That goes not only for hair products, but for food too!

Crème caramel or flan aux oeufs, or crème renversée, they’re all the same things. I think the English translation would be custard, but I am not going to use it, because it sounds weird to me, not a name for a dessert but more so for a gardening tool.

Please don’t think that I am pretentious, but it is true that I have never failed making a caramel. I did fail in many other cooking experiments, but caramel was not the one, it always worked fine for me…until last year in France. I wanted to make a crème caramel for a friend’s party, and it turned out a complete disaster. I used all my mom’s sugar, tried four times in a row, and that darn sugar would crystallize. I had to run to the supermarket, bought tons of the top sugar, (I was convinced there was something wrong with her sugar), came back, tried again twice and it did not work either, so I was convinced there was something wrong with her pans. Obviously there was something wrong with me and still cannot figure out what. I was just so irritated that I threw everything away the egg mixture, milk, everything went in the sink. That was unbelievable that after six tries, it would not work.

The first time I made caramel after that disaster was today. Now I get the caramel phobia, and thinking, OK it will crystallize again, so I was ready for it. I was staring at the sugar in the pan, waiting to see formation of crystals. The sugar started to melt and colored beautifully, I could not believe it. I have absolutely no idea why when in France I just could not manage to make a caramel. That is a mystery, since I proceeded exactly the same way as I usually do. Everyone gave me all kinds of explanations and reasons…but since I did exactly the same thing, I don’t understand it. My theory is that since cooking is somehow like chemistry, I assume there were some chemical reactions involved which I was not aware of.

This crème caramel has a little twist, the pears and the orange blossom water which gives it a very nice kick. It’s a very easy dessert to make (of course if your sugar does not crystallize) and very light sweet touch after a multiple course meal.

As you can see, my crème caramel is overcooked because of the holes around it. If the water boils, it will create those holes. It does not affect the taste of the crème though, but it gives it some weird-looking aspect. To avoid this, you might want to check and make sure the water is not boiling and decrease the temperature accordingly.

Ingredients for 4-6 individual crèmes caramel (depending on the size of your ramequins)

For the crème caramel

• 1 pint (or about 500 ml) milk
• 3 eggs
• 2 yolks
• 1.41 oz (or 40 g) sugar
• 1 large pear, peeled and sliced
• 1 vanilla bean cut lengthwise
• 1 1/2 tsp. Orange blossom water

For the caramel

• 200 g sugar
• 1 tbs water

Preparation

For the caramel, place sugar in a pan with 1 tbs of water and let it melt slowly without stirring. When it has reached a nice dark golden color, distribute caramel evenly in ramequins. Place pear slices in caramel and set aside.

Place milk, in a pot, grate beans from vanilla beans and add to the milk, add sugar and heat for about 2-3 minutes until the sugar has melted. Do not let milk boil, it just needs to be lukewarm.

In a container, mix eggs thoroughly and add milk, keep stirring until the mixture gets homogenous and smooth. Add orange blossom water.

Fill the ramequin with milk/egg mixture. Place ramequins in a large tray filled with water and cook in a pre-heated oven at 370-375F for about 50 minutes. Let it cool and place in the refrigerator for about 3-4 hours.

Serve upside down. You might have to use a knife to enable the crème caramel to detach itself from the sides of the ramequins.

That was the dessert part of the dinner when my friend came over.  Originally I wanted to make the traditional tarte aux fraises, strawberry tart with vanilla custard (crème patissière). Then I had those beautiful yellow peaches, and it had been such a long time, I did not make a peach tart. So peach tart it was going to be. Eventhough I prefer to make savory dishes than bake, fruit desserts are one of my favorites.

Soon, peach season will be over, and we’ll start to find those mushy, frozen peaches with an insipid flavor and with a brownish color, don’t you hate it? It’s beautiful from the outside, and when you bite in it, you just want to spit it out. I still haven’t figured out how to detect from the outside that a peach will be mushy when you open it up.

It’s a very almond tart, the crust has almond meal and the crème patissière is flavored with almond, so if you like almond flavor, you’ll love this tart.

So far, in San Francisco, I haven’t see the color of summer, so hopefully fall will be my summer, and more tarts are coming this way…I don’t think there is a season for tarts, they’re perfect to consume all year round.

I don’t know if this is available in the US, but I brought from France some vanilla bean powder. It’s basically vanilla bean ground, so instead of opening and scraping a regular vanilla bean, this is already ground, and ready to use. If this is not available in the US, you can just open and scrape a regular vanilla bean.

If you don’t have individual tart molds, you can just use a regular mold.

For the almond crust

• 1 cup white flour
• 1/3 cup almond meal
• 2.82 oz (or 80 g) butter
• 2 tbs sugar
• 2 tbs water

For the almond custard cream

• 1 cup (or 250 ml) milk
• 2 eggs
• 1.8 oz (or 50 g) sugar
• vanilla powder
• 1/8 cup (or 25 g) flour
• 1 tsp almond extract

For the topping

• 2 large peaches not too ripe
• vanilla bean powder
• 1 tbs honey
• 1 tbs chopped pistachios

Preparation

For the crust

In a mixing container, add flour and almond meal, mix well, add sugar. Cut butter in small cubes and add to the flour, add water. Knead with the tip of your fingers to obtain an grainy dough but do not over knead it. If you knead it too long you won’t be able to roll it later and it will break apart. That’s the process to make a pate brisée (brisee = broken). Roll in a plastic wrap and place in the refrigerator for about 30 min.

For the amond custard cream

Mix eggs, sugar, flour in a mixing container, beat well to obtain a smooth consistency. Heat milk in a pan with vanilla bean powder, and when it’s hot (do not boil) add the egg/sugar/flour mixture. Continue to stir until the cream has thickened, it should take about 7-8 minutes. This cream can boil, since it has flour in it. Remove from heat and add almond extract. Let it cool down.  To prevent the cream from forming a crust, sprinkle with granulated sugar and let it cool.

For the peaches

Cut peaches in 4 quarters, peel them. cut them in slices about 5 mm thick. Heat a grill pan or regular grill, and grill the peaches slices on both sides. They grill very quickly so don’t over cook them or they will be mushy.

Place peaches in a container and coat them with honey and sprinkle with vanilla bean powder.

The finishing

Roll the dough in about a 4 mm thickness. Place in your non stick molds. Place some wax paper on top of your crust, and cook in a pre-heated oven at 375F for about 10 minutes, then remove the wax paper and cook for another 10 minutes. You will have to check the crust occasionally since every oven is different and it might cook too fast and eventually the crust might burn from the outside. When cooked remove form the oven and let it cool.

Fill the crusts with almond custard cream, then place grilled peaches on top and sprinkle with chopped pistachios. You can serve it at room temperature, these tarts don’t need to be placed in the refrigerator.