Banana Milk Brulee

Here is another guest post from my friend Stephen Elliot, check out his blog.

Single gentlemen of the world, take note: the way to a woman’s heart is not through poetry, playing the guitar, or anything you may have seen John Cussack doing in the 80′s. No, in fact, the quickest way to a woman’s heart is through desert. And if you can get her to eat it happily without worrying about calories, well, that’s what we call love

Banana milk is possibly my favorite culinary discovery in Korea, and his oh-so-Korean take on traditional crème Brule is actually quite simple, despite its difficult spelling. The cream itself can be stored for about a week and still be ready to eat, but make sure you torch the sugar about 5 minutes before eating so that the texture is right. Attention to detail is nearly as important as desert itself

Servings: 8

Ingredients:

-1/2 Container of banana milk (drink the other half, okay?)

-4 Egg yolks

-1 Banana

-1 Cup heavy cream

-1 Cup Brown sugar

-3-4 tsp white sugar

Directions:

1) Separate the eggs from their yolks. If you don’t know how to do this, youtube it. You’ll find a lot of free and valuable cooking tips from the generous folks online Cream them together with the brown sugar and the bananas. Make sure they form a consistent color and texture. Add the banana milk, and lastly, the heavy cream. Try to do most of your mixing in the beginning, since the cream will thicken and become difficult to manage if you stir it too vigorously.

2) For brulee cups, I found some lovely 반찬 (ban chan) or side dish bowls at Daiso which did the trick nicely. Just make sure that whatever you use, that it is small, shallow, and oven-safe. Heat your oven to 160C. Pour the cream mixture into the cups, making sure that there is a little space at the top. You’ll need to put them in a tray filled with water to ensure that they’ll cook evenly. You’ll have to cook them for about 40 min-1 hour so that they set up. I usually cook mine for an hour. You should be able to tap them and get a thick wobble, like jello. Put them in the refrigerator for about 2 hours or until they are completely chilled.

3) Now for the fun part. You’ll need a cooking blowtorch, preferably the kind that attaches directly to the butane cans that are available at every corner mart in Korea. I bought mine at Homeplus and it has worked very well for me. Pour just enough white sugar on the top of the brulee to coat the surface. Work the blowtorch across the surface, slowly and from a distance at first, then move in as the sugar starts to bubble. You can also find a lot of helpful videos of people doing this on youtube. The key is to get everything bubbling evenly while the sugar turns a caramelized brown, but not black. Give it about 5 minutes to cool, and then enjoy!

*No Blow torch? You can also put these in the oven on the broil setting for a few minutes, watch them constantly!

Below are the ingredients used in this recipe.  You can find all the ingredients at Home Plus.

Nutrition Information

For 1 Serving (one Brulee): 260 Calories, 13.6g Fat, 7.9g Saturated Fat, 144.4mg Cholesterol, 32.7mg Sodium,  43.5g Carbohydrates, 0.3g Fiber, 40.9g sugar, 2.6g Protein.