Well, here’s an adaptation of the traditional Italian (Piemontese) custard dessert called bounet that will fill that gap nicely. A true traditional bounet is like a chocolate amaretto flan, with a burnt caramel sauce that spills over the top. To my knowledge, there’s no good way to make a burnt Splenda caramel sauce. (I am not saying it’s out of the realm of possibility; I just don’t know how to do it and if you do know, please share it with the rest of us, here!) So, to give us all the taste of a bounet without all the carbs, here’s my adaptation. I’ve written sous vide instructions for those of you with a SousVide Supreme, followed by instructions for a traditional oven. Either way, it’s a sweet winner!

Low Carb Amaretto Chocolate Crème Brulee
Serves 4

Butter for the ramekins
10 ounces (350 ml) half and half
2 ounces (60ml) Amaretto di Sorrono liqueur
2 tablelspoons (25 g) cocoa powder, plus a bit more for decoration
1 tablespoon (15 ml) good vanilla extract
1/2 cup (100 g) granulated Splenda*
5 egg yolks
4 teaspoons (20 ml) Splenda Brown Sugar Blend (or regular brown or white sugar)

*Or use your favorite non-caloric sweetener, in an amount sufficient to impart the sweetening power of ½ cup sugar.

1.Elevate the perforated bottom grill of the SousVide Supreme water oven by placing it atop a non-rusting wire cooking rack or adjustable V-roasting rack.
2. Fill the ramekins you will use to cook your brulee with water and position them on the perforated bottom rack of the SousVide Supreme™ .
3. Fill the machine with just enough water to come within ½ inch (1.25 cm) of the top of the ramekin. Remove and empty the ramekins, dry them well, and generously butter their interiors.
4. Preheat the SousVide Supreme to 185F-194F/85-90C.
5. In a bowl, whisk the egg yolks with the sweetener until the granules have dissolved and the yolks are a pale yellow cream (about 2 minutes).
6. Add the cocoa powder, amaretto, vanilla, and milk to the egg mixture and whisk until all the ingredients of the custard are mixed.
7. Pour the custard mixture into the ramekins and carefully place them onto the perforated grill in the water oven.
8. Cook for 45 minutes to 1 hour with the lid on the water bath.
9. When the custards have set (a knife blade inserted into one should come out clean) remove the ramekins from the water bath and let them cool to room temperature.

For serving:

1. Sprinkle 1 teaspoon (5 ml) of Splenda Brown Sugar Blend (or regular brown or white sugar for a few more carbs) over the surface of each custard.
2. Use a kitchen torch to caramelize the topping.
3. Put each ramekin onto a dessert plate, dust a bit of cocoa over the plate, and serve.

Carbohydrate content per serving will be a shade under 10 grams, made with the blended brown sugar sweetener as the brulee topping. Full strength brown or white sugar will add 2.5 grams per serving and leaving off the brulee topping will save 2.5 grams per serving. Your call!

For those without a SousVide Supreme water oven (and if you don’t have one, what better Valentine’s gift could you have??) here are the traditional instructions:

1. Preheat the traditional oven to 300F/150C.
2. Generously butter 4 ramekins and set them into a shallow baking pan.
3. In a bowl, beat the egg yolks until they are pale yellow.
4. In a saucepan over medium heat, mix the half and half, cocoa, and sweetener, and cook, stirring often, until tendrils of steam begin to rise from the surface.
5. Whisking the egg yolks constantly, gradually dribble some of the hot cream into them to temper. After a few additions of cream, add the remainder of it and whisk together. (If you are a real purist, strain the mixture through a fine-mesh sieve to remove any strings of egg yolk from the custard mixture.)
6. Stir the amaretto and vanilla into the custard mixture and divide it evenly among the buttered ramekins.
7. Put the baking pan into the oven and fill the pan with hot water, sufficient to come half way up the side of the ramekins.)
8. Bake for 30 to 40 minutes. The custard should shake like jelly when you tap the ramekin.
9. Remove the custard from the oven and when cool, cover and refrigerate.

Finish for serving as per instructions above.

Happy Valentine’s Day!

It was mentioned in an AP article about Julia Child, which seem to be everywhere coincident with the hype surrounding the book and newly released movie, Julie & Julia, starring Meryl Streep as the indomitable Mrs. Childs. The article focused on three kitchen utensils Julia felt were mandatory in the kitchen: the crepe pan, the whisk, and the food mill, each with a recipe for using the item. The latter, of course, she used for making Vichyssoise, which on a hot summer day sounded pretty darned tempting.

OK, clearly not real vichyssoise, since it’s potato-based and thus too filled with easily digested potato starch (read glucose) to be of much use to those of us who keep a lid on the carbs. But a nice chilled low-carb version and some slices of cold grilled chicken over butter lettuce and tomatoes drizzled with a tangy lime and fresh rosemary vinaigrette. Now you’re talking!

So I set about to pimp Julia’s recipe. In it were cooked peeled potatoes, leeks, chicken stock, salt, heavy cream, white pepper and minced fresh chives. Really not much but the potatoes that had to go, which can most easily be replaced by cauliflower or celery root.

I chose cauliflower, since unless you get a very fresh celery root, you’re going to run into the possibility of some woody bits, which would really spoil the delicate and velvety puree.

Begin by making a double batch of Creamy Cauliflower Puree , about which I’ve posted before. (Scroll down a bit in that blog post for the recipe.) If you have more than you need, great; it keeps in the fridge well for use as the side dish that it is, just heated in the microwave.

Low Carb Vichyssoise
Serves 6 to 8

3 cups Creamy Cauliflower Puree
3 cups sliced leeks, white parts only
1 1/2 quarts chicken stock or broth
1/2 to 1 cup heavy cream (organic if possible)
Salt to taste
White pepper to taste
2 to 3 tablespoons minced fresh chives
Sour cream garnish, if desired

1. In a 3 to 4 quart saucepan, over medium high heat, simmer the leeks in the stock with a ittle salt for about 40 to 50 minutes, until the leeks are tender.
2. Place the leeks and some of the stock into a blender and puree.
3. Return the pureed leeks to the remaining stock in the pan, add the Creamy Cauliflower Puree, add the cream until you get the consistency you desire, and stir well to combine.
4. Taste and adjust seasonings, adding more salt and the white pepper.
5. If you’re a real stickler for a perfectly smooth soup, pass the puree through a fine mesh strainer. (I am not usually so picky, but it’s a nice touch if you’ve got the time.)
6. Chill thoroughly, up to overnight.
7. When ready to serve, ladle into chilled bowls, garnish with a sprinkling of chives and a dollop of fresh sour cream, if you like.

Cool as the ‘Tom Brady’ side of the pillow!

(My fellow NFL fans will understand the inversion of the overworked allusion (cliche) that one particular ESPN talking sports head uses (over and over and over) to describe the degree of coolth, calmth, and collection under pressure of the storied New England Patriots’ QB, who returns this season from the disabled list.)

I love custards in almost all their forms. Mike doesn’t particularly, but he eats them when I fix them and enjoys them well enough; they’re just not his ‘go to’ dessert. That would be apple, berry, or cherry something-or-other. He never met a fruit-filled crust he didn’t want to eat, though he eschews doing so most of the time unless I make him the low-carb version, such as the Rustic Apple or Berry Crostada with the Tender Almond Pie Crust from the Low Carb CookwoRx Cookbook.

Thus, since it was my favorite, I was the cook, and love of it is almost universal, I opted for the Low Carb Creme Brulee to finish off our New Year’s Eve 2007 feast. (I have to disclose that this photo is not one from the New Year’s eve dinner. Somehow, probably owing to the many and varied glasses of champagne and wine that preceded it, the photographer (that would be Mike) failed to snap a photo of the dessert. I promise it looked just like this…only smaller.)

Daunting as it may seem if you’ve only ordered it at restaurants and never attempted it yourself, making this dessert is as easy as pie. Actually, it’s a whole lot easier than pie and best of all, it can–actually should–be done the day before and chilled overnight for best results.

Most of what’s in the custard base of a creme brulee is pretty low carb friendly–eggs, vanilla, and cream. But made the traditional way, there’s also a lot of that low-carb demon, pure cane sugar, which has to be replaced. Fortunately, there are replacements that work. My choice in replacing the sugar is to use Splenda, though you could also use erythritol or stevia in an amount sufficient to impart the sweetness of about 18 to 20 teaspoons of sugar. Removing the sugar from the custard base drops the carb count by about 20 grams per serving.

I make a concession to taste and authenticity by using a scant teaspoon of real natural cane sugar or brown sugar to make the caramelized crisp sugar crust that makes a creme brulee something more than just another custard. I have not tried torching erythritol (now widely available commercially) which perhaps would be a worthy endeavor, but I can tell you with great certainty that using a kitchen torch on granular Splenda yields a nasty topping of little charcoal flakes. Bleah! You could try using the new 1/2 and 1/2 Splenda/Sugar blend and it might work, but you’re only saving 2.5 grams of carb more by doing that and might be sacrificing the pure essence of creme brulee. Again, a worthy experiment that I haven’t yet done, but should.

The original recipe for this dessert was the brain child of our Low Carb Comfort Food Cookbook co-author, Ursula Solom, and the recipe appears in that book. We prepared the dessert in an episode of our PBS television show, Low Carb CookwoRx, titled “Romantic Dinner for Two”. It’s simple, quick in hands-on time, and almost never fails. And here’s my adaptation:

Low Carb Creme Brulee

Serves 4 to 6

Ingredients
2 cups half and half
10 packets Splenda
2 teaspoons real vanilla extract
trace of salt (shake or two)
4 egg yolks

1. Preheat oven to 300 degrees; generously butter 4 to 6 shallow ovenproof ramekins and set them in a shallow baking pan.
2. Put all ingredients except egg yolks into a saucepan over medium-low heat, and warm the cream, stirring often. Do not let the cream boil.
3. In a separate bowl (or 4 cup glass measuring cup) beat the eggs yolks until smooth and pale.
4. When the cream is hot and sending up a little steam, temper the eggs with it by dribbling a tablespoon or two of it into the yolks, whisking constantly to prevent the egg yolks from cooking. Repeat the tempering a time or two and then pour in the remainder of the hot cream, whisking constantly.
5. Divide the cream mixture evenly among the buttered ramekins and place into oven. Fill the baking pan with hot water to reach approximately half way up the ramekins.
6. Bake the custard about 30 minutes; it should be pale and shake like jelly when you tap the ramekin.
7. Remove from oven, when cool, cover ramekins, and refrigerate.
8. When ready to serve, remove from refrigerator 10 or 15 minutes ahead and top each custard with 1 teaspoon of brown or granulated sugar. Caramelize the sugar either under the broiler for 1 1⁄2 to 2 minutes or with a kitchen torch to form the crisp brulee crust.

On New Year’s Eve, I made the carb grams go even a little farther, by stretching this volume to 8 servings, made in 2-ounce oval mini-ramekins. This way the basic custard only imparts 2.8 grams of carb to each serving and even with the 4 grams from a teaspoon of real sugar, you’re sitting at just under 7 grams for the dessert. And after a feast such as we had, just a little something sweet is more than enough. Actually most of the time, a little something sweet is just enough.

I have a keen appreciation of clever kitchen gadgets, especially the small ones, as the jam-packed drawers in my kitchen will attest. I don’t especially like cutesy ‘one-off’ kitchen appliances–hot dog centers or rice steamers come to mind–that take up a lot of space on the counter or cupboard for a single purpose. But a gadget that makes easy (or easier) work of something you do often that’s tedious or messy can win a place in my heart and my drawers.

Sometimes gadgets seem better in the abstract than they turn out to be in fact. Hence the several types of really high quality vegetable peelers that I use often sit in my drawer, nestled beside the hardboiled egg/mushroom slicer and the garlic press that I use never.

What never? Well…hardly ever. (Sorry, need to shoo the Gilbert and Sullivan muse out of my brain.)

Toasting whole spices/ingredients, such as pinon nuts, cardamom seed, mustard seeds, or sesame seeds, can sometimes be both: tedious, in that they’re easy to burn unless you watch them with an eagle eye, and messy, in that especially the mustard and sesame seeds tend to pop out of the open skillet as you toast them. As was the case when I was making a little Asian-influenced take on a Warm Spinach Salad last night and over-toasted (okay, burned) the sesame seeds. And, of course, there is no rescue for burned sesame seeds; you simply have to throw them out and start again. Fortunately I had more in the freezer.

Thus my thoughts turned to the glaring lack of a spice toaster in my kitchen armamentarium. Funny how that works. Before I’d seen the article, I’d not have known the gadget existed, and there could be no lack or at least no perception of one on my part. But now that I know about it and more to the point have needed it…instant lack! Positively metaphysical.

If a gadget is absent but there’s no one in the kitchen who knows about it, is there a lack?

So, now I feel the lack and fear I’ll have to do something to amend it. I took a look online at the one mentioned in the little blurb in the Times, the Williams and Sonoma one for about $14. I’m going to make a beeline to W&S tomorrow and take a look at it in the flesh…er…steel and see what I think.

Then, if it looks like a must have, I’ll just have to figure out if there’s a place to wedge it into the gadget armory.