Crème Brûlée Cupcake

Seriously, Ms JC will soon have her own label in this blog- "JC's Faves"; "JC's Cravings"; "JC's Requests"; etc. and really there's a lot of possibilities but I'll think about it if, and when it happens.  So I was suckered; challenged; intrigued, etc. into making these cupcakes.  Hold on, they're not your average cupcakes slathered with butter cream or chocolate ganache frosting.  Can you imagine vanilla cupcakes with the dessert diva crème brûlée nestled at the center so that when your fork or knife runs through it, you hear the crack from the hardened but brittle caramel and then it's all softness from the cupcake and creaminess from the custard inside?  Truly a symphony of such wonderful textures and flavors that plays in your mouth with each bite.  

The base should be the best vanilla cupcake in town so use only good vanilla and of course nothing beats homemade so I prefer to make the creme brulee from scratch.

So thank you Ms JC for the inspiration; Megan Seling for the concept;  the vanilla cupcake and crème brûlée recipes are mine.

Vanilla Cupcakes

Ingredients:

1 1/4 cups cake flour

1 1/4 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

2 extra large eggs

3/4 cup sugar

1 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract

1/2 cup vegetable oil

1/2 cup buttermilk (stir 1/2 tsp white vinegar or lemon juice into 1/2 cup whole milk as substitute.  Let stand for 5 mins. before using)

Directions:
1, Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F and line a muffin pan with cupcake liners.
2. In a medium bowl, whisk together cake flour, baking powder and baking soda- set aside. 
3. Using an electric mixer, beat eggs on medium speed for 15-20 seconds
4. Add sugar and continue to beat for half a minute.

5. Add vanilla and oil and beat for another minute

6. Reduce mixer speed to medium/low and slowly add flour mixture in two additions alternating with buttermilk (also in two additions.  Beat until just combined and smooth. Make sure to scrape the sides and the bottom of the mixing bowl. The batter should be thin.

7. Pour batter into the paper-lined muffin pan. Fill to about 3/4 full.

8. Bake for 12 -14 minutes at 350 degrees F. Remove from the oven and allow to cool in the pan for a couple of minutes before transferring them to cake rack to cool completely

9. Using a melon baller or cookie dough scoop, scoop put the center of each cupcake, leaving about an inch border all around but make sure no to tear all the way through the cupcake liner.  Set aside.  Save the crumbs to snack on or eat them while prepping the creme brulee- it's your call!  It's yummy!

Now it's time to make the creme brulee!

Crème Brûlée

Ingredients:

1 quart heavy cream 
¾ cup sugar 
6 extra large or jumbo egg yolks 

Directions:
Place heavy cream in a medium saucepan set over medium-high heat and bring to a gentle boil. Remove from the heat and set aside
In a medium bowl, whisk together ¾ cup sugar and the egg yolks until well blended and it just starts to lighten in color. Add the cream a little at a time, stirring continuously 

Transfer back to the saucepan and simmer on low stirring continuously until it thickens enough to coat the back of a wooden spoon.

Pour into a strainer to make sure there are no lumps

Comes the assembly time:

Pour the mixture into the cupcakes, until they’re full, but not overflowing. Allow the cupcakes to sit at room temperature for about an hour, then refrigerate for another hour or overnight.

Just before serving, sprinkle granulated sugar over the cupcakes, place in a baking sheet and stick the under your oven’s broiler for about 3 minutes, or until the sugar has melted. You could also use a culinary torch, which is even better.  Just make sure you have that glassy caramel finish on top or it's not creme brulee.  Too bad dark specks appear when the flame comes in contact with sugar on top of the cake but sugar on top of the custard just turns lovely as it burns. 

Note:  The custard becomes soft, almost liquid-y after torching so chill anew until it firms up again.  I would just blast chill it using the freezer

I'm pretty pleased with the result and I can categorically say this is not the last time you'll see these cupcakes here.  Vanilla bean cupcake with Nutella creme brulee or vice versa; green tea cupcake with vanilla bean creme brulee and so on and so forth..... delicious thoughts ....