. Remove from heat, cover, and allow to steep for 20 minutes.
3. Lightly whisk egg yolks in a medium bowl. Pour ⅓ cup steeped cream in a slow stream into the whisked egg yolks to temper. Repeat the process with another ⅓ cup steeped them. Return egg yolk mixture into the saucepan and whisk gently to incorporate.
4. Strain custard and pour into a large measuring cup. Pour custard into ramekins.
5. Place a sheet of aluminum foil over the pan to prevent the tops of the creme brûlée from browning. Bake for 1 hour. Remove ramekins from pan and allow them to cool to room temperature before refrigerating.
6. Refrigerate 2-3 hours before serving.
7. Combine butter, corn syrup and sugar in a heavy-bottomed sauce pan over medium heat. Stir with a wooden spoon until sugar begins to dissolve. Add flour and pecan halves and continue stirring until all ingredients have been incorporated evenly. Remove from heat and stir in pecan praline liqueur.
8. Transfer batter to a heat-proof bowl, cover with plastic wrap and chill for about 1 hour.
9. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Line two baking sheets with silicone mats. Scoop out 2-3 tablespoons of batter for each cookie onto the prepared baking sheets spaced 3-4 inches apart, you should have enough room for 5. Repeat with the second baking sheet.
10. Bake cookies one baking sheet at a time for 8-10 minutes or until the appear paper thin.
11. Top creme brûlées with a pecan praline snap before serving.

#version#

What’s missing in this picture? The perfect bite…

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Tagged as: dark corn syrup, egg, flour, heavy whipping cream, light brown sugar, maple, pecan praline liqueur, pecans, unsalted butter, Vanilla