4 Levels of Custard: Amateur to Food Scientist | Epicurious

hi i'm emily and i'm a level one chef hi i'm daniel and i am a level two chef hi i'm lani i'm the owner of brutus bake shop in brooklyn new york and i've been baking for 20 years here's the thing my uncle recently had a birthday not that recently a few months ago up in canada he had a banana cream pie and we were down here in new york and my husband was like banana cream pie and i was like all right we're going to try to make a banana cream pie it'll be fun the custard that i'm making today is a creme caramel flan which is something that was always around during the holidays for me in my house and i never really tried it but now i like it and i'm super excited that i get to make it myself for my custard i'm going to be making a yuzu creme brulee i love this dish in the middle of winter it's rich it's delicious it's anxious it's comforting plus it's got a little black sesame cookie and it's just divine for the creme caramel flan uh the starting kind of layer is caramel first i've got some sugar which i'm gonna throw into this wow this is like there we go huh some sugar and water in a pan that's really all caramel is i didn't know that at first but i'm looking for a boil waiting is always the hardest because you smell it and you're like i just wanna dip my hand in and like scoop it in my mouth but you can't because you know it's dangerous for sure oh okay now take this caramel and just pour this this actually is going to be the top of the flan i'm just going to let this kind of chill while i work on the custard so to do that the very first thing i'm going to do is separate my eggs crack the egg on the surface that you're working on warm eggs crack easier than cold eggs in my experience i've heard that this is easier when your eggs are room temperature hot tip for me the person you should definitely take tips from so i'm gonna go with six egg yolks why six that's my mom's recipe set so i leave the yolk on one side of the shell and then i kind of toss it back and forth taking care not to damage the yolk i'm sure the commenters will tell me whether or not this is a gross way to separate my eggs but i do it with my hands one more technique that you can use is breaking the egg into your hand and allowing the egg white to run through your fingers yeah and i just kind of like cradle them back and forth until the egg white falls off that's it that's the technique it's a little messier but you are handling that yolk so gently i actually really like doing this it's super gross but also really satisfying i see you emily great job yolks are separated from whites a great way to keep your bowl from shifting in the kitchen is just placing a damp cloth all around the base i'm going to take the yolks put them in this mixing bowl sugar can sort of cook these yolks so as soon as you're pouring your sugar in be sure to whisk yuzu is a japanese citrus it's incredibly bright it's very citrusy and it has its own sort of bergamonte floral essence to it pinch of salt and vanilla so the next thing i'm going to do is combine my coconut milk sugar and salt in my pot and bring it to a nice simmer cream into the pot i'm gonna make sure you get any of this beautiful fat so i use coconut milk instead of heavy cream and milk because i am deeply lactose intolerant and i learned that i could use coconut milk so i was like cool i'm gonna do that i've got sweetened condensed milk and evaporated milk and be completely honest with you i have no idea what these things are my mom always has like two or three in the cupboards all i know is that it's sweet and it makes this taste really good so i have my coconut milk mixture starting to simmer and while that happens i'm going to mix my eggs and my cornstarch together in this bowl to get them ready to custardify my cream is ready i'm going to pull this pot off here and temper into my eggs tempering is a tricky activity what you want to make sure to do is add slowly a little bit of this hot cream to these eggs we don't want the heat of this cream to cook these eggs this smells heavenly cream cheese goes in there egg yolks and vanilla extract which i use in everything blending these things up they don't want any weird chunks or any sort of like particles of just cream cheese floating around whenever you make a custard always strain a custard just gonna pour this mixture through the chinois the finest strainer possible it's going to just get that silky smooth professional creme brulee boom this custard just gets poured directly from the blender into the pan easiest assembly ever really all right now i'm going to cook the custard so the next thing i'm going to do is just take some of my hot coconut milk mixture and put it in with my eggs and cornstarch and whisk it super fast to start warming up my eggs so that they don't become scrambled eggs when they go into the hot coconut milk just getting my egg yolks nice and toasty so that they don't go scramble scrambled don't be eggs i've got some ramekins in a baking dish and i'm just gonna fill these ramekins one by one so i've got the bubbles here i'm gonna hit these with a blowtorch and it's gonna get rid of all of the bubbles on the surface of this custard now that my custard's done cooking i'm going to add my vanilla and my butter and give that a stir and then i'm going to cover it and chill it nope sorry alright so i'm just putting my cling wrap directly onto my custard so that it doesn't develop a skin do they have a class in culinary school just on like not screwing up your cling wrap i wish there was a secret i wish there was a behind the curtain unveiling of how to get plastic wrap not to stick to itself but the truth is there isn't one our custard child is all wrapped up and ready to cool for about 15 minutes i'm gonna get these custards in the oven and we're going to bake them in a water bath i start with warm water this is actually going to be poured into the larger pan the water bath is known as a bain-marie it allows you to cook delicate things like custards really gently i'm going to get my baking dish into my oven which has been preheating at 325 and i'm going to bake it for about 25 to 30 minutes so i've got my oven preheated at 400 degrees and now i'm just going to pop them in there for about an hour the next thing i'm going to do is fill up my pie i have here a pre-made graham cracker pie crust now it is super easy to make your own graham cracker pie crust but let's be honest we're all busy i like my bananas a little less than ripe that very slight tang of like a not quite ripe banana that is my ideal banana what's our opinion on eating the little tiny end of the banana that's fine right that's it's not actually filled with bugs like they told me when i was a kid all right so the next thing i'm going to do is pour my custard on top of my bananas so as to make it a pie right now it's just a bunch of bananas in a gram crust shelf but once the custard's in bam you got yourself a pie custards are set custards are chilled custards are ready to be torched the caramelized sugar is super easy to do it's just a little bit of sugar and a blowtorch this is my favorite part it's starting to caramelize i can smell the sugar starting to cook i'm getting bubbles all on the surface okay i'm out of gas fortunately got a solution the big girl i think these guys are suitably torched i'm gonna let them cool the next thing i'm gonna do is garnish my banana cream pie by adding more bananas you thought you'd seen the end of me slicing bananas but you were wrong this looks good right i think it looks good i know it's going to taste great and then to make sure we get the full pie experience i just need to glop some floof on this is a non-dairy whipped cream i think it's pretty clear that my philosophy for adding topping to this pie is more is more i would say that pie looks perfect and done all right so i've got the flan here it's been chilling for a couple hours and now is the actual hard part i'm basically going to take this offset spatula run it around the outside of the pan and then flip it so that the caramel bottom is now a caramel top and flipping things over onto a plate like in any sort of scenario is always a little nerve-wracking for me that's where we get the drum roll going okay all right oh yes comes right out this is perfect oh man that worked out for my garnish i have some fresh raspberries it wouldn't give me blackberries i asked and they wouldn't and some fresh mint i chose raspberries and mint solely on the fact that i typically have this always around christmas time or like around the holidays and the red and the green is a great accent for my garnish i'm doing a black sesame shortbread cookie it's going to pair well with the yuzu it's going to be crispy and delicious and it's really straightforward i'm just paddling this butter a little bit before i add this confectioners sugar i'm going to add my vanilla extract and a pinch of kosher salt next thing that's going to go in is going to be our gluten-free flour and toasted sesame seeds in goes the flour i added black sesame seeds to this shortbread recipe because i really wanted to pick up and contrast the really beautiful bright flavor of the yuzu the black sesame dough is all mixed i'm gonna get it into some plastic and then i'm gonna twist the ends like i'm making a sausage i'm gonna chill it for at least 30 minutes till it's nice and firm the dough is nice and chilled it's ready to become cookies from cookie dough i'm looking for nice even slices so that they can bake off nice and evenly 12 will fit on here maldon sea salt right on top these are going to go in for 10 to 12 minutes and then they'll be ready all right it's my slicing time and i don't want to be greedy so i'm just going to take a little corner piece here this slice this is my slice i'm super excited to taste this pie look at that i just want to take this i'm just like i've got my yuzu creme brulee i'm gonna pick this one and i'm gonna place it on my plate i'm just gonna pick the three prettiest it's really gonna pop with a little bit of mint and this is my banana cream pie and this is my custard creme caramel flan this is my custard a yuzu creme brulee with a black sesame cookie [Music] the very best part of creme brulee is what happens next you're missing out this type of custard i'd say it's an anytime customer it makes a great breakfast pie remember right we've gone by you went through my eyeball like see all the flashbacks i'm experiencing it's like my childhood in a single bite oh god what's the best part of being a pastry jack eating custard is a delicious creamy smooth dish made by thickening liquid with coagulated egg proteins let's see how each of our three chefs made theirs emily made a banana cream pie which is a type of stirred custard stirred custards aren't baked and are soft rich and creamy she used coconut cream as her liquid and thickened it with both egg yolks and corn starch each of these thickened emily's custard but in different ways the egg yolks caused emily's coconut cream to become viscous by protein coagulation heated proteins unfold and form new configurations that bond with surrounding molecules ultimately changing the liquid mass to a semi-solid state cornstarch thickens by gelatinization hydrogen bonds in the water start to vibrate when heated eventually breaking and allowing the water to hydrate the starch this causes it to swell and thicken the liquid corn starch should be cooked for several minutes for maximum viscosity emily used a process called tempering in which she added warm liquid to her egg and cornstarch mixture to gradually increase the temperature of the eggs she then added the egg mixture back to the coconut cream stirring constantly the rate of heating egg yolks has a big effect on the final texture of a custard if you heat it too quickly eggs curdle or scramble and make your custard lumpy without maximizing the thickening properties please don't be eggs egg yolks coagulate at a slightly higher temperature than egg whites by using the yolks only emily had a larger range of temperature at which to temper her eggs and cook her custard daniel made a type of flan flan is a baked custard which means it'll be firm enough to be removed from the dish after baking flipping things over onto a plate is always a little nerve-racking for me daniel's custard is made in two parts the caramel and the custard for his caramel daniel simply cooked sugar and water together until the sugar dissolved and took on a brown color it continued caramelization while it baked so daniel didn't need to cook his sugar much higher than 340. white sugar is simple nothing but sweet once heated it's still sweet but has a much more complex flavor profile this is from the formation of various compounds such as caramelan carmelin diacetyl and furan for his custard daniel didn't use a tempering process instead he added his egg yolks to evaporated milk sweetened condensed milk vanilla and cream cheese the addition of these ingredients add flavor and body to daniel's flan but also helped to insulate against his flan over coagulating during baking and becoming tough and rubbery this can happen if eggs coagulate too quickly and at too high a temperature lonnie made a creme brulee which is a combination of a stirred and baked custard she thickened rich heavy cream with egg yolks using the tempering process she mixed her sugar directly into her egg yolks which increases coagulation temperature because the added sugar increases heat stability of proteins sugar can sort of cook these yolks she used super fine sugar which has a smaller particle size and dissolves more quickly than regular white sugar once the mixture is added to the hot cream lonnie added yuzu juice which is a type of asian citrus fruit that's a bit pebbled on the outside rounder than a lemon and yellow in color i really discovered my love for yuzu on a trip to tokyo a few years ago i had a really beautiful yuzu custard there and i just couldn't get enough of the flavor it has a citrusy slightly musky pungent flavor this is due to sulfuric compounds as well as eugenol which is also found in cloves by adding this acidic citrus juice lining not only elevated the flavor profile of her dish but also created a slightly firmer custard because acids cause more compact protein coagulation lonnie strained her mixture in a chinois which is a very fine pointed sieve the holes on this are so tiny any small egg particles are removed and she has a silky smooth custard for her yuzu creme brulee emily didn't bake her banana cream pie after she made her custard she chilled it which increased its rigidity by placing plastic wrap directly on the surface of her custard emily helped prevent a process called retrogradation this happens when the gelatinized starch cools the starch molecules start to reform into a tight matrix while squeezing out water this is due to amylose the straight chain molecules and starch made up of repeating units of glucose this is why you sometimes get a pool of water on top of a starch thickened custard or a soggy crust the plastic also prevents a skin from forming on the top of the pie which is also from retrogradation daniel baked in two layers his caramel topping and his custard base he then placed his pan into a larger pan filled with water so that the water came in direct contact with the sides of his custard dish despite being in a hot oven at 400 degrees fahrenheit this allowed for slow moderate heating the water never exceeded 212 degrees because it would otherwise turn to steam this like many other elements of the dish help to prevent over coagulation and ensured a tender yet firm final texture it keeps it moist so the custard actually comes out nice and moist it doesn't dry out and get all cracky and weird because that would make for an ugly flan lonnie poured her warm custard into individual ramekins she placed them in a water bath to ensure low even baking she baked at a lower oven temperature of 325 degrees fahrenheit she also baked them for a shorter time about 25 or 30 minutes because she baked individual smaller volume portions of custard i'm just going to give it a little jiggle you can see it's nice and firm it's not moving anywhere that way i know it's cooked baked custards are done when the middle wiggles slightly or if an inserted knife into the center comes out clean lonnie chilled her custards which helps them to become firm which was essential for the brulee lonnie evenly coated the tops of her custard with a super fine sugar this type of sugar caramelizes more quickly because of its small particle size she took a propane torch and flamed the sugar until it liquefied and became dark and crunchy when cooled be careful if you do this at home make sure you rest the ramekins on a flame resistant surface personally i love creme brulee when the custard is slightly chilled and crunchy and the sugar is still warm next time you find yourself with some extra eggs sugar and milk or cream we hope you'll take some of these tips from our three chefs to make whatever type of custard your heart desires [Music]

Channel: Epicurious

Views: 536,189

Keywords: 4 levels, epi 4 levels, epicurious 4 levels, custard, make custard, egg custard, how to make custard, epicurious custard, epi custard, 4 levels custard, flan, caramel flan, how to make flan, caramel custard, banana cream pie, banana creme, creme brulee, make creme brulee, creme brulee recipe, flan recipe, banana cream pie recipe, how to make creme brulee, easy custard, easy creme brulee, easy flan, homemade creme brulee, homemade flan, homemade custard, epi, epicurious

Id: pt49NspUmKQ

Length: 17min 6sec (1026 seconds)

Published: Thu Nov 12 2020