Let’s Make Ginger Lemon Crème Brûlée … with fresh root ginger
” A pure extract is the most important ingredient.”
Marcus Camisoni
Ginger Lemon Crème Brûlée … the boy discovered the chefs torch one day while scrabbling through my cupboards. I had a hard time keeping my cool as I don’t like anyone going through my stuff! He said he was looking for ‘something to do’!
“Found it mama“, he announced. “Now lets make Crème Brûlée”! The in house baker is used to getting sudden requests and is always game for inspiration! Even though eggy desserts don’t feature prominently in my list of ‘want to bake now‘, it’s nice to try something different! 
I really wanted brûlée ‘something’. The lovely Finla had sent me a chefs torch through her better half some time back. I was glad to have an opportunity to put it to good use.
Summer vacations, a keen new interest in honing his culinary skills, and the need for dessert on the pooches birthday seemed reason enough for him. “Coco has cake, but what about us”, he whined. Then charmingly suggested, “Crème brûlée”? 
I gave in quite easily because I had more reason. The sweet Carmen Rossi from Camisoni, a premium cooking and baking extract company, founded in Portofino, Italy, had sent me some extracts to sample – lemon, vanilla and coffee! 
Lemon was what I reached out for to make my summer crème brûlée. The deep, heady aroma almost knocked me out when I unscrewed the generous glass bottle. One small whiff and you realise how potent the stuff is! I ran it past the rest of the folk at home, and each one had this surprised expression. Whoa … that is strong!!
This was good stuff, and I soon figured what my crème brûlée flavours were going to be. A dash of ginger would pair well with lemon. Fresh root ginger is something you will always find in Asian homes. Turned out to be a beautiful choice.
Lemon and ginger both lent delicate undertones to the well set crème brûlée. It was fun to see the lads brûléeing enthusiasm. Under my watchful eye, E A C H grain of sugar was lovingly caramelised.
This was the first of my adventures with the rich aromatic extracts that I received from Camisoni. With vanilla, lemon and coffee extracts on hand, I dream of the good days that lie ahead. I also tried the coffee extract which has a real full bodied, deep coffee aroma. The resultant cake was love at first bite!
Watch out for that post to come. Until then, please leave your favourite and trusted / trick as a comment and get entered into the Camisoni extract giveaway.
Tips and Tricks Contest.
To enter the giveaway
- Please send in one culinary tip/trick you swear by. Be as creative as you can be. I am sure each one of us has ‘one special magic trick‘ under our belt.
- Please LIKE Camisoni Extracts on FB {include having done so in your comment}.
- The 3 best tips/tricks will receive a gift from Camisoni Extracts.
- The contest/giveaway is open worldwide.
- Your submitted ideas may be included on the hosts website.
- A 10% discount is available to those who enter the contest. The code is ITALIA-BELLA10
- The contest is open for comments until the 30th of June. The winners will be announced thereafter.
Summary: A rich, flavourful crème brûlée with lilting summer flavours of lemon and ginger. Adapted from Epicurious
Prep Time: 15 minutes
Total Time: 1 hour {plus chilling}
Ingredients:
- For Custard
- 400ml low fat cream
- 100g sugar
- 1″ piece ginger, grated
- 1 vanilla bean, split
- 1/2 tsp Camisoni Premium Lemon Extract
- 5 egg yolks
- For Crème Brûlée
- 50g sugar
Method:
- Preheat oven to 170C°. Place 4 3/4 cup ramekins in 1 pan.
- Place cream, sugar, ginger and vanilla beans in a heavy-duty pan over low heat. Simmer until the sugar melts, stirring often. Turn off heat, cover and allow flavours to infuse for 10 minutes.
- Place yolks in a large pan and whisk with a balloon whisk. Strain the infused mixture over the yolks and blend well to mix.
- Divide between the four ramekins. Pour enough hot water into the pan to come up halfway up the ramekins.
- Carefully transfer pan to oven.
- Bake custards until almost set in center when pans are gently shaken, about 45 minutes.
- Using metal spatula, transfer custards in dishes to cooling rack.
- Chill for at least 3 hours. {or overnight}
- Make Crème Brûlée:
- Sprinkle 2 teaspoons sugar evenly over each custard. Working with 1 custard at a time, hold blowtorch so that flame is 2 inches above surface. Direct flame so that sugar melts and browns, about 2 minutes.
- Refrigerate until custards are firm again but topping is still brittle, at least 2 hours but no longer than 4 hours so that topping doesn’t soften.
- Garnish crème brûlées with fruit if desired.
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Also find me on The Rabid Baker, The Times of India
Deeba @ PAB
About me: I am a freelance food writer, recipe developer and photographer. Food is my passion - baking, cooking, developing recipes, making recipes healthier, using fresh seasonal produce and local products, keeping a check on my carbon footprint and being a responsible foodie! I enjoy food styling, food photography, recipe development and product reviews. I express this through my food photographs which I style and the recipes I blog. My strength lies in 'Doing Food From Scratch'; it must taste as good as it looks, and be healthy too. Baking in India, often my biggest challenge is the non-availability of baking ingredients, and this has now become a platform to get creative on. I enjoy cooking immensely as well.
27 Comments
shooting star
yummmm pics!!!
One trick I always swear by (though am a novice cook) is to always increase the baking time (as compared to whats given in any bake recipe) by 15 minutes more when baking in my microwave oven… snce it always tkaes longer to bake in microwave & one has to double check…for me it always works & i get perfect bake 🙂
Rosa
Oh, those look absolutely beautiful and ever so scrumptious! A delightful dessert and flavor combination.
Cheers,
Rosa
sangeeta khanna
I can imagine how ginger would be in creme brulee. I have made lemon CB earlier but ginger will be deep deep flavors. Might do it soon.
Deeba @ PAB
Hi Sangeeta, You are one of the winners of the Camisoni giveaway. Thank you for the wonderful tip. Here are some of Camisonis more popular extracts. Please pick any one of them – Vanilla, Lemon, Almond, Orange, Coconut.
Would you be good enough to email me your preferred choice of extract and mailing address so I can forward it to Camisoni?
Thank you for being part of the contest once again.
Deeba @ Passionate About Baking
email : deebarajpal@gmail.com
Colette @ JFF!
Love the idea of ginger in creme brulee!!
gloria
Look really delicious I love cream brulée have a nice weekend dear Deeba!!xo
manjeet
Hi Deeba,
Sending in my tip on your gmail id.. 🙂
Luv,
Manjeet
Shumaila
One of my friends told me this trick and it works great. If you manage to put excess salt in your food, just add potato to your curry, stew and then remove the potato before serving. The extra saltiness will be absorbed by the potato.
Archana
The one trick I swear by is what my maid taught me. I had chopped jalapenos and my hands were burning, I accidentally touched my face and …. she asked me to smear oil on my hands and face.. Wash with soap and water and repeat the oil. Sheer bliss I tell you. I follow the procedure when I chop chillies too.
I have liked the FB page.
Andrea M
My culinary trick: Once I have baked a cake and right before I ice it, I mix vanilla extract with a liqueur to drizzle over the cake, brushing evenly to just cover the cake surface (and do to each layer if it is a layered cake). This will add a subtle, but delicious flavor and keep the cake moist. My favorite liqueur to use: Amaretto! But the possibilities are endless: kahlua, creme de menthe, brandy, bourbon, cordials, etc.
Deeba @ PAB
Hi Andrea, You are one of the winners of the Camisoni giveaway. Thank you for the wonderful tip. Here are some of Camisonis more popular extracts. Please pick any one of them – Vanilla, Lemon, Almond, Orange, Coconut.
Would you be good enough to email me your preferred choice of extract and mailing address so I can forward it to Camisoni?
Thank you for being part of the contest once again.
Deeba @ Passionate About Baking
email : deebarajpal@gmail.com
Ash (foodfashionparty@blogspot.com)
Wow, ginger extract seems like something I want to try..Looks and I’m sure tastes absolutely divine.
neeta garg
hello,
One trick my mother told me when my scrambled eggs started to overcook was to quickly add a tablespoon of cream or butter. This will prevent the eggs from becoming tough.
This tip turned out to be quite handy for me.
–neeta garg
P.S. – I liked the page on FB
Simone
I love the flavor combination you used with the ginger and lemon… Will definitely try that for next time! It looks delicious and lovely photos as always ( and I want that chopping board in the first pic!)
Deeba @ PAB
Thank you Simone. My Dad made me that chopping board from an old plank i found. It took him quite a few days and I love it too!
sangeeta khanna
I would share a tip to bake gluten free breads as these breads turn out a bit hard and crumble easily when cold. I usually use oats, ragi, barley flours etc to bake my gluten free or minimal gluten (when I add about 25% whole wheat flour to my bread dough) loaves. Adding potato flour or tapioca flour and some flax seed meal dissolved with water to make a slurry. These additions make the wholemeal breads really soft. Just one thing to take care with such breads, always slice the bread when cold, and then reheat before serving, the slices get really soft with flavors bursting out when warm.
One more tip since the post features good quality extracts. Always store the extracts in dark and cool places to prevent them from getting week. These extracts can also be used on aroma sticks , I would love some mint extract in the air when I am serving a Sunday brunch on a summer day may be..
Now I would shut up 🙂 might go on and on in anticipation of those lovely bottles 🙂
liked the page btw…
Arun
Hello Deeba,
I am a regular reader and love your blog.I have started baking recently only and your blog was one of the many I checked out before starting. Have to say I am tempted to comment because of the contest as I am mostly a silent admirer of creative blogs….:) My trick to getting a really wonderful crusty bread( as in no-knead bread) is to turn off the oven 2 mins before the baking time and leave it to cool down in the turned off oven inside the Dutch oven unlidded- it has worked the 3 times I made no- knead bread so far….
Anjalikoli
Hi Deeba being veg I have never tried the real creme brûlée but I make something with custard powder, do you have a veg version of it? Love to have a recipe and try it with these extracts. I have like the Camisomi page on FB and here is something that works for me while using glassware for baking I reduce the temperarture by 10 degrees centigrade to achieve the results of baking in tins. I would love to win those extracts!
Yasmin Dhorda
To make a perfect souffle I always chill the custard-gelatin mixture till it is thick & on the point of setting firm–remove from ice & beat in egg whites at this stage & egg whites are folded in with an up & down motion for maximum fluffiness
If icing sugar is not available, I just grind ordinary sugar in a grinder-mixer & sift twice & use
Recently when salad oil was not at home I just went ahead & made mayonnaise with rice bran oil & it turned out perfect–so I am guessing any light oil will do & not necessarily olive oil or salad oil
Deeba @ PAB
Hi Yasmin, You are one of the winners of the Camisoni giveaway. Thank you for the wonderful tip. Here are some of Camisonis more popular extracts. Please pick any one of them – Vanilla, Lemon, Almond, Orange, Coconut.
Would you be good enough to email me your preferred choice of extract and mailing address so I can forward it to Camisoni?
Thank you for being part of the contest once again.
Deeba @ Passionate About Baking
email : deebarajpal@gmail.com
Sudha Agarwal
Hello Deeba,yr recipes & clicks are really wonderful.I have liked the FBI page of Camisomi.
I wd like to share one tip- to prevent the nuts from sinking to bottom in a cake,lightly toast them before adding to the batter.
Sudha Agarwal
p.s. I share the email ID with my hub,hence his name in the FB like.Hope Camisoni ppl don’t mind!
rachel
Make sure your meat is thawed out before you cook it. Learned that the hard way…
Twinsy Rachel Abraham
While boiling eggs, adding onion skins to the water help to peel off shell without peeling the white. Also a pinch of salt or a dash of vineger while boiling eggs prevent the shell from cracking.
🙂
Twinsy Rachel Abraham
I liked the Camisoni page in FB 🙂
shalini digvijay
love the creme brule…if I dont have a blow torch…can I place the bowls under the griller……….
whenever I bake a cake in the microwave,I always place a glass of water with the baking dish,that way my cake never comes out dry ….
I liked the camisoni page on fb…
Ruchira
I <3 the creme brulee. Sonny dearest is really quite something.
I think one of my favourite culinary tricks, especially while baking is to douse the eggs with a bit of extract – depending on what you're baking – but lemon, vanilla and almond work best. Keep that aside for 5 minutes and then add it to your mix. Your cake will smell yum. And you know that horrid eggy smell/taste you and I hate, you'll never ever get that!