Pink Peppercorn Creme Brulee

Our DC foodie friends, Brooke and Adrian, recently won a door prize from the Women Chefs & Restaurateurs that cannot be beat - one cooking class for 10 per month with amazing women chefs for the next 12 months! We were lucky enough to be invited to the first "Crowning Cuisine" event with Bonnie Moore and Melanie Parker at L'Academie de Cuisine.

We started the afternoon honing our knife skills making a classic French onion soup gratinee, sauteed chicken with mushroom cream sauce, rice pilaf and julienned carrots. Learning to mince garlic into a paste with a knife is something I will definitely be practicing again this weekend. (I'm sure Super Bowl cuisine requires minced garlic of some sort.)

Another favorite part of the afternoon was devouring the creme brulees we made! Here is Melanie Parker's (Equinox) recipe:

Ingredients:
3 C Heavy cream
2 C Half and half
5 oz Sugar
1/2 Vanilla bean, split and seeded
1 oz Crushed pink peppercorns
5 oz Egg yolks

1. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F.

2. Place egg yolks in a large, non-reactive bowl.

3. In a saucepan over medium heat, heat heavy cream, half and half, vanilla bean and pink peppercorns (or saffron or lavender). When the liquid is hot, whisk in sugar and bring mixture to a bowl. Remove from heat and strain spices from the cream mixture.

4. Temper the cream mixture into the egg yolks by adding a small amount of the hot liquid to the egg yolks, whisking constantly. Add the rest of the hot liquid in a steady stream, whisking constantly.

5. Place 8 6-oz ramekins in a roasting pan or baking dish with high sides. Ladle hot custard into ramekins. Make a water bath by pouring hot water into baking pan until it reaches halfway up the sides of the ramekins. Bake until custards are set, about one hour.

6. Remove pan from oven and place ramekins on a rack to cool. Then place in the refrigerator for
about 4-5 hours to chill completely.

7. When ready to serve, sprinkle with granulated sugar and carefully brulee the top using a torch.

In our cooking class, Melanie had also helped us make a Saffron Creme Brulee and a Lavender Creme Brulee (photographed). She had made various fruit compotes and syrups to accompany each one. She also baked small strips of powdered-sugar phyllo dough.