Christopher Kimball’s Milk Street Television

- Everybody is wrong about rice pudding.

You think it's a kiddie dessert.

Well, I was in Paris at L'Ami Jean, and the pastry chef, Stphane Jgo, showed me an amazing, three-part rice pudding that's one of the top five desserts in Paris.

- (speaking French): - Secondly, crme brle, you think, well, that's for pastry chefs.

We have come up with a way of making it without a water bath.

No cooking on top of the stove.

It's as easy as vanilla pudding.

And finally, a classic dessert that's actually made by kids in France.

One, two, three, four, yogurt cake, where the yogurt containers are actually turned into measuring cups.

So stay with us here at Milk Street as we take a fresh look at French desserts.

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- (speaking French): - Okay, I say rice pudding, and you say, no, thank you.

I haven't had rice pudding since I was 12, it's a kiddie dessert.

I might have agreed with you until I went to L'Ami Jean in Paris.

The chef there is Stphane Jgo.

It's so good, that if he takes it off the menu, there's a revolution, it's the next French Revolution.

It's not rice pudding.

It's just an amazing dessert that happens to have rice pudding as part of it.

But that's not the whole story.

So the first thing we did was cook rice and water, half-a-cup of rice, two cups of water, for about 20 minutes.

Now, he said to me, Carnaroli or Arborio rice is still a little too toothsome and hard.

He wants this actually really soft for rice pudding.

So a short or medium grain Japanese rice seems to work really well.

Step two is add two cups of milk to this.

Three-quarter cup of sugar.

You can use vanilla extract if you like.

Although, we're using vanilla beans.

My problem with vanilla beans is you get the jar for like eight bucks or whatever, it's very expensive.

You get two little beans and they're all dried out, right?

So I'm not a big fan of those.

If you can get really plump vanilla beans, it's great.

I find though, in a dessert like this, with so many other things going on, you won't be able to tell the difference between a good vanilla extract and vanilla beans.

So do as you like.

Rice is now cooked in the milk.

Fish out the vanilla beans and we're gonna chill this now.

So that's the base.

Now we're gonna do the caramel cream.

Now, this is one of my all-time favorite recipes.

His technique and our technique are actually quite different, because we wanted to create something that was super simple for a home cook.

The secret to this is you're not adding caramel to whipped cream, which is a little tricky.

You're actually gonna have the cream in the caramel, and then when it's cold, we're gonna whisk it up and it turns into this fabulous, billowy caramel cream, which you could just eat out of the bowl with a spoon.

Whatever-- forget the rice pudding.

So, okay, we're going to melt the butter.

You know, the problem with caramel always is that last 30 seconds when it's starting to turn color and get dark.

And then it goes from mahogany to burned in about 15 seconds.

So this actually makes it easier.

You have a much bigger window as it starts to darken.

This is going to look terrible.

And when I say terrible, I mean terrible.

It's going to look broken.

So what happens is, it'll remain looking broken until you add the cream.

Don't worry about it.

It's sort of like making a pound cake.

Sometimes the batter looks curdled, and you put it in the pan, you bake it, it's fine.

So when we add the cream, it's all going to come together.

So at this point, it's not going to look great.

One of the things to look for, if the question is, how do I know when it's cooked enough?

When making caramel, when it starts to smoke a little bit, is a good indicator that it's just about ready.

You know, if you don't get the caramel color dark enough, it's just sweet.

So a darker color, you get some bittersweet notes in this, which is really nice because when you pair it with a rice pudding, which is, of course sweet, it just makes it a more interesting dessert and takes it out of Kiddieland.

So that's starting to look.. good.

I mean, it looks terrible because it looks curdled, but the color is getting there.

That's good, all right, off heat.

Pour in the cream.

So you got to put it back over moderate heat, because you can see this has to melt again.

So we're going to put this in a bowl.

So this also has to refrigerate for a couple hours.

You can tell, as I said, there are three parts to this recipe.

Now, the first part is just basic rice pudding-- at least, that's what I thought.

He has, of course, a little secret in how to lighten up the base of this recipe, the rice pudding.

It's heavy cream.

And... You know, if I just used a hand whisk, I would be done by now.

This is the hardest part of this recipe.

Coals to Newcastle, you know, whipped cream and rice cooked with milk and sugar, sure, but you get this incredible-- I mean, even if this is all you did, you didn't do the caramel cream and the praline, it still would be a superior rice pudding.

Look at that.

And now for the most amazing part of this.

I mean, I'm impressed, I don't know.

Are you impressed?

This is so delicious-- okay.

Looks great.

The praline is three things.

It's slivered almonds, half-a-cup toasted.

It's half-a-cup of sugar.

Put in a skillet or you put into a saucepan, turn it into a caramel sauce, pour that over the almonds on a piece of parchment paper on a baking sheet, and then add a little coarse salt on top.

It's really very simple to do.

This is the fun part of the recipe, which is to whack it and break it up a little bit.

Without dispersing the praline all over the floor.

When you go to L'Ami Jean, you get this massive bowl and you get the caramel cream and the praline, and you can take as much as you want.

Does this look like a dessert for a 12-year-old?

First of all, all the recipes this season on Milk Street, you gotta make this one.

It's the rule of three.

So you have the base, which is this very light rice pudding.

You have a caramel cream, which is slightly bittersweet.

And then you have the praline, which has the crunch and the salt to it.

If you want to take rice pudding and make it for something for an adult, not a 12-year-old, go to L'Ami Jean.

Or you can actually just follow our recipe.

It is absolutely, and I don't always say this, this is absolutely one of my top five desserts of all time.

Back in Paris, I also went to a bistro called Chardonnay.

That's where I learned a surprising trick for making caramel sauce super glossy.

- (speaking French): - That's a cool trick.

(speaking French): - (speaking French): - Crme brle, now you think it's a pastry chef recipe, you don't make it at home.

So my job today, in the next like 90 seconds, is to help you figure out how to make crme brle at home, and it's easy as vanilla pudding.

- Look at that!

First try.

- Mm.

You did it.

- I did it.

This is sugar with orange in it.

- No.

- No?

All right.

- Everybody has always been like, well, let's just-- "Let's put tahini in it."

- More is more.

- "I want tahini in my crme brle."

- You know what I always say to my kids?

More is not more.

- So the first part is the water bath.

Now, don't get me wrong, I don't hate water baths.

I really hate water baths.

Because if you have a roasting pan, all that water in it, and it's very heavy and sloshing around.

So just a wet kitchen towel, and then put the ramekins on top, that actually works.

Now it works in conjunction with something else, which I'll get to in a moment.

As I've said many times, custards have a basic formula which is usually about two eggs per cup of liquid.

So we have five egg yolks here to two cups of liquid, which is in the ballpark.

So just keep that little formula in mind.

A little salt.

Sugar, of course.

And we're gonna use half-and-half and heavy cream.

Now, you notice that, uh, there's no stovetop here, I don't have a saucepan out.

So the other thing I like about this recipe is that there's no pre-cooking.

Now, we use a vanilla powder, which we like because it looks nice, right?

You see those little specks in the finished... crme brle and vanilla extract as well.

This is one of those arguments we have here at Milk Street.

Like, the kitchen goes like, you have to strain a custard.

Get those little bits out-- I don't care.

This is a walk on the wild side, folks.

I'm just gonna pour this in.

See, you didn't need a strainer.

We're just gonna pour the custard in.

The second trick to this recipe that really makes me think about changing the way I cook.

Got rid of the water bath.

But one reason we could get rid of the water bath is how we're going to bake this thing.

So, back in the 1920s, there were recipes for like, cold oven pound cakes.

I think this is around the time the gas ovens became popular.

I believe this is, like, energy saving.

So they put the loaf pan in the oven that was cold and then turned the oven on.

So that gives you very gentle, slow heat.

The benefit here is that you have a big window at the end when the crme brle is done, which is nice, but also it means you don't need a water bath because it's such gentle heat.

You don't have to worry about the sides and the bottom of the crme brle overcooking by the time the center is set.

Into a cold oven, we're going to turn the oven on to 275, and let it bake.

So there are two ways to determine whether any custard is done, really, including crme brle.

One is an instant read thermometer, 175 to 180.

The other is the center should not be set.

It should jiggle, wiggle a little bit.

There's post-baking cooking going on, right?

So it's going to set up as it sits.

We're going to take these out-- of course, I don't want to burn my hands either, but... ...it is hot.

Ah!

(exhales rapidly) Ah.

Okay.

Those were hot!

Yeah, you can use tongs to do that, but I have actually let things slip with the tong with a hot ramekin, so.

We're going to let these cool to room temperature, throw them in a fridge for at least four hours.

Can be up to two days, actually.

Now we get to the fun part, the brle.

Now, Wes, who runs our kitchen here at Milk Street, he's the pro.

He sort of taught me.

One of the times I did it years ago, I put the sugar on top and I got the torch out and it just erupted in flames and burned everything, so, hopefully we have a better technique for that.

So now the test is will I set this on fire or will I do it right?

In general, you put a teaspoon of sugar... on top.

Wes, who runs our kitchen, says put more than that on and then we're going to just shake out the excess.

I like to go to the next town, to the hardware store.

It's one of those old fashioned stores I love.

I just buy those green plumber's torches.

There are two kinds, the one that has the click to start it, and one that doesn't-- I like the click version.

But this one is just a classic... ...everyday can of butane fuel you use for, like, a lighter.

And you put this attachment on the top.

So for a kitchen, this is fine.

It's a little smaller, easier to store, and it does a good job.

Just turn the gas on.

What we're trying to do is melt the sugar here.

Hopefully, this will be my best one.

I'm not going to get hired as a pastry chef anytime soon.

I don't think.

I'm going to give myself a grade.

It's not an A. It's not a C. It's like a B, B minus, so.

But the point is, the crme brle is still solid underneath.

The first test is, what do you hear?

(tapping) Here, we'll get this... so you get a nice glassy top, which is nice.

And the top is also not too thick, which is also important.

Mm.

And what's really important is it tastes great.

So I love the fact that the crme brle is evenly cooked throughout.

It's very gently cooked.

The top is, like, super thin, right?

Mm.

That's tasty.

Mm.

So hopefully we've changed the way you cook and think about crme brle.

It's easier than vanilla pudding.

We don't have to use a water bath, just a wet kitchen towel.

There's no cooking on top of the stove.

You put it into a cold oven, a 1920s technique.

Then turn the oven on to 275.

Gentle cooking, evenly cooked throughout.

You can do it.

You can make crme brle at home, it's just that simple.

- No measuring cup, no problem.

This is the easiest cake you will ever make, and all you need is a yogurt cup to measure everything.

This universal recipe is one of the first recipes that children from France learn how to bake.

So the interesting thing about this cake is you can use two different size cups.

A four-ounce cup, which, you know, if you have children at home, you're probably going to have a lot of these around, or a 5.3-ounce cup.

If you use the four-ounce cup, you want to use a loaf pan.

And if you use the 5.3-ounce cup, which we are today, you want to put it in a nine-inch round cake pan.

So it's a one, two, three, four formula.

So what we're going to use is one cup of the yogurt.

Then we're going to take our cup and fill it with one cup of neutral oil.

I'm using grapeseed oil, but you could use avocado oil or even a light olive oil.

And then we're going to use two cups of sugar.

We're gonna add three cups of flour.

But first we're gonna put our four eggs in with our oil, yogurt and sugar.

I kind of think of this like the kind of cake your aunt or your mother or your grandmother, you know, you show up in their kitchen and they just kind of whip up a cake, and there's no recipe, and you think, well, how did they do that?

But you can be that person now with this cake.

All right, so we have our three cups of flour.

The only other thing we need is a tablespoon of baking powder and a half-teaspoon of salt.

That's it.

So I'm just gonna whisk this until it's nice and smooth.

So when I made this yesterday, I actually used dried strawberries and chopped them up and it was really good, so it was like a vanilla strawberry cake.

So you can really customize this to make it anything you want.

So again, because I'm using the 5.3-ounce yogurt cup, I'm gonna use a nine-inch cake pan that I've sprayed with cooking spray and covered with flour.

This is gonna go into a 350 degree oven for about an hour.

Look at how spectacular this cake is for how easy it was to make.

So this is the cake with, again, the 5.3-ounce cup.

But if you were gonna use a four-ounce cup, look at this gorgeous loaf cake-- to me, this is absolutely the perfect cake to serve with whipped cream and berries, but ice cream would be great.

Voila-- this is the easiest yogurt cake you will ever make.

It's tender, it's light, it's not too sweet.

And again, feel free to add whatever you want to this cake.

I actually made it recently for my son who can't have gluten.

They have really good gluten-free flour blends and I used gluten-free flour and it also came out great.

So this is really versatile.

You can really make this your own and that's what's really special about it.

So if you've always wanted to be the mother or the grandmother or the auntie who whips up the cake with no recipe, adds their own little special twist to it, whether it's lemon and poppy seed or a little bit of chocolate or some nuts, this is the cake for you.

You can find this recipe and all the recipes from this season at MilkStreetTV.com.

And before we go, we have one last tip from Aleksandra Crapanzano on how she likes to customize this cake.

- So the yogurt cake in France is pretty much as ubiquitous as a chocolate chip cookie is in the U.S.

Every kid learns to make it.

In fact, it's even on the curriculum.

It's on the kindergarten curriculum throughout France.

So once you have this recipe as a kid, you memorize it and you have it for the rest of your life.

And what I love about French cooking, particularly kind of Parisian home cooking, is that you learn these recipes and you keep them for the rest of your life.

And they're incredibly adaptable.

You can add even a pint of frozen berries or fresh berries.

You could add chocolate chips, you could add nuts.

I also like going tiny bit savory in this.

So one of my favorite combinations is lemon zest and a little bit of lemon thyme.

But what I also love is when you have it at somebody's house.

For example, my friend Delphine in Paris has four kids, and when she makes a yogurt cake for say, a Sunday supper, she will actually cut the cake in half and she'll save one half for the kids.

And for the grownups, she will do this absolutely delicious soaking syrup with about two tablespoons of Grand Marnier, two tablespoons of orange juice, and maybe about a fourth-of-a-cup of superfine sugar.

And then, she will brush that on with a silicone brush on half the cake.

And then if she wants to go a little extra fancy, she will melt some apricot preserves, which always give cakes this really beautiful kind of glistening quality to them, and maybe she'll add a little bit of rum, say a tablespoon of rum to a jar of apricot preserves, and brush that on once the cake is at room temperature.

And once that glaze is at room temperature, then you just get a really beautiful look to the cake, a very finished look to the cake, and you get this extraordinary kind of boozy, rum, Grand Marnier, orange, fantastic aroma.

So it's really fun to serve that at night.

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